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Wilhelm Weitling Und Die Deutsche Politische Handwerkerlyrik Im Vormarz

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Wilhelm Weitling Und Die Deutsche Politische Handwerkerlyrik Im Vormarz WOLFGANG SCHIEDER WILHELM WEITLING UND DIE DEUTSCHE POLITISCHE HANDWERKERLYRIK IM VORMARZ Vergessene politische Lieder aus der Friihzeit des deutschen Friihsozialisten. Im Juliheft 18 51 der Zeitschrift ,,Die Republik der Arbeiter", die Wilhelm Weitling 1850-1855 in New York herausgab, machte der deutsche Frtihsozialist eine selbstbiographische Angabe, der die For- schung bisher noch nicht nachgegangen ist. Um sich gegen verschie- dene Angriffe zu verteidigen, veroffentlichte Weitling dort under dem Titel ,,t)bersicht der Erfolge einer zwolfjahrigen Propaganda mit bezug auf die Geldpunkte" eine Art von literarischem Rechenschaf ts- bericht, in dem er u.a. folgendes schrieb: ,,Im Jahre 1838 wurde mir in Paris von der Zentralbehorde unserer Verbindung, der ich seit kurzem mit angehorte, der Auftrag: die Moglichkeit der Giitergemeinschaft durch eine Schrift zu veranschaulichen, weil die Mitglieder eine solche Schrift verlangten. Ich hatte einen Mitbewerber, aber die Mitglieder der Zentralbehorde entschieden sich einstimmig fiir meine Schrift: 'Die Menschheit, wie sie ist und wie sie sein sollte' Ich verfaBte die Schrift zu einer Zeit, in welcher ich jeden Abend bis 10 und 11 Uhr und jeden Sonntag bis 12 Uhr mittags als Schneidergeselle arbeiten muBte. Ich uberset^te Lamennais' 'Buch des Volkes' und gab das Manuskript einem Agenten unserer Verbindung fiir die Verbindung in Deutschland gratis mit. Ich lieferte 12 Lieder %u den ' Volksklangen', versteht sich gleichfalls gratis. Das waren meine ersten literarischen Produktionen... "1 Mit Ausnahme der ,,Menschheit", Weitlings Erstlingsschrift, sind sie bis heute unbekannt geblieben. Hinsichtlich der Ubersetzung von Lamennais' ,,Livre du peuple" ist das verstandlich; denn das Manuskript Weitlings diirfte aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach niemals gedruckt worden sein. Die beiden einzigen deutschen Ubersetzungen des ,,Livre du peuple" aus der Zeit des Vormarz, die 1838 in der Schweiz erschienen (in Liestal bei 1 Zitiert bei Hermann Schliiter, Die Anfange der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung in Amerika, Stuttgart 1907, S. 58 f. Alle Hervorhebungen vom Verfasser. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 11:57:18, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000001620 266 WOLFGANG SCHIEDER Banga & Honegger bzw. in Biel bei Schneider & Compagnie), kommen jedenfalls zeitlich nicht in Frage, da Weitling seine Uber- setzung - gema'B seinen Angaben - wohl erst nach dem Erscheinen der ,,Menschheit", also nach der Jahreswende 1838/39 angefertigt hat. Bei der Liestaler tjbersetzung ist im iibrigen auch der Fluent- ling Rauschenplat als Ubersetzer angegeben. Ware seine Obersetzung gedruckt worden, ha'tte das Weitling auBerdem in seinem oben zitierten Rechenschaftsbericht sicherlich erwahnt. Anders verhalt es sich aber mit den ,,Volksklangen". Dieses Liederbuch ist tat- sachlich erschienen und hat sich auch in je einem Exemplar an zwei verschiedenen Stellen erhalten: in der Bayrischen Staatsbibliothek Miinchen und in der Bibliotheque Nationale et Universitaire in StraBburg. DaB es sich in StraBburg befindet, ist nicht weiter verwunder- lich, da dort vor 1848 fast standig geheime oder offentliche Klubs deutscher Fluchtlinge und Handwerker bestanden, in denen Lieder- biicher dieser Art zirkulierten.1 Erstaunlich ist jedoch der Miinchner Fund. Vermutlich stammt das dortige Exemplar, wie auch sonst Schriften dieser Art, aus dem Material der vormarzlichen Zensur- polizei in Bayern, die beschlagnahmte ,,revolutionare Schriften" offenbar gelegentlich an die heutige Staatsbibliothek abgegeben hat. Die ,,Volksklange" werden jedenfalls neben der ,,Menschheit" und den beiden Schweizer Zeitschriften Weitlings, dem ,,Hiilferuf der deutschen Jugend" und der „ Jungen Generation", von denen auch jeweils ein vollsta'ndiges Exemplar in der Staatsbibliothek vorhanden ist2, sowie anderen Flugschriften in einer Fahndungsanweisung des Bayerischen Ministeriums des Innern an das des AuBern vom 24.11. 1842 genannt.3 In Paris sowie auch in der Schweiz, dem Haupttatig- keitsfeld Weitlings, sind die ,,Volksklange" in keiner Bibliothek nach- zuweisen, sodaB die beiden genannten Exemplare als einzige erhalten geblieben sein diirften, falls nicht durch Archivfunde noch weitere zutage gefordert werden. Der vollstandige und genaue Titel des Liederbuchs lautet: ,,Volks- 1 Vgl. dazu bisher Otto Wiltberger, Die deutschen politischen Fluchtlinge in StraBburg 1830-1849, Berlin/Leipzig 1910 und Otto Brugger, Geschichte der deutschen Handwer- kervereine in der Schweiz 1836-1843, Bern/Leipzig 1932. Verfasser hofft, in einer Unter- suchung iiber die deutschen Assoziationen in Paris vor 1848 auch zur Geschichte der deutschen Vereinigungen in StraCburg und der elsassischen Umgebung demnachst neues beitragen zu konnen. 