Left politics and labor / MEGAdigital
MEGAdigital
Texts of the traditionactive
The archive's reading. #1725 places Marx's practice turned on his own programme and texts on the side of sublation; the archive reads a complete edition of drafts, excerpts and letters as the record of that self-revision, kept with the stages the published text superseded. The page quotes Die Zeit (1999) on the edition's beginning, failure and resurrection and on opening the work 'originalgetreu, das heißt unzensiert', so the edition's own history is a case of a holder changing after 1989.
| Kind | Online-Abteilung (online division) of the historisch-kritische Ausgabe (historical-critical edition) of Marx and Engels, the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) |
|---|---|
| Operator | Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW), as an Akademienvorhaben (academy project), Jägerstr. 22/23, Berlin; the MEGA page also lists IMES |
| Unit of record | a MEGA volume (Band) in one of four divisions (Abteilungen): I works, articles, drafts; II Das Kapital and preparatory works; III letters; IV excerpts and notes; online, the edited text of a volume, a letter or an excerpt |
| What it records | all publications, manuscripts and drafts, and the correspondence, of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels ('sämtlicher Veröffentlichungen, Manuskripte und Entwürfe sowie des Briefwechsels'); online, ten volumes of Abteilung II, letters to and from Marx and Engels from 1866, and a large part of the excerpts and notes |
| Whose record it keeps | the complete record of Marx and Engels: published works, manuscripts, drafts, excerpts, notes, and letters to and from them |
| Who holds it | the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, as an academy project; volumes © BBAW; print volumes carry ISBNs; begun in the 1970s in Berlin and Moscow and continued after 1989 at the urging of scholars, politicians and publishers from many European countries, Japan and the USA |
| The losing side | not recorded as such; the edition keeps Marx's and Engels's own drafts, excerpts and correspondence, including letters to them from others, and the saved page names no apparatus for rival tendencies |
| Method | scholarly edition: historical-critical edition, published in print volumes and, for a growing part (Abteilungen III and IV), online on MEGAdigital |
| Coverage | geography: not stated as a geography (the writings and correspondence of Marx and Engels); period: the writings of Marx and Engels; the edition begun in the 1970s; latest listed volume August 2026 |
| Count | value: edited texts of ten MEGA volumes of Abteilung II online; letters from the year 1866 onward (Abteilung III); a large part of the excerpts and notes (Abteilung IV); as_of: the MEGA page as read 2026-10-31 (© 2018-2026) |
| Holdings | Abteilung II online: the edited texts of ten volumes ('Das Kapital' and preparatory works); Abteilung III online: letters from and to Marx and Engels from 1866; Abteilung IV online: a large part of the excerpts and notes; latest: IV/24, excerpts and notes 1876, online August 2026; I/9 in print December 2025 (XIII + 1414 pages) |
| Stated limits | only a growing part of the edition (Abteilungen III and IV) continues digitally; Abteilung I appears in print (I/9, December 2025); letters are online from the year 1866 onward; Abteilung IV is online for 'einen Großteil' (a large part) of the excerpts and notes |
| Data access | online texts on MEGAdigital (megadigital.bbaw.de); print volumes, present in all major libraries of the world by the page's statement |
| Licence | not stated in the saved sources ('MEGA-Bände (© BBAW)'; '© 2018-2026') |
| Lifecycle | state: active; detail: begun in the 1970s in Berlin and Moscow; continued after 1989; a growing part now continued digitally; the page quotes a 1999 Die Zeit forecast of completion around 2025, and volumes continued to appear in December 2025 (print) and August 2026 (online) |
| Founded | 1970s (begun in Berlin and Moscow) |
What its record can settle
- what Marx and Engels wrote, drafted, excerpted and received, in an edited text faithful to the originals
- where a passage of Das Kapital or its preparatory works stands in the edited text of Abteilung II
- which MEGA volumes have appeared, in print or online, and when
What it cannot settle
- the reception of Marx and Engels in later movements and parties
- the writings of other socialists except as correspondents in letters to Marx and Engels
- the full text of volumes published only in print (from the saved sources)
Kept apart
- NOT a library of the Marxist tradition: it edits Marx and Engels only
- NOT complete online: Abteilung I and part of the edition appear in print
- NOT a reading edition or translation: a historical-critical edition
Evidence
- self_description (the resource's own statement):
Die Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) ist die historisch-kritische Ausgabe sämtlicher Veröffentlichungen, Manuskripte und Entwürfe sowie des Briefwechsels von Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels.
