Founder of modern communism; wrote The Communist Manifesto with Engels in 1848; wrote Das Kapital in 1867 (1818-1883).
(Heinrich) (1818-1883) German philosopher, economist, and social theorist whose account of change through conflict is known as historical, or dialectical, materialism (see Marxism). His Das Kapital/Capital 1867–95 is the fundamental text of Marxist economics, and his systematic theses on class struggle, history, and the importance of economic factors in politics have exercised an enormous influence on later thinkers and political activists.
In 1844 Marx began his lifelong collaboration with Friedrich Engels, with whom he developed the Marxist philosophy, first formulated in their joint works Die heilige Familie/The Holy Family 1844 and Die deutsche Ideologie/German Ideology 1846 (which contains the theory demonstrating the material basis of all human activity: “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life”). Both joined the Communist League, a German refugee organization, and in 1847–48 they prepared its program, The Communist Manifesto. In the wake of the 1848 revolution, Marx was expelled from Prussia 1849.
He then settled in London, where he wrote Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich/Class Struggles in France 1849, Die Achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte/The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte 1852, Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie/Critique of Political Economy 1859, and his monumental work Das Kapital/Capital. In 1864 the International Working Men’s Association was formed, whose policy Marx, as a member of the general council, largely controlled. Although he showed extraordinary tact in holding together its diverse elements, it collapsed 1872 owing to Marx’s disputes with the anarchists, including the Russian Bakunin.
Marx was born in Trier, the son of a lawyer, and studied law and philosophy at Bonn and Berlin. During 1842–43, he edited the Rheinische Zeitung/Rhineland Newspaper until its suppression, and during the revolution of 1848 he edited the Neue Rheinische Zeitung/New Rhineland Newspaper.
Marx’s philosophical work owes much to the writings of the German G W F Hegel, though he rejected Hegel’s idealism. It includes Misčre de la philosophie/Poverty of Philosophy 1847. The second and third volumes of Das Kapital were edited from his notes by Engels and published posthumously.