Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany

A work by Engels analyzing the German Revolutions of 1848–1849. Written between August 1851 and September 1852, later published sequentially in the “Germany” column of the New-York Daily Tribune from October 25, 1851, to October 23, 1852. In 1896, it was edited and published by Marx’s daughter, Eleanor, under the title Revolution and Counter-Revolution, or Germany in 1848 in a single English edition.

At the end of July 1851, Charles Dana, the then editor of the New-York Daily Tribune, asked Marx to write for the paper. Marx was busy with his economic studies at the time, so he wrote to Engels on August 14, 1851, asking him to write some articles on the German Revolution since 1848. Engels made use of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung and a number of other sources provided by Marx, and often exchanged ideas with Marx, and eventually wrote these articles.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany consists of 19 articles written by Engels. In these articles, Engels summarized the experiences and lessons of the revolutions of 1848–1849. First, employing the materialist conception of history, Engels examined and studied the international circumstances in which the German Revolution was located, the intricate social class structure, the economic and political conditions of various classes at home and the social and economic conditions of Germany at that time, and revealed the reasons for the outbreak and defeat of the German Revolution. Second, he analysed the historical role of class struggle in the old society with its class antagonisms, and held that class struggle “makes a revolution such a powerful agent of social and political progress” and “makes a nation pass in five years over more ground than it would have done in a century under ordinary circumstances.” Third, he held that, in the bourgeois revolution, the German liberal bourgeoisie betrayed the interests of the peasants who were its allies in the anti-feudal struggle, took a counter-revolutionary stance and was unable to assume the role of leadership, attacking the timidity shown by the leaders of the petty-bourgeois democrats at the critical juncture of the revolution and their cowardice in not daring to rely on the support of the armed masses, and pointed out that the working class was the most thoroughgoing revolutionary fighting force and “represented the real and well-understood interest of the nation at large”. Fourth, Engels held that the tactics of revolutionary struggle was of great significance, that insurrection was an art, and that the revolutionary party had to follow important rules in the insurrection. “Insurrection is an art quite as much as war or any other, and subject to certain rules of proceeding, which, when neglected, will produce the ruin of the party neglecting them.”

Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany is an important document of Marxism. Based on historical materialism, this article comprehensively and profoundly expounded the causes, nature and driving forces of the German revolution of 1848–1849, expounded the thoughts of proletarian leadership and the worker-peasant alliance, and put forth the tactical principles of the proletarian revolution, thus deepening the understanding of some important principles of historical materialism and laying the theoretical foundation of the Marxist doctrine on armed uprising, and is a classic of Marxist analysis and study of complex revolutionary events in history.