KNTV PHILOSOPHY

KARL MARX

BACKGROUND

As a revolutionary philosopher, Marx came up with ideas that were to prove highly influential, although he didn't see them implemented in his lifetime. His books, particularly his masterwork, Das Kapital, provided the ideology that was adapted to form the basis of 20th-century and present-day communism.

Influences

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

A German philosopher and politician, Engels saw Marx as his mentor and collaborated with him on his writings. Engels was always wealthier than Marx and supported Marx and his family financially. The first volume of Das Kapital was published in Marx's lifetime, but Engels edited the remaining two volumes after Marx's death.

Communism

According to Karl Marx's revolutionary left-wing dream, the working classes would revolt in order to overthrow the rich upper class, and society's wealth would be redistributed fairly. Over time, a socialist society based on equality would evolve, which would improve both the quality of life and human happiness.

Marxist ideals formed the basis of the communism that was adopted by the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and spread to other eastern European countries. In the second half of the 20th century, communism rose in other countries including China. The Cold War of 1945-1989, between the West (led by the United States) and the communist Eastern bloc (led by the Soviet Union), was an anti-communist political offensive that at times threatened to escalate into armed hostility. It ended with the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Marx's ideas have been changed and adapted by different countries that have adopted communism, often to the detriment of working people. The very worst example was perpetrated by Stalin, a tyrant who maintained power through terror and the destruction of civil liberties.

Timeline

1818 Karl Marx is born in Trier, Germany, on 5 May.

1824 His family converts from Judaism to Protestantism, and Karl is baptised.

1835 He enrols at Bonn University to study law.

1836 His father makes him transfer to Berlin University.

1841 Marx submits his thesis to the University of Jena as his radical politics have made him unpopular in Berlin. He is awarded a doctorate.

1842 He becomes editor of a liberal newspaper in Cologne.

1843 Marx marries Jenny von Westphalen. They have seven children, only three of whom survive into adulthood. He goes to Paris and states his belief in revolution for the first time.

1844 Marx meets Friedrich Engels, his lifelong collaborator.

1847 He and Engels reorganise the Communist League.

1848 He publishes the Communist Manifesto. There are revolutions in France, and Marx returns to Cologne.

1849 Marx is put on trial twice in Cologne and acquitted. He moves to London, where he spends the rest of his life.

1851 He works briefly as a correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.

1850s/1860s Marx continues to work on his political philosophies.

1867 He publishes the first volume of Das Kapital.

1873 onwards Marx's health and energies decline.

1881 Marx's wife Jenny dies.

1883 Karl Marx dies on 14 March and is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.

1954 The Communist Party of Great Britain erects a tombstone on his grave, carved with the final line of the Communist Manifesto: 'Workers of All Lands Unite'.