Proceedings of the Rhine Province Assembly in Karl Marx’s articles as a source of knowledge about political and legal debates in the mid-nineteenth century

Abstract

Research on the history of democracy and the rule of law also includes a history of debates on censorship and freedom of speech. The subject of the research paper is to analyze the issues raised by Karl Marx, who as a young journalist reported on the proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly. In the articles published in the “Rheinische Zeitung” Marx touched upon several fundamental issues: criticism of censorship, especially the ban on publishing the Assembly proceedings, freedom of the press and press law. Interesting are also considerations about the status of the Rhine Province Assembly in the socio‐political order. This research paper shows that Marx’s articles published in the “Rheinische Zeitung” not only allow for getting to know his views, but also are a valuable source of historical knowledge about the political debates of those times.