karl marx



born: 1818
died: 1883

works:
manifesto of the communist party (1848)
critique of the gotha program (1875)


relationships:
family:
heinrich marx (father)
jenny von westphalen (wife)

friends:
friedrich engels
john stuart mill

influences:
plato
francis bacon
thomas hobbes
robert owen
thomas paine
georg hegel
ludwig feuerbach

influential on:


opponents:
immanuel kant
pierre-joseph proudhon
thomas paine

enemies:
mikhail bakunin
karl vogt
ferdinand lassalle


sources:
1) basic writings on politics and philosophy, marx & engels, anchor, 1959
2) marx, robert payne, wh allen & co., 1968.
notes:

- born jewish, converted by his father to lutheranism, eventually became an atheist.
- grew up in trier in a wealthy neighbourhood; his neighbour was the "mayor" of the town.
- married the girl next door, the wealthy daughter of an aristocrat.
- attended the university of bonn and the university of berlin, but only took about two years worth of credits. read a lot in his spare time and picked up a b.s. doctorate from the university of jena.
- actually always wanted to be a poet!
- worked as an editor after university, mostly for the liberal rheinische zeitung, which he became editor-in-chief of. marx was opposed to socialism and communism at this time. these writings were heavily edited; marx was living under an authoritarian monarchy with a weak diet. topics included tracts against christianity, arguments in favour of freedom of the press, a defence of the common practice of peasants taking branches out of privately-owned forests in the face of a law that forbade it and attacks on the tzar of russia. the last of these led to the publication being shut down by the prussian king in march, 1843.
- afterwards, he moved to paris and published in deutsch-franzosische jahrbucher and in vorwarts. this is also where he first developed a friendship with engels.
- was expelled from paris for causing a ruckus and moved to brussels where he formed the communist league.
- was expelled from belgium, floated around europe for a bit (including a stay in cologne, where he ran another newspaper) and then ended up expelled to london where he spent the rest of his life writing with engels and spending time with his family.
- survived by writing for the new york daily tribune, 1852-1861. initially, his articles were well received; over time, they were heavily censored.
- involved with a socialist organization called "the international".