The German Ideology

The full title is The German Ideology. Critique of Modern German Philosophy According to Its Representatives Feuerbach, B. Bauer and Stirner, and of German Socialism According to Its Various Prophets. A masterpiece Marx and Engels jointly criticizing Feuerbach and the Young Hegelians, and systematically elucidating their new world outlook and new conception of history. Written from autumn of 1845 to May 1846. The book could not be published during Marx and Engels’ lifetime, and Feuerbach, one part of it, was not translated into Russian and published for the first time until 1924 by the Marx-Engels Institute of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; in 1932, the whole book was first published in its original language in the Marx-Engels Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe, I/5; Feuerbach was translated into Chinese by Guo Moruo and published by Shanghai Yanxing Publishing House in 1938, under the title The German Ideology.

In the spring of 1845, Marx and Engels had basically formed the fundamental viewpoint of historical materialism, and in the connection with some workers’ organizations, their theoretical viewpoint gained the support of some intellectuals, which made them think that they must scientifically prove their viewpoint and convince the proletariat that this theory is correct. Meanwhile, Feuerbach, a humanist materialist, published an article and declared himself a communist. In October of the same year, Bauer and Stirner also published an article in Volume 3 of Hallische Jahrbücher, a Young Hegelian magazine, and accused Marx and Engels, as well as Feuerbach and M. Hess, and treated Marx and Engels as followers of Feuerbach. Marx and Engels held that it was necessary to make critical analysis of Feuerbach and to make a general critique on the ideological system of the German bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie at that time, so that the working class and the masses could understand their ideas more easily.

The German Ideology, divided into two volumes, profoundly criticized the idealist conception of history represented by Feuerbach, Bauer and Stirner, as well as various false socialist schools such as “true socialism” and “German socialism” prevalent in Germany at that time, and systematically expounded and proved the fundamental principles of historical materialism. Its fundamental views are as follows:

First, upholding that proving and studying the activities of real men and their material conditions of life in terms of the materialist conception of history is the premise of the scientific conception of history. In the works, Marx and Engels comprehensively and systematically expounded the practical, materialist conception of history that social being determines social consciousness. They scientifically analyzed the dialectical relationship between social being and social consciousness, upheld regarding material practice as the decisive factor of social consciousness, emphasized that ideas are to be explained from practice, that is, men in real-life activities, and upheld the materialist conception of history. They pointed out that “men must be in a position to live in order to ‘make history’”, and people’s life is inseparable from eating and drinking, shelter, clothing and many other things which can only be obtained through the productive activity. Therefore, material production plays a decisive role in pushing forward the development of human history. On this basis, they emphasized that the material production of mankind is the fundamental hallmark that distinguishes man from the animal and the starting point of the first historical activity of man, and that social history is to be examined in terms of “what produces [this] material life, labor”.

Second, clearly pointing out that all the development of human history is the process of contradictory movement between the productive forces and the relations of production. Marx and Engels regarded the contradiction between the productive forces and forms of intercourse as the root of all collisions in history, and for the first time elaborated the law of the contradictory movement between the productive forces and the relations of production (i.e., forms of intercourse). The chief idea is that the relations of production are determined by the productive forces. At a certain stage of social development, there are relations of production corresponding to a certain level of the development of productive forces; at a certain stage of the development of the productive forces, the two are bound to come into contradiction, which will eventually lead to revolution; through revolution, new relations of production meeting the requirements of the development of advanced productive forces replace the old ones and promote the development of productive forces, but the constantly improving level of new productive forces is restricted by this kind of relations of production, and the contradiction intensifies continuously, which leads to a new revolution.

