Dietzgen was born in
Blankenberg in the
Rhine Province of
Prussia. He was the oldest of five children of father Johann Gottfried Anno Dietzgen (1794–1887) and mother Anna Margaretha Lückerath (1808–1881). Entirely self-educated, Joseph was, like his father, a
tanner by profession, eventually inheriting his uncle's business in
Siegburg. During the period between his travels, Dietzgen along with Marx joined the
Alliance of Communists in Germany in 1852. In 1853, after marrying his wife Cordula Finke, Dietzgen established his tannery business in Winterscheid (today part of
Ruppichteroth), Germany. During his time in Russia, Dietzgen wrote one of his earliest texts,
The Nature of Human Brain-Work, which was published in 1869. Upon reading it,
Marx forwarded a copy to
Engels, remarking, "My opinion is that J. Dietzgen would do better to condense all his ideas into two printer's sheets and have them published under his own name as a tanner. If he publishes them in the size he is proposing, he will discredit himself with his lack of dialectical development and his way of going round in circles." While Dietzgen traveled, his wife managed the family tannery business in Germany until he returned in mid-1869. He spent two months in prison on remand before his trial was held. Although he was released along with copies of his article, he was re-arrested twice more before being freed. In 1881 Joseph sent Eugene to the U.S. to avoid the Kaiser's upcoming army draft, to safeguard his own articles and documents, and to secure a family home in America. Eugene was 19 when he arrived in New York, but he quickly launched a thriving family business in
Chicago, the
Eugene Dietzgen Drafting Company. During this period, Joseph and his son kept in close contact through correspondence, much of which has been preserved. In 1884, Dietzgen moved to the U.S. for the third and last time, initially to New York to become editor of
Der Sozialist, a job he held until 1886. He was then hired to edit the Chicago-based anarchist newspaper
Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung after its previous editors were hanged in reaction to the
Haymarket bombings. Joseph Dietzgen's life and work have for some underscored the unity that existed on the political left at the time of the
First International, before
Anarchists and
Marxists were later divided. He wrote in an 1886 letter: "For my part, I lay little stress on the distinction, whether a man is an anarchist or a socialist, because it seems to me that too much weight is attributed to this difference." This suggests he took a more conciliatory view of the disputes of the moment (see
Anarchism and Marxism). ==Philosophy==