Karl Marx 

The Berlin Conspiracy 

New-York Daily Tribune. 
Nr. 3745, 18. April 1853 

The Berlin Conspiracy. 

Correspondence of The N.Y.Tribune. 

London, Friday, April 1, 1853. 

At length, the fifth of the "Great Powers," Prussia, enjoys the good fortune 
of having added of her own to the great discoveries made by the Austrian 
Police, with respect to the "demagogical machinations" ofthe revolutionists. 
"The Government," we are assured by its official organs, "having obtained 
proof that the chiefs of the Democratic party held continued relations with 
the revolutionary propaganda, ordered domiciliary visits to be made, on the 
29th of March, at Berlin, and succeeded in arresting 40 individuals, among 
whom were Streckfuss, and the ex-members ofthe Prussian National Assem- 
bly, Berends, Waldeck, etc. Domiciliary visits were made in the houses of 
eighty persons suspected of participation in a conspiracy. Arms and amuni- 
tion were found." Not content with publishing these "startling facts" in its 
official papers, the Prussian Government thought proper to forward them 
by telegraph to the British Foreign Office. 

In order to lay bare the mystery of this new police farce, it is necessary 
to go somewhat back. Two months after the coup d'état of Bonaparte, 
Mr. Hinckeldey, the Polizei Praesident of Berlin and his inferior, Mr. Stieber, 
the Polizei Rath, conspired together, the one to become a Prussian Maupas, 
and the other to become a Prussian Pietri. The glorious omnipotence of the 
French police, perhaps, disturbed their slumbers. Hinckeldey addressed 
himself to Herr von Westphalen, the Minister of the Interior, making unjust 
representation to that wealaninded and fanatical reactionist (Herr von 
Westphalen being my brother-in-law I had ample opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with the mental powers of the man), on the necessity of con- 
centrating the whole police force of the Prussian State in the hands of the 

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Karl Marx 

Polizei Praesident of Berlin. He stated, that in order to accelerate the action 
of the police, it must be made independent of the Minister of the Interior 
and intrusted exclusively to himself. The minister von Westphalen re- 
presents the ultra Prussian aristocracy and the President of the ministry, 

Herr von Manteuff el, represents the old bureaucracy; the two are rivals, and 5 

the former beheld in the suggestion of Hinckeldey, although it apparently 
narrowed the circle of his own department, a means of inflicting a blow on his 
rival, whose brother, M. von Manteuffel, was the director in the ministry of 
the Interior, and especially charged with the control of the entire police. Herr 
von Westphalen therefore submitted his proposition to a council of State, 

presided over by the King himself. 

The discussion was very angry. Manteuffel, supported by the Prince of 
Prussia, opposed the plan of establishing an independent ministry of police. 
The King inclined to the proposition of Herr von Westphalen, and concluded 
with the Solomonian sentence, that he would follow the example of Bona- 
parte and create a ministry of police, "if the necessity of that step were 
proved to him by facts." Now, the affair of the Cologne Communists was 
chosen by Hinckeldey and Stieber to furnish these facts. You are aware of 
the heroic performances of those men in the Cologne trials. After their 

conclusion the Prussian Government resolved to elevate the openly perjured 20 

Stieber, the man who had been hissed wherever he showed himself in the 
streets of Cologne—to the dignity of a Polizei-Director of Cologne. But M. 
de Bethmann-Hollweg and other well-meaning conservative deputies of 
Rhenish Prussia, intervened, representing to the ministers that such an open 
insult to the public opinion of that province might have very ominous con- 
sequences at a moment when Bonaparte coveted the natural limits of France. 
The Government yielded, contenting itself with the nomination of Stieber 
as Polizei-Director of Berlin, in reward for his perjuries committed at 
Cologne and his thefts committed at London. There, however, the affair 
stopped. It was impossible to accomplish the wishes of Mr. Hinckeldey and 
to create for him an independent ministry of police on the ground of the 
Cologne trial. Hinckeldey and Stieber watched their time. Happily there 
came the Milan insurrection. Stieber at once made twenty arrests at Berlin. 
But the thing was too ridiculous to be proceeded with. Butthencame Libeny, 
and now the King was ripe. Overwhelmed with fearful apprehensions he saw 
at once the necessity of having an independent ministry of police, and 
Hinckeldey saw his dreams realized. A royal ordinance created him the 
Prussian Maupas, while the brother of Herr von Manteuffel tendered his 
resignation. The most astounding part of the comedy, however, was yet to 
come. Scarcely had Mr. Hinckeldey rushed into his new dignity when the 
"great Berlin conspiracy" was discovered directly. This conspiracy, then, 

The Berlin conspiracy 

was made for the express purpose of proving the necessity of Mr. Hinckel- 
dey. It was the present Mr. Hinckeldey made over to the imbecile King in 
exchange for his newly-gained police-autocracy. Hinckeldey's adjunct, the 
ingenious Stieber, who had discovered at Cologne that whenever letters were 
found terminating with the words "Gruss" and "Bruderschaft," there was 
unquestionably a Communist conspiracy, now made the discovery that there 
appeared at Berlin for some time since an ominous quantity of "Calabrese 
hats," and that the Calabrese hat was unquestionably the "rallying sign" of 
the revolutionists. Strong upon this important discovery, Stieber made on 
the 18th of March several arrests, chiefly of workmen and foreigners, the 
charge against whom was the wearing of Calabrese hats. Onthe 23d ejusdem 
domiciliary visits were made in the house of Karl Delius, a merchant at 
Magdeburg and brother of a member of the Second Chamber, who had also 
an unhappy taste for Calabrese hats. Finally, as I informed you at the be- 
ginning of this letter, on the 29th ultimo the great coup d'état against the 
Calabrese hats was struck at Berlin. All those who know anything of the 
milk-and-water opposition of Waldeck, Berends, etc., will laugh at the "arms 
and munition" found in the possession of these most inoffensive 
Brutusses. 

But futile as this police comedy may appear to be got up, as it were, by 
mere personal motives of Messrs. Hinckeldey & Stieber, it is not without 
significance. The Prussian government is exasperated at the passive re- 
sistance it meets with in every direction. It smells the breath of Revolution 
in midst of the apparent apathy. It despairs at the want of a tangible form 

25 of that specter, and feels alleviated, as it were, from the nightmare every time 

the police affords bodily shapes to its ubiquitous but invisible antagonist. 
It attacks, it will go on attacking, and it will successfully convert the passive 
resistance of the people into an active one. 

Karl Marx. 

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