-
Friedrich Engels early life (Hammen, Oscar J.. "Friedrick Engels." Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Friedrich-Engels, 2018. Accessed 12 June 2019.)
Engels was born November 28, 1820 in Barmen Germany. He was raised in a family that was loyal to Prussia. His family was very active in the Protestant religion. His family owned a textile factory in the town that he was born in and one in Manchester England. This meant that his life was full and rich and could always count on help from his family (even later on in life when he was a revolutionary). He worked in one of his fathers factory's until the year 1838. -
Learning under the table
Engels learned in Bremen to make the most of his time. He learned to swim, fence, and ride. In addition to these skills he also joined a choral society and hung out at the Ratskeller tavern. On top of all this he learned, what he claimed, was 24 languages. During this time though his greatest interest was in the works of banned writings of Ludwig Borne, Karl Gutzkow and Heinrich Hein. The philosopher that he was most interested in was G.W.L. Hegel. -
The Communism Change
After doing a year in the army, Engels met someone that would change his life. Moses Hess. Hess was in fact born into a Jewish family. He explained to Engels that the end result to Hegelian Philosophy and dialectic was communism. He theorized that England would be one of the epicenters of this end result. Therefor Engels decided to move to England to continue his training in business at his family's factory. -
The start of History
Engels helped write two articles in the Deutsch-Franzosische-Jahrbucher. In these articles he makes the case for scientific socialism. He used what he had learned in his studies and debates to theorize that the private property system that was around then (and still is today in most of the world), would lead to very rich people and many poor people. He also though that a revolution was on the horizon that would bring an end to private property. -
The Marx Factor
Engels knew Marx, in fact they had worked on the Deutsch-Franzosische-Jahrbucher together, Engels writing and Marx editing. Engels visited Marx in Paris for a 10 day visit. At that time they decided to work together to promote the socialist movement. This led to the publication of The condition of the Working Class in England, and The German Ideology (not published at the time it was written). They helped in creating the League of the Just and Communist League. -
the Communist Manifesto
Marx and Engels were focused on challenging England to change from a monarchy to a communist country. The two then had a second Communist Congress in London to adopt their brand of socialism. This gave birth to the Communist Manifesto. This was an in-depth description of what Communism would look like. The Communist Manifesto is still used today as the bases of teaching in many University's on Communism, and is the bases for governments like China. https://youtu.be/Ie2YI79d-Rg -
German Revolution and Practice
The German states tried to overturn the authoritarian government to a constitutional representative form of government. This was an exciting time in Marx and Engels partnership. This provided them with the opportunity to directly have a role in the revolutionary tactic and push for their own result. To do this they used the newspaper Neue Rheinesche Zeitung. This revolution did fail, but again it was a great staging ground for Engels ideals. -
The end of Engels
During the years that followed he worked as a junior position at Ermen & Engels in Manchester. Then became a partner of the company. It is odd to think that a man that was so against capitalistic principles would have to embrace them to support himself and Marx. In 1869 he sold his partnership in the company and was able to live comfortably until 1895 when he died. That is not to say that he was inactive he wrote many articles for newspapers and was active tell he died. -
The Russian Revolution
In 1917 the Russian Revolution ended the Tsarist autocracy and lead to the rise of the Soviet Union, a Communist movement. This Revolution was largely based on Engels and Marx's the Communist Manifesto. This was the first large scale experiment into government run Communism. Looking back at this experiment by and large a failed experiment. Russia now the prominent state of USSR could be described as a dictatorship not ultra democracy. -
Chinese Revolution
This Revolution was led by Mao Zedong. The end product of this revolution was the People's Republic of China. The principles of this revolution was in part based on the Communist Manifesto and other writings of Marx and Engels. By the time the Revolution started the USSR had been in power for some time. The Revolution was influenced largely by Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Russian Revolution. The Revolution is a direct result of Engels writing.
