May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany (formerly in Rhenish Prussia) Died: March
14, 1883 London, England German philosopher and political leader *The
German philosopher, revolutionary economist (one who studies the use
of money and other material funds), and leader Karl Marx founded
modern "scientific" socialism (a system of society in which
no property is held as private). His basic ideas—known as
Marxism—form the foundation of Socialist and Communist (an economic
and government system characterized by citizens holding all property
and goods in common) movements throughout the world.
Karl
Heinreich Marx was born in Trier, Rhenish Prussia (present-day
Germany), on May 5, 1818, the son of Heinrich Marx, a lawyer, and
Henriette Presburg Marx, a Dutchwoman. Both Heinrich and Henriette
were descendants of a long line of rabbis (masters or teachers of
Jewish religion). Barred from the practice of law because he was
Jewish, Heinrich Marx converted to Lutheranism about 1817. Karl was
baptized in the same church in 1824 at the age of six. Karl attended
a Lutheran elementary school but later became an atheist (one who
does not believe in the existence of God) and a materialist (one who
believes that physical matter is all that is real), rejecting both
the Christian and Jewish religions. It was he who coined the saying
"Religion is the opium [drug that deadens pain, is today
illegal, and comes from the poppy flower] of the people," a
basic principle in modern communism.
Karl
attended the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Trier for five years,
graduating in 1835 at the age of seventeen. The gymnasium's program
was the usual classical one—history, mathematics, literature, and
languages, particularly Greek and Latin. Karl became very skillful in
French and Latin, both of which he learned to read and write
fluently. In later years he taught himself other languages, so that
as a mature scholar he could also read Spanish, Italian, Dutch,
Scandinavian, Russian, and English. As his articles in the New York
Daily Tribune show, he came to handle the English language
masterfully (he loved Shakespeare [1564–1616], whose works he knew
by heart), although he never lost his heavy German accent when
speaking.
As
a young adult, Marx enrolled in Bonn University in Bonn, Germany in
October 1835 , where he attended courses primarily in law, as it was
his father's desire that he become a lawyer. Marx, however, was more
interested in philosophy (the study of knowledge) and literature than
in law. He wanted to be a poet and dramatist (one who writes plays).
In his student days he wrote a great deal of poetry—most of it
preserved—that in his mature years he rightly recognized as
imitative andunremarkable. He spent a year at Bonn, studying little
but partying and drinking a lot. He also piled up heavy debts. Marx's
dismayed father took him out of Bonn and had him enter the University
of Berlin, then a center of intellectual discussion. In Berlin a
circle of brilliant thinkers was challenging existing institutions
and ideas, including religion, philosophy, ethics (the study of good
and bad involving morals), and politics. Marx joined this group of
radical (extreme in opinion) thinkers wholeheartedly. He spent more
than four years in Berlin, completing his studies with a doctoral
degree in March 1841.
Forced
to move on, Marx then turned to writing and journalism to support
himself. In 1842 he became editor of the liberal (open to new ideas)
Cologne newspaper Rheinische Zeitung, but the Berlin government
prohibited it from being published the following year. In January
1845 Marx was expelled from France "at the instigation [order]
of the Prussian government," as he said. He moved to Brussels,
Belgium, where he founded the German Workers' Party and was active in
the Communist League. Here he wrote the famous Manifesto of the
Communist Party (known as the Communist Manifesto ). Expelled (forced
out) by the Belgian government, Marx moved back to Cologne, where he
became editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in June 1848. Less than
a year later, the Prussian government stopped the paper, and Marx
himself was exiled (forced to leave). He went to Paris, but in
September the French government expelled him again. Marx finally
settled in London, England, where he lived as a stateless exile
(Britain denied him citizenship and Prussia refused to take him back
as a citizen) for the rest of his life.
Marx
was married to his childhood sweetheart, Jenny von Westphalen, who
was known as the "most beautiful girl in Trier," on June
19, 1843. She was totally devoted to him. She died of cancer on
December 2, 1881, at the age of sixty-seven. For Marx it was a blow
from which he never recovered.
The
Marxes had seven children, four of whom died in infancy or childhood.
He deeply loved his daughters, who, in turn, adored him. Of the three
surviving daughters—Jenny, Laura, and Eleanor—two married
Frenchmen. Both of Marx's sons-in-law became prominent French
socialists and members of Parliament. Eleanor was active as a British
labor organizer.
Marx
spent most of his working time in the British Museum, doing research
both for his newspaper articles and his books. In preparation for Das
Kapital, he read every available work in economic and financial
theory and practice.
Marx's
excessive smoking, wine drinking, and love of heavily spiced foods
may have been contributing causes to his illnesses. In the final
dozen years of his life, he could no longer do any continuous
intellectual work. He died in his armchair in London on March 14,
1883, about two months before his sixty-fifth birthday. He lies
buried in London's Highgate Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a
bust (sculpture of a person's head and shoulders) of him.
His
work, Marxism achieved its first great triumph in the Russian
Revolution (1917–21; when the lower class overthrew three hundred
years of czar rule), when its successful leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin
(1870–1924), a lifelong follower of Marx, organized the Soviet
Union as a proletarian dictatorship (country ruled by the lower
class). Lenin based the new government on Marx's philosophy as Lenin
interpreted it. Thus, Marx became a world figure and his theories
became a subject of universal attention and controversy (open to
dispute). Marx wrote hundreds of articles, brochures, and reports,
but only five books.
His
ideas: Marx's universal appeal lies in his moral approach to
socio-economic problems, in his insights into the relationships
between institutions and values, and in his ideas about the salvation
(to save from destruction) of mankind. Hence Marx is best understood
if one studies not only his economics, but also his theory of history
and politics. The central idea in Marx's thought involves two basic
notions: that the economic system at any given time determines the
current ideas; and that history is an ongoing process keeping up with
the economic institutions that change in regular stages.
To
Marx, capitalism (an economic system characterized by private or
corporate ownership of goods) was the last stage of historical
development before communism. The lowest social or economic class of
a community, when produced by capitalism, is the last historical
class. The two are fated to be in conflict—the class struggle,
which Marx wrote of in the Communist Manifesto —until the lower
class inevitably wins. The proletarian dictatorship, in turn,
develops into communism, in which there are no classes and no
inequalities. The logical suggestion is that with the final
establishment of communism, history comes to a sudden end. This
Marxist interpretation has been criticized in the noncommunist world
as historically inaccurate, scientifically weak, and logically
ridiculous. Nevertheless, Marx's message of an earthly paradise (a
classless society) has provided millions with hope and a new meaning
of life. From this point of view, one may agree with the Austrian
economist Joseph A. Schumpeter that "Marxism is a religion"
and Marx is its "prophet."
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