Names on the buses

209 Friedrich Engels

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Friedrich Engels, sometimes anglicised as Frederick Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895), was a German philosopher, critic of political economy, historian, political theorist and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman, journalist and political activist, whose father was an owner of large textile factories in Salford (Lancashire, England) and Barmen, Prussia (now Wuppertal, Germany). Engels developed what is now known as Marxism together with Karl Marx. In 1845, he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in English cities.

In 1848, Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) many other works. Later, Engels supported Marx financially, allowing him to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital. Additionally, Engels organised Marx's notes on the Theories of Surplus Value which were later published as the "fourth volume" of Das Kapital.[8][9] In 1884, he published The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State on the basis of Marx's ethnographic research.

On 5 August 1895, aged 74, Engels died of laryngeal cancer in London. Following cremation, his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head, near Eastbourne.

Eduard Bernstein, the socialist academic and friend of Engels and Marx, wrote in his diary: “About five or six miles off Beachy Head, in the year 1895, the Avelings (Edward Aveling, partner of Marx’s daughter, Eleanor), the old Communist Leaguer Friedrich Lessner, and myself, on a very rough day of autumn, cast into the sea the urn containing the ashes of our friend Friedrich Engels. “Engels, who died on the 8th of August, had directed, in a letter enclosed with his will, that his body should be cremated and the ashes thrown into the sea. “And since we knew of his predilection for delightful Eastbourne, the sea off Beachy Head was chosen as the most suitable spot for the execution of this portion of his last will and testament.”

Strange to think that snooty Victorian Eastbourne was the favourite holiday location of the co-author – with Karl Marx – of The Communist Manifesto.

209 Volvo Gemini - carried name since October 2022.