Vorwärts! (ˈfɔʁvɛʁts, Forward!) was a biweekly newspaper published in Paris from January to December 1844. The journal was seen as "the most radical" in contemporary Europe. The newspaper circulation

Newspaper circulation

A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...

 was about a thousand copies. It had a subtitle Pariser Signale aus Kunst, Wissenschaft, Theater, Musik, Literatur und geselligem Leben (Paris signals from the arts, science, theater, music, literature and social life). From 3 July 1844 the title changed to Vorwärts. Pariser Deutsche Zeitschrift (Forward. Paris German journal).

The journal was sponsored by the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...

 and edited by Karl Ludwig Bernays. The publisher of the journal was Heinrich Börnstein (Henry Boernstein). It was the only uncensored

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 radical paper in the German language published in contemporary Europe. The journal published many polemicists, such as Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

, Georg Herwegh

Georg Herwegh

Georg Friedrich Rudolph Theodor Herwegh was a German revolutionary poet.-Biography:He was born in Stuttgart on 31 May 1817, the son of an innkeeper...

, Mikhail Bakunin

Mikhail Bakunin

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...

 and Arnold Ruge

Arnold Ruge

Arnold Ruge was a German philosopher and political writer.-Studies in university and prison:Born in Bergen auf Rügen, he studied in Halle, Jena and Heidelberg. As an advocate of a free and united Germany he was jailed for five years in 1825 in the fortress of Kolberg, where he studied Plato and...

, many of them German political emigres to France,. Collaborators also included Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...

, Georg Weerth

Georg Weerth

Georg Weerth was a German writer. Weerth's poems celebrated the solidarity of the working class in its fight for liberation from exploitation and oppression...

 and Georg Weber

Georg Weber (historian)

Georg Weber was a German historian. He studied at Erlangen. In 1839, he became a teacher in the high school of Heidelberg, and from 1848 to 1872 was its director...

. One of those who wrote for it was Karl Marx

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

; he would have an increasingly important role in editing the journal, particularly from the summer of 1844. Marx and many others joined Vorwärts! after the closure of Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. Many of the activists associated with the paper were also related to the German revolutionary socialist group, the Communist League

Communist League

The Communist League was the first Marxist international organization. It was founded originally as the League of the Just by German workers in Paris in 1834. This was initially a utopian socialist and Christian communist group devoted to the ideas of Gracchus Babeuf...

.

One of Heine's well known works, "The Song of the Silesian Weavers", premiered in Vorwärts!.

The newspaper was critical of the situation in Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 and was closed in January 1845 after the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, protested at the "outrageous insults and libels" published in the newspaper to the French king, Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe may refer to:*Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, last King of France*Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, called King Louis Philippe II by some factions*Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans*Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans...

. Marx was expelled from France as part of the resulting commotion, Bernays was imprisoned for two months, and Boernstein made a deal with the authorities.