A statue of Marx and Engels, in a large park in old East Berlin. Behind you can see the palace of the Republic, an East Germn building where a lot of important functions were held. Once a few years ago at the statue a man said to his wife about Marx and Engels, "two of the biggest criminals in history." I also heard people say that they are two great Germans. Engels was a successful businessman who felt capitalist excesses would destroy society, and helped Marx, an Hegelian scholar who threw off Hegelian idealism for a materialist view of philosophy and history developed an alternative theory. Neither would have been at all happy to see what communism became; Marx even rejected the label "Marxist" late in his life. But the theory they developed was flawed, as it rejected democracy and individual liberty in order to focus on economic justice. Many of its arguments against the problems of capitalism still are valid today, but its complete rejection of markets is both unrealistic and misguided. It's emphasis on economics over culture, religion and politics is simply wrong. Still, over all they made an intellectual contribution that shapes social science in many ways to this day, and have to be recognized as great thinkers. But their theory was wrong, and other people would take it in directions that they would have despised. Ironically the system in West Europe, with things like six weeks guaranteed paid vacation, guaranteed health care, and retirement funds in a prosperous market economy is much closer to the goals of original socialists than what Communism wraught. They were going against the horid explotation of workers who worked for sustinence wages in inhuman conditions with no education available in the early 19th century. Their efforts helped end that; unfortunately, they also inspired a view by some that an omnipotent government could solve soceity's ills. Instead, it made those ills even worse.