Wilhelm Weitling
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Wilhelm Weitling (1808–1871) was important early German communist or socialist. Part of the utopian socialism movement, he was respected by Marx, who broke with him in 1846.
Life
As a travelling sartorial journeyman/apprentice he came to Paris in 1838, during the July Monarchy, and later to Switzerland. Working twelve-hour days as a tailor, he still found time to read Strauss and Lamennais. After joining the League of the Just in 1837, Weitling joined Parisian workers in protests and street battles in 1839.
His book Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom was praised by Bruno Bauer, Ludwig Feuerbach and Mikhail Bakunin, the latter of whom Weitling was to meet in Zürich in 1843. Karl Marx was greatly impressed by what he called the "unbounded brilliance of the literary debut of the German worker."
During his stay in Zürich, he was arrested for revolutionary agitation, and extradited to the Kingdom of Prussia. From there he got the chance in 1846 to immigrate to United States (as one of the Forty-Eighters).
Works
He published several revolutionary works:
- Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom (Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit) in 1842
