Marx in Neue Rheinische Zeitung December 1848
Source: MECW Volume 8, p. 185;
Written: by Engels in mid-December 1848;
First published: in Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, 1960.
Citizens,
The German associations of Switzerland held a Congress here in Berne on the 9th, 10th and 11th of this month; they have joined together in a permanent union and appointed the Berne Association as the District Union. [176]
The undersigned Central Commission herewith informs you of the founding of the Union.
It also informs you that the Congress has decided to enter into correspondence with the March Association. A closer union with the latter is excluded by Article 1 of our common Rules, in which the Swiss associations explicitly declare themselves for a democratic social republic.[177]
The Congress has also instructed us to make known to you its decided disapproval of the measures taken by the German imperial authority against Switzerland. These measures, as unjust as they are ridiculous, not only serve to compromise Germany in the eyes of all Europe; for us German workers in Switzerland they have the particular disadvantage that they jeopardise our position materially and put us German democrats in a false position in relation to our friends, the democrats of Switzerland.
We hope that one of the delegates of the March Association will take the earliest opportunity to inform the so-called National Assembly of this official expression of opinion of the German workers in Switzerland.
In the meantime we look forward to your communications and letters.
Greetings and fraternal good wishes.
The Central Commission of the German Workers’ Associations of Switzerland.
Berne, December 1848