The German Ideology (1846) is a set of manuscripts written collaboratively by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It is the second work written by the two men, and their second critique of the Young Hegelians. The critique is structured as a rebuttal to their ahistorical and anti-materialist world view, which utilized Hegelian logic and concepts and then proceeded to bastardize or deteriorate them by poor and improper use and no critique. Marx and Engels did not find a publisher, but the work was later retrieved and published for the first time in 1932 by David Riazanov through the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow. It has since been deemed by Orthodox Marxists and Marxist-Leninists as a foundational work of dialectical and historical materialism and a fine critique of the German left-wing anti-religious ideology of the 19th century.
Entire sections are dedicated to critical analysis of the theories of Ludwig Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer ("Saint Bruno"), and Max Stirner ("Saint Max"), although the cohesive work includes the section "True Socialism" specifically addressing the German brand (or tendency) of socialism which Marx and Engels later included in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto.