The Communist Correspondence Committee (German: Kommunistisches Korrespondenz-Komitee) was an association of
communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
founded by
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
with the aim of politically and ideologically organising socialists of different countries to form a
revolutionary proletarian party.
History
The first committee was formed in Brussels which became the headquarters of the Correspondence Committee, with members including Karl Marx,
Wilhelm Wolff,
Joseph Weydemeyer
Joseph Arnold Weydemeyer (February 2, 1818, Münster – August 26, 1866, St. Louis, Missouri) was a military officer in the Kingdom of Prussia and the United States as well as a journalist, politician and Marxist revolutionary.
At first a supp ...
,
Edgar von Westphalen,
Ferdinand Wolff and
Philip Giot.
Another committee was formed in London between May and June 1846, formed by
Joseph Maximilian Moll and
Karl Schapper
Karl Friedrich Schapper (December 30, 1812, Weinbach – April 28, 1870, London) was a German socialist and labour leader. He was one of the pioneers of the labour movement in Germany and an early associate of Wilhelm Weitling and Karl Marx.
You ...
, among others. In June 1846, the Wuppertal communist
Gustav Adolf Koettgen approached the Brussels committee and suggested that the German communists should inform each other of their actions, which the Committee welcomed.
Engels, who went to France in 1846 upon the committee’s assignment, led the struggle against
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...
's reformist influence, the “true socialism,” of
Karl Grün Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
and "Weitlingism" or better known as the levelling communism of
Wilhelm Weitling
Wilhelm Christian Weitling (October 5, 1808 – January 25, 1871) was a German tailor, inventor, radical political activist and one of the first theorists of communism. Weitling gained fame in Europe as a social theorist before he emigrated t ...
among Paris workers. In August 1846, Engels formed the Paris Committee there, on behalf of the Brussels Committee, to disseminate the ideas of the committees under the
League of the Just
The League of the Just (German: ''Bund der Gerechten'') or League of Justice was a Christian communist international revolutionary organization. It was founded in 1836 by branching off from its ancestor, the League of Outlaws (German: ''Bund der ...
.
From 1846 to 1847,
Heinrich Bürgers and
Roland Daniels worked in Cologne for the Correspondence Committee and the physician
Georg Weber in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
. The traveling salesman and poet
Georg Weerth
Georg Ludwig Weerth (17 February 1822 – 30 July 1856) was a German writer and poet. Weerth's poems celebrated the solidarity of the working class in its fight for liberation from exploitation and oppression. He was a friend and companio ...
also worked as a courier for the committees.
At the
London conference in 1847, at which the
League of Communists was formed, for which Marx and Engles later wrote the ''
Communist Manifesto'', all of the committees were present, for Paris Engels and for Brussels Wolff.
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Bibliography
* Karl Obermann: ''Zur Geschichte des Kommunistischen Korrespondenzkomitees im Jahre 1846, insbesondere im Rheinland und in Westfalen''. In: ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung''. Berlin 1962, Sonderheft, S. 116 ff.
* Walter Schmidt: ''Wilhelm Wolff als Mitglied des Kommunistischen Korrespondenzkomitees 1846''. In: ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung''. Berlin 1964, Heft 3, S. 443 ff.
* Herwig Förder, Martin Hundt, Jefim Kandel, Sofia Lewiowa (Hrsg.): ''Bund der Kommunisten. Dokumente und Materialien, Band 1: 1836–1849''. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970, S. 322–446.
* Herwig Förder: ''Marx und Engels am Vorabend der Revolution''. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1960, S. 52–74.
Kapitel: „Die Auseinandersetzung mit Weitling (30. März 1846)“, „Das ‚Zirkular gegen Kriege‘ (11. Mai 1846“)
* David Rjazanov: ''Marx und Engels – nicht nur für AnfängerInnen''. Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1973, S. 57–61.
ISBN 3-88022-005-0 Lesen (englisch).
* Walter Schmidt: ''Zur Kontroverse um den New-Yorker „Volks-Tribun“ von Mai bis Oktober 1846''. In: Zentralinstitut für Philosophie (Hrsg.): ''Alternativen denken''. Berlin 1991, S. 62–71.
References
Marxism
1846 establishments in England
1847 disestablishments in England
Left-wing internationals
Communist organizations in Europe