Friedrich Engels (ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɛŋəls; 28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a
GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
industrialist, social scientist,
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, political theorist,
philosopherPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and father of
Marxist theoryMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, alongside
Karl MarxKarl 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...
. In 1845 he published
The Condition of the Working Class in EnglandThe Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 is one of the best-known works of Friedrich Engels.Originally written in German as Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England, it is a study of the working class in Victorian England. It was also Engels' first book, written during his stay in...
, based on personal observations and research. In 1848 he produced with Marx
The Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the...
and later he supported Marx financially to do research and write
Das KapitalDas Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
. After Marx's death Engels edited the second and third volumes. Additionally, Engels organized Marx's notes on the "Theories of Surplus Value"
and this was later published as the "fourth volume" of
Capital.
Early years
Friedrich (
Frederick) Engels was born in
BarmenBarmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which in 1929 with four other towns was merged with the city of Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. Barmen was the birth-place of Friedrich Engels and together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the...
,
PrussiaThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
(now
WuppertalWuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
), at the time an expanding industrial metropole, as the eldest son of a wealthy German cotton manufacturer. As he grew up, his relationship with his parents became strained because of his beliefs. Due to family circumstances Engels dropped out of
high schoolHigh school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
and at the age of 18 was sent to work as a nonsalaried office clerk at a commercial house in
BremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
.
During this stay, Engels began reading the philosophy of Hegel, whose teachings had dominated German
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at the time. In September 1838, he published his first work, a poem titled
The Bedouin, in the
Bremisches Conversationsblatt No. 40. He also engaged in other literary and journalistic work.
In 1841, Engels joined the
Prussian ArmyThe Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
as a member of the Household Artillery. This position moved him to Berlin where he attended university lectures and began to associate with groups of
Young HegeliansThe Young Hegelians, or Left Hegelians, were a group of Prussian intellectuals who in the decade or so after the death of Hegel in 1831, wrote and responded to his ambiguous legacy...
. He anonymously published articles in the
Rheinische ZeitungThe Rheinische Zeitung was a 19th-century German newspaper, edited most famously by Karl Marx.The paper was founded on January 1, 1842 with a reformist pro-democracy editorial slant, providing an outlet for the Rhine region's middle-class and intellectuals, who were increasingly opposed to...
exposing the working and living conditions workers in the factories had to endure. Editor of the
Rheinshe Zeitung was Karl Marx. However, Engels never met Karl Marx until they had a brief encounter near the end of November 1842.(described below) Throughout his lifetime, Engels would point out that he was indebted to German
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
because of its effect on his
intellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
development. A remarkable quotation from that period: "To get the most out of life you must be active, you must live and you must have the courage to taste the thrill of being young ... " (1840)
Manchester
In 1842, 22-year-old Engels was sent by his parents to
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Britain, to work for the Ermen and Engels' Victoria Mill in Weaste which made sewing threads. Engels' father thought that working at the Manchester firm might make Engels reconsider the opinions he had developed at the time. On his way to Manchester, Engels visited the office of the
Rheinische Zeitung and met Karl Marx for the first time - they were not impressed by each other. Marx mistakenly thought that Engels was still associated with the Berliner Young Hegelians, with whom he (Marx) had just broken.
In Manchester Engels met
Mary BurnsMary Burns was an Irish woman, living in Salford, near Manchester, England, known as the lifelong partner of Friedrich Engels.. Burns met Engels during his first stay in Manchester, probably early 1843. The working class woman guided Engels through the region, showing him the worst districts of...
, a fierce young working woman with radical opinions with whom he began a relationship that lasted until her death in 1862. The two never married, as both were against the institution of marriage, which Engels saw as unnatural and unjust. Burns guided Engels through Manchester and Salford, showing him the worst districts for his research. While in Manchester, Engels wrote his first economic work. This article was called "Outline of a Critique of Political Economy" and was written between October and November 1843. Engels sent the article to Paris, where Marx published it in the
Deutsch-Französische JahrbücherThe Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher was a journal published in Paris by Karl Marx and Arnold Ruge. This is where Marx had published his On The Jewish Question. It was created as a reaction to the censorship of the Rheinische Zeitung. Only one issue, a double number, appeared in February 1844...
which Marx was now publishing in Paris. Engels also wrote a three part series of articles called "The Condition of England" in January, February and March 1844.
