Who was Karl Marx?

By Tom Garner, All About History about 14 hours ago

Karl Marx was one of the most

influential thinkers of all time.
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 Karl Marx was one of the most influential thinkers of all
time (Image credit: Public Domain / International Institute of
Social History)
JUMP TO:
 Marx's early life
 Influence on Marxism
 The Communist Manifesto
 Death and legacy
 Marxism today
 Additional resources
Karl Marx was a German philosopher,
economist, historian and journalist who is best
known for his work as a radical political theorist
and socialist revolutionary. In collaboration with
fellow theorist and benefactor Friedrich Engels,
Marx published "The Communist Manifesto" in
1848, which became the basis for communism.
His writings remain widely studied but also
controversial, and they have influenced
revolutionary movements and political regimes
across the decades, particularly during the 20th
century. 
KARL MARX'S EARLY LIFE
The third of nine children, Marx was born on
May 5, 1818 in what is now Trier, Germany but
at that time was a city in the Kingdom of
Prussia. Though ethnically Jewish, Marx's father
Heinrich had converted to Christianity, and the
young Karl was baptized as a Lutheran in 1824.
However, his upbringing was largely non-
religious.
Related: Why does Christianity have so
many denominations?
In 1843 Marx married Jenny von Westphalen,
and while their marriage was happy, there were
rumors of infidelity. According to Gavin
Kitching, emeritus professor of politics at the
University of New South Wales, Marx had an
affair with the family servant, Helena Demuth,
which produced a child named Freddy.
"Terrified that his wife would find out, he
managed to get Friedrich Engels to claim
Freddy's paternity... The truth only emerged on
Engel's deathbed," Kitching told Live Science in
an email.
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In 1843, the Marx and Jenny moved to Paris,

where he became influenced by a group of
German intellectuals called the Young
Hegelians, who studied the work of the
philosopher Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-
1831). Through reading Hegel, Marx adopted
socialist ideas as well as a revolutionary view of
the European political system. Although he was
a humanist, meaning he centered his beliefs on
all human interests equally, he came to believe
that society could only function by the
destruction of the privileged upper class, and the
rise of the working class — Marx referred to
these classes as the proletariat and bourgeoisie,
respectively. 
While in Paris Marx co-edited the short-lived
political journal Deutsch-Französische
Jahrbücher (meaning "German-French
Yearbooks") with Arnold Ruge, a fellow
member of the Young Helegians. The journal
was aimed at French and German socialists, to
"mark the commencement and continuance of
the new era that we are entering," (according
to Deutsche-Französische Jahrbücher) referring
to Marx's predicted socialist revolutions in
Europe. Many of Marx's articles in the journal
discussed ideas that would later be expanded
upon in "The Communist Manifesto."
WHAT INFLUENCED MARXISM?
Similar to Hegel, Marx was strongly influenced
by economists such as David Ricardo (1772-
1823) and Adam Smith (1723-1790), said Allen
Wood, professor of philosophy at Indiana
University Bloomington. "As a historian of the
19th century, he was also influenced by French
historians of the 1789 revolution, including
[François] Guizot," (1787-1874) Wood told
Live Science in an email. 
Another influence on Marx was his friend and
collaborator Friedrich Engels. "Engels was a
fine historian (in my view, better than Marx),
and because he lived in Manchester and actually
ran a cotton factory, he knew far more about
labour conditions and working-class life
generally, than Marx himself," Kitching said. "I
therefore think he influenced Marx… at least as
much as Hegel and Ricardo."