The Communist Correspondence Committee () was an association in the Anglo-French area, of
communists
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
founded by
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;["Engels"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.[Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...]
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
, and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, 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,
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 (30December 181228April 1870) 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.
Young Germany and Mazzini
Schap ...
, 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 (, ; ; 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to ca ...
's reformist influence, the “true socialism,” of
Karl Grün 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 immigrated to ...
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 () or League of Justice was a masonic international revolutionary organization. It was founded in 1836 by branching off from its ancestor, the , which had formed in Paris in 1834. The League of the Just was largely compos ...
.
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 Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
. The traveling salesman and poet
Georg Weerth also worked as a courier for the committees.
At the
London conference in 1847, at which the
Communist League
The Communist League ( German: ''Bund der Kommunisten)'' was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation was formed through the merger of the League of the Just, headed by Karl Schapper, and th ...
was formed, for which Marx and Engels later wrote the ''
Communist Manifesto
''The Communist Manifesto'' (), originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The t ...
'', all of the committees were present, for Paris Engels and for Brussels Wolff.
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
International socialist organizations
Communist organizations in Europe