# The Life and Work of Friedrich Engels/Chapter 5

​ Home Life and Early Communist Activities
The first letter Engels wrote Marx after returning from Paris to Barmen was at the end of September, 1844. It is full of the eagerness of youth and enthusiasm for their common work.
He describes the progress made by their Communist teaching in Cologne, and he says: "Our people are very active, but the lack of a proper foundation is very evident. So long as our principles have not been developed in a few works, historically and logically, from our prevailing philosophy (anschauungsweise) and history, and shown to be the necessary corollary of these, so long shall we continue for the most part to grope blindly in the dark. … Best of all I like my Elberfeld boys, in whom the human philosophy has, indeed, passed into their flesh and blood. These fellows have really begun to revolutionise their families economically, and they read their elders a lesson whenever these attempt to treat their servants or workers aristocratically. And this is, indeed, a great deal in patriarchal Elberfeld. …" He describes bourgeois society at home in Barmen and district, and points out that the discontent of the workers is growing and is manifesting itself by the increase of crime and individual terrorist acts, and says: "And if the proletariat of this country develops according to the same law as the English, they will soon become convinced that to protest against the social order in this violent way, as individuals, is quite useless, and they will learn to protest as human beings in their collective capacity through Communism. It only we could show them the way. But this is impossible"” (The Communists could not then work in the open for fear of arrest.) And he ends the letter thus:—"Well, now, see to it that the material you have collected is sent forth into the world as soon as possible—it is devilishly high time I, too, set to work in earnest. … And so let us work well and publish quickly. … Good-bye, dear fellow, and write soon. I have never since been in such a cheerful good-humoured mood as I was during the ten days I stopped with you."
This letter not only characterises the young Engels, but it also shows how close were already the relations existing between himself and Marx. In this letter they are already on quite familiar terms, Engels using the familiar "du" (thou) in addressing Marx. It way be as well to ​state here that the correspondence between Marx and Engels fills four fair-sized volumes. In these letters they discuss their economic and philosophical theories, the books they are reading and writing at the time, all the leading European events of the time, such as the commercial crises of 1857, the Crimean War, the French war against Austria, the war between the Northern and Southern States of America, and so on and so forth.
They also discuss the working-class movements and their leaders in Europe and America. They are keenly interested and exchange their views on all the discoveries of science, both practical and theoretical. In one letter Engels describes a discovery in electricity made by himself, and in a letter dated May 3,1873, Engels communicates to Marx and Schorlemmer some reflections of his own in physical science. Schorlemmer, an eminent chemist and professor of chemistry at that time in Manchester, was an intimate friend of theirs, and, judging by his remarks at the end of the various paragraphs of Engels' letter, thought highly of the points made by Engels.
To deal adequately with this correspondence would require quite a book to itself. We shall, therefore, make no attempt to discuss it, only taking such extracts from it as will serve to illustrate Engels' life and character.
Engels' family very much wanted him to take up commerce as a career, and, of course, to enter his father's business, but every fibre in young Friedrich's soul protested against such a fate. His ambitions lay in a quite different direction. Thus, in March, 1845, he writes to Marx: "I am leading now a veritable dog's life. On account of the affairs with the meetings, and the slovenliness of several of the Communists here, with whom I, of course, associate, all the old religious fanaticism of my old governor (his father) has been reawakened, and his ire has been increased still more by the declaration of my intention to give up definitely the office bench. Further, since my open appearance as a Communist"—(they had had some meetings at Barmen at which Friedrich had spoken)"—he has developed in addition a passionate bourgeois fanaticism.
"Now, just consider my position. As I am going away in about fourteen days or so, I cannot very well kick up a row. I let everything pass by without protest. They are not accustomed to this, and so their spirits rise. … If it were not for my mother, who really possesses a very fine personality, only cannot stand up against my father, and whom I really love, I would not dream for a moment of making the slightest concession to my fanatical and despotic governor. But my mother is in any case ill every now and again, and almost every time she is worried, especially about me, she gets an eight-days' headache. It is unbearable. I must get away, and hardly know how to hold out the few weeks I still have to remain here. Still, they will pass."
In 1845 Engels gave up mercantile life, left Barmen and went to ​Brussels. He did this partly because his family and friends hindered his Communist work in his native town, but chiefly because he wanted to work out together with Marx their common philosophic and economic principles. Here in Brussels they worked out together their scientific system of Socialism, whilst at the same time endeavouring to bring the existing working-class movement to class consciousness, and to place it on the foundation of their theoretical system.
Their first work here was a criticism of the later Hegelian philosophy, which was a definite break with the contemporary German philosophy. This book, in two volumes, which was never published on account of a literary boycott of Marx's works in Germany, served the useful purpose of clearing their own thoughts, and giving them a sure grasp of their theories. And this accomplished, they went to work practically as well as theoretically.
They established a German Labour Union in Brussels, and took a leading part in conducting the Deutschen-Brusseler Zeitung. At the same time they kept up a close and constant connection with the revolutionary elements of English Chartism and with the French Social-Democrats through the journal Reforme, to which Engels supplied news of the English and German movements. They also became associated with the "League of the Just," which ultimately, under the influence of Marx's and Engels' teaching, developed into the International Communist League.