"Neue Rheinische Zeitung" — The Public Prosecutor's Office and the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung"

The Public Prosecutor's Office and the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung"

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 149, November 22, 1848]

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Cologne, 21 November. Who stands on legal ground, Chief President Eichmann or the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung? Who is to set foot on the floor of the prison, the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung or Chief President Eichmann? This question is now pending before the Public Ministry of Zweiffel. Will the Public Ministry Zweiffel side with the Brandenburg Ministry, or will Chief Public Prosecutor Zweiffel, as an old contributor to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, take the part of his colleagues? This question is now pending before the public for decision.

The Neue Rheinische Zeitung urged the suspension of taxes before the decision of the National Assembly <See "Appeal of the Democratic District Committee of the Rhine Province", "The Ministry Has Been Put in a State of Impeachment", and "Declaration">; it was legal before the legislative power. And if this forestalling of legality is an illegality, then the editorial board of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung stood on illegal ground for six whole days. Herr Zweiffel could have held an inquisition during six days, but on the seventh day he would have had to rest from his inquisitional zeal.

But on the seventh day, after the work of creation had been completed and Herr Zweiffel had celebrated the Sabbath and the National Assembly had raised the refusal of taxes to a law, President Eichmann turned to Herr Zweiffel to hold an inquisition against those who had provoked the refusal of taxes. Who provoked the tax refusal? The editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung or the National Assembly in Berlin? Who is Herr Zweiffel to arrest, his old colleagues, the deputies in Berlin, or his old contributors, the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, or the prefect, Herr Eichmann? Herr Zweiffel has so far arrested no one.

We therefore move that another Zweiffel arrest Herr Zweiffel, because he did not arrest the editors of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung before the Sabbath and did not arrest Herr Eichmann after the Sabbath.