Rheinische Zeitung

The full name is Rheinische Zeitung für Politik, Handel und Gewerbe (Rhenish Gazette for Politics, Commerce and Industry). It was published in Cologne, Prussia from January 1, 1842, to March 31, 1843. It was a newspaper funded and founded by a group of democratically minded industrialists, businessmen and intellectuals, and was called by Engels “the forerunner of modern journalism”.

Marx graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Berlin in August 1841 and participated in the preparation of the newspaper from September to December, he began to write for the Rheinische Zeitung in April 1842 and continued until March 18, 1843. In this period, he published 33 articles, news reports, press releases and statements, and reviewed 2 articles. Engels published 5 consecutive newsletters on England in the Rheinische Zeitung. Since August 1842, Marx actually assumed the responsibility of editing the newspaper. On October 15, 1842, he officially became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper.

During his work in the Rheinische Zeitung, Marx participated in the controversy about socialism and communism, commented on the Hanover liberal opposition and the school of historical law, and held discussions on the law of thefts of wood by poor people, issue of forest theft law, on the issue of communal reform, protective tariffs demanded by industrialists, on the issue of Commission of the estates in Prussia and on the bill for divorce. Marx later recalled that, as the editor-in-chief of the Rheinische Zeitung, he was in this period for the first time, faced with the difficulty of expressing opinions on the so-called material interests, which was the initial impetus for him to study economic questions. During this period, Marx began an inner transition from idealism to materialism, from revolutionary democracy position to communism.

After Marx presided over the editorial work of the newspaper, the Rheinische Zeitung became increasingly inclined to revolutionary democracy politically. The Prussian government carried out a particularly strict censorship on the Rheinische Zeitung. On January 19, 1843, the Cabinet, under the auspices of King Friedrich William IV, adopted a decree to ban the Rheinische Zeitung as of April 1.