Cologne Communist Trial

Eleven defendants were brought before the Court of Assizes in Cologne after lengthy pre-trial imprisonment and charged with conspiracy to commit high treason.

The prosecution relied upon police surveillance, informers and falsified evidence in its attempt to establish a conspiracy by the Communist League. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publicised the fabrication of evidence and defended the accused in their writings on the proceedings.

On 12 November 1852, Röser, Bürgers and Nothjung were sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in a fortress; Reiff, Becker and Otto to five years; and Lessner to three years. Daniels, Jacobi, Klein and Erhard were acquitted. Soon after the trial, the Communist League dissolved, bringing its organised activity to an end.

Defendants

• Peter Gerhard Roeser (1814–1865)
• Heinrich Bürgers (1820–1878)
• Peter Nothjung (1821–1866)
• Wilhelm Joseph Reiff (1822–after 1860)
• Hermann Heinrich Becker (1820–1885)
• Roland Daniels (1819–1855)
• Carl Wunibald Otto (1808–after 1862)
• Abraham Jacobi (1830–1919)
• Johann Jacob Klein (1817–1895)
• Johann Ludwig Albert Erhard (c. 1820–unknown)
• Frederick Lessner (1825–1910)