The 1872 German Edition

The Communist League, an international association
of workers, which could of course be only a secret one, under conditions
obtaining at the time, commissioned us, the undersigned, at the Congress
held in London in November 1847, to write for publication a detailed theoretical
and practical programme for the Party. Such was the origin of the following
Manifesto, the manuscript of which travelled to London to be printed a
few weeks before the February [French] Revolution [in 1848]. First published in German, it
has been republished in that language in at least twelve different editions
in Germany, England, and America. It was published in English for the first
time in 1850 in the Red Republican, London, translated by Miss Helen
Macfarlane, and in 1871 in at least three different translations in America.
The french version first appeared in Paris shortly before the June insurrection
of 1848, and recently in Le Socialiste of New York. A new translation
is in the course of preparation. A Polish version appeared in London shortly
after it was first published in Germany. A Russian translation was published
in Geneva in the sixties [A]. Into Danish, too, it was translated shortly
after its appearance.

However much that state of things may have altered during the last twenty-five
years, the general principles laid down in the Manifesto are, on the whole,
as correct today as ever. Here and there, some detail might be improved.
The practical application of the principles will depend, as the Manifesto
itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions
for the time being existing, and, for that reason, no special stress is
laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at the end of Section II. That
passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today. In view
of the gigantic strides of Modern Industry since 1848, and of the accompanying
improved and extended organization of the working class, in view of the
practical experience gained, first in the February Revolution, and then,
still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the first time
held political power for two whole months, this programme has in some details
been antiquated. One thing especially was proved by the Commune, viz.,
that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery,
and wield it for its own purposes.” (See The Civil War in France: Address
of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association,
1871, where this point is further developed.) Further, it is self-evident
that the criticism of socialist literature is deficient in relation to
the present time, because it comes down only to 1847; also that the remarks
on the relation of the Communists to the various opposition parties (Section
IV), although, in principle still correct, yet in practice are antiquated,
because the political situation has been entirely changed, and the progress
of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political
parties there enumerated.

But then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we have
no longer any right to alter. A subsequent edition may perhaps appear with
an introduction bridging the gap from 1847 to the present day; but this
reprint was too unexpected to leave us time for that.

Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

June 24, 1872, London