---
Title: Letters from Germany. I (1850)
Description: First letter from Germany to Harney’s Democratic Review: the confusion of “central governments” after 1849 under the rule of “Order”, and the German republic one and indivisible.
Author: Friedrich Engels
Date: 1850-01
URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/originales/1850%20Letters%20from%20Germany.%20I
---


*Published unsigned (“From our own Correspondent”) in* The Democratic Review *(London), January 1850, pp. 317-318; letter dated Cologne, December 18th, 1849; attributed to Friedrich Engels by MEGA² (I/10). Text from the original magazine (facsimile reprint, Merlin Press, London 1968, Internet Archive). [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/1850%20Cartas%20desde%20Alemania.%20I).*

*(From our own Correspondent)*

Cologne, Dec. 18th, 1849.

“Order reigns in Germany.” Such is the present great motto of our rulers, be they princes, aristocrats, *bourgeois*, or any other fraction of that recently formed party which you might call in English the party of *Ordermongers.* “Order reigns in Germany;” and yet never was there, not even under the “Holy Roman Empire” of yore, such a confusion in Germany as there is at present under the reign of “Order.”

Under the old system, before the revolution of 1848, we knew at least who governed us. The old Federal Diet of Frankfort made itself felt by laws against the liberty of the press, by exceptional courts of law, by checks imposed even upon the mock constitutions with which certain German populations were allowed to delude themselves. But now! We hardly know, ourselves, how many Central Governments we have got in this country. There is, firstly, the Vicar of the Empire, instituted by the dispersed National Assembly, and who, although without any power, sticks to his post with the greatest obstinacy. There is secondly the “*Interim*,” a sort of thing—nobody knows exactly what—but something like a revival of the old Diet, got up under the old prevalent influence of Prussia, and which “Interim” is poking at the old Vicar (who more or less represents the Austrian interest), to resign his place into their hands.[^1] In the meantime neither has the slightest power. Thirdly, there is the “Regency of the Empire,” elected in Stuttgardt by the National Assembly during the latter days of its existence, and the remains of that Assembly, the “Decided Left” and the “Extreme Left,” which two Lefts, along with the “Regency,” represent the “moderate and philosophical” Democrats and Shopocrats of Germany. This “Imperial” government holds its sittings in a public house in Berne in Switzerland, and has about as much power as the two preceding. Fourthly, there is what is called the Three-Kings’-League, or the “Confined (or Refined, I don’t know which) Federal State,” got up for the purpose of making the King of Prussia Emperor *over* all the lesser states of Germany. It is called the “Three-Kings’-League,” *because* all kings, with the exception of the King of Prussia, are opposed to it! and it calls itself the “Confined Federal State,” because, although travailing in birth ever since the 28th of May last, there is no hope of its ever producing anything likely to live!! There are, fifthly, the Four Kings, of Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurtemburg, who are determined to do as they like themselves, and not to submit to any of the above “Central Impotencies;” and lastly, there is Austria, trying every means to keep up her supremacy in Germany, and supporting, therefore, the Four Kings in their efforts for independence from Prussian ascendancy. The *real* governments, in the meantime, those who hold the power, are Austria and Prussia. They rule Germany by military despotism, and make and unmake laws at their liking. Between their dominions and dependencies lie, as *quasi* neutral ground, the four kingdoms, and it will be upon this ground, and particularly in Saxony, that the pretensions of the two great powers will meet each other. There is, however, no chance of a serious conflict between them. Austria and Prussia, both, know too well that their forces must remain united if they want to keep down the revolutionary spirit spread all over Germany, Hungary, and those parts of Poland belonging to the powers in question. In case of need, besides, “our beloved brother-in-law,” the orthodox Czar of all the Russias, would step in and forbid his lords-lieutenant of Austria and Prussia to quarrel any more amongst themselves.

This never equalled confusion of governments, of pretensions, of claims, of German Federal Law, has, however, one enormous advantage. The German Republicans were, up to this time, divided into Federalists and Unitarians; the first having their principal force in the south. The confusion ensuing upon every attempt to re-organise Germany into a Federative State, must make it evident that any such plan will prove abortive, impracticable, and foolish, and that Germany is too advanced in civilisation to be governable under any form but the German Republic, one and Indivisible, Democratic and Social.

I should have liked to have said a few words on the acquittal of Waldeck and Jacoby, but want of room prevents me doing so. Suffice it to say, that for at least some months to come it will be quite impossible for the government in Prussia to obtain in political trials a verdict of guilty, excepting, perhaps, in some remote corners where the jury-class are as fanaticised as the Orangemen of Ulster.

[^1]: Since the above letter came to hand, intelligence has reached this country of the abdication of the “Vicar,” and the resignation of his authority (?) into the hands of Austrian and Prussian commissioners. Thus has ended the Frankfort farce.—Ed. D. R.