Friedrich Engels Biography

Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) was a German philosopher, political economist and revolutionary. He was born in Barmen, Germany. Engels lived in a wealthy Protestant family. He had to interrupt his high school studies to begin working as a clerk in a shop in Bremen. He was a very restless young man interested in the works of the radical German poet Heinrich Heine and the postulates of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm.

In 1839, Engels began writing articles of a literary and philosophical nature. He shared communist ideas. He met Karl Marx and with him, he established a friendship. He collaborated with the magazine Northern Star, among others, and initiated studies in Political Economy. After the post-war period, Germany found itself in a state of instability and economic stagnation, for which reason it was forced to work in a textile factory in Manchester, England. Marx and his family would help Engels financially.

Some of Hegel’s most notable postulates argued that history could only be explained based on the economic development of society; then, for him the social ills of society were due to the inevitable appearance of private property, which created relations of inequality, the social classes struggle was understood by this thinker as the vehicle to eliminate private property and all its negative impacts. Engels stated that at the moment the private property is eliminated, a communist society will be born. This theory is expressed in his historical study, “The Condition of the Working Class in England” published in1845.

Marx and Engels worked together for a long period when they managed to elaborate the communist principles, starting from philosophy and then entering other fields of study (sociology, history and social relations). According to this, Marx and Engels focused on the study of political thought, on the line of Political Economy and Political History; although Engels showed more tendencies to the physical sciences, the mathematics, the anthropology, the military sciences and the linguistic one.

After Karl Marx died, Engels decided to move to London in 1870. He was part of the General Council of the International Workers’ Association, better known as the First Communist International. Due to the physical absence of Marx, he began to assume the direction of the Council. The council was founded in London and was made up of communist, unionist, socialist, anarchist and workers’ associations from various sectors. After the failure of the Communist International in 1872 generated to a greater extent by the division of the internationalist movement. Despite this, Engels remained in contact with revolutionary groups around the world. He did not participate directly in the creation of the Second International in 1889, but he did have a considerable influence on the design of the programs and policies of that organization.

Before Marx died, he published his well-known text “Communist Manifesto” in 1848, which influenced, and continues to do so, in all literature and communist thought. In fact, it is considered as the classic work of modern communism. What is relevant here is that Marx relied his work on a sketch prepared by Engels. Actually, the work of these two men was always very close and their writings were mostly done jointly.

Engels made contributions to the social sciences, sociology, politics and the communist position. He wrote texts, some in association with Marx, important as: A Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States of America (1864), letter to JB Schweitzer (1865), Salary, price and profit (1865), Instruction on various problems to the delegates of the Provisional Central Council (1866), Prologue to the first German edition of the first volume of Capital (1867), Final words to the second German edition of the first volume of Capital (1872 1873), Capital, chapter XXIV. original accumulation (1867) Review of the first volume of Karl Marx’s

Capital for the Demokratisches Wochenblatt (1868), from the prologue to the second volume of Marx’s Capital (1885), Message to the United States National Workers’ Union (1869). Due to the death of Marx, discloses, from notes and drafts, the second and third volume of Marx’s work: Capital.

On August 5, 1895, this important man died of esophageal cancer. His funeral took place at Westminster Bridge. This event had a global impact because telegrams were sent from different parts around the world such Russia, Hungary, Denmark, Italy and other countries. His coffin was decorated with crowns and flowers and driven in a hearse to the Woking crematorium. Engels had expressed the desire that his ashes be thrown into the sea. On August 27, 1895, they fulfilled Engel’s last wish in the vicinity of Eastbourne.