Karl Marx lived only 65 years, but the ideas of this German philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, socialist thinker, and communist activist of Jewish origin, along with those of his close friend Friedrich Engels, revolutionized the world and remain relevant 143 years after his death.
Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia and now in Germany. He was the third of seven children in a middle-class Jewish family. His father was descended from a long line of rabbis who practiced law in Trier, where he also served as a legal advisor in the Rhineland until he was forced to resign due to his religious beliefs.
He began his law studies at the University of Bonn, but left them to study philosophy in Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1841 in Jena, at the age of 23, and became involved in writing about social reality, collaborating in 1842 with Bruno Bauer on the publication of the Rheinische Zeitung (Rhenish Gazette), a publication of which he soon became editor-in-chief.
According to the French philosopher Louis Althusser, the publication of The German Ideology and the Theses on Feuerbach in 1845 marks a turning point, from which Marx broke with his previous ideological and philosophical phase and inaugurated a scientific period in which he developed economic and historical studies using the method of historical materialism. This period is, above all, that of his magnum opus: Capital: A Critique of Political Economy.
Known as the Lion of Trier, Marx was the founder of scientific communism, the philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism, and scientific political economy. He was also the theoretical father of scientific socialism and communism, Marxism, and historical materialism, in conjunction with his close friend Friedrich Engels.
His theoretical contributions are considered key to understanding society and politics and are studied in universities worldwide. Even conservative and far-right institutions cannot ignore the work of these two brilliant German theorists. Marx's best-known works are the Communist Manifesto (co-authored with Engels), Capital, and The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
During his mature period, Marx's work became more systematic, and his most prominent economic concepts emerged: the theory of value, exploitation as the appropriation of surplus value, and the theory explaining cyclical capitalist crises. During the last third of the 19th century and, above all, during the 20th century, the strength of Marxism in intellectual circles and political organizations worldwide led numerous conservative and liberal thinkers to attempt to refute it.
Scholars integrate the work of Marx and Engels into a philosophical system: Marxism, with the philosophical method of Dialectical Materialism. The principles of the Marxist analysis of reality are systematized in Historical Materialism, with the class struggle at the center of the analysis, and in Marxist economics.
Marx married Jenny von Westphalen, a childhood friend to whom he became engaged while still a student, but he was only able to marry her after the death of his parents, who opposed the union, and after achieving a degree of (temporary) financial stability as editor of the "Franco-German Annals."
They lived in dire financial straits due to Marx's irregular income, the political persecution that censored and shut down the journals he published, and their constant need to move from country to country. They had six children, but three died from seizures, bronchitis, and tuberculosis. Their youngest daughter, Eleanor, became involved in the feminist movement, and Laura Marx married the French socialist leader Paul Lafargue and committed suicide with him in 1911. Marx dedicated his personal life exhaustively to the study of various disciplines of thought, especially philosophy and history, which meant he never achieved financial stability; however, he always had the unwavering and unconditional support of his friend Engels.
From 1877 onward, with his health severely failing, he retreated permanently into domestic life, where he suffered two more consecutive losses. On December 2, 1881, his wife died, and barely a year later, on January 11, 1883, his oldest daughter, Jenny, also passed away. Alone, dejected, with a weakened mind and seriously affected lungs, Karl Marx died on March 14, 1883, but his ideas continue to inspire progressive struggles around the world.