The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Engels, Friedrich

ENGELS, Friedrich, German Socialist: b. Barmen, Prussia, 28 Nov. 1820; d. London, 5 Aug. 1895. The son of a German manufacturer he spent two years in Manchester, England, 1842-44, and took part in the revolutionary movement in Baden in 1848. He returned to Manchester in 1850, and was partner in a manufacturing business from 1860-69, after which he lived mainly in London. He was an intimate friend of Karl Marx (q.v.), and his most efficient helper in the work of organizing the International Socialist movement. In 1870 Engels was corresponding secretary of the International Workingmen's Society for Belgium, Italy and Spain. With Marx he wrote the ‘Communist Manifesto’ (1847); he also wrote ‘The Working Class in England in 1844’ (new ed., 1892); ‘The Origin of the Family’; ‘The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science’ (1894, a part of a large work left unfinished); and edited Marx's ‘Capital.’ Consult Simons, ‘Friedrich Engel: his Life, his Work, his Writings’ (1885), a translation from Tautsky's German text; Sombart's biography (1895); and Dawson, ‘German Socialism’ (1899).