MIA > Archive > Lassalle > Voices of Revolt
Written: As a speech in German, delivered September 26-28th, 1863.
Published in English: 1927.
Translated by: Jakob Altmeier (presumed).
Source: Voices of Revolt: Speeches of Ferdinand Lassalle. International Publishers, first edition, 1927, New York, USA. 94 pages.
Transcription and Markup: Bill Wright for marxists.org, February, 2023
A far more discouraging symptom of the complete dissolution and decay of the Progressive Party[a] is the press. I am here touching upon a point of the greatest importance and I regret that in spite of the great detail with which I shall treat it, it is impossible to treat it with the detail it deserves. One thing you must bear in mind constantly, must disseminate constantly: our principal enemy, the principal enemy of any healthy development of the German spirit and of the German people, is to-day the press! The press, at the stage in its evolution which it has now reached, is the true enemy of the people, an enemy all the more dangerous by reason of its many disguises. Its lying, its corruption, its immorality, are exceeded by no other quality, unless perhaps by its own ignorance.
The duplicity of this press was perhaps best brought home to you by its struggle against our organization, and yet, very few of you know even a small fraction of the truth of this situation. Daily new lies: lies by means of pure fact alone, lies by means of invented facts, lies by means of facts distorted into their opposites — such were the weapons with which we were fought! And to cap the climax of this shame, the newspapers in most cases even refused to print a correction. . . .
But the pinnacle of this outrage is in the fact that the newspapers themselves naïvely admit that the principal motive for their silence was their financial interest. It was the Rheinische Zeitung[b] — that unworthy namesake of two great organs which were published in the Rhineland in 1843 and in 1848, and which were an honor to their country — it was the Rheinische Zeitung, I say, which led the band in this naïve exposure. “How can people expect,” it cried, when a loud murmur among the Progressive Party itself became audible over the cowardice of the newspapers, “how can people expect the publishers to risk the capital which they have invested in the paper?” To be sure, nothing is more sacred than the publisher’s capital! In fact, with the aid of that shameless process of distorting all conceptions which has so long been the prerogative of our newspapers, it was now argued that it was the actual duty of the newspapers to venture no money loss, or — for God’s sake! — to jeopardize the sacred capital of the publishers! It is as if a soldier — and the newspapers ought to be soldiers, champions of liberty, and claim to be such — should regard it as his first duty under no circumstances to expose himself to the danger of being hit by a bullet!
These are grave, very grave conditions, and, with my soul full of sadness, I do not hesitate to say that unless a complete transformation of our press can be accomplished, if this newspaper pestilence shall continue for fifty years more, the intelligence of our people will be ruined and destroyed to its depths! But you must understand that if thousands of newspaper writers, these up-to-date teachers of the people, are permitted to spread their stupid ignorance, their consciencelessness, their eunuchs’ hatred for everything that is true and great in politics, art and science, and to breathe this spirit into a people which gullibly and confidingly opens its ears to this poison, which is disseminated by hundreds of thousands of voices, because it hopes to imbibe mental nourishment from it, our national intelligence will necessarily be destroyed, even if it were three times as well established as it is. Not even the most talented nation in the world, not even the ancient Greeks, could have survived such a press. And you must understand that even though there may be five or ten or a dozen serious and intelligent and honest men among this band, this fact could alter nothing in what I have said, since the sounds of their voices will die away without an echo in the roar and babble of their colleagues. . . .
A man who wishes to make money should manufacture cotton or cloth or play on the stock exchange, but to poison all the wells of popular instruction for the sake of filthy gain, to feed the people a spiritual death daily from a thousand tubes — this is the greatest crime that I can conceive of. The true enemy of the people, its most dangerous enemy, the more dangerous since it masquerades in the disguise of a friend, is our present-day press. Let me prevail upon you to cling with ardent enthusiasm to the slogan which I now ask you to make your own: hatred and contempt, death and destruction, to the press of to-day!
—From Die Feste, die Presse, und der Frankfurter Abgeordnetentag (“The Festivals, the Press, and the Congress of Deputies at Frankfort”[c]), a speech delivered at the meetings of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein,[d] at Barmen, Solingen, and Düsseldorf, September 26, 27, and 28, 1863.
[a] Fortschrittspartei (“Progressive Party,” also called Fortschrittsmänner, “Men of Progress”): A liberal party founded in Prussia in 1861 and predominant in the Prussian Diet until 1866, when the National Liberal Party was formed from it.
[b] Rheinische Zeitung: An organ of the Rhenish radical bourgeoisie, edited from October, 1842, to January, 1843, by Karl Marx.
[c] Frankfort Parliament: This body, the first predecessor of the modern German Reichstag, assembled in St. Paul’s Church, Frankfort, from May 18, 1848, to May 31, 1849. Its constitutional reforms were not finally adopted until 1864.
[d] Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (“General German Workers’ Union”): An organization founded by Ferdinand Lassalle in 1863.
Last updated on 14 February 2023