The German Ideology

'The Young Hegelians are in agreement with the Old Hegelians in their belief in the rule of religion, of concepts, of a universal principle in the existing world.'

Old Hegelians take the religious as central, in a pantheistic way this entails that the Prussian state of the early 19th century constituted the objective form of Geist. Conversely, the Young Hegelians see this as an aberration from Hegel's philosophy by Hegel himself. Their interpretation is philosophical; constituting the liberation of human spirit through criticism of religion. 

It was idealist philosophy with concepts that Marx designates as reconciling the Old and Young Hegelians which led to Feuerbach's criticism. Man identifies himself with a species but realises he is not the perfect exemplification of that species. In this way he projects attributes which are his into religion and hence, theology is misdescribed anthropology. 

The Young Hegelians mistake the transcendence of human spirit as a progressive culmination of the the mortal and immortal residence of the unhappy consciousness - incidentally, not a conclusion by Hegel but something he drew no practical conclusions from - but they retain the amorphous 'idea'. Therefore, in practice both forms of thought, the Old and the Young are implicitly platonic. For Feuerbach existence precedes thought. 

Marx partakes in political criticism, looking for practical solutions to alleviate suffering. At this stage in 1843 he is a liberal who believes democracy can foment auspicious change. It is later, in 1845 that Marx distances himself from Feuerbach and takes the material as pre-eminent, not mere solutions in an immutable context.