Engels, Friedrich

(1820–1895)

German social philosopher and collaborator of Marx . Born in the Rhineland of prosperous, factory-owning parents, Engels already had good liberal credentials when he came to Manchester in 1842, partly as agent for the family firm. In the following years his writings attracted the approval of Marx, and the affinity was confirmed by the impassioned Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England (1845, trs. as The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1845). Engels collaborated with Marx on The Communist Manifesto (1848). He is generally credited with shaping two of the major philosophical components of Marxism: historical materialism and dialectical materialism . His most mature philosophical work is Anti-Dühring (1878), a materialist rebuttal of the work of Eugen Dühring, one of Marx's rivals for influence in German socialist circles. Another late work, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884) is a communist, and feminist, attack on the subordination of women in the patriarchal family. Engels was the main supporter of Marx and his family, but also the editor of Marx's works, so that the task of separating their respective contributions to Marxist doctrine is daunting.