Tanner and worker-philosopher who reached dialectical materialism independently of Marx and Engels
A worker-philosopher from a Rhineland tanning family who taught himself philosophy and lived by tanning all his life. He joined the Communist League in 1852 and, while managing the state tannery in St Petersburg, wrote The Nature of Human Brain-Work (1869). He is credited with reaching dialectical materialism independently of Marx and Engels, and Marx called him “our philosopher”. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, edited German-language socialist papers in New York and Chicago, and died in Chicago in 1888. Lenin quoted him often in Materialism and Empirio-criticism, and Pannekoek invoked him against Lenin in Lenin as Philosopher.
Also known as: Peter Josef Dietzgen
Activities and affiliations
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1852
Scholarship and theory
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1864–1868
Russian Empire state institutionsManager of the state tannery in St Petersburg
Economy, finance and planning -
1868–1888
Scholarship and theory
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1869–1875
Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP)
Scholarship and theory -
1884–1888
Ideology and propaganda
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International Workingmen's Association (First International)
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1848Left for the United States after the 1848 revolution
- 1852Joined the Communist League
- 1859–1861Ran a tannery in Montgomery, Alabama
- 1864–1868Manager of the state tannery in St Petersburg
- 1869The Nature of Human Brain-Work; joined the Social Democratic Workers’ Party
- 1878.06.08Arrested over the lecture “The Future of Social Democracy”, later acquitted
- 1884–1886Editor of Der Sozialist, New York
- 1886–1888Editor of the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung