Friedrich Engels Portrait

A black-and-white portrait of Friedrich Engels in his characteristic full beard, waistcoat and bow tie, set against a loose ink-splash background, with his surname in flowing script below. It is a tribute to the man usually mentioned second – Marx’s co-author, editor and lifelong friend, who was a formidable thinker in his own right.

Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) was a German philosopher, social scientist and journalist, born in Barmen (today Wuppertal) into a family of textile manufacturers. Working in the family firm in Manchester, he studied industrial capitalism up close. With Karl Marx he founded what became known as Marxism, co-wrote the Communist Manifesto (1848) and, after Marx’s death, edited volumes II and III of Capital. He died in London in 1895.

Their first meeting, at the office of the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne in 1842, was distinctly cool. The second, at the Café de la Régence in Paris in August 1844, turned into ten days of conversation in which they found they agreed on almost everything. From then on they worked together for nearly forty years, until Marx’s death in 1883 – one of the most productive intellectual partnerships in history.

Largely, yes. From 1850 Engels worked at his family’s firm Ermen and Engels in Manchester, later as a partner, and regularly sent money to the Marx family in London; over some twenty years the sums ran to several thousand pounds. After retiring from the business in 1869 he gave Marx a regular annual allowance. Without it, Capital might never have been written.

Yes. In 1847 Engels drafted the Principles of Communism for the Communist League, written as questions and answers. He suggested dropping the catechism form and calling the text a manifesto. Marx then wrote the final version, published in February 1848 under both names, drawing heavily on Engels’ drafts.

Engels’ first major book, published in German in 1845 when he was 24, describes the lives of factory workers in Manchester and other industrial towns – housing, wages, disease, child labour – from his own observation and official reports. His partner Mary Burns, an Irish factory worker, is often credited with showing him the city’s poorest districts. English translations followed in 1887 and 1892.

The phrase comes from Engels’ Anti-Dühring (1878). The state, he argued, is an instrument of class rule; once classes disappear, its coercive functions become superfluous. So it is not abolished by decree – it withers away, and the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things. The idea became central and much disputed in later Marxist debates.

Start with Socialism – Utopian and Scientific (1880), a short and clear introduction to historical materialism. Then The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) for vivid social history, and the Communist Manifesto (1848) with Marx. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) shows his work on history and gender. Anti-Dühring (1878) is the fuller systematic version.

For students of history, sociology, political theory or philosophy, trade unionists, readers of Marx who know who did the editing, and anyone who appreciates the friend who quietly made the work possible. The design is available as a classic T-shirt, women’s T-shirt, sweatshirt, premium hoodie, mug and sticker.