''Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe'' (''MEGA'') is the largest collection of the writing of
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" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.critical edition of the complete works of Marx and Engels that reproduces the extant writings of both authors in books of high-quality paper and library binding.
Being a scholarly and academic, historical-critical () edition, most ''MEGA'' volumes consist of separate text and appendix books, the latter giving additional information on the edited text. All material in ''MEGA'' is edited in the original language, resulting in mostly German- but also a considerable quantity of English- as well as French-language texts.
Initiated by the Institutes of Marxism–Leninism of the SED in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
and published by '' Dietz Verlag'' (Berlin) as a series launched in 1975, ''MEGA'' contains all works published by Marx and Engels in their lifetimes and numerous previously unpublished manuscripts and letters.Rojahn, Jürgen (1998): Publishing Marx and Engels after 1989: The fate of the MEGA. /ref>
After the fall of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
, publishing of ''MEGA'' was transferred to the ''Internationale Marx-Engels-Stiftung (IMES)'' in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
.International Institute of Social History: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe. /ref> The volumes are printed and bound by Walter de Gruyter in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. The project is presently being overseen by Gerald Hubmann.
Sixty-five volumes of ''MEGA'' have been published so far.marxforschung.de: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA²) (German). /ref> All volumes containing writings related to ''
Das Kapital
''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...
'' have been published. Most recently a text volume and accompanying apparatus volume containing Marx's ecological writings was published. The entire project is expected to be 114 volumes in total.
Publication history
Background
The ''MEGA'' of today was not the first attempt to publish a complete collection of the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their original language.
First MEGA
In the 1920s and 1930s a ''first MEGA'' or ''MEGA1'' began being published by the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow under the direction of David Riazanov, a Marxist scholar and revolutionary. ''MEGA1'' was originally intended to comprise 42 volumes, of which 12 volumes were published between 1927 and 1935.Marx. Dialectical Studies: The Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) Project. /ref> /ref> After Riazanov who edited the first five volumes of ''MEGA'' was removed as director of the Marx-Engels Institute in February 1931, Vladimir Adoratsky took his place as editor and published the next seven volumes. By the mid 1930s, ''MEGA1'' was silently discontinued.
Second MEGA
A second attempt began in the 1960s and is still ongoing. The cooperation between German and
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
editors, new editorial guidelines and innovative concepts led to the publication of a first sample volume in 1972, followed by the first volume of the new, ''second MEGA'' (or ''MEGA2'') in 1975.
Structure
''MEGA'' contains material written by Marx between 1835 and his death in 1883, and by Engels between 1838 and his death in 1895. The project is divided into four general sections:
*This section contains Marx's major work, '' Capital: Critique of Political Economy'' (with all three volumes), and all the economic works and manuscripts related to it, beginning with the ''
Grundrisse
The ''Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie'' (, ), often simply the ''Grundrisse'' (, ), is an unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx. The series of seven notebooks was rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for purposes ...
'' from 1857/58 (volume II/1). This section is so far the only completed one, it was finished with volume II/4.3 in 2012 and comprises 15 volumes in 23 books.
III. Abteilung (Briefwechsel)
*The complete correspondence of Marx and Engels, both the exchange of letters between each other, as well as from Marx and Engels to third persons, whose letters to both authors are also completely printed in the edition. The section will comprise 35 volumes.
IV. Abteilung (Exzerpte, Notizen, Marginalien)
*The previously largely unpublished excerpts, notes and marginalia of Marx and Engels. The section will comprise 32 volumes.
Plan
Since 1990 ''MEGA'' is being published by the ''Internationale Marx-Engels-Stiftung (IMES)'' in Amsterdam.
The IMES is an international network of the
International Institute of Social History
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
Karl-Marx-Haus
The Karl Marx House museum () is a biographical museum, biographical and writer's house museum in Trier (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). In 1818, Karl Marx, the father of Marxism, which influenced both modern socialism and communism, was born in ...
(KMH) of the
Friedrich Ebert Foundation
The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as t ...
in
Trier
Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...
, the Russian State Archive for Social/Political History (RGA) and the Russian Independent Institute for the Study of Social and National Problems (RNI), the latter two in Moscow. The main task of the IMES is to continue the publication of the ''Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe''.
In 2015 the (federal science conference) of the German federal states and the German national government decided to continue funding the publication of ''MEGA'', albeit in a newly conceptualized form: All the letters in the third section of ''MEGA'' from 1866 to 1895 (from volume III/14 onwards) and large parts of the fourth section will only be published digitally in the future.
All further volumes of the first and important volumes of the fourth section will, however, still be published in printed form.Press release of BBAW after GWK conference, October 30, 2015 (German). /ref>
See also
* ''
Marx/Engels Collected Works
''Marx/Engels Collected Works'' (also known as ''MECW'') is the largest existing collection of English translations of works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Its 50 volumes contain publications by Marx and Engels released during their lifeti ...