 Friedrich's parents were devout Pietist Protestants and they raised their children accordingly.At the age of 13, Engels attended grammar school ("Gymnasium") in the adjacent city of Elberfeld but had to leave at 17, due to pressure from his father, who wanted him to become a businessman and start work as a mercantile apprentice in the family firm.After a year in Barmen, the young Engels was in 1838 sent by his father to undertake an apprenticeship at a trading house in Bremen.