While observing the slums of Manchester in close detail, Engels took notes of the horrors he observed, notably
child laborChild labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries...
, the despoiled environment and overworked and impoverished laborers. and sent back a series of articles to Marx, first for publication in the
Rheinische Zeitung and then for publication in Deutsch–Franzosische Jahrbucher, chronicling the conditions amongst the working class in Manchester. These he would later collect and publish in his influential first book,
The Condition of the Working Class in EnglandThe Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 is one of the best-known works of Friedrich Engels.Originally written in German as Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England, it is a study of the working class in Victorian England. It was also Engels' first book, written during his stay in...
. The book was written between September 1844 and March 1845 and was printed in German in 1845. In the book, Engels gave way to his views on the "grim future of capitalism and the industrial age", and described in detail, street after street, the total squalor in which the working people were living. The book was published in English in 1887.
While writing it, Engels continued his involvement with radical journalism and politics. He frequented some areas also frequented by some members of the English labour and
ChartistChartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
movements, whom he met, and wrote for several journals, including
The Northern StarThe Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser was a chartist newspaper published in the United Kingdom between 1837 and 1852.-Foundation:Feargus O'Connor, a former Irish MP forging a career in English radical politics, decided to establish a weekly newspaper in 1837...
,
Robert OwenRobert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
’s
New Moral World and the
Democratic Review newspaper.
Paris
After a productive stay in Britain, Engels decided to return to Germany in 1844. On his way, he stopped in Paris to meet
Karl MarxKarl 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...
, with whom he had an earlier correspondence. Marx had been living in Paris since late October of 1843, following the banning of the
Rheinsche Zeitung by Prussian governemtal authorites in March of 1843. In Paris, Marx was now publishing the
Deutsch-Französische JahrbücherThe Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher was a journal published in Paris by Karl Marx and Arnold Ruge. This is where Marx had published his On The Jewish Question. It was created as a reaction to the censorship of the Rheinische Zeitung. Only one issue, a double number, appeared in February 1844...
. Marx and Engels met at the Café de la Régence on the Place du Palais, 28 August 1844. The two became close friends and would remain so for their entire lives. In late May of 1845 Engels published the English version of his first book - a quotation: "A class which bears all the disadvantages of the social order without enjoying its advantages…Who can demand that such a class respect this social order ?"
Engels stayed in Paris to help Marx write
The Holy FamilyThe Holy Family was a book written by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in November 1844. The book is a critique on the Young Hegelians and their trend of thought which was very popular in academic circles at the time. The title was a suggestion by the publisher and is meant as a sarcastic reference to...
. The Holy Family was an attack on the
Young HegeliansThe Young Hegelians, or Left Hegelians, were a group of Prussian intellectuals who in the decade or so after the death of Hegel in 1831, wrote and responded to his ambiguous legacy...
and the
BauerBruno Bauer was a German philosopher and historian. As a student of GWF Hegel, Bauer was a radical Rationalist in philosophy, politics and Biblical criticism...
brothers and was published in late February 1845. Engels' earliest contribution to Marx's work was writing to the
Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher journal, which was edited by both Marx and
Arnold RugeArnold 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...
in Paris in 1844. However, as Ruge remained a Young Hegelian in his belief, Marx and Ruge soon split and Ruge left the
Deutsch-französische Jahrbücher Nonetheless, even following the split, Marx remained friendly enough to Ruge that Marx sent Ruge a warning on January 15, 1845 that the Paris police were going to execute orders against both Marx and Ruge and others at the
Deutshe-französische Jahrbücher requiring all to leave Paris within 24 hours. Marx, himself, was expelled from Paris by French authorities on February 3, 1845 and settled in Brussels, Belgium with his wife and one daughter. Having left Paris on September 6, 1844, Engels returned to his home in Barmen, Germany, to work on his
The Condition of the English Working Class, which was published in late May 1845. Even before the publication of his book, Engels moved to Brussels in late April 1845, to collaborate with Marx on another book--
German Ideology. While living in Barmen, Engels began making contact with Socialists in the Rhineland to raise money for Marx's publication efforts in Brussels. However, these contacts became more important as both Marx and Engels began political organizing for German Workers Party.
