List of Documents Despatched to Cologne during the Communist Trial

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 31 October 1852


Printed according to the manuscript
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 11

Note from MECW :

This list was drawn up by Engels.— Ed.

This list of documents shows the efforts made by Marx and Engels to help the accused Communists in Cologne and their defence counsel to prove how unfounded were the charges fabricated against them by means of perjury, juggling with facts and forged material. The documents enumerated in the list were to provide the defence with material exposing the provocative actions of the police and judicial authorities. As addressees the list often mentions businessmen and trading houses which Marx and Engels used for safe dispatch of the documents to the defence counsels Schneider II, Esser I and Hontheim. Most of these conspiratorial addresses were supplied by Engels, making use of his commercial ties.

The calendar for July-October 1852 (in Engels' handwriting) at the end of the manuscript is not reproduced in this volume.

1) Brothers Braubach—Schneide r (original) October 27, business friend.

2) J.A.Boecker—Schneide r (copy) October 27, Michael Shawcross & Co.

3) I.D. Herstadt—Hontheim—t o Marx — Fisher Brothers.

4) J.H.Stein—Esse r I — to Marx—business friend.

5) Leonhar d Sadée — Schneider II—t o Marx—Smit h (Wilson) Dryer & Co.

6) Düsseldorfer Haus—Schneide r II — from London , October 25 (Marx on Cherval, theoretical explanation).[1]

7) Ebner—fo r von Hontheim — London , October 26 (triplicate of Marx's first letter to Schneider)—letters of Becker[2] and Daniels to

Marx, new samples of Hirsch's handwriting—Cherval's statement in The People's Paper—original letter from Stieber to Marx.[3]

8) G. Jung—Schneide r II. London , October 27? 1. Legally attested handwriting and affidavit. 2. Quadrupl e of the first letter to Schneider, togethe r with samples of Hirsch's handwriting.[4] 3. Extract from Becker's letter to Marx on Willich. 4. Thre e letters from Bermbach to Marx. 5. Copy of Stieber's letter. 6. Instruction to Schneider togethe r with information of the despatch of No. 9 and No. 10.

9) Schneider II, registered — Duplicate of the affidavit, October 28.

10) W. in Düsseldorf—Schneide r II — Registration certificate on No. 9, October 28.

Nos. 3, 4 or 5: one used for Schneider II. Explanation about Reuter, Stieber, Dietz,[5] October 29.

11) d. No. from B. 8c Co. von Hontheim—Extract from Marx's first letter to Schneider—Notification of the non-receipt of Schneider's letter.

12) G. Blank & Son.

13) Hasselmann Schults 8c Co.

  1. ↑ In points 3 to 5 Engels lists the envelopes with commercial addresses which he sent to Marx in London on October 28 to be delivered to Hontheim, Esser I, Schneider II (see Engels' letter to Marx of October 28, 1852). Point 6 refers to a letter from Marx which was sent via Düsseldorf to Schneider II at the address of a German merchant, an acquaintance of Freiligrath. The letter is not extant. On its c'ontents see Marx's letter to Engels dated October 28, 1852.
  2. ↑ Hermann Heinrich Becker.— Ed.
  3. ↑ The following documents are listed: 1) Marx's letter of October 26, 1852 to the lawyer Schneider II which, in view of its importance, was sent to Cologne in four copies through different hands, including Weerth from Manchester (see Marx's letter to Engels of October 26, 1852); two other copies, besides the third spoken of in this point, are mentioned by Engels in the list under No. 1 and No. 8; the letter has not been found. 2) A letter from Hermann Becker, one of the main accused at the trial, to Marx dated January 27, 1851 (see this volume, p. 452; it is also mentioned in point 8 of this document), and letters from Roland Daniels to Marx, written between February and May 1851, concerning his book Mikrokosmos. Entwurf einer physiologischen Anthropologie. The letters in question were written by Becker and Daniels prior to their arrest. 3) Cherval's statement, printed in The People's Paper after his escape to England arranged by the French police (see this volume, p. 418). 4) A letter from Stieber to Marx of December 26, 1848, quoted by Marx in his Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne (see this volume, pp. 435-36); this letter is also mentioned in point 8.
  4. ↑ The reference is to the documents which Marx sent to Schneider II (through Hermann Jung living in Frankfurt am Main) proving that the "original minute-book" was a forgery and that Hirsch participated in its fabrication, and exposing Stieber's perjury (see this volume, pp. 426-35, and Marx's letter to Engels of October 28, 1852).
  5. ↑ This refers to the theft of the so-called Dietz archive (Dietz was secretary of the sectarian Willich-Schapper group that broke away from the Communist League) by Max Reuter, a Prussian police agent in London (see this volume, pp. 403-07).