Friedrich Engels

From Philosopedia

Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 - 5 August 1895)

Engels, the major 19th century German political philosopher, was born in Barmen-Elberfeld (now Wuppertal) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the eldest son of a successful German textile industrialist. Managing a branch of his father's business in Manchester, England, from 1842-1845, Engels became appalled at the poverty of the workers. He wrote his first socialist work, Conditions of the Working Class in England.

After their meeting in 1844, Engels and Karl Marx became lifelong colleagues. While co-writing an article with Engels called "The Holy Family," Marx was expelled from France at Prussian insistence. Engels followed him to Belgium. They founded the Communist League in London in 1846 and co-wrote The Communist Manifesto. A month after it was published in 1848, Marx was expelled from Belgium.

Engels became a primary financial supporter of the Marx family, returning to work in Germany with his father while Marx lived in England. Prime Minister John Russell had refused to expel Marx or Engels on principles of freedom of thought.

Books by the Engels include Origin of the Family and Private Property and the State. After Marx' death in 1883, Engels edited and translated his writings, including the second and third volumes of Das Kapital (1883—1894), which established the materialist interpretation of history.

Belfort Bax, a British atheist and socialist who knew him, called Engels a “devout atheist.”

However, philosophers such as the atheistic Sidney Hook have objected to the Marxist approach, which is not founded upon freedom, the significance of the individual, and political democracy.

Engels died in London, childless. Following cremation at Woking, his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head, as he had requested.

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