Wilhelm Weitling (October 5, 1808 – January 24 1871) was an important early
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
anarchistAnarchy may refer to any of the following:* "No rulership or enforced authority." * "Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder."...
,
communistCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
or
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
. Part of the
utopian socialismUtopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought. Although it is technically possible for any set of ideas or any person living at any time in history to be a Utopian socialist, the term is most often applied to those socialists who lived in the first...
movement, he was viewed with contempt by Marx and
EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of communist theory, alongside Karl Marx. Together they produced The Communist Manifesto in 1848...
(although the latter, at a very early period, called him the founder of German communism).
He was born in
MagdeburgMagdeburg , the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, is situated at the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor, lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death...
, Prussia. As a travelling sartorial journeyman/apprentice he came to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1838, during the
July MonarchyThe July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of the French , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
, and later to
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
.
Wilhelm Weitling (October 5, 1808 – January 24 1871) was an important early
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
anarchistAnarchy may refer to any of the following:* "No rulership or enforced authority." * "Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder."...
,
communistCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
or
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
. Part of the
utopian socialismUtopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought. Although it is technically possible for any set of ideas or any person living at any time in history to be a Utopian socialist, the term is most often applied to those socialists who lived in the first...
movement, he was viewed with contempt by Marx and
EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of communist theory, alongside Karl Marx. Together they produced The Communist Manifesto in 1848...
(although the latter, at a very early period, called him the founder of German communism).
Life
He was born in
MagdeburgMagdeburg , the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, is situated at the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor, lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death...
, Prussia. As a travelling sartorial journeyman/apprentice he came to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1838, during the
July MonarchyThe July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of the French , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
, and later to
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
. Working twelve-hour days as a tailor, he still found time to read
StraussDavid Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and writer. He scandalized Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus," whose divine nature he denied. His work was connected to the Tübingen School, which revolutionized study of the New Testament, early Christianity, and ancient...
and
LamennaisHugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais, also known as Frédéric de La Mennais , was a French priest, and philosophical and political writer.-Youth:...
. After joining the
League of the JustThe Communist League was the first Marxist international organization. It was founded originally as the League of the Just by German workers in Paris in 1836. This was initially a utopian socialist and Christian communist grouping devoted to the ideas of Gracchus Babeuf...
in 1837, Weitling joined Parisian workers in protests and street battles in 1839.
Tristram HuntTristram Hunt is a British historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He also lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London....
called his doctrine "a highly emotional mix of
BabouvistFrançois-Noël Babeuf , known as Gracchus Babeuf , was a French political agitator and journalist of the Revolutionary period...
communism, chiliastic Christianity, and millenarian populism":
Following the work of the Christian radical Felicité de Lamennais, Weitling urged installing communism by physical force with the help of a 40,000-strong army of ex-convicts. A prelapsarian community of goods, fellowship, and societal harmony would then ensue, ushered in by the Christlike figure of Weitling himself. While Marx and Engels struggled with the intricacies of industrial capitalism and modern modes of production, Weitling revived the apocalyptic politics of the sixteenth-century Münster AnabaptistsThe Münster Rebellion was an attempt by radical Anabaptists to establish a communal theocracy in the German city of Münster. The city became an Anabaptist center from 1534 to 1535, and fell under Anabaptist rule for 18 months — from February 1534, when the city hall was seized and Bernhard...
and their gory attempts to usher in the Second Coming... Much to Marx and Engels's fury, Weitling's giddy blend of evangelism and protocommunism attracted thousands of dedicated followers across the Continent.
In the book
Gospel of Poor Sinners he traced communism back to early Christianity.
His book
Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom was praised by
Bruno BauerBruno Bauer was a German theologian, philosopher and historian.Bauer investigated the sources of the New Testament and concluded that early Christianity owed more to Greek philosophy than to Judaism....
, Ludwig Feuerbach and
Mikhail BakuninMikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism.Born in the Russian Empire to a family of Russian nobles, Bakunin spent his youth as a junior officer in the Russian army but resigned his commission in 1835...
, the latter of whom Weitling was to meet in
ZürichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
in 1843.
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
, in an 1844 review, referred to the "unbounded brilliance of the literary debut of the German worker," but "what won from Marx this high-sounding praise was simply the fact that Weitling's appeals were addressed to the workers as a class."
During his stay in Zürich, he was arrested for
revolutionaryA revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour...
agitation, and extradited to the
Kingdom of PrussiaThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
. From there he got the chance in 1849 to
emigrateEmigrate is a rock band based in New York, led by Richard Z. Kruspe, the lead guitarist of the German band Rammstein.-History:Kruspe started the band in 2005, when Rammstein decided to take a year off from touring and recording...
to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(as one of the
Forty-EightersThe Forty-Eighters were Europeans who participated in or supported the revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe. In Germany, the Forty-Eighters favored unification of the country, a more democratic government, and guarantees of human rights...
).
Works
He published several revolutionary works:
- Die Menschheit. Wie Sie ist und wie sie sein sollte, (1838/39) German text online
- The Poor Sinner's Gospel, (Das Evangelium eines armen Sünders. 1845)
- Ein Nothruf an die Männer der Arbeit und der Sorge, Brief an die Landsleute, (1847)
- Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom, (Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit), (1849) German text online
External links