Young Hegelian Movement

Philosophical and political movement in Germany during the 1830–1840s. The center of activities was in Berlin. It was in fact a movement of emancipation of the mind of the rising German bourgeoisie.

During the 1830s, in the process of the disintegration of the Hegelian philosophy, the Young Hegelians, also known as “Left Hegelians” came into being. The main members were David Strauss (1808–1874), Bruno Bauer (1809–1882), Edgar Bauer (1820–1886), Arnold Ruge (1802–1880), Max Stirner (1806–1856), etc., and Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) was also a member of this group for a period of time.

Strauss’ The Life of Jesus in 1835 promoted the rise of the Young Hegelian movement. The Young Hegelians opposed the conservative ideas in the Hegelian philosophical system, they tried to draw revolutionary and atheistic conclusions by using the Hegelian dialectical method, and took a critical attitude towards Christianity and the Prussian state. After the 1840s, the Young Hegelian movement, which once played a progressive role, split and disintegrated. The most radical elements of the Young Hegelians, such as Ruge, began to publicly criticize the Prussian state system, Hess began to propagate the doctrine of utopian communism, Stirner used the supreme “Ego” to preach anarchism, while Feuerbach criticized religion and Hegelian philosophy from the materialist standpoint.

Marx and Engels had participated in the activities of the Young Hegelians, but from the outset they were different from the other Young Hegelians. They quickly shifted from the critique of religion to political criticism, and then to a materialist and communist standpoint.