As part of your upcoming language study trip to Germany with LEC, our organization has chosen to focus on one of the country’s most influential intellectuals for today’s “Did You Know?” feature: Friedrich Engels. Who is the person whose birthday we’re celebrating today, November 28? Find out in just a few minutes, courtesy of our team.
A well-off social background
Friedrich Engels was born in 1820 in Barmen, a town in the German Confederation; the area is now part of North Rhine-Westphalia, a state you may have the privilege of discovering during a language study trip to Germany with LEC. He was born into a wealthy family; his father had made his fortune in the textile industry.
The Encounter with Karl Marx
More interested in the literary and philosophical issues of his time than in the career his father had planned for him, he attended classes at the University of Berlin before breaking free from his religious beliefs in the early 1840s. It was during this period that he met the friend with whom he would form one of the most famous duos in philosophy: Karl Marx. The two men began working together. Together, they would write:
- The Holy Family, first published in 1845
- The Communist Manifesto, the famous political-philosophical essay commissioned by the Communist League, which Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels joined in 1847
The Final Years of Friedrich Engels
When Karl Marx died in 1883, Friedrich Engels carried on his friend’s work, drawing on the drafts the deceased had left behind. For his part, the native of Barmen died in London —like Karl Marx— on August 5, 1895, leaving behind a wife but no children. He is now recognized as one of the spiritual fathers of European socialism.