Bekanntmachung über die Feierlichkeiten anläßlich der Bestattung der "gefallenen Opfer des beklagenswerthen Bürgerkampfes" am 16.10.1848

“Fellow citizens”
Call by the funeral organising commission, 20 October 1848

This poster calls on Berliners to join a funeral procession. Eight days earlier, workers destroyed a new machine at the Köpenick field because they saw it as a threat to their jobs. The subsequent firing of 100 workers then led to violently quelled protests and barricade battles. On 20 October the dead are set to be buried.

Representatives of the workers and groups allied with them initially wanted a funeral with honours, like those for the dead of 18 March. This was rejected by the city government, however, which argued that the workers had revolted against authorities. In this poster, the organisers of the funeral procession invite all Berlin’s trade organisations, fraternities, associations and clubs to take part. They thereby address all social and political forces that favour a republic and increasingly view the protracted negotiations for a constitution as an end to the revolution. These groups consist largely of people with democratic leanings.

The poster shows that the unified revolutionary stand taken against the authoritarian monarchy on 18 March is now dissolving. The political mood in the city is marked by ever greater mutual distrust. Only democratic-leaning people join the procession, although they number in the tens of thousands. The citizens’ defence force is represented only in part, and Berlin officials not at all. The dead are buried at the Jerusalem cemetery on what is today Mehringdamm.