Revolutions of 1848 carried out, occurred in Greater Poland. Next, the middle classes began to agitate. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, working in Brussels, had written "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (published in German in London on February 21, 1848) at the request of the Communist League (an organization consisting principally of German workers). Following the March insurrection in Berlin, they began agitating in Germany. They issued their "Demands of the Communist Party in Germany" from Paris in March; the pamphlet urged unification of Germany, universal suffrage, abolition of feudal duties, and similar middle-class goals. The middle and working classes thus shared a
The Communist Manifesto 1848) in Ghent to establish a branch of the Democratic Association there. Subsequently, having not heard from Marx for nearly two months, the Central Committee of the Communist League sent him an ultimatum on 24 or 26 January, demanding he submit the completed manuscript by 1 February. This imposition spurred Marx on, who struggled to work without a deadline, and he seems to have rushed to finish the job in time. (For evidence of this, historian Eric Hobsbawm points to the absence of rough drafts, only one page of which survives.) In all, the "Manifesto" was written over 6–7 weeks.