The German Ideology

The book uses satirical polemics to critique modern German philosophy, particularly that of young Hegelians such as Marx's former mentor Bruno Bauer, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own.

[2] Recent research for the new Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) indicates that much of the "system" of the "materialist conception of history" in the first part of the book was created afterwards by the Marx-Engels Institute (Russian: Институт К. Маркса и Ф.

For this reason, a manuscript written by Roland Daniels, which was edited by Marx and Engels for the planned quarterly publication, is being printed in this volume for the first time.

In terms of content, it was not initially the systematic elaboration of one's own theoretical positions that was the concern, but instead the polemical debate with young Hegelian and socialist contemporaries.

However, the focus of the criticism of Marx and Engels was not on Feuerbach (as was mostly assumed up to now), but on Max Stirner, the author of the radical individualist work The Unique One and His Property [1844].

In addition, there are numerous digressions in which Marx and Engels present their own positions (depictions of the historical development of the German bourgeoisie, the relationship between intellectual and material rule and the history of private property).

It was only during the course of this discussion that Marx and Engels made the decision to present their views in a separate chapter and combine them with a critique of Feuerbach.

The text-critical apparatus with its discursive presentation of variants makes the drafting process transparent and, in particular, the intensive collaboration between Marx and Engels on the manuscripts comprehensible.

Furthermore, the governing ideology mystifies the economic relations of society and therefore places the proletariat in a state of false consciousness that serves to reproduce the working class.