Karl Marx's Life and Work

Karl Marx's Life and Work

As a German philosopher, a politician, and an important figure within the Communist League, Karl Heinrich Marx birthed a new way of looking at things through his beliefs, ideas, and writings. Karl Marx was considered to be “…certainly one of the most important minds of modern times”(1). He wanted to know more about philosophy, so that he might understand the political and social system better.

http://csf.colorado.edu/mirrors/marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/index.htm

On May 5th, 1818, in Trier, Karl Marx was born of Heinrich and Henrietta Marx in the German Rhineland. Studies say that Karl’s family was of a large size, consisting of about four children: Karl, Sophie, Emilie, and Luise. His mother, whom belonged to a family of Hungarian Jews, died in 1863,yet was always considered to be a lovely wife and mother. The Jewish blood that ran through the family ultimately impacted Karl’s fate. When Karl was six years old, he adopted Christianity because at the time it was considered as an act of civilized progress. His father, a highly educated lawyer whom admired eighteenth century literature (of the French Enlightenment), was a “Prussian patriot” and a Jewish believer. Karl and his father held a personal relationship, to which they enjoyed a close friendship. His father did indeed influence him greatly, but Karl “did not believe in the power of rational argument to influence action,” (2) as did his father.

In high school, Marx was a good student, whom often expressed interest in the peasant community. He also evolved into a reader of new romantic literature. In 1835, he was a student at the University of Bonn and had ...

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...death influence the lives of many.

Notes:

1. Robert C. Tucker, Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction

Publishers, 2001), 233.

2. Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, 4th ed. (Oxford [Eng.]; New

York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 22.

3. Franz Mehring, “Karl Marx: The Story of His Life”, Chapter One: Early Years,

October 2000 http://www.marxists.org/archieve/mehring/works/marx/ch01.htm (10-29-01)

4. Mehring, 3

5. Mehring, 6

6. David Riazanov, “Karl Marx and Frederick Engels”, An Introduction to Their Lives and

Work, 1927, <http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/other/Riazanov/Archive/1927-Marx/>.

7. Riazanov, ch 2

8. Riazanov,ch 4

9. David Mclellan, Karl Marx: His Life and Thought (New York, Evanston, San Francisco,

London, 1973), 451.