2 Vgl. Werner Kowalski, Die Schweizer Weitling-ZeitschriftenunddieWeitlingforschung, in: Zeitschrift fvir Geschichtswissenschaft, VI. Jahrgang 1958, Heft 4, S. 824 ff. 3 Miinchen, Geheimes Staatsarchiv, Frankfurter Bundestag, Ministerialakten II, Fasz. 653, Stuck 36. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 11:57:18, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000001620 WEITLING UND DIE POLITISCHE HANDWERKERLYRIK IM VORMARZ 267 Klange. Eine Sammlung patriotischer Lieder, Paris 1841, Druckerei von Wittersheim." EinschlieBlich eines Inhaltsverzeichnisses hat es 190 Seiten im Oktavformat und enthalt insgesamt 100 Lieder - teils mit, teils ohne Verfasserangabe — in einer Reihenfolge, deren Ordnungsprinzip nicht erkennbar ist. Wer die Volks- klange" herausgegeben hat, ist ihnen nicht zu entnehmen. Audi finden sich sonstwo keine eindeutigen Hinweise dazu; doch kommt wohl am ehesten der aus Bensberg bei Koln kommende Jour- nalist und Literat Friedrich Wilhelm German Maurer dafiir in Frage, der seit 1833 in Paris als Hauslehrer tatig war.1 Von diesem stammt namlich der das Liederbuch einleitende ,,Zuspruch an die groBen Kampfer fur die heilige Sache des Vaterlandes und der Menschheit", der in groBeren Lettern als alle iibrigen Lieder gesetzt ist.2 Maurer kommt auch am ehesten als Herausgeber oder Redakteur der „ Volksklange" in Betracht, wenn man das Publikum in Rechnung stellt, fiir das das Liederbuch zusammengestellt worden ist. Wie sich aus der Uber- priifung der Verfasser der in den ,,Volksklangen" gesammelten Lieder ergibt,j scheint dieses Liederbuch namlich mit allergroBter Wahr- scheinlichkeit innerhalb des ,,Bundes der Gerechten", dem seit etwa 1837/38 in Paris neben dem alteren ,,Bund der Geachteten" bestehen- den Geheimbund deutscher Handwerksgesellen und Fliichtlinge, entstanden zu sein.3 Neben Maurer, der nachweislich zu den fiihren- den Mitgliedern des ,,Bundes der Gerechten" gehorte4 fer soil Weitling erst so weit gebracht haben, ordentliches Hochdeutsch zu sprechen und zu schreiben5 und wurde von diesem in einem spateren 1 Zu Maurer vgl. Franz Briimmer, Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten vom Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart, 6. Auflage Leipzig o.J., 4 Bd., S. 395 und Hermann Semmig. Das deutsche Gespenst in Frankreich, in: Orion, Monatsschrift fiir Literatur und Kunst, 1865, Bd. II, S. 868. 2 Volksklange S. 3 f. Ausserdem stammen noch vier weitere Lieder der „ Volksklange" von Maurer: Volksklange S. 81 f., 118 f., 136 f. und 160. 3 Zur Geschichte dieser Biinde vgl. vorlaufig immer noch August Wilhelm Fehling, Karl Schapper und die Anfange der Arbeiterbewegung bis zur Revolution von 1848. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Handwerksburschenkommunismus. Diss. Phil. Rostock 1922 (Masch.). 4 Maurer gehorte schon dem ,,Deutschen Volksverein", der ersten deutschen Assoziation in Paris nach 1830, an. Aus einem im August 1833 erschienenen Flugblatt des ,,Deutschen Volksvereins" (erhalten im Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv Wien als Beilage zu Stuck 368 von Faszikel 197 der Deutschen Akten) geht hervor, daC Maurer kurz vor Erscheinen dieses Flugblattes in den ,,Volksverein" eingetreten ist. Das Flugblatt enthalt namlich ein anonymes Gedicht mit dem Titel ,,GruC eines neuaufgenommenen Patrioten", das in den „Volksklangen" unter Maurers Namen abgedruckt ist. Nach Hermann Ewerbecks (allerdings nicht unbedingt zuverlassigem) Bericht soil Maurer zu den Redakteuren der Flugblatter des ,,Deutschen Volksvereins" gehort haben. (Vgl. Hermann Ewerbeck, L'Allemagne et les Allemands, Paris 1851, p. 589.) 5 Semmig a.a.O. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 29 Sep 2021 at 11:57:18, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000001620 268 WOLFGANG SCHIEDER Bericht iiber den ,,Bund der Gerechten" in Paris wegen seines bei der ,,Verbreitung des kommunistischen Prinzips" entwickelten Eifers besonders gelobt1) haben namlich noch weitere drei Angehorige des Fuhrungsteams des Pariser ,,Bundes der Gerechten" Lieder zu den ,,Volksklangen" beigetragen.2 Keiner von diesen kommt aber riir die Redaktionstatigkeit, die die Zusammenstellung der ,,Volksklange" erforderte, mehr in Frage als Maurer. Karl Schapper, der spatere Londoner Bundesfuhrer, von dem ein Lied in die ,,Volksklange" gekommen ist,3 wurde in Paris in die Untersuchungen nach dem Putsch Blanquis und Barbes vom 12. /13. Mai 1839 verwickelt und nach England ausgewiesen4. Erkann also bei der Redaktion
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