The *Kölnische Zeitung* and the *Rheinische Volkshalle*

Cologne, 15 November. At a moment when the whole of Germany
No. 144, 16 November 1848
*Neue Rheinische Zeitung.*
starts up with a cry of indignation that the blood-dripping servant of the
Austrian idiot, that a Windischgrätz could dare have the Frankfurt deputy,
Robert Blum, shot down like a dog – at such a moment it is time to return to two
German papers, one of which sought with rare perfidy
to defile the last days of life of the departed and the
other pursued him into the grave with its insipid cretinism.
We speak of the *Köln. Ztg.* and the *Rhein. Volkshalle*. We
have hitherto avoided mentioning the *Rhein. Narhalla*, called *Volkshalle*. An attack on this fourth-form bungling rag was beneath
our dignity.
In No. 262 the *Kölnische Zeitung* reported: “On the 22nd of this month (October)
the enthusiastic leaders of the democratic party (various names follow)
left Vienna; likewise Fröbel and Robert
Blum.” The *Kölnische* made this communication without any further addition,
but set this denunciation of Blum in long primer, in order
to stamp it all the more easily on the memory of its readers.
The *Kölnische Zeitung* perfected itself in its later numbers.
It did not shrink from admitting into its columns even articles from the black-and-yellowest paper
of the Camarilla, communications from the organ of Archduchess Sophie, the
reports of the most infamous of all Austrian papers, the Vienna
*Presse*, in order thereby to degrade a man whose sole
fault, often censured by us, was that he
did not act more energetically and ruthlessly, in a word, more terroristically.
The reports of the Vienna *Presse*, which the *Kölnische Zeitung*
so readily admitted, read as follows:

“Robert Blum has not reaped laurels in Vienna, and the Vienna
*Presse* is even very indignant against him. For he spoke in the Aula
of the inner enemies of timidity, of lack of courage and
perseverance; ‘but should there be, besides this inner enemy, other enemies too
– he hoped there were none – or should there still be people in the city
who would prefer the victory of the military to the victory of freedom, then the war of annihilation against the hordes before the
city must turn with its sharp weapon against them as well.’ If Mr Robert Blum
really spoke these words, says the *Presse*, for instance, then we shall not
hesitate for a moment to express our indignation. We desire
freedom, the full, undiminished freedom of the people. In the interest of this
freedom, however, we must reject such language as Mr Robert Blum
is using with abhorrence; the well-disposed of all parties without
exception must agree that humanity and civility
are inseparable from freedom. It is not the bomb, by which the
external enemy hurls the conflagration into the city, that is the most terrible thing threatening
us; the inner enemy, who hurls the torch of discord, of
suspicion and of political hatred into people’s hearts at the moment of crisis, is more to be feared. In Mr Blum’s speech lies the madness
of a Septembrist, the perfidy of political denunciation. If Mr
Robert Blum has the courage and the desire to play Danton, then let him consider
that the latter shared the danger of the bloody reign of terror which he brought about.
Mr Blum is inviolable within the walls of Vienna as a foreigner, as a member of
the German Parliament – he has the means at hand to
escape at any moment from the storm he is seeking to conjure up.
Therefore his betrayal of the sacred cause of civility is doubly
culpable. Who gave Mr Robert Blum the mandate to incite the people
of Vienna to the madness of terrorism, so as to press upon the pages of history on which the events of recent days are inscribed
stains of blood and disgrace? If Mr
Robert Blum spoke these words, then he has – we say it bluntly – dishonoured himself.”
Thus far the *Kölnische Zeitung*.
But Robert Blum, the foreigner within the walls of Vienna, who “was inviolable
as a member of the German Parliament,” paid no heed
to the miserableness of a few hired pen-pushers: “the enthusiastic leader
of the democratic party” did not leave Vienna, he reached for
weapons, and fought at the head of the mobile guard to the last
moment and fell, his breast torn by bullets, a man of whom
we can be proud, whose name will live on in the hearts of the people together with
the memory of the heroic struggle for freedom in Vienna.

Slack, pitiful, whining, the *Rheinische Narhalla* limps after the
*Kölnische Zeitung*. The *Rheinische Volkshalle* opines, to be sure,
that Windischgrätz “had no right over the man’s life,”
yet asserts nonetheless: “*that Robert Blum met with
no more than he deserved*,” and that “*the swift procedure of
justice in Austria is to be praised*.”
Just as one sometimes takes leave of a lout with a kick,
so we take leave of the *Rheinische Volkshalle*.
The good press! – When a few weeks ago, at a public meeting here,
the death of Lichnowsky was reported and gave a few tactless
people occasion to give vent to unseemly applause,
the “good press” everywhere spread the rumour that the democracy of the Rhine Province had greeted
this event with satanic joy – –
Democracy wages war on the living, not on the dead.