Engels n : socialist who wrote the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx in 1848 (1820-1895) [syn: Friedrich Engels]

Dutch

Pronunciation

• /ˈɛŋəls/|lang=nl

Adjective

1. English
2. angelical

   1654, Joost van den Vondel, Lucifer

   Hy, die te vore door een Engelsche Majesteit ondersteunt, Gode aengenaem57 58 en waert was, borst, toen hy den mensch naer Godts beelt geschapen zagh,58 59 door eenen boosaerdigen naeryver uit, […]

Proper noun

Engels

1. English (language)

Related terms

• Engeland
• Engelsman
• Engelse

Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) was a German social scientist and philosopher, who developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). Engels also edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital after Marx's death.

Biography

Early Years

Friedrich Engels was born in Barmen, Rhine Province of the kingdom of Prussia (now a part of Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) as the oldest son of a German textile manufacturer, with whom he had a strained relationship. Due to family circumstances, Engels dropped out of High school and was sent to work as a nonsalaried office clerk at a commercial house in Bremen in 1838. During this time, Engels began reading the philosophy of Hegel, whose teachings had dominated German philosophy at the time. In September of 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 Army as a member of the Household Artillery. This position moved him to Berlin where he attended university lectures, began to associate with groups of Young Hegelians and published several articles in the Rheinische Zeitung Engels' father thought working in at the Manchester firm might make Engels reconsider the radical leanings that he had developed in high school In Manchester, Engels met Mary Burns, a young woman with whom he began a relationship that lasted until her death in 1862. Mary acted as a guide through Manchester and helped introduce Engels to the English working class. The two maintained a lifelong relationship; they never married, as Engels was against the institution of marriage which he saw as unnatural and unjust.

During his time in Manchester, Engels took notes and personally observed the horrible working conditions of English workers. These notes and observations, along with his experience working in his father's commercial firm, formed the basis for his first book The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. Whilst writing Conditions of the Working Class, Engels continued his involvement with radical journalism and politics. He frequented some members of the English labour & Chartist movements and wrote for several different journals, including The Northern Star, Robert Owen’s New Moral World & the Democratic Review newspaper When the uprising was crushed, Engels managed to escape by traveling through Switzerland as a refugee and returned to England He started off as an office clerk, the same position he held in his teens, but eventually worked his way up to become a joint proprietor in 1864. Five years later, Engels retired from the business to focus more on his studiesMarx's first London residence was a cramped apartment at 28 Dean Street, Soho. From 1856 he lived at 9 Grafton Terrace, Kentish Town and subsequently in a tenement at 41 Maitland Park Road from 1875 till his death.

Later years

After Marx's death, Engels devoted much of his remaining years to editing and translating Marx's unpublished works. However, he also contributed significantly to other areas, such as feminist theory. Engels believed that the concept of monogamous marriage was created from the domination of men over women. Engels would tie this particular argument to communist thought by arguing that men have dominated women just as the capitalist class has dominated workers. 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 cancer in London in 1895. Following cremation at Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head, near Eastbourne as he had requested.

Major Works

The Holy Family (1844)

The Holy Family was a book written by Marx & 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 Bauer Brothers and their supporters. The book created a controversy with much of the press and caused Bruno Bauer 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 Ideology.

The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1844)

The Condition of the Working Class is a detailed description and analysis of the appalling conditions of the working class in Britain and Ireland during Engels' stay in England. It was considered a classic in its time and still widely available today. This work also had many seminal thoughts on the state of socialism and its development.

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)

In this essay, Engels critiques the utopian socialists, such as Fourier and Owen, and provides an explanation of the socialist framework for understanding capitalism.

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 capitalism with what Engels argues is an unnatural institution - family - designed to "privatize" wealth and human relationships contrary to the way animals and early humans evolved. It was written when Engels was 64 years of age and at the height of his intellectual power and contains a comprehensive historical view of the family in relation to the issues of class, female subjugation and private property.

See also

• Karl Marx
• Marxism
• Das Kapital
• Mary Burns

Biographies

• 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 0-9558228-0-3
• Henderson, W. O. (1976), The life of Friedrich Engels, London : Cass, 1976. ISBN 0-7146-4002-6
• 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
• Pathfinder Press

About Engels

• Marx/Engels Biographical Archive
• The Legend of Marx, or “Engels the founder” by Maximilien Rubel
• Reason in Revolt: Marxism and Modern Science

Notes & References