Browse to know more about Karl Marx’s Age, Bio, wiki, Net Worth, Income, career, Education, and Family. Also know details about Karl Marx’s Parents, Childhood, Relationship, body measurements, Images, and many more.
The great German philosopher and revolutionary socialist, Karl Marx has earned a place in history as the most influential person. There will be rarely a person who has not heard about this noble soul! He has also done some extensive work in economics and this now forms the basis of our current understanding of labor and its relation to capital. He was also a political theorist and a historian. His life inspires the young and reveals his intellect and selfless work towards society.
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The birth and family
5 May 1818 was the birth date of Karl Marx. It was in Trier town which was at that time a part of the Kingdom of Prussia’s Province of the Lower Rhine. He had a Jewish descent. His parents were Heinrich Marx and Henriette Pressburg. His mother Henriette was a Dutch Jew and came from a prosperous family. Karl’s family-owned vineyards. He was the third of 9 children.
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Educated at home for a few years by his father, Karl joined Trier High School and later enrolled at the University of Bonn to study law. He supposedly had a weak chest and was excused from compulsory military service. He was part of many clubs at the university and also had debates there. He did not fare well and his father got him transferred to the University of Berlin. But philosophy continued to fascinate him.
Father’s death and the initial career
Karl’s father died in 1838 and 1837 finished a short novel called Scorpion and Felix. He started writing fiction and non-fiction. He was also poetic and wrote a number of love poems. He also began to study Italian and English art history. He also wrote a thesis for his doctorate and this he completed in 1841 and dedicated it to his father-in-law. This original piece was a daring and liberal one and hence Karl decided to submit it to the University of Jena where unlike the faculty at the University of Berlin were more liberal. He got his Ph.D. in April 1841.
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He considered an academic career but the Government’s opposition to liberalism made it difficult for him. In 1842, he made a move to Cologne and became a journalist for a radical newspaper. Karl had at that time lamented:
“Our newspaper has to be presented to the police to be sniffed at, and if the police nose smells anything un-Christian or un-Prussian, the newspaper is not allowed to appear”
New job
Karl became a co-editor of a new radical leftist newspaper in 1843 and moved to Paris with his family. But soon the paper collapsed and he took up to write for another radical newspaper. He refined his ideas on socialism. He became friends with German socialist Friedrich Engels. He, at this time, also extensively studied economics and France History. This political economy interested him and he continued to read and write on it throughout his life. The initial concept of Marxism had already set in his mind by 1844. He shifted base to Brussels in 1845.
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Brussels (1845-1848)
In Brussels, Karl met more people with his thinking. He traveled to England with them and got a chance to learn about the political economy in London and Manchester. In 1848, he published The Communist Manifesto. The Communist League was established and for some time, he was in Cologne. He faced harassment at the hands of the administrators and police and moved to London.
London 1850-1860
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He continued to write and publish. He also took to revolutionary activities and later became the European correspondent for the NY Daily Tribune. He later wrote on slavery and the American Civil War of 1861. He had to abandon his economic studies to earn some money for the family.
NY Daily Tribune’s editorial policy was progressive and he continued to write for them. He then concentrated on capitalism and labor and extensively studied and wrote on it.
His family life
Karl married von Westphalen and had 7 children out of which 3 survived. It was also believed that he had fathered a child Freddy with his housekeeper Helene Demuth. He suffered health-wise and used to call it ‘wretchedness of existence’.
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His death
After the death of his wife in December 1881, he had some nasal problems and this later became bronchitis and pleurisy and he succumbed to it on 14 March 1883 in London. He died a stateless person. His friend Engel said:
“On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep—but forever.”
