Marx and Engels in Neue Rheinische Zeitung July 1848
Source: MECW Volume 7, p. 287;
Written: by Engels on July 27, 1848;
First published: in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 58, July 28, 1848;
Cologne, July 27. We have just received letters from Copenhagen according to which the armistice negotiations have really been broken off.
On July 21, the Swedish and British ambassadors, with the rest of the diplomats who had gone to the headquarters, returned to Copenhagen without having achieved their object. Although General Neumann brought General Wrangel a definite order from the King of Prussia [Frederick William IV] to sign the armistice and although the armistice had already been ratified on the Prussian and Danish sides, Wrangel’s refusal was as definite and instead he set new conditions which were firmly rejected by the Danes. It is said that he did not even grant the foreign diplomats an audience. The Danes were particularly opposed to Wrangel’s stipulation that final consent was up to the Imperial Regent. [Archduke John of Austria] It is therefore solely thanks to General Wrangel’s firm stand that Germany has this time been saved from one of the most ignominious treaties that history has ever. known.