... Last Tuesday the General Council ordered a thousand copies of the Address  to be printed. Today I expect the proof-sheets. The singing of the Marseillaise in France is a parody just like all the Second Empire. But that scoundrel  at least feels that Going off to Syria  would not do. In Prussia, on the other hand, such buffoonery is not necessary. Lord, in Thee is all my trust! , sung by William I, with Bismarck on the right and Stieber  on the left, is the German Marseillaise. Like in 1812 seqq, the German philistine seems to be really delighted because he can now give free vent to his innate servility. Who would have thought it possible that twenty-two years after 1848 a national war in Germany would be given such theoretical expression! It is fortunate that this whole demonstration originated with the middle class. The working class, with the exception of the direct adherents of Schweitzer,  takes no part in it. The war of classes in both countries, France and Germany, has fortunately reached such an extent that no war abroad can seriously turn back the wheels of history...
Marx-Engels Correspondence 1870