First Period: Rome. From Christ to the Migration of the Peoples

When Jesus Christ appeared, Rome held dominion over the ancient world. And the old epoch, the history of revelation of God the Father – or the knowledge of God in images of fantasy, which had ruled the earth until then, but progressed until it became the holy root among the Jewish nation – has now come to its conclusion. With Christ a new epoch has begun, the history of revelation of God the Son, or the knowledge of God in the feelings of the soul. At that stage arrived at by mankind in its progress, its essence had to break out into a wonderful blossoming, into a glorious crown.

As Christ became formed, he integrated in his divine soul the many opinions which reigned in his time into a living whole.

If the holy tradition is not a deceiver – if world history is and will be not a liar but the never-contradicting eternal truth, revealed in time as a logical conclusion – then we live at present in a period analogous to that of the deluge of water or the flood of the peoples. This analogy is important; it shows us the character of our era, its world-historical significance, with a certainty which one could not have reached through the previous points of view of historical research. As we find ourselves only called to proclaim the will of God in so far as our knowledge of Him determines our duties, so we shall seek to shed light only on what relates to our proximate future; but so as not to offer a truncated picture of world history, we shall mention the rest and leave its fulfilment to its own time.

What is most important for us is the striving to create new states, which we have also discovered in the two first periods after the rejuvenation; accordingly, even had we not found it amply established in the present, it would have followed from the comparison with the two known main periods. But in order to describe this striving more closely, we have to compare also something else.

A Judaism reconciled with science [Wissenschaft] can do full justice to Christianity, fully acknowledge its world-historical significance, without falling into the pitfall of the shallow cosmopolitanism of the levelling tendencies of Reform Judaism, and without denying the character of Jewish religion. Today a Jewish historian does not need to relate fanatically or with indifference to a religion which is itself a product and consequently an essential component of Jewish history itself.

With the passing of time the knowledge of God has become confused. The more subtle our wisdom, the more multifaceted has our stupidity become. Had God's grace not endured eternally, what would have become of us? … Men have once again reached the point where they are lost without a compass in a sea of errors, finding themselves in the middle of a Noahite deluge of ideas. Where is the ark, where is deliverance? In a time in which humility is paraded for show, because at heart it nourishes pride, it would sound ridiculous if somebody came forth and announced: here is the ark, here is deliverance! And yet all those who have become conscious of their calling have said exactly that, without appearing to lose their divine standing because of this. This however came about because they have not sworn allegiance to their ephemeral ‘I’, this idol of a million forms, and have reckoned as an achievement what we have to acknowledge solely as the grace of the eternal, immeasurable God: because they were as far from the idol-worship of pride as are those meek ones who aid it with courtly words. Religion, the knowledge of God, the highest good of man, was lost, and the finder should be ashamed to call out in joy: here it is again!? Truly, it is against this humility that his conscience rebels.

In the previous chapter we discovered the foundation of the Kingdom of God. We found that it resides in the harmony of the strivings of those who take part in the holy kingdom. We saw that this harmony comes about primarily through the total abolition of the historical right, which brings about also other reforms. But easy as it is to pronounce this, the more difficult will it be to carry it out. We should not conceal that the foundation of this kingdom will be mediated through a great plight which we are about to encounter. It is our duty to bring this plight to our consciousness, to mitigate it through understanding. Because, little hope as there is that the collision facing us can be mediated peacefully, we should not refrain from contributing according to our ability towards overcoming this split. Our vocation is to promote salvation through understanding and reason. Woe be to us if we should be deterred by any sort of passion from following this divine vocation!

By comparing the two main periods of history we already recognize that the plight confronting us will consist in a great confusion of ideas as an outcome of the revolution of the spirit. But a closer knowledge of it has to proceed from recognizing its causes, which are especially active in our era. It is these that we have to examine.

[First published as an anonymous brochure in 1844, later reprinted in Rheinische Jahrbücher zur Gesellschaftlichen Reform (Rhenish Yearbooks for Social Reform), Darmstadt: Constanz, 1846.]

Of Labour and Enjoyment

1. What is the meaning of working?

Every transformation of matter for the life of mankind means working – or acting, creating, generating, manufacturing, producing, taking action and dealing, being active, in short: living. Because truly, all that lives, works; and regarding human life, not only through the head and hands, but also through all other limbs and organs of the human body which transform for human life the materials which they receive from outside, e.g. the mouth processes the received materials for the stomach, and the latter does the same for the blood and so on. This means that each organ of the human body, like each member of society, produces for the whole or works and creates even while it appears to be merely consuming and enjoying; at the same time it only enjoys its own life when it appears to work or produce for the whole. This harmony of work and pleasure takes place only in organic or organized life, not in the un-organized one, as we shall presently show.

2. What kinds of work exist?

Organized and unorganized. In other words: free and coerced or forced labour.

[First published in Einundzwanzig Bogen aus der Schweiz (Twenty-One Sheets from Switzerland), ed. Georg Herwegh (Zurich and Winterthur, 1843).]

