THE FORERUNNERS—FICHTE AND MARLO. J 
yoke which weighed upon Germany since the Thirty Years’ 
War, and had hardly opened his eyes to modern life. He was 
agitated by no spirit of revolt, no aspiration towards a better 
order of things. The saying of Lassalle was true : while 
English and French working men dreamed of reforms, the 
German working man had to be awakened to the fact that he 
was miserable. Therefore the first socialistic writings made 
but little stir when they appeared. 
It was from France that came the first ideas of social 
transformation and revolution. This was recognized by Karl 
Marx, the most learned of German Socialists. “ The emanci 
pation of Germany will be that of all humanity,” he wrote 
in a review, some numbers of which appeared in Paris in 1844 ; 
“ but when all is ready in Germany, the insurrection will only 
wake at the crowing of the Gallic cock.” • 
To find the first manifestations of modem Socialism in 
Germany, we must refer back to Kant’s most famous disciple, 
Fichte, who was inspired by the ideas of the French Revo 
lution, as he himself declares. In his “ Materials for the 
Justification of the French Revolution,” he writes : “Property 
can have no other origin than labour. Whosoever does not 
work, has no right to obtain the means of existence from 
society.” In 1796 he proclaimed “the right to property.” 
He says in his “Principles of Natural Right,” “ Whosoever has 
not the means of living is not bound to recognize or respect 
the property of others, seeing that, as regards him, the prin 
ciples of the social contract have been violated. Every one 
should have some property ; society owes to all the means 
of work, and all should work in order to live.” In his book 
on “The State in Accordance with Right” {Rechtstaat), he 
foreshadows a collective organization which would realize 
what he understands by right: “Labour and distribution 
should be collectively organized ; every one should receive 
for a fixed amount of labour, a fixed amount of capital which 
would constitute his property, according to right. Property 
* Vide the Review Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, published by 
Arnold Ruge and Karl Marx, assisted by Hess, Engels, Ilerwegh, and 
Kruno Bauer.