Blessed are the Meek
Part 1: The Heavenly Kingdom
Chapter 1: Cologne
October 11, 1842
Cologne, Prussia, German Confederation
Friedrich Engels circa 1840
On a cold evening in the fall of 1842, a storm passed over the city of Cologne. Winds whipped across the land and an ominous black cloud covered the sky. The farmers out in their fields hunkered down with their families and the people of the city shuttered their doors and windows as the sky thundered above them. As all of the people of this area of eastern Germany minds were filled with thoughts of the storm, two men had their minds focused on other matters. In the offices of the controversial newspaper Rheinische Zeitung, Karl Marx worked late into the night preparing for a meeting from a contact who was to arrive the following morning. Out on the road on the edge of town, said contact, a young man by the name of Friedrich Engels, hurried along in his carriage to reach the city by nightfall. Both men worked and travelled with heads filled with heavy thoughts of society, economics and revolution. Both might have grown to be some of the greatest intellectual minds of their generation. But only one would live to see the morning.
A rogue lightning strike and the following thunderclap drove Engels’s already skittish horses of the road. A wheel hit a nearby rock and the carriage toppled over and nearly crushed Engels under it’s weight. Possibly that exact same thunderclap startled a man in a house nearby to the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung and he accidentally knocked over a nearby candle into the wastebasket. Soon a fire had engulfed a whole block and spread over a large part of central Cologne. One of the buildings that was engulfed by the fire contained the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung, and although some people were able to escape the building. Marx was not one of them. As the fire began to rage through the city, Engels tried in vain to escape from under the carriage. In the moments that the young Engels thought were going to be his last as he slowly lost consciousness, Friedrich Engels did something that changed the course of history. He called out to the Christian God of his youth, whom he had abandoned. He called out to him to help him escape and to remember his previous devotion to him. Shortly afterword he lost consciousness.
But Engels would not die. He would wake up the following morning in a crowded and destitute Cologne hospital. His unconscious body had been pulled from underneath by a passing traveller and taken into the city. To this day, the identity of the savior remains unknown and many of Engels’s modern day devotees continue to insist that Engels survived by way of a miracle sent by God himself to ensure that Engels continued on with his great work. Regardless of how he got there, Engels would be confined to the hospital for quite some time until he was healed enough to leave. He would spend most of his time in recovery reading. Although he would be distressed by the news of the death of Marx, he would speak or write of him little after early 1843. It seems that his thoughts would be taken over by a new collaborator. During his time recovering in Cologne, Engels found himself in the possession of a book that would change his life and direct his religious revival into something productive. This book was The Kingdom of God by the English theologian F.D.Maurice. In his book, Maurice advocated for a vision of a uniquely Christian socialism that appealed deeply to Engels in the wake of his ecstatic reconversion. It is said that throughout his time in recovery, the young Engels could not put the book down. It is even said that after finishing the book that Engels hopped to his feet and found the closest piece of paper he could find and wrote a Bible verse that came into his mind while he was reading.
He was said to have written in a hurry.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.”
Cologne in the 1840s
Part 1: The Heavenly Kingdom
Chapter 1: Cologne
October 11, 1842
Cologne, Prussia, German Confederation
Friedrich Engels circa 1840
On a cold evening in the fall of 1842, a storm passed over the city of Cologne. Winds whipped across the land and an ominous black cloud covered the sky. The farmers out in their fields hunkered down with their families and the people of the city shuttered their doors and windows as the sky thundered above them. As all of the people of this area of eastern Germany minds were filled with thoughts of the storm, two men had their minds focused on other matters. In the offices of the controversial newspaper Rheinische Zeitung, Karl Marx worked late into the night preparing for a meeting from a contact who was to arrive the following morning. Out on the road on the edge of town, said contact, a young man by the name of Friedrich Engels, hurried along in his carriage to reach the city by nightfall. Both men worked and travelled with heads filled with heavy thoughts of society, economics and revolution. Both might have grown to be some of the greatest intellectual minds of their generation. But only one would live to see the morning.
A rogue lightning strike and the following thunderclap drove Engels’s already skittish horses of the road. A wheel hit a nearby rock and the carriage toppled over and nearly crushed Engels under it’s weight. Possibly that exact same thunderclap startled a man in a house nearby to the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung and he accidentally knocked over a nearby candle into the wastebasket. Soon a fire had engulfed a whole block and spread over a large part of central Cologne. One of the buildings that was engulfed by the fire contained the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung, and although some people were able to escape the building. Marx was not one of them. As the fire began to rage through the city, Engels tried in vain to escape from under the carriage. In the moments that the young Engels thought were going to be his last as he slowly lost consciousness, Friedrich Engels did something that changed the course of history. He called out to the Christian God of his youth, whom he had abandoned. He called out to him to help him escape and to remember his previous devotion to him. Shortly afterword he lost consciousness.
But Engels would not die. He would wake up the following morning in a crowded and destitute Cologne hospital. His unconscious body had been pulled from underneath by a passing traveller and taken into the city. To this day, the identity of the savior remains unknown and many of Engels’s modern day devotees continue to insist that Engels survived by way of a miracle sent by God himself to ensure that Engels continued on with his great work. Regardless of how he got there, Engels would be confined to the hospital for quite some time until he was healed enough to leave. He would spend most of his time in recovery reading. Although he would be distressed by the news of the death of Marx, he would speak or write of him little after early 1843. It seems that his thoughts would be taken over by a new collaborator. During his time recovering in Cologne, Engels found himself in the possession of a book that would change his life and direct his religious revival into something productive. This book was The Kingdom of God by the English theologian F.D.Maurice. In his book, Maurice advocated for a vision of a uniquely Christian socialism that appealed deeply to Engels in the wake of his ecstatic reconversion. It is said that throughout his time in recovery, the young Engels could not put the book down. It is even said that after finishing the book that Engels hopped to his feet and found the closest piece of paper he could find and wrote a Bible verse that came into his mind while he was reading.
He was said to have written in a hurry.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.”
Cologne in the 1840s