Background of Karl Marx

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Background of Karl Marx

Karl Marx may be regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of all time. His revolutionary ideas about the power of the working class gained him a large following in his own time. Europe had a very overpowering upper class, and a very poor, oppressed working class. Many working class people were willing and eager to listen to Marx’s message of the power that could come about if the working class were to unite as one and fight for a single cause. Marxism has greatly influenced the development of socialist thought and practice in government. Many scholars consider Karl Marx to be one of the great economic theorists, and a founder of an economic policy and sociology.1

Karl Marx was born in the city of Trier, in Rheinish Prussia, on May 5, 1818. His family was Jewish, but they later converted to become Protestants in 1824. Marx’s father was a lawyer, and his family was part of the upper class.2 The years 1830 and 1831 were revolutionary years, and in 1830 a revolution began in France. It swept all over Europe, and Russia and had a big influence on Marx’s life. His youth was marked by two big events, The Industrial Revolution in England, and the Great Revolution in France.3 In October of 1830 Marx went to Trier Gymnasium for high school. After graduation Marx entered into the university, first at Bonn, then transferred to Berlin, and later transferred to Jena. While in school he read law, majoring in history and philosophy. However, his interest in philosophy turned him away from law, and in 1841 he earned a doctorate at Jena, writing on the materialism and atheism of Greek atomists.4

In 1841 the Rheinische Zeitung was founded at Cologne, Germany. Marx used it to criticize the deliberations of the Rhine Province Assembly. His articles gained much attention at that time. In 1842 he became the editor. The following year, 1843, the government issued a decree declaring that the Rheinische Zeitung must stop publication, Marx resigned, and the paper ceased publication.5

In the summer of 1843 Marx married a childhood friend he had become engaged to while still a student. Her name was Jenny Von Westphalen. She was the daughter of Privy Councillor von Westphalen of the Prussian nobility. In September 1844 Marx moved to Paris, where he devoted himself primarily to studying political economy and the history of the French Revolution.

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