Letter to Heinrich Bürgers, June 25, 1850

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 25 June 1850


Published for the first time, in English, in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 38, pp. 237-238
Printed according to Daniels' letter to Marx of 28 June 1850 and that of the Cologne leading district to the Communist League Central Authority of 10 July 1850

TO HEINRICH BÜRGERS IN COLOGNE[1]

[London, 25 June 1850]

[...] the Cologne people, including Daniels, were as usual much taken up with being wise after the event [...]

[...] Like any other place Cologne can, if it so wishes, declare itself a Centre of any kind. Indeed it would conform better than any other place to Spinoza's dictum whereby the periphery coincides with the centre [...][2]

  1. ↑ Two excerpts of this letter are extant: one is quoted by Roland Daniels in his letter to Marx of 28 June 1850, the other in the letter of 10 July 1850 from the Cologne leading district of the Communist League to the London Central Authority of the League. The letter reflects the disagreement which arose in the summer of 1850 between the London Central Authority and the leaders of the Cologne organisations of the Communist League (Heinrich Bürgers, Roland Daniels, Peter Röser and others). The Cologne people's claim to become the Communist League's leading centre for the whole of Germany was contrary to the League's Rules, which were inspired by democratic centralism and provided for equality of the district organisations in individual provinces and countries and their equal responsibility to the Central Authority.
  2. ↑ Marx may have had in mind Spinoza's letter to Walter Tschirnhaus of January 1673.