On the Barricades of Berlin: An Account of the 1848 Revolution 1551647109, 9781551647104

Citation preview

Every historical account of this revolution is a narrative that will reveal somehow the political position of the historian who offers it. The way in which Weiland challenges the dominant liberal narrative is astonishingly well documented and convincing. His analysis successfully deconstructs the “progressive” self-image of the German liberal bourgeoisie that thought it would profit from a revolution that succeeded in '48 primarily due to the sacrifices made by courageous men and women of the working class. ... [T]he style and the tone of the book are inspiring, and I hope that the inspiration that moved the three authors, August Brass, Peter Light, and Andreas Weiland, can motivate the reader to think in a deeper and harder way about the present necessity to question a status quo that, as such, features many elements that should cause at least as much resistance as the situation in 1848 happened to cause in Berlin. If we remain onlookers today, not unlike so many saturated Germans in ‘48, would this not be conducive to the disintegration of the social fabric and the ecological devastation of the planet? This question is posed implicitly in the book.

Dr. Magdi Youssef

Professor of Comparative Literature and Culture Studies University of Bonn

I have read The Barricades of Berlin with great attention, especially as we see again, today, barricades in France: formed by stuff provided by consumer society–burning car tires, smashed things taken from expensive stores at the Champs-Élysées and broken by “left-wing” and “right-wing” folks, by workers, the unemployed, and students, all angry with the neoliberal establishment. Both the eyewitness report by August Brass, an activist in the March Revolution of 1848 that shook Berlin, Prussia and Germany, and the thoughtful, elaborate commentary on it by Andreas Weiland are well worth reading.

Pavel Branko

film critic and author of Against the Current, and In the Morning I wake up, surprised at not being dead

ON THE

BARRICADES OF BERLIN

August Heinrich Brass 1818-1876

ON THE

BARRICADES OF BERLIN

An Account of the 1848 Revolution

August Brass Translated and edited by Andreas Weiland with Peter Light

Montréal/Chicago/London

Copyright © 201 Black Rose Books Thank you for purchasing this Black Rose Books publication. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system–without written permission from the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, Access Copyright, with the exception of brief passages quoted by a reviewer in a newspaper or magazine. If you acquired an illicit electronic copy of this book, please consider making a donation to Black Rose Books. Black Rose Books No. TT404 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: On the barricades of Berlin : an account of the 1848 revolution / August Brass ; translated by Andreas Weiland ; foreword by Peter Light. Other titles: Berlin’s Barrikaden. English Names: Brass, August, 1818-1876, author. | Weiland, Andreas, 1944- translator. | Light, Peter, 1943- writer of foreword. Description: Translation of: Berlin’s Barrikaden, Ihre Entstehung, ihre Verteidigung und ihre Folgen. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2019008099X | Canadiana (ebook) 20190082437 | ISBN 9781551647081 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781551647104 (softcover) | ISBN 9781551647128 (PDF) Subjects: LCSH: Brass, August, 1818-1876. | LCSH: Berlin (Germany)—History— Revolution, 1848-1849. | LCSH: Berlin (Germany)—History—Revolution, 18481849—Personal narratives. Classification: LCC DD876 .B7313 2019 | DDC 943/.155074—dc23

C.P.35788 Succ. Léo-Pariseau Montréal, QC, H2X 0A4 Canada Explore our books and subscribe to our newsletter: www.blackrosebooks.com Ordering Information USA/INTERNATIONAL

CANADA

UK/IRELAND

University of Chicago Press Chicago Distribution Center 11030 South Langley Avenue Chicago, IL 60628

University of Toronto Press 5201 Dufferin Street Toronto, ON M3H 5T8

Central Books 50 Freshwater Road Chadwell Heath, London RM8 1RX

(800) 621-2736 (USA) (773) 702-7000 (International) [email protected]

1-800-565-9523

+44 (0) 20 8525 8800

[email protected]

