The German revolutionist and social theorist Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) cofounded with Karl Marx modern socialism. Friedrich Engels was born on November 28, 1820, in Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, a small industrial town. He was the oldest of the six children of Friedrich and Elisabeth Franziska Mauritia Engels. The senior Engels, a textile manufacturer, was a Christian Pietist and religious fanatic. After attending elementary school, young Friedrich attended the gymnasium in nearby Elberfeld for three years. Although he became learned, he had no further formal schooling.

Under pressure from his tyrannical father, Friedrich became a business apprentice, but he left business at the age of twenty, in rebellion against both his joyless home and the "penny-pinching" world of commerce. After this Engels was a lifelong enemy of organized religion and of capitalism.

While doing his one-year compulsory military service (artillery) in Berlin, Engels came into contact with radical young Hegelians and embraced...