Karl Marx

Karl Marx (German: [ˈkaʁl ˈmaʁks]; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, and revolutionary socialist. He developed the theory of historical materialism, analysing societal structure and change, particularly class struggle under capitalism, and predicting the system's ultimate replacement by communism. Marx co-authored The Communist Manifesto (1848) with Friedrich Engels, and undertook a critique of classical political economy in his magnum opus, Das Kapital (1867–1894). His ideas and their later development, collectively known as Marxism, have had enormous influence on intellectual, political, and social history, and have inspired revolutionary movements in many countries.

Born in Trier in the Kingdom of Prussia, Marx earned a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Jena in 1841. He became involved in radical journalism and was influenced by the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and the Young Hegelians, whose ideas he critiqued in works such as The German Ideology. In Paris, Marx wrote his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and began a close collaboration with Engels. After moving to Brussels, they were active in the Communist League, and in 1848 wrote The Communist Manifesto, which lays out a programme for revolution. Expelled from Germany after the Revolutions of 1848, Marx moved to London, where he wrote his Grundrisse notebooks and the three volumes of Das Kapital. He became a leading figure in the International Workingmen's Association (First International), in which he battled the influence of anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin and celebrated the Paris Commune of 1871. In his late studies and his Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875), Marx theorized on the transition to a communist society. He died in 1883 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.