[1] His father was a free-thinking person, and often gave shelter to Polish revolutionaries travelling from France and Belgium to Poland.

He joined a group of armed revolutionaries in Saxony, but they were quickly suppressed by Pomeranian troops and Sorge was forced to take refuge in Switzerland.

[1] In 1857 he joined Albert Komp and Abraham Jacobi in forming the New York Communist Club, which was an educational society involved in the anti-slavery movement.

[4][3] Sorge became an active socialist in 1865, after the end of the American Civil War, and soon became the leading proponent of Karl Marx's views in the United States.

[1] His appointment followed the split between Marx and the anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin, and a decision in September 1872 by the Hague Congress to transfer the IWA General Council to New York.

Joseph Patrick McDonnell, editor of the New York Labor Standard gave significant assistance to Sorge.

Sorge contributed articles to the German Marxist journal Die Neue Zeit from 1891 to 1895, discussing the history of socialism in the United States.