Friedrich Engels

About the author

Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) was a German philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary socialist whose lifelong partnership with Karl Marx produced some of the most consequential texts in modern history, including The Communist Manifesto (1848) and the foundational framework of Marxism. Born in Barmen, Prussia, to a prosperous mercantile family, he rejected his Pietist upbringing and embraced materialist philosophy through contact with the Young Hegelians. His time managing a Manchester cotton mill shaped his landmark The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845).

After Marx's death, Engels edited and completed the final volumes of Das Kapital.