Third, it scientifically predicted the inevitable trend of the historical development of the fall of capitalism and the victory of communism. Starting from the contradictory movement of the productive forces and the relations of production and its laws, Marx and Engels demonstrated the historical necessity of the replacement of the capitalist society as the final form of exploiting society by communism with equality among all people. In human history, in line with the different levels of productive forces from lower to higher, we have experienced tribal ownership, ancient communal ownership and State ownership, feudal or estate property, and capitalist private property. In capitalist society, the discovery of new sea routes, the expeditions of adventurers and the opening up of colonies have led to the enormous development of the productive forces of society and the formation of a world market, forming a globalized expansion of modes of intercourse. The highly developed productive forces and the establishment of universal exchanges and relations among men have become the prerequisite for the establishment of the new communist society in the future. Thus capitalism is also a temporary form of intercourse in human history, and in the communist society, “based on their subordination of their communal, and social productive sources as their social wealth, private property will be sublated.”

Fourth, it emphasized that the conquest of the political power by the proletariat is the fundamental premise for the transition from capitalism to communism. Marx and Engels emphasized the revolutionary nature of the proletariat’s opposition to capitalism, pointing out that “for the practical materialist, i.e., the communist, it is a question of revolutionizing the existing world, of practically attacking and changing existing things”. They further pointed out that the goal of the proletariat’s struggle is to realize communism, to regard communism as its own cause with the nature of world history, and to enable itself to obtain existence in the sense of world history in the process of realizing communism. Marx and Engels regarded the conquest of political power as the fundamental premise for the proletariat to eliminate the whole old social form and all class rule, especially emphasized the importance and urgency of the conquest of the state power by the proletariat which has revealed the germination of the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Fifth, it has foreseen the future communist society from the logic of historical materialism. Marx and Engels did not describe the details of communism like utopian socialists, but made logical reasoning and predictions of the future society based on the profound analysis of socio-economic relations. They pointed out that the future society as a "real community" will abolish private property and replace it with social common ownership of the means of production and communist regulation of social production, making "individuals again subject these material powers to themselves” and “obtain their freedom in and through their association”. Therefore, the antithesis between town and country, mind and body will be eliminated, class differences will disappear, there will be no need for the State to exist, labor will become the real self-activity of free men, and the abilities and talents of each individual will be developed to the fullest and most comprehensive extent. At the same time, they emphasized that the prediction of communism should be based on the principle of historical materialism, pointing out that Communism “is not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself” but “the real movement which abolishes the present state of things” based on the now existing premise.

Sixth, it criticized the idealist conception of history of Feuerbach, Stirner and the “true socialists”. In the Volume I, Marx and Engels pointed out that the entire body of German philosophical criticism from Strauss to Stirner was confined to the criticism of religion, and the fundamental limitation of idealist conception of history was to interpret practice in terms of conceptions. They both affirmed Feuerbach’s contribution to materialism and also criticized his idealist conception of history, pointing out: “With him materialism and history diverge completely.” They further exposed that the root of Feuerbach’s relapse in the idealist conception of history was that he conceived the thing in the form of the object or of contemplation, but not as sensuous human activity, practice, not subjectively.

Marx and Engels further liquidated the subjective idealism of Bauer, the chief representative of the Young Hegelians, and criticized the extreme egoism and anarchism of Stirner, another Young Hegelian, who started from the “Ego” of “the Unique”, and exposed that his historical development, which completely ignored the historical epochs, nations, classes, etc., had nothing in common with the real history, and was therefore nothing more than the result of the evolution of ideas. In Volume II, Marx and Engels criticized the current of “true socialism” prevailing in Germany at that time in a concentrated manner, and exposed the absurdity of their representatives’ attempt to reconcile class contradictions, cancel political activity and the fight for democracy with a supra-class love, abstract human nature and reformist ideas.

The German Ideology is a landmark in the history of Marxist thought development. It has criticized various idealist conceptions of history represented by Feuerbach, Bauer and Stirner, elaborated the fundamental contents of historical materialism, and is a concentrated exhibition of the scientific world outlook and methodology of the proletariat. It gave the first classical expression of the materialist conception of history in the history of Marxist philosophy, revealed the general laws of social development, including the development of the communist movement, proved and developed the scientific world outlook of the proletariat, which was the theoretical basis for the birth of scientific socialism. The advent of The German Ideology marked the inauguration of the materialist conception of history and the maturation of Marxist philosophy.