Brussels
From 1845 to 1848, Engels and Marx lived in
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, spending much of their time organizing the city's
GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
workers. Shortly after their arrival, they contacted and joined the underground
German Communist LeagueThe 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...
. The Communists League was the successor organization to the old League of the Just which had been founded in 1837, but had recently disbanded. Influenced by
Wilhelm WeitlingWilhelm Weitling was an important 19th-century European radical.Both praised and critiqued by disciples of the growing Marxist philosophy during the 19th century, Weitling was characterized as a "utopian socialist" by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, although Engels also referred to Weitling as the...
, the Communist League was an international society of proletarian revolutionaries with branches in various European cities. The Communist League also had contacts with the underground conspiratorial organization of
Louis Auguste BlanquiLouis Auguste Blanqui was a French political activist, notable for the revolutionary theory of Blanquism, attributed to him....
. Many of Marx's and Engels' current friends became member of the Communist League. Old friends like
Georg Friedrich HerweghGeorg Friedrich Rudolph Theodor Herwegh was a German revolutionary poet.-Biography:He was born in Stuttgart on 31 May 1817, the son of an innkeeper...
, who had worked with Marx on the
Rheinsche Zeitung,
Heinrich HeineChristian 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...
, the famous poet, a young doctor by the name of Roland Daniels,
Heinrich BürgersHeinrich Bürgers was born in Germany in 1820. He became a journalist and an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung He became a member of the Communist League and, in 1850, he became a member of the League's Central Authority. For his participation in the 1848-1849 uprising, Bürgers became one of...
and August Herman Ewerbeck all maintained their contacts with Marx and Engels in Brussels.
Georg WeerthGeorg Weerth was a German writer. Weerth's poems celebrated the solidarity of the working class in its fight for liberation from exploitation and oppression...
, who had become a friend of Engels in England in 1843 now settled in Brussels. Karl Wallau and
Stephen BornStephen Born's real name was Simon Buttermilch. Born in 1824, he was a German typesetter. He was a member of the Communist League, but his philosophy was more inclined toward reformism during the 1848-1849 revolution. Born was the supreme commander of the insurgncy in the town of Dresden in 1849....
(whose real name was Simon Buttermilch) were both German immigrant typesetters who settled in Brussels to help Marx and Engles with their work in the Communist League. Additionally, Marx and Engels made many important new contacts through the Communist League. One of the first was
Wilhelm WolffWilhelm Friedrich Wolff, nicknamed Lupus was a German schoolmaster from Tarnau , Galicia. In 1831 he became active as a radical student organization member, something he was imprisoned for between 1834 and 1838...
, who was soon to become one of Marx's and Engels' closest collaborators. Others were
Joseph WeydemeyerJoseph Arnold Weydemeyer was a military officer in the Kingdom of Prussia and the United States, as well as a journalist, politician and Marxist revolutionary....
and Ferdiand Freiligrath, a famous revolutionary poet. While most of the associates of Marx and Engels were German immigrants living in Brussels, some of there new associates were Belgians. Phillipe Gigot, a Belgian philosopher and Victor Tedesco, lawyer from Liege both joined the Communist League.
Joachim LelewelJoachim Lelewel was a Polish historian and politician, from a Polonized branch of a Prussian family.His grandparents were Heinrich Löllhöffel von Löwensprung and Constance Jauch , who later polonized her name to Lelewel.-Life:Born in Warsaw, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of...
a prominent Polish historian and participant in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831 was also a frequent associate of Marx and Engels. The Communist League commissioned Marx and Engels to write a pamphlet explaining the principles of communism. This became
The Manifesto of the Communist Party, better known as the
Communist Manifesto. It was first published on 21 February 1848 and ends with the world famous phrase: ""Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletariat have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win ... Working Men of All Countries, Unite!"
