“Neue Rheinische Zeitung” – Confessions of a Beautiful Soul

Confessions of a Beautiful Soul

[“Neue Rheinische Zeitung” No. 145, November 17, 1848]

*
Cologne, November 16. We predicted to the Right what awaited them if the camarilla triumphed – *a tip* and *kicks*. <See “The Counter-Revolution in Berlin”, p. 8>

We were mistaken. The struggle is not yet decided, and already they are receiving *kicks* from their principals, without getting a *tip*.

The *“Neue Preußische Zeitung”*, knightess of the Landwehr Cross, “with God for King and Fatherland”, *official organ of the current holders of power*, declares in one of its latest issues the deputies *Zweiffel* (chief public prosecutor in Cologne) and *Schlink* (counsellor of the court of appeal in Cologne) to be – guess, reader – *“revolutionary stomachs”* (the “Neue Preußische Zeitung” writes “Mägen”). It speaks of the *“inexpressible vacuity and thoughtlessness”* of these gentlemen. It finds that even *“Robespierre’s brain-spun fantasies”* are far superior to the notions of these *“gentlemen of the Central Section”*. *Avis à MM.* <Note for the gentlemen> *Zweiffel et Schlink!*

In the same issue of this paper, *Pinto-Hansemann* is declared a *“leader of the extreme Left”*, and, according to the same newspaper, there is only one means against leaders of the extreme Left – *martial law* – the noose. *Avis à M. Pinto-Hansemann, ex-minister of action and special constables!*

For a state *moniteur*, the *“Neue Preußische Zeitung”* possesses too much naïve frankness. It tells the various parties too loudly what is sealed up in the registers of the Santa Casa.

In the Middle Ages, people opened Virgil to prophesy. In the Prussian Brumaire of 1848, one opens the “Neue Preußische Zeitung” to save oneself the trouble of prophesying. We shall give new examples. What is the camarilla preparing for the *Catholics*?

Listen!

In No. 115 of the *“Neue Preußische Zeitung”* we read:

“It is equally untrue that the state (namely the royal Prussian state, the Landwehr Cross state in its pre-March period) has assumed a narrowly confessional character and, from this one-sided standpoint, directed religious affairs. This reproach would, to be sure, if it were true, express a decided praise. But it is untrue; for it is known that our government has expressly abandoned the old and good standpoint of an *evangelical* government.”

It is known that *Frederick William III* turned religion into a branch of *military discipline* and had the dissenters flogged by the police. It is known that *Frederick William IV*, as one of the twelve minor prophets, sought forcibly to convert the people and science to *Bunsen’s* religion through the *Eichhorn-Bodelschwingh-Ladenberg* ministry. It is known that even under the *Camphausen* ministry the Poles were plundered, burned, bludgeoned as much for being *Poles* as for being *Catholics*. The special delight of the *Pomeranians* was always to impale the images of the Mother of God in Poland and to *hang* the Catholic clergy.

The persecutions of the *dissenting Protestants* under *Frederick William III* and *Frederick William IV* are equally well known.

The first buried in fortresses the Protestant pastors who rejected the agenda and dogmatics invented by him on purpose. This man was a great inventor in soldiers’ coats and agendas. And the second? The *Eichhorn* ministry? Suffice it to name the Eichhorn ministry.

But all that was nothing!

“Our government had expressly abandoned the old and good standpoint of an evangelical government.” Wait, then, for the *Brandenburg-Manteuffel restoration*, Catholics of the *Rhine Province* and *Westphalia* and *Silesia*! You were once chastised with *rods*, you will be scourged with *scorpions*. *You will become acquainted with the “old and good standpoint of an evangelical government expressly”!*

And then especially the *Jews*, who since the emancipation of their sect, at least in their eminent representatives, have everywhere taken the lead in the *counter-revolution*, what awaits them?

They did not wait for victory to hurl them back into their ghetto.

In *Bromberg* the government is renewing the old restrictions on freedom of movement and thus depriving the Jews of one of the first human rights of 1789, to move freely from one place to another.

That is *“one”* aspect of the government of the verbose *Frederick William IV* under the auspices of *Brandenburg-Manteuffel-Ladenberg*.

In its issue of Nov. 11 <In the “N.Rh.Ztg.”: Nov. 10> the *“Neue Preußische Zeitung”* had thrown out the *prosperity* of the “liberal-constitutional party” as a bait. However, it already shook its head dubiously over the *constitutionalists*.

“For the present, our *constitutionalists* are still, to be sure, exceedingly shy of jointly acknowledging themselves as reactionaries in their associations or in their public organs.”

It adds, however, soothingly and pertinently:

“Every single one of them” (liberal-constitutionalists) “no longer makes any secret of it that for the present there is no salvation except in *legal reaction*”, i.e., thus in making the *law reactionary* or the *reaction legal*, *raising reaction to the status of law*.

