# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 05 11_S124
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...another smashed his skull with a blacksmith's hammer, then they tore the clothes off the corpse, emasculated him, and hung the naked and shamefully mutilated body on the lamppost in front of the palace, to the amusement and loud laughter of the women standing about. All this happened before the eyes of the grenadiers, who stood by calmly and looked on. The mob, however, stormed the arsenal, drove off the weak garrison, and plundered it completely. And the Diet decreed amnesty for everything that had occurred, had not a word of indignation over that hideous assassination, but many words of disapproval that the unfortunate Emperor "had for the second time forgotten his duty" and had again left Vienna. Just as a few months before he had fled to Innsbruck, so now he had fled to Olmütz in Bohemia. The Diet, from which, however, a considerable number of members had also fled, had declared itself permanent and had apparently taken the reins of government into its hand, though these were actually held by the Aula together with its followers; some 100,000 inhabitants left the city of terror; anarchy reigned completely. Now it was high time to act in earnest, and this was done. The Emperor, by manifesto, transferred the Diet to Kremsier in Moravia, because, he said, he could no longer deliberate freely in seditious Vienna. But the Diet did not obey, declared itself free enough as it was, and declared the ministers who had signed that decree to be traitors. The Ban Jellachich had already marched out against the Hungarians, had once defeated them, now left them be, and turned against Vienna. Prince Windisch-Grätz likewise had his regiments march from Bohemia against the capital, and when enough troops had been assembled, he laid before the Viennese his conditions, which alone could preserve them from disgrace and ruin. Among other things it was demanded therein that all newspapers, pamphlets, and placards must cease to appear, except the Wiener Zeitung, and that this might carry only official articles; that all assemblies be discontinued; that three named persons, and besides these others still to be named later by the prince, be surrendered. In addition, Vienna was of course declared to be in a state of siege until quiet, order, and security should be restored, and for as long as the state of siege lasted, so long were those measures also to remain in force. But these very conditions aroused enormous agitation, not only in Vienna, but, as in Vienna, so throughout all Germany; the Vienna Diet resolved on defense against the rebel Windisch-Grätz, the newspapers styled him bloodhound, Alba, traitor; the Left in Frankfurt wanted him held to account by the imperial ministry. He, however, troubled himself about none of this, but set his deadline for the acceptance of his conditions, among which he still reserved the right to demand the surrender of whomever else he might later name — but since the Viennese, trusting in the promise of the Hungarians that they would come to the city's aid, did not agree to these terms, but instead, under their self-elected commander Messenhauser — a resigned officer and playwright who had promised never to bear arms against the Austrian colors — armed themselves for the utmost defense, the struggle began on October 24, and on the 30th Vienna surrendered unconditionally, but broke the capitulation again the next day, when the Hungarians were believed to have been seen from the tower of St. Stephen's, so that the murderous struggle flared up anew, and Windisch-Grätz finally entered the conquered city on November 1. He was received by the citizens with loud rejoicing, with the waving of flags and handkerchiefs from the windows, for they had stood, in the time since Latour's murder, under a dreadful reign of terror. Robert Blum, in a speech he had given in the Aula, had called with fire- and flame-spewing words for everyone who did not take up arms against the enemy outside to be treated as just such an enemy himself; he had then given himself over as leader of an elite corps and defended a barricade; indeed, according to the testimony of many witnesses, he is said to have declared in a public speech that another two hundred would still have to be "Latour-ed" if things in Vienna were to go well. In addition, there were 24,000 proletarians who would by no means allow the city to negotiate or surrender, who dragged citizens out of their houses and drove them before them into battle, and finally set fire to the imperial library building in order to burn down the fortress itself, which was prevented only by the entry of the troops. The roof of the library, however, burned down. In the marketplace and in public squares the rabble kept its watch-fires and carried on the most shameless doings with venal women; indeed, the whores too hastened armed into the battle and drove the respectable citizen, with scorn and threats of murder, to join the same course. It was from such "freedom" that the prince had to liberate Vienna. At first, indeed, he exercised severity, sealing off the city hermetically from the suburbs in order to get hold of the leaders of the uprising, which, however, succeeded only in part. But Robert Blum was shot, and after him Messenhauser and others. Then there was again an outcry at every point in Germany that "noble Blum" had been "murdered" without so much as an inquiry to the National Assembly. But Windisch-Grätz declared that the Frankfurt resolutions were not yet recognized in Austria, and that Blum, the barricade fighter, had himself stripped away his dignity as a member of the National Assembly. What was to be done? People contented themselves here and there with memorial services, at which — Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress" was struck up!

In Berlin, meanwhile, the much-discussed and much-feared Democratic Congress had convened, and after having mutually reproached and disparaged one another, it broke up again amid shame and mockery.

Thus, to be sure, the breaking up of the National Assembly had to remain undone. The Berlin state assembly, on the other hand, wished to show itself all the more bold. It had, at a single stroke, abolished the nobility, wished to forbid the King the title "by the Grace of God," wished to forbid him to keep the new "Brandenburg" ministry, and refused to be relocated itself to Brandenburg. The latter the King had ordered, because anarchy had already so taken hold in Berlin that members not voting in the sense of the Left and of the mob were threatened with death, awaited with ropes, axes, and hammers, so that they escaped a sad fate only through the darkness of night. The King therefore adjourned the assembly, in order to let it continue its deliberations freely later in Brandenburg. But the Left declared itself permanent, and since Berlin was declared in a state of siege and no regard was paid to its sovereignty, it resolved, half in flight, on the refusal of taxes. Thereupon it was driven from place to place by military force and finally dissolved. At first the steps of the government and the resistance of the state assembly aroused great agitation everywhere, naturally against the government — which nowadays belongs to the order of things among us; addresses of support and encouragement to the state assembly poured in from all sides; in Frankfurt too it was resolved to send a delegation to Berlin, which should try to bring it about that the Brandenburg ministry give way to another and that the state assembly be left in Berlin. But in vain. Instead of the delegates accomplishing anything against the government, they became convinced, rather, through their own observation of the state of affairs, that it had been high time for the Prussian government to intervene, and that it could hardly have acted otherwise. The tax refusal, too, by which the Rump Parliament believed it was performing its greatest heroic deed, had suddenly changed the mood of the people. It was seen what terrible confusion would arise if it were carried through, and many wealthy people offered the government to pay their taxes for the coming year in advance, should it be embarrassed by the refusal of others; indeed, some placed their entire fortune at its disposal. Meanwhile the members of the Right and of the Center assembled at Brandenburg for the state assembly that was to reopen, and the members of the Left also came along afterward. Yet by their conduct they prevented all orderly deliberation, and the government saw itself compelled to dissolve the assembly and to call for new elections, so that a new state assembly might convene in February 1849. But since agreement on a new state constitution could not be reached with the previous assembly, the King now issued one himself, or rather he surprised his people with it in every respect. For this "imposed constitution" is so liberal, so far beyond everything hitherto...