The Young Revolutionary 1845–1850

Engels’s happiest years were probably those which he spent as a revolutionary agitator between 1845 and 1850. ¹ In those days – according to the German worker Friedrich Lessner – Engels was “tall and slim, his movements were quick and vigorous, his manner of speaking brief and decisive, his carriage erect, giving a soldierly touch. He was of a very lively nature; his wit was to the point. Everybody who associated with him inevitably got the impression that he was dealing with a man of great intelligence.” Marx’s Russian friend Annenkov later wrote that he remembered Engels in 1846 as being “tall and erect, and as dignified and serious as an Englishman”. ² He was a striking figure in any company – slim, tall, blond, short-sighted. He spoke very quickly and he stuttered from time to time, especially when he was excited. ³ He had a surprisingly youthful appearance for a man of over twenty-five. In 1847 he hesitated to accept office as Vice-President of the Democratic Association of Brussels because – as he wrote to Marx – “I look so dreadfully young.” ⁴