In its issue of November 15 <In the “N.Rh.Ztg.”: April 15> the “N[eue] Preuß[ische] Z[ei]t[un]g” no longer makes so much fuss about the *“constitutionalists”*, who want to raise *reaction* to the status of *law* but resist the Brandenburg-Manteuffel ministry because it desires the *counter-revolution* sans phrase <without circumlocution>.

“One must,” it says, “*leave the ordinary constitutionalists to their fate*!”

Caught together! Hanged together!

For the information of the ordinary constitutionalists!

And in what does the *extraordinary constitutionalism of Frederick William IV* under the auspices of Brandenburg-Manteuffel-Ladenberg consist?

The official government organ, the Landwehr Cross knightess with God for King and Fatherland, betrays the secrets of the *extraordinary constitutionalism*.

The “simplest, straightest and least dangerous remedy” is naturally to “transfer the Assembly to another place”, from a capital city into a guardroom, from Berlin to Brandenburg.

However, this transfer, as the *“Neue Preußische Zeitung”* reveals, is only a *“trial”*.

“The attempt must be made,” it says, “to see whether, through the transfer to another place, with the recovery of external free movement, the Assembly also regains its inner freedom.”

In Brandenburg the Assembly will be externally free. It will no longer be under the influence of blouses, but only under the influence of moustachioed trailing sabres.

But the *inner freedom*?

Will the Assembly at Brandenburg *free* itself from the prejudices and the reprehensible revolutionary sentimental impressions of the 19th century? Will *its soul* be *free* enough to proclaim again as *official articles of faith* the feudal hunting rights, all the mouldy rubbish of the remaining feudal burdens, the distinctions of rank, the censorship, inequality of taxation, the nobility, absolute monarchy and the death penalty, for which Frederick William IV enthuses, the plundering and squandering of national labour by the

“pale scoundrels,

who looked like faith, love and hope”,

<H. Heine, “Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen”, Caput VIII>

by starveling cabbage-junkers, Guard lieutenants, and incorporated conduct lists, – will the National Assembly itself at Brandenburg be *inwardly* free enough to proclaim all these articles of the old misery again as *official articles of faith*?

It is known that the counter-revolutionary party had given out the constitutional watchword: *“Completion of the work of the constitution!”*

The organ of the Brandenburg-Manteuffel-Ladenberg ministry *scorns* to wear *this mask* any longer.

“The situation of things,” confesses the *official organ*, “has reached a point where we can no longer be helped *even by the long-desired completion of the work of the constitution*. For who can conceal from themselves any longer that a charter which was dictated to the people’s representatives *paragraph by paragraph* under threat of the wheel and the gallows and *wrested* from the crown by them will only be regarded as binding *as long as the most direct coercion is able to maintain it*.”

Thus, to annul again, *paragraph by paragraph*, the miserable people’s rights wrung by the National Assembly in Berlin – that is the task of the National Assembly in Brandenburg!

If it does not completely *restore*, paragraph by paragraph, the old rubbish, then it merely proves that it has indeed regained *“the freedom of external movement”* in Brandenburg, but not the *inner freedom* demanded by Potsdam.

And how is the government to operate against the obduracy of soul, against the *inner unfreedom* of the Assembly which has moved to Brandenburg?

“Dissolution would have to take place,” cries the “Neue Preußische Zeitung”.

But the *people*, it occurs to them, is perhaps inwardly even more *unfree* than the Assembly.

“The misgiving might be raised,” it shrugs its shoulders, “*as to whether new general elections might not bring to light an even more pitiful result than the first*.”

The people in its general elections would possess the *freedom of external movement*. But the inner *freedom*?

That is the question!

The paragraphs of the Assembly resulting from new general elections might surpass the old ones in infamy.

What, then, is to be done against the “old” paragraphs?

The Landwehr Cross knightess throws herself into posture.

“The fist has begotten them (the old paragraphs since March 19), the fist will overthrow them – and that by God’s and right’s decree.”

The *fist* will restore the “good old regime”.

The *fist* is the last argument of the crown; the *fist* will be the last argument of the people.

Above all, let it fend off the beggarly hungry fists that reach into its pockets for civil lists – and cannons. The boastful fists will grow thin as soon as they are no longer fattened. *Above all, let the people refuse the taxes*, and – later it will count on which side there are the *most fists*.

All so-called March conquests will only be regarded as binding as long as the most direct coercion is able to maintain them. The fist has begotten them, the fist will overthrow them.

The *“Neue Preußische Zeitung”* says it, and what the “Neue Preußische Zeitung” says, Potsdam has said. Therefore no more illusions! *The people must put an end to the March half-measures, or the crown will put an end to them.*