[email protected]

CONTENTS

"DLOPXMFEHFNFOUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
'PSFXPSE by Peter Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
*OUSPEVDUJPO by Andreas Weiland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9 The Barricades of Berlin by August Brass Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Part I: Start of 1848 to March 11: Thunderclouds on the Horizon . . . . 32 Part II: March 12-17: The Course is Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Part III: Friday, March 17: The Turning Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Interlude: A Personal Moment of Memory and Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Part IV: Afternoon, March 18: To the Barricades! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Part V: Evening, March 18th: The Second Phase of the Fighting . . . . 108 Part VI: Night, March 18-19: The Third Phase of the Fighting . . . . . 111 Part VII: Morning, March 19: The Red Dawn of Freedom . . . . . . . . . 116 Part VIII: March 19: Peace! Peace! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Part IX: Morning, March 20: Liberation of the Polish Prisoners . . . . . 127 Part X: March 21: The King Rides the Streets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Part XI: March 22: The Funeral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Part XII: March 22: Closing Words of Wisdom and Inspiration . . . . . 139 5IF
.BSDI
3FWPMVUJPO
"
#PUDIFE
3FWPMVUJPO by Andreas Weiland . . . .
143
&QJMPHVF by Andreas Weiland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
332
-BTU
8PSET by Peter Light
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
344
"VHVTU
)FJOSJDI
#SBTT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . . . . . . .
352

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT4

I wish to thank my old classmate and life-long friend Angelo (Fred) Evelyn for introducing me to the translator of this book, Andreas Weiland; and, of course, Andreas himself, from the bottom of my heart, who has persevered with this work through many delays and tribulations, and who has done such a wonderful job of revealing what had been hidden from me and my family lineage of nineteen living Brass descendants, bringing to life so well this voice from another time and place. 
Peter Light

6

FOREW03%

CZ
2'6'4.+)*6

I first heard of August Brass while growing up in Vancouver, Canada, in the 1940s and 50s. I later learned that he died in 1876 at the age of fifty-eight when his daughter Gertrude—my father’s mother—was but nine years old. This notwithstanding, my father, born in Berlin, Germany in 1903, remembers his mother saying, “Ach, Gunter, you are so much like your Grandpa Brass.” From my father I had learned that this great-grandfather of mine, August Heinrich Brass, had “fought behind the barricades” during the “failed” 1848 German Revolution; had held off the King’s army for two days; was forced to flee to Switzerland; was pardoned by the Kaiser, Otto von Bismarck, who became his “personal friend” had founded a daily newspaper which he put at the service of the Kaiser’s government; and then, disillusioned with the Kaiser’s policies, resigned and started his own, independent newspaper. I subsequently verified that all this information was a more or less accurate oral transmission in accord with the historical record. I first discovered, with growing wonder and excitement as I began to explore my genealogy in 1999, that there actually was a historical record. I learned that Brass was a well-known literary figure of his time; that he was also a personal friend of Karl Marx; that he hadn’t just fought behind the barricades, but had led part of the fight; that he and a fellow revolutionary have had a monument erected in their honor—in 1999, in Alexanderplatz (Alexander Square)—for fighting the soldiers under the command of general Johann Karl von Möllendorff to a stand-still there; and that—wonder of wonders—he had actually written a book about it entitled “Berlin’s Barrikaden, Ihre Entstehung, ihre Vertheidigung und ihre Folgen. Eine Geschichte der Märzrevolution.” I learned later from a scholar of German history—my translator and editor, Andreas Weiland—that this book is most likely the earliest extensive firstperson account of the March Revolution known to exist—completed and to the publisher just twelve days after one hundred and eighty-three dead “fighters of the people” were put into the ground. Increasingly gripped by the manuscript as it emerged in English for the first time, and as the vivid story I was reading unfolded and built to its climax, there was no greater moment for me than when my own personal history, my family lore, the written word before me, and visual imagery came together and 7

#