I did not anticipate that I would be asked to prepare anew edition of the Address of the General Council of theInternational on The Civil war in France,and to write anintroduction to it.Therefore I can only touch briefly hereon the most important points.

l am prefacing the longer work mentioned above by thetwo shorter  Addresses of the General Council on theFranco-Prussian War. In the first place,because the secondof these,which itself-cannot be'fully understoodwithout the first, is referred to in The Civil ar.But alsobecause these two_Addresses，likewise drafted by Marx,are, no less than The Civil war,outstanding examples ofthe author's remarkable gift， first proved in The EighteenthBrumaire of Louis Bonaparte,for grasping clearly thecharacter，the import and the’ necessary consequences ofgreat historical events，at a time when these events arestill in progress before our eyes or have only just takenplace. And, inally, because today we in Germany are stillhaving toendure the consequences which Marx'predictedwould follow from these events.