Return to Prussia
There was a revolution in France in 1848 that eventually spread to other Western European countries. This event caused Engels and Marx to go back to their home country of
PrussiaPrussia 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...
, specifically the city of
CologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. While living in Cologne, they created and served as editors for a new daily newspaper called the
Neue Rheinische ZeitungThe Neue Rheinische Zeitung - Organ der Demokratie was a German daily newspaper, published by Karl Marx in Cologne between June 1, 1848 and May 19, 1849. Its name refers to a paper earlier edited by Marx, the Rheinische Zeitung...
. Besides Marx and Engels, themselves, frequent contributors to the
Neue Rheinische Zeitung included
Karl SchapperKarl Schapper was a German socialist and labour leader. He was one of the pioneers of the labour movement in Germany and an early associate of Wilhelm Weitling and Karl Marx.-Young Germany and Mazzini:...
,
Wilhelm WolffWilhelm Friedrich Wolff, nicknamed Lupus was a German schoolmaster from Tarnau , Galicia. In 1831 he became active as a radical student organization member, something he was imprisoned for between 1834 and 1838...
,
Ernst DronkeErnst Dronke was a journalist. Because of his philosophical beliefs, Dronke became a "true socialist". Later he became a member of the Communist League and became an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. He participated in the German uprising of 1848-1849; after the suppression of this...
,
Peter NothjungPeter Nothjung was born in Germany in 1821. He became a tailor in Cologne, Germany, where he joined the Cologne Workers' Association. Nothjung also became a member of the Communist League. As such, he served as an emissary between the Cologne Workers Association and the Central Authority of the...
,
Heinrich BürgersHeinrich Bürgers was born in Germany in 1820. He became a journalist and an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung He became a member of the Communist League and, in 1850, he became a member of the League's Central Authority. For his participation in the 1848-1849 uprising, Bürgers became one of...
,
Ferdinand WolfFerdinand Wolf was born in Germany in 1812. Wolf was a journalist by profession and a proletarian revolutionary. He joined the Communist League and became an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in 1848 and 1849. He was a close friend and associate of both Karl Marx and of Frederick Engels and...
and
Carl CramerCarl H. Cramer was a professional football player with the Akron Pros and the Cleveland Tigers of the National Football League. In 1923 Carl served as a player-coach for the Pros. He split coaching duties that season with Dutch Hendrian.-Notes:...
. Starting in with an article called "The Magyar Struggle" written on January 8, 1849, Frederick Engels, himself, began a series of reports on the Revolution and War for Independence of the newly founded Hungarian Republic. Engels' articles on the Hungarian Republic became a regular feature in the
Neue Rheinische Zeitung under the heading: "From the Theater of War."
However, during the June 1849 Prussian
coup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
the newspaper was suppressed. After the coup, Marx lost his Prussian
citizenshipCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
, was deported, and fled to Paris and then London. Engels stayed in Prussia and took part in an armed uprising in South Germany as an
aide-de-campAn aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
in the volunteer corps of
August WillichAugust Willich , born Johann August Ernst von Willich, was a military officer in the Prussian Army and a leading early proponent of Communism in Germany. In 1847 he discarded his title of nobility...
. Engels also brought two cases of rifle cartidges with him when he went to join the uprising in Elberfeld on May 10. 1849. Later when Prussian troops came to Kaiserlautern to suppress an uprising there, Engels joined a group of volunteers under the command of August Willich, who were going to fight the Prussian troops. When the uprising was crushed, Engels was one of the last members of Willich's volunteers to escape by crossing the Swiss border. Marx and others became concerned for Engels life until they finally heard from him. Engels traveled through
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
as a
refugeeA refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
and eventually made it to safety in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. On June 6, 1849 Prussian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Frederick Engels which contains a physical description of Frederick Engels as "height: 5 feet 6 inches; hair: blond; forehead: smooth; eyebrows: blond; eyes: blue; nose and mouth: well proportioned; beard: reddish; chin: oval; face: oval; complexion: healthy; figure: slender. Special characteristics: speaks very rapidly and is short-sighted." Once he was safely in Switzerland, Engels began to write down all his memories of the recent military campaign against the Prussians. This writing eventallly became the article published under the name "The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution."
