Communism of the Rheinischer Beobachter

A theoretical article by Marx from September 5, 1847, criticizing the newspaper Rheinischer Beobachter (Rhenish Observer). The original text was published in German in the Deutsche-Brüsseler-Zeitung, No. 73, September 12, 1847.

The Rheinischer Beobachter, published in Cologne, Germany, since 1844, was a conservative daily newspaper. Herr Wagener, a consistorial councilor in Magdeburg and later one of the leaders of the Conservative Party, relying on the patronage of von Eichhorn, the Minister of Religious Affairs, Education, and Health, did his best to propagate feudal socialism and Christian socialism in the Rheinischer Beobachter in a vain attempt to divert the revolutionary movement of the masses against absolutism. In order to criticize these reactionary views, Karl Marx wrote this critical article. In The Communism of the Rheinischer Beobachter, Marx radically criticized the bewildering political propaganda by the Rheinischer Beobachter, which represented the interests of the government of the King of Prussia, and whose fundamental purpose was to present the government as the representative of the interests of the proletariat and to direct the spearhead of the proletarian revolution against the liberal bourgeoisie, while the Prussian government fortified its bureaucratic rule in the process, and maintained and realized its class interests. As to the view summarized by the The Rheinischer Beobachter that communism “means that the society has a duty of solidarity in respect of the existence of its members”, Marx directly pointed out that it was very childish because the Prussian government, which had serious problems of its own, was unable to effectively guarantee the lives and social status of the people. As to the views that “social reform is the most distinguished vocation of the monarchy” and “the monarchy is one with the people”, Marx refuted their hypocrisy and absurdity and fully affirmed the revolutionary nature of the proletariat.

Communism of the Rheinischer Beobachter exposed the deceptive nature of views of the reactionary Prussian government, pointed out that the proletariat should unite with the bourgeoisie in the struggle against the rule of the feudal bureaucracy, and gave the proletariat brand-new weapons in the struggle against the bourgeoisie itself. This marked a major contribution to the theory of scientific socialism as Marx has formulated the fundamental principles that the proletariat in a feudal dictatorship should follow in handling its relations with the bourgeoisie in the revolutionary struggle.