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - kind (the resource's own statement):
Online-Abteilung der historisch-kritischen Gesamtausgabe von Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - operator (the resource's own statement):
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - academy_project (the resource's own statement):
Akademienvorhaben
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - imes (the resource's own statement):
IMES
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - address (the resource's own statement):
Jägerstr. 22/23
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - divisions (the resource's own statement):
MEGA-Bände I. Abteilung II. Abteilung III. Abteilung IV. Abteilung
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - holdings_online (the resource's own statement):
In der digitalen Ausgabe der MEGA sind die edierten Texte von zehn MEGA-Bänden der II. Abteilung ("Das Kapital" und Vorarbeiten) online abrufbar. Ab dem Jahrgang 1866 werden dort ebenfalls die Briefe von und an Marx und Engels digital dargeboten (III. Abteilung). Dies gilt auch für einen Großteil der Exzerpte und Notizen (IV. Abteilung).
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - latest_online (the resource's own statement):
IV/24: M: Exzerpte und Notizen. 1876 | Aug. 2026 | Online-Veröffentlichung auf MEGAdigital
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - latest_print (the resource's own statement):
I/9 M/E : Werke, Artikel, Entwürfe. März bis Juni 1849 | Print Dez. 2025 | XIII + 1414 S. | 13 Abb. | ISBN 978–3–11–070012–1
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - letters_1871 (the resource's own statement):
III/17 + III/18 + III/19 M/E: Briefjahrgang 1871 | April 2025 | Online-Veröffentlichung auf MEGAdigital
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - copyright_volumes (the resource's own statement):
MEGA-Bände (© BBAW)
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - founded (the resource's own statement):
Die Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe wurde in den 1970er Jahren in Berlin und Moskau begonnen. Sie erwarb in Fachkreisen hohes Ansehen und ist in allen großen Bibliotheken der Welt präsent.
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - after_1989 (the resource's own statement):
Nach 1989 haben sich Wissenschaftler, Politiker und Verleger aus vielen europäischen Ländern, Japan und den USA nachdrücklich für die Fortführung der Ausgabe eingesetzt.
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - limit_digital (the resource's own statement):
Ein wachsender Teil der Edition (III. und IV. Abteilung) wird inzwischen digital weitergeführt.
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - die_zeit_history (the resource's own statement):
ihr Anfang, ihr Scheitern und ihr Wiederauferstehen spiegeln geradezu paradigmatisch die geschichtlichen Tragödien des 20. Jahrhunderts wider.
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - die_zeit_forecast (the resource's own statement):
Wenn sie, wie der Editionsfahrplan vorsieht, um das Jahr 2025 abgeschlossen sein wird, werden es ziemlich exakt hundert Jahre gewesen sein, die nötig waren, um das Werk von Marx und Engels der lesenden Öffentlichkeit originalgetreu, das heißt unzensiert, zu erschließen.“ (Die Zeit, 25. Februar 1999)
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0… - site_copyright (the resource's own statement):
© 2018-2026
https://mega.bbaw.de/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 968047cb9ba5d5b0…
Unchecked
the MEGAdigital home page (mega-digital--home): the saved .txt is undecoded compressed bytes, so it is unread and unquoted; this row rests on the MEGA project page at mega.bbaw.de; the Projektbeschreibung, the volume lists per Abteilung, Publikationen and IMES pages; MEGAdigital's own statements of license, access terms and editorial guidelines; the IMES expansion (not given on the saved page)
Cite: Lee Sharks, ed. "MEGAdigital." Mary Lee Labor meta-aggregator: left politics and labor, maryleelabor.org, compiled 2026-10-31. https://www.maryleelabor.org/aggregators/mega-digital