Back in Britain
In order to help Marx with the new publishing effort in London,
Neue Rheinsche Zeitung Politisch-ökonomische Revue, Engels sought ways to escape the continent and travel to London. On October 5, 1849, Engels arrived in the Italian port city of Genoa. In Genoa, Engels booked passage on the English schooner,
Cornish Diamond under the command of a Captain Stevens. The voyage across the western Mediterraean, around the Iberian Peninsula by sailing schooner took about five weeks. However, finally on November 10, 1849 the
Cornish Diamond sailed up the Thames River to London with Engels on board. Once Engels made it to Britain, Engels decided to re-enter the Manchester company in which his father held shares, in order to be able to support Marx financially so he could work on his masterpiece "Das Kapital". Engels didn't like the work but did it for the good of the cause. Unlike the first time he lived in England, in 1843, this time, Engels was under surveillance from the secret police, and had `official' homes and `unofficial homes' all over inner city Manchester where he lived with Mary Burns under false names to confuse the police. Despite his work at the mill, Engels found time to wrote his monumental work on Luther, the Reformation and and the revolutionary war of the peasants in 1525. This work was entitled
The Peasant War in GermanyThe Peasant War in Germany by Friedrich Engels, 1850, is an account of 16th century uprisings.This book was written by Friedrich Engels in London, during the summer of 1850, following the revolutionary uprisings of 1848-1849. The book draws a parallel between the uprisings of 1848-1849 and the...
. Engels also wrote some important newspaper articles like "The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution which he finished in February of 1850," and "On the Slogan of the Abolition of the State and the German 'Friends of Anarchy'" written in October 1850. In April 1851, Engels wrote the pamphlet, "Conditions and Prospects of a War of the Holy Alliance against France."
Meanwhile at the mill, Engels started off working as an office clerk, the same position he held in his teens, but worked his way up to become a partner in 1864. Five years later, Engels retired from the business and could focus more on his studies. At this time, Marx was living in London but they were able to exchange ideas through daily correspondence. How Engels lived in Weaste until 1869 is open to speculation as he destroyed over 1500 letters between himself and his friend after Marx's death, so as not to expose their secret life in the north west.
In 1870, Engels moved to London where he and Marx lived until Marx's death in 1883. His London home at this time and until his death was 122 Regent's Park Road,
Primrose HillPrimrose Hill is a hill of located on the north side of Regent's Park in London, England, and also the name for the surrounding district. The hill has a clear view of central London to the south-east, as well as Belsize Park and Hampstead to the north...
, NW1. Marx's first London residence was a cramped apartment at 28
Dean StreetDean Street is a street in Soho, London, England, running between Oxford Street to the north and Shaftesbury Avenue to the south.-Historical figures:The street has a rich history. In 1764 a young Mozart gave a recital at 21 Dean Street...
,
SohoSoho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
. From 1856, he lived at 9 Grafton Terrace,
Kentish TownKentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
, and then in a tenement at 41 Maitland Park Road from 1875 until his death.
Later years
After Marx's death, Engels devoted much of his remaining years to editing Marx's unfinished volumes of
Capital. However, he also contributed significantly to other areas. Engels made an argument using
anthropological evidenceAnthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
of the time to show that
familyIn human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
structures have changed over history, and that the concept of monogamous marriage came from the necessity within class society for men to control women to ensure their own children would inherit their property. He argued a future communist society would allow people to make decisions about their relationships free from economic constraints. One of the best examples of Engels' thoughts on these issues are in his work
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
Engels died of
throat cancerEsophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma . Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus...
in London in 1895. Following cremation at
Woking CrematoriumWoking Crematorium is a crematorium in Woking, a large town in the west of Surrey, England. Established in 1878, it was the first custom-built crematorium in the United Kingdom and is closely linked to the history of cremation in this country.-Location:...
, his ashes were scattered off
Beachy HeadBeachy Head is a chalk headland on the south coast of England, close to the town of Eastbourne in the county of East Sussex, immediately east of the Seven Sisters. The cliff there is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162 m above sea level. The peak allows views of the south...
