[“Neue Rheinische Zeitung”
No. 213, 4 February 1849]

* Cologne, 3 February. We learn from a quite certain source that the Brandenburg Ministry will step down before the opening of the Chamber, and that Herr Camphausen will appear before the Chambers at their opening as the new Prime Minister.

We were sure that something of the sort was in the offing when, a few days ago, the local friends of the wily statesman put about the rumour that he was weary of the political hurly-burly:

Ah, I am tired of this striving;
What avails all pain, all lust?
Sweet peace,
Come, oh come into my breast!![2]

and that he therefore wished to withdraw once more into his domestic retirement, to confine his meditations to the less agitating sphere of speculation in tallow. |
To every discerning person it must have been clear: Herr Camphausen felt the need of once more getting himself called upon to save the Crown and, “touched by his own magnanimity”, of playing the role of “midwife of the constitutional throne” for the second time with his proverbial decorum.
The bourgeois Chamber opposition will exult at this parliamentary “victory”. The Germans are forgetful and easily forgive. The very same Left[3] that opposed Herr Camphausen last year will gratefully hail his assumption of office as a great concession on the part of the Crown.
So that the people, however, may not be deceived yet again, let us briefly recapitulate the most distinguished great deeds of the thinking statesman.
Herr Camphausen resurrected the United Diet,[4] which had been buried on 18 March, and agreed with it on a few foundations of the future constitution![5]

Herr Camphausen thereby created the legal basis, i.e., the indirect denial of the revolution.

Herr Camphausen further blessed us with indirect elections![6]

Herr Camphausen once more denied the revolution in one of its principal results by converting the flight of the Prince of Prussia into a study trip and recalling him from London.[7]

Herr Camphausen organised the Civic Militia in such a way that, from the outset, it turned from the arming of the people into the arming of a class and placed the people and the Civic Militia in mutual hostility.

Herr Camphausen at the same time tolerated the reconstitution of the old Prussian bureaucracy and army, which daily became more capable of preparing counter-revolutionary coups d’état.

Herr Camphausen had the memorable shrapnel massacres carried out against virtually unarmed Polish peasants![8]

Herr Camphausen began the Danish war![9] in order to get rid of the patriotic superabundance of strength[10] and to make the Prussian Guard popular again. Once this object was achieved, he did his utmost to push through the filthy Malmö armistice in Frankfurt,[11] which was necessary for Wrangel’s march on Berlin.

Herr Camphausen confined himself to abolishing a few reactionary old-Prussian laws in the Rhine Province, but left the entire police-state General Code legislation[12] in force in all the old provinces.

Herr Camphausen was the first to intrigue against the unity of Germany — which was at that time still decidedly revolutionary — by, firstly, convoking his Berlin Agreement Assembly[13] alongside the Frankfurt National Assembly, and subsequently working by every means against the decisions and the influence of the Frankfurt Assembly.

Herr Camphausen demanded of his Assembly that it restrict its constitutive mandate to a merely “agreeing” one.

Herr Camphausen further demanded of it the issuing of an address to the Crown, in which it acknowledged this — as if it were a constitutional Chamber liable to be adjourned and dissolved at pleasure.

Herr Camphausen further demanded of it the denial of the revolution and even made this a cabinet question.

Herr Camphausen presented his Assembly with that draft constitution[14] which is roughly on a par with the imposed constitution[15] and which at the time aroused a universal storm of indignation.

Herr Camphausen boasted of having been the Minister of Mediation, which mediation was none other than that between the Crown and the bourgeoisie for the common betrayal of the people.

Herr Camphausen finally stepped down when this betrayal had been completely mediated and was ripe for being put into practice by the Ministry of Action and its constables.[16]

Herr Camphausen became envoy to the so-called Central Authority and remained so under all ministries. He remained envoy while Croat, Ruthenian[17] and Wallachian troops violated German territory, shot the first city of Germany into flames and treated it more outrageously than any Tilly treated Magdeburg.[18] He remained envoy and did not lift a finger.

Herr Camphausen remained envoy under Brandenburg, thereby took his share in the Prussian counter-revolution and lent his name to the latest Prussian circular note,[19] which openly and undisguisedly demands the restoration of the old Federal Diet.

Herr Camphausen is finally now taking over the ministry in order to cover the retreat of the counter-revolutionaries and to secure for us the November and December achievements for a longer period.

These are a few of the Camphausen great deeds. If he now becomes minister, he will hasten to enlarge the list. For our part, we shall keep books and accounts on the matter as precisely as possible.


Dealt with before the February Assizes in Cologne.