Westdeutsche Zeitung.
No. 106, September 25, 1849

Appeal
for Support for German Refugees.

Since “order and quiet” were restored in Germany amidst the wild tumult of war; since the “security of property and person” was re-established on the smoking ruins of towns and to the murderous thunder of cannon; since the courts-martial are barely sufficient to send one “rebel” after another with shattered head to the grave; since the prisons no longer suffice to hold all the “traitors to the fatherland”; since the only remaining law is martial law—since then, thousands are roaming about homeless in foreign lands.

Day by day their number increases, and with it the misery of the homeless; driven from one place to another, in the morning they know not where to lay their heads at night, and at night know not where to take their bread in the morning.

Countless numbers of exiles fill the regions of Switzerland, France, and England. The unfortunate have come from all the provinces of Germany. Those who stood on the barricades in Vienna against the black-and-yellow league and fought Jellachich’s Szereszaners; those who fled in Prussia from the soldiery of Wrangel and Brandenburg; those who in Dresden defended the imperial constitution with the rifle, and those who in Baden lay in the field as republican soldiers against the united crusading host of the princes—liberals, democrats, republicans, socialists, the adherents of the most diverse political doctrines and interests, are all united in the same exile and the same misery.

In tattered clothes half a nation begs before the doors of the strangers. ...

Even on the cold pavement of the glittering world-city of London our fugitive countrymen roam about. Every ship that crosses the Channel brings from beyond the sea a new host of homeless; in every street of this city the grief of the exile laments in our language.

This distress has deeply moved many German friends of freedom in London. On September 18 of this year, therefore, a general meeting of the Workers’ Educational Association for German Workers and of the refugees of our nation who had arrived was held to set up a committee for the support of needy democrats. Elected were:

Karl Marx, former editor of the *Neue Rheinische Zeitung*;
Karl Blind, former envoy of the Baden-Palatinate government to Paris;
Anton Füster, former member of the Austrian Imperial Diet in Vienna;
Heinrich Bauer, master shoemaker in London; and
Karl Pfänder, painter, here.

This committee will render public account every month, both in a general meeting and in extract form in German newspapers. To obviate all misunderstandings, provision has been made that no member of the committee may receive any support from the fund. Should any committee member ever become in need of support, he thereby forfeits his capacity as a committee member.

We now ask you, friends and brothers, to do what lies in your power. If you are concerned that the down-trodden and fettered freedom should rise again, and if you have a heart for the sufferings of your best champions, no great exhortation on our part is needed.

All donations should be addressed to:
“Heinrich Bauer, master shoemaker,
64 Dean Street, Soho Square, London.”
The enclosure should be marked:
“For the Refugee Committee.”

The Committee for the Support of German Political Refugees.
(signed) Anton Füster. Karl Marx. Karl Blind.
Heinrich Bauer. Karl Pfänder.

London, September 20, 1849