, near
EastbourneEastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
as he had requested.
Personality
Engels is commonly known as a "ruthless party tactician", "brutal ideologue", and "master tactician" when it came to purging rivals in political organizations. However, another strand of Engels’s personality was one of a "gregarious", "bighearted", and "jovial man of outsize appetites", who was referred to by his son-in-law as "the great beheader of champagne bottles." His interests included
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
,
fox huntingFox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
, and he hosted regular Sunday parties for London’s left-wing
intelligentsiaThe intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
where as one regular put it, "no one left before 2 or 3 in the morning." And his stated personal motto was "take it easy", while "jollity" was listed as his favorite virtue.
Tristram HuntTristram Julian William Hunt, FRHistS MP is a British politician, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who is currently the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London in Mile End, East London...
, author of
Marx’s General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, sums up the disconnect between Engel's personality, and those Soviets who later utilized his works, stating:
As to the religious persuasion attributable to Engels, Hunt writes:
- Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels By Tristram Hunt. 2010. Page 43.
Ideological legacy
Lenin wrote: "After his friend Karl Marx (who died in 1883), Engels was the finest scholar and teacher of the modern proletariat in the whole civilised world...In their scientific works, Marx and Engels were the first to explain that socialism is not the invention of dreamers, but the final aim and necessary result of the development of the productive forces in modern society. All recorded history hitherto has been a history of class struggle, of the succession of the rule and victory of certain social classes over others."
But
Tristram HuntTristram Julian William Hunt, FRHistS MP is a British politician, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who is currently the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London in Mile End, East London...
argues that Engels has become a convenient
scapegoatScapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals , individuals against groups , groups against individuals , and groups against groups Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any...
, too easily blamed for the state crimes of the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Communist
Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and
ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. "Engels is left holding the bag of 20th century ideological extremism," Hunt writes, "while Marx is rebranded as the acceptable, postpolitical seer of global capitalism." Hunt largely exonerates Engels stating that "in no intelligible sense can Engels or Marx bear culpability for the crimes of historical actors carried out generations later, even if the policies were offered up in their honor."
Other writers, while admitting the distance between Marx and Engels and Stalin, are less charitable, noting for example that the anarchist Bakunin predicted the oppressive potential of their ideas. "It is a fallacy that Marxism's flaws were exposed only after it was tried out in power.... [Marx and Engels] were centralizers. While talking about 'free associations of producers', they advocated discipline and hierarchy."
Paul Thomas, of the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, claims that while Engels had been the most important and dedicated facilitator and diffuser of Marx's writings, he significantly altered Marx's intents as he held, edited and released in a finished form, and commentated on them. Engels attempted to fill gaps in Marx's system and to extend it to other fields. He stressed in particular
Historical MaterialismHistorical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
, assigning it a character of scientific discovery and a doctrine, indeed forming
MarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
as such. A case in point is
Anti-DühringHerrn Eugen Dührings Umwälzung der Wissenschaft, commonly known as Anti-Dühring, is a book written in German by Friedrich Engels, published in 1878. It had previously been serialised in a periodical. There were two further editions in German in the lifetime of Engels...
, which supporters of socialism, like its detractors, treated as an encompassing presentation of Marx's thought. And while in his extensive correspondence with German socialists Engels modestly presented his own secondary place in the couple's intellectual relationship and always emphasized Marx' outstanding role, Russian communists like Lenin raised Engels up with Marx and conflated their thoughts as if they were necessarily congruous. Soviet Marxists then developed this tendency to the state doctrine of
Dialectical MaterialismDialectical materialism is a strand of Marxism synthesizing Hegel's dialectics. The idea was originally invented by Moses Hess and it was later developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
.