If it is true that our time still suffers from the contrast between theory and praxis, that the objective world, which the present has inherited from the past, is in conflict with the subjective world of our modern feelings and ideas – then this sickness is nowhere as dangerous, this contrast nowhere as sharp, as in Germany.

To what depth of sensitivity, to what clarity of consciousness, have the masters of German literature educated the spirit and disposition of their countrymen! In the heaven of our ideas no prejudice and no hate prevail: here, man's dignity is acknowledged to the fullest, his eternal rights proclaimed; here, all men are brothers and members of one family, here no institutions originating in the blind egoism of barbaric times exist and absolute equality rules supreme; how many sophisms are brought forward to reconcile the egoism which is incorporated in our external world with this absolute equality of men, how much pain is taken to paper over the chasm between what is essential in man and what is accidental in him, to confuse the normal with the abnormal, the true nature of man – spirit – with his still false, raw nature – all in order to reach the conclusion that there are as many human natures as there are different individuals.

Moses Hess is today buried in the cemetery of the first Israeli kibbutz, overlooking the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Yet after he died in Paris in 1875 he was interred in the Jewish cemetery in Deutz, near Cologne, and the epitaph Vater der Deutschen Sozialdemokratie (Father of German Social-Democracy) was inscribed on his tombstone; more than eighty years later, his body was transferred to Israel, where he is considered one of the forerunners of Zionism. This is an unusual odyssey for a person who was born in the Judengasse in Bonn, became involved in the pre-1848 German radical movement, and spent most of his life as a socialist exile in France.

When Hess is today mentioned in historical studies, he is usually connected with Karl Marx, as both colleague and protagonist in the early communist movement; on the other hand, in Israel he is revered as one of the forerunners of Zionism, since in his Rome and Jerusalem (1862), he advocated the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine. Yet his writings are little known, and have been hardly translated. At the time, however, he exerted considerable influence, and it was he who introduced Marx – six years his junior – to communist ideas; the latter referred to him, in a somewhat ambivalent comment, as ‘my communist rabbi’.

Hess' life story is emblematic of a whole generation of pre-1848 German radical thinkers and activists.

After the plight comes to a head, the kernel of the Holy Spirit will turn into a stem and the word of the Master into a deed. The age will then appear in all its glory and life will be One again and the lost peace will be here once more. It is not our purpose to follow the ages in detail, but we have to provide a general overview of them, so that the picture of the holy history will not be mutilated but appears as a whole, albeit only as a mere sketch. But how can we dare to describe our future without being filled with divine passion? Let therefore nobody consider the following as a mere figment of our fantasy. It is like all that preceded it the fruit of mature reflection, and if it appears in the garment of poetry, so this is so because in the period ahead of us ideal and actuality [Wirklichkeit] are one; actuality becomes ideal, because the ideal is being actualized.

In the holy kingdom politics will be founded on holy, eternal principles, cared for by the pious and the loyal.

Many Persons in Europe having directly or by Letters, express'd to the Writer of this, who is well acquainted with North-America, their Desire of transporting and establishing themselves in that Country; but who appear to him to have formed thro' Ignorance, mistaken Ideas and Expectations of what is to be obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient, expensive and fruitless Removals and Voyages of improper Persons, if he gives some clearer and truer Notions of that Part of the World than appear to have hitherto prevailed.

He finds it is imagined by Numbers that the Inhabitants of North-America are rich, capable of rewarding, and dispos'd to reward all sorts of Ingenuity; that they are at the same time ignorant of all the Sciences; and consequently that Strangers possessing Talents in the Belles-Letters, fine Arts, &c. must be highly esteemed, and so well paid as to become easily rich themselves; that there are also abundance of profitable Offices to be disposed of, which the Natives are not qualified to fill; and that having few Persons of Family among them, Strangers of Birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily obtain the best of those Offices, which will make all their Fortunes: that the Governments too, to encourage Emigrations from Europe, not only pay the Expence of personal Transportation, but give Lands gratis to Strangers, with Negroes to work for them, Utensils of Husbandry, and Stocks of Cattle.

Dear Sir

I have read your Manuscript with some Attention. By the Arguments it contains against the Doctrine of a particular Providence, tho' you allow a general Providence, you strike at the Foundation of all Religion: For without the Belief of a Providence that takes Cognizance of, guards and guides and may favour particular Persons, there is no Motive to Worship a Deity, to fear its Displeasure, or to pray for its Protection. I will not enter into any Discussion of your Principles, tho' you seem to desire it; At present I shall only give you my Opinion that tho' your Reasonings are subtle, and may prevail with some Readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general Sentiments of Mankind on that Subject, and the Consequence of printing this Piece will be a great deal of Odium drawn upon your self, Mischief to you and no Benefit to others. He that spits against the Wind, spits in his own Face. But were you to succeed, do you imagine any Good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous Life without the Assistance afforded by Religion; you having a clear Perception of the Advantages of Virtue and the Disadvantages of Vice, and possessing a Strength of Resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common Temptations.