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How did dialectical materialism differ from Hegel’s idealist dialectic?

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Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. — Materialism Epicurus, bronze bust from a Greek original, c. 280–270 bce; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

While Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels adopted the dialectical method from G.W.F. Hegel, they fundamentally rejected his idealism in favor of a materialist framework.1

The primary differences include:

Source of Change: Hegel viewed change and development as the expression of the "Absolute Spirit" or "Idea" realizing itself through history. In contrast, Marx and Engels argued that change is inherent in the material world itself, independent of any mind or spirit.12
Methodological Direction: Hegel attempted to deduce the course of events from abstract "principles of dialectics." Marx and Engels argued that this approach was inverted and mystifying; they maintained that dialectical principles must instead be inferred from actual, observable events and social practice.13
Reality vs. Abstraction: Marx criticized Hegel for treating concrete human and historical determinations—such as the state, family, and classes—as mere symbolic manifestations of the Idea. For Marx, these were real, material conditions that condition human consciousness, rather than products of it.13

Ultimately, Marx and Engels insisted that ideas are reflections of material conditions, whereas Hegel’s system treated matter as dependent on the development of the Spirit.1