Friedrich Engels (manufacturer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedrich Engels Senior as a volunteer artilleryman with the 7th Artillery Brigade in Düsseldorf in early 1818. Painting by Heinrich Christoph Kolbe
Friedrich Engels
Tomb in the Unterbarmer cemetery

Friedrich Engels (born May 12, 1796 in Barmen (today a district of Wuppertal ), † March 20, 1860 in Barmen) was a German manufacturer in the textile industry . He was the father of Friedrich Engels , who wrote the Communist Manifesto together with Karl Marx .

Life

Friedrich Engels was a son of Johann Caspar Engels and Luise Noot. One of his brothers was August Engels , who later became a manufacturer and a member of the Prussian mansion .

Engels learned the trade of a businessman in Frankfurt . Then he joined the family business in Barmen. In 1819 he married Elisabeth Franziska Mauritia (née van Haar) (1797–1873). She was a daughter of the grammar school director Gerhard Bernhard van Haar from Hamm . With this, Engels had five sons and four daughters. Among his sons were the later socialist theorist and entrepreneur Friedrich Engels and the two entrepreneurs Hermann and Rudolf Engels.

In 1837 Engels left the family business and bought the cotton spinning mill of the Dutch manufacturer "Peter Ermen & Co." in Manchester a. From this point on, the company was called "Ermen & Engels". At the same time, they jointly founded another factory on German soil to serve the Prussian market. Engels acquired a plot of land in Engelskirchen in the immediate vicinity of the Agger, including water usage rights. In 1844 the cotton spinning mill in Engelskirchen started producing.

Firstly, Engels justified his decision on the location with the favorable gradient of the Agger. This enabled the water power to be used optimally for his machines. The good water quality of the Agger is also crucial for cotton spinning. Second, Engels knew about willing and cheap labor in a rural region. He put the wages for a man in Engelskirchen at eight silver groschen a day. In Barmen he would have had to pay 14 or 15 silver groschen. In a letter to his business partner Peter Albertus Ermen on January 15, 1837, he wrote that the town had 147 school-age children. "You will be able to have children relatively far cheaper, and at least 30 to 40 cheaper than ours." Child labor was widespread at the time of industrialization and especially in the textile industry .

Engels founded a relief fund for his workers in Engelskirchen and had apartments built for his skilled workers and their families.

In keeping with family tradition, Engels was involved in the uniate community in Unterbarmen , which his father had co-founded. There he held the office of church master between 1835 and 1849 . Between 1828 and 1832 he played a key role in the construction of the Unterbarmer main church .

After the factory in Engelskirchen was built, Engels had a new family residence built in the direct vicinity of the factory. In 1855 the Villa Braunswerth was completed, which offered enough living space for him and his wife as well as the families of his sons Hermann and Emil.

Engels was deeply rooted in Bergisch Pietism . With his estate, Engels donated a Protestant church to the town. In 1866 the church, including the rectory and school, was consecrated.

The company in Engelskirchen, which he was instrumental in founding, is now the location of the LVR industrial museum . The Ermen & Engels power plant is located in the former building of the twisting mill .

The relationship between father and son Friedrich Engels was tense. The younger Engels spoke of his father to Karl Marx in 1848 as the “fanatical and despotic old man”. In 1849 there was a serious conflict with his son Friedrich when he was actively involved in the Elberfeld uprising . The result was that the father cut financial support for his son. Nonetheless, he later supported him by getting him a job at Engels & Ermen in Manchester. The company in Engelskirchen fell to the brothers Hermann and Rudolf after the death of their father. The Manchester factory was run by the younger Frederick until 1869.

Engels is buried in the Unterbarmer cemetery near the main entrance.

literature

  • Wolfgang Köllmann:  Engels, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 520 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Klaus Goebel: Friedrich Engels sen. 1796-1860 . In: Wuppertaler Biografien 9th episode, Wuppertal 1970, pp. 7-19
  • Michael Knieriem : Engels' grandpa about the grandson. "Your Friedrich ... will one day become a great scholar" . In: Marxistische Blätter , Frankfurt am Main 1985, Issue 5, pp. 64–68
  • Michael Knieriem: The “Ermen & Engels” company in Manchester and Engelskirchen in the 19th century . In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 10, Berlin 1986, pp. 211-234
  • Michael Knieriem: The company archive of Ermen and Engels in Engelskirchen in the 18th and 19th centuries . in: Yearbook of the IMSF 12, Frankfurt am Main 1987, pp. 322–328
  • Michael Knieriem: Profit under God's blessing: e. Contribution to company history and business Situation of Friedrich Engels Engels House, Wuppertal 1987 ( News from Engels House 5)
  • Michael Knieriem: "I am and a whole new world has been moved!" Two unknown letters from father and son Friedrich Engels to Barmen from 1838 . In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement . 29th year, Berlin 1987, No. 6, pp. 766-771
  • Thomas Schleper: Ermen & Engels in Engelskirchen. Industrialization of a rural region . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1987 ISBN 3-7927-0977-5 ( publications of the Rheinisches Industriemuseum No. 3)
  • Michael Knieriem: Engelskirchen: Ermen and Engels . In: Bauwelt 87th vol., No. 22 of June 5, 1987, p. 771
  • Michael Knieriem: "I really like that Friedrich speaks of his father". Statements about Friedrich Engels from 40 previously unknown family letters from 1820 to 1858 . In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 12 , Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1989, pp. 283–328
  • The origin of Friedrich Engels. Letters from relatives 1791–1847. Edited by Michael Knieriem. Texts edited by Margret Dietzen, Michael Knieriem, Elisabeth Neu. Trier 1991 ISBN 3-926132-12-4 ( writings from the Karl-Marx-Haus issue 42)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See Michael Knieriem: The Origin of Friedrich Engels . Trier 1991, p. 236.
  2. a b Engelskirchen in three courses. Exploration tours into the industrial age . In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Hrsg.): Hiking trails to industrial history . tape 3 . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1996, p. 50 .
  3. a b Thomas Schleper: With Engels into the industrial age. From hydropower. Factory work and architecture . In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Ed.): Contributions to industrial and social history . tape 3 . Rheinland-Verlag GmbH, Cologne 1991, p. 35-38 .