Communist Correspondence Committee

The Communist Correspondence Committee (German: Kommunistisches Korrespondenz-Komitee) was an association of communists founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels with committees in Brussels, London, Cologne and Paris 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 .^[1]

Another committee was formed in London between May and June 1846, formed by Joseph Maximilian Moll and Karl Schapper, among others. In June 1846, the Wuppertal communist approached the Brussels committee and suggested that the German communists should inform each other of their actions, which the Committee welcomed.^[2]

Engels, who went to France in 1846 upon the committee’s assignment, led the struggle against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's reformist influence, the “true socialism,” of Karl Grün and "Weitlingism" or better known as the levelling communism of Wilhelm Weitling 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.^[3]

From 1846 to 1847, Heinrich Bürgers and Roland Daniels worked in Cologne for the Correspondence Committee and the physician in Kiel. The traveling salesman and poet Georg Weerth also worked as a courier for the committees.

At the , 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.^[4]

Bibliography[]

• Karl Obermann : On the history of the Communist Correspondence Committee in 1846, especially in the Rhineland and Westphalia . In: Contributions to the history of the German labor movement . Berlin 1962, special issue, p. 116 ff.
• Walter Schmidt : Wilhelm Wolff as a member of the Communist Correspondence Committee in 1846 . In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement . Berlin 1964, issue 3, p. 443 ff.
• Herwig Förder, Martin Hundt , Jefim Kandel, Sofia Lewiowa (eds.): Bund der Kommunisten. Documents and Materials, Volume 1: 1836-1849 . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970, pp. 322-446.
• Herwig Förder: Marx and Engels on the eve of the revolution . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1960, pp. 52–74. Chapter: "The dispute with Weitling (March 30, 1846)", "The 'Circular Against Wars' (May 11, 1846")
• David Ryazanov : Marx and Engels - not just for beginners . Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1973, pp. 57–61.

References[]