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Karl Marx, Friedrich EngelsThe Communist Manifesto
Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1848A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Karl Marx
A philosopher and political, economic, and social theorist, Karl Marx lived a difficult life often on the run. He was frequently compelled to hide his identity and to flee as a perpetual political exile from many European states.
Marx was born in Trier in Rhenish Prussia on May 5, 1818. His family was solidly middle class (or, as Marx might have referred to them, petty-bourgeois); his father was a lawyer. Marx majored in history and philosophy first at the University of Bonn, where he studied before he transferred to the University of Berlin. In Berlin, he submitted his doctoral thesis on the philosophy of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. At this point in his education, his interest in Hegelian philosophy deepened, and he still believed himself an idealist, like Hegel.
After his studies, Marx aspired to become a professor at the University of Bonn, but the Prussian government’s censorship of academics led him to different pursuits. He began to contribute to and to edit various revolutionary-democratic magazines in Cologne which were shut down by the government for their criticism of right-wing ideologies.
In 1843 Marx moved to Paris, where he became an active participant in the radical journal scene. There he deepened his friendship with Friedrich Engels in 1844. Together, they broke from Hegelian idealism to form the Marxist materialistic conception of history. Marx’s revolutionary work in Paris led him to be banned in 1845. He moved to Brussels, where he and Engels joined the newly formed Communist League and were convinced by them to write the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848.
For the rest of his life, Marx moved around Europe, banished by countries like Belgium and Germany and cities like Paris before he moved to London in 1849. He lived in London until his death as a stateless exile in 1883. Wholly financially dependent on Engels, he spent his last days working on his other great work, Das Kapital, and offering advice and support to various socialist radicals and labor movements in Europe and America.
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a social theorist and philosopher. He was born on November 28, 1820 in Rhenish Prussia, where his Christian father soon instilled in him a lifelong hatred of religion and business. At age 20, Engels left his job as a business apprentice to do his one year of compulsory military service, when he met Marx for the first time in Berlin. In 1842, Engels spent time in Manchester, England, where he saw the awful working conditions in the textile factories which would inform his contributions to Marxism. During this period, he studied the prominent socialist economists of the time, like Charles Fourier and Robert Owen.
In 1844, Engels met Marx again in Paris. The two became friends and writing collaborators, taking part in revolutionary activities together across Europe over the next five years. His need to financially support his penniless friend, Marx, pushed Engels back into his father’s business in 1850; by 1869, Engels had amassed enough capital to sell the business to his partner. He moved to London in 1870 and spent the rest of his life supporting Marx and partaking in various revolutionary activities, including editing volumes 2 and 3 of Marx’s Das Kapital following Marx’s death in 1883. Engels died on August 5, 1895.
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