The Holy Family (1844)
The Holy FamilyThe Holy Family was a book written by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in November 1844. The book is a critique on the Young Hegelians and their trend of thought which was very popular in academic circles at the time. The title was a suggestion by the publisher and is meant as a sarcastic reference to...
was a book written by Marx & Engels in November 1844. The book is a critique on the
Young HegeliansThe Young Hegelians, or Left Hegelians, were a group of Prussian intellectuals who in the decade or so after the death of Hegel in 1831, wrote and responded to his ambiguous legacy...
and their trend of thought which was very popular in academic circles at the time. The title was a suggestion by the publisher and is meant as a sarcastic reference to the
BauerBruno Bauer was a German philosopher and historian. As a student of GWF Hegel, Bauer was a radical Rationalist in philosophy, politics and Biblical criticism...
Brothers and their supporters.
The book created a controversy with much of the press and caused
Bruno BauerBruno Bauer was a German philosopher and historian. As a student of GWF Hegel, Bauer was a radical Rationalist in philosophy, politics and Biblical criticism...
to attempt to refute the book in an article which was published in Wigand's
Vierteljahrsschrift in 1845. Bauer claimed that Marx and Engels misunderstood what he was trying to say. Marx later replied to his response with his own article that was published in the journal Gesellschaftsspiegel in January 1846. Marx also discussed the argument in chapter 2 of
The German IdeologyThe German Ideology is a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1846. Marx and Engels did not find a publisher. However, the work was later retrieved and published for the first time in 1932 by David Riazanov through the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow...
.
The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844)
The Condition of the Working Class in England is a detailed description and analysis of the appalling conditions of the working class in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during Engels' stay in Manchester and Salford. The work also contains seminal thoughts on the state of
socialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and its development. It was considered a classic in its time and must have been an eye-opener for most Germans. The work is still widely available today.
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science (1878)
Popularly known as
Anti-Dühring,
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science is a detailed critique of the philosophical positions of
Eugen DühringEugen Karl Dühring was a German philosopher and economist, a socialist who was a strong critic of Marxism.-Life and works:...
, a German philosopher and critic of Marxism. In the course of replying to Dühring, Engels reviews recent advances in science and mathematics and seeks to demonstrate the way in which the concepts of dialectics apply to natural phenomena. Many of these ideas were later developed in the unfinished work,
Dialectics of NatureDialectics of Nature, by Friedrich Engels , is an unfinished work which applies Marxist ideas, and in particular the principles of Dialectical Materialism, to science....
. The last section of
Anti-Dühring was later edited and published under the separate title,
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)
In what Engels presented as an extraordinarily popular piece, Engels critiques the utopian socialists, such as Fourier and Owen, and provides an explanation of the socialist framework for understanding capitalism, and an outline of the progression of social and economic development from the perspective of
historical materialismHistorical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884)
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State is an important and detailed seminal work connecting
capitalismCapitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
with what Engels argues is an ever-changing institution - the family. It was written when Engels was 64 years of age and at the height of his
intellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
power and contains a comprehensive historical view of the family in relation to the issues of
classSocial classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, female subjugation and
private propertyPrivate property is the right of persons and firms to obtain, own, control, employ, dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by...
.
Sources
- Carlton, Grace (1965), Friedrich Engels: The Shadow Prophet. London: Pall Mall Press
- Carver, Terrell. (1989). Friedrich Engels: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan
- Green, John (2008), Engels: A Revolutionary Life, London: Artery Publications. ISBN 0-9558228-0-7
- Henderson, W. O. (1976), The life of Friedrich Engels, London : Cass, 1976. ISBN 0-7146-4002-6
- Hunt, Tristram (2009), The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9852-8
- Mayer, Gustav (1936), Friedrich Engels: A Biography (1934; trans. 1936)
External links
Works by Engels
- The Marx & Engels Internet Archive at Marxists.org
- Marx and Engels in their native German language
- Libcom.org/library Frederick Engels archive
- Works by Friedrich Engels (in German) at Zeno.org
Zeno.org is a digital library with German texts and other content such as pictures, facsimile, etc., which has been started by the Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, a German publishing house and sister enterprise of Directmedia Publishing GmbH. The content is based on the digital libraries from the...
- Pathfinder Press
- Friedrich Engels, “On Rifled Cannon," articles from the New York Tribune, April, May and June, 1860, reprinted in Military Affairs 21, no. 4 (Winter 1957) ed. Morton Borden, 193-198.