Friedrich Engels

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Friedrich Engels

During the time of the industrial era, there were many people upset over the manner in which the nations were being run. They were upset with the idea of capitol gain and how it was affecting people’s actions. They saw this era causing people to exploit each other with the intent of monetary gain. Those that were already part of the higher ranking class, the richer, would see reason to force the lower class, the working man, to spend his life in the new factories. He would be bullied into risking life and limb at the monstrous machines while hardly earning a penny. The working man suffered because the richer man owned the factory and consumed all the profits himself. Some men, however, saw a solution as well as the problem. They thought that if the power could be taken out of the hands of the strong and power hungry, then the working class would realize the rights they had all along. The constant struggle for power would be eliminated and so society would become better. Two of these men were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marx had received all the recognition while Engels has been shunted off the pages of history. He did, however, still have an impact on the development of communism.

Friedrich Engels was born on November 28, 1820 in Barmen, Germany. Engels began to learn the family business rather early, being the oldest son of an auspicious industrialist.1 Engels studied commerce and worked for his father as an office clerk from 1837 to 1841. But this was not his only focus. He also tried his hand at poetry as did his future friend Marx. Like Marx, his attempts did not gain him any recognition in the literary world. By his eighteenth year he had sworn off poetry all together. This was...

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...e story of his life. Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1962.

3. Mehring, Franz. Karl Marx: The story of his life. Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1962.

4. Modern History Sourcebook: Friederich Engels:

Industrial Manchester, 1844 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1844engels.html

5. Anderson, Thornton. Masters of Russian Marxism. New York: Appelton-Century-

Crofts, 1963.

6. BIOGRAPHICAL ARTICLE ON ENGELS, Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon. Vol. 6, 14th

ed., Leipzig and Vienna, 1893. Translated into English by Progress Publishers

7. BIOGRAPHICAL ARTICLE ON ENGELS, Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon. Vol. 6, 14th

ed., Leipzig and Vienna, 1893. Translated into English by Progress Publishers

8. Marx and Engels. Reminiscences of Marx and Engels. Moscow: Foreign Lauguages

Publishing House.

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