Page 49 - History of Christianity II- Textbook

David Livingston: Africa’s Trailblazer

Karl Marx, 1818-83, as founder of Marxism an influential political science which was
highly critical of capitalism. The ideology of Marx and Communism shaped the
Twentieth Century.

Karl Marx was born 5 May 1818, in Trier in western Germany. His father was a
successful lawyer who had converted from Judaism to Christianity in order to help his
law career.

At the age of 17, Karl Marx enrolled in the University of Bonn to study Law. He was not
the most diligent student, enjoying drinking societies and meeting friends. His father eventually had him
transferred to the University of Berlin, which had a stricter reputation. During his time at University,
Marx increasingly became attracted to radical ideas and philosophies. For a time he associated with a
group known as the ‘Young Hegels,’ those students who rejected the ideas of Hegel.
Karl Marx married Jenny von Westphalen, the educated daughter of a Prussian baron, on June 19, 1843.
Shortly after this, he moved to Paris to escape the censorship of the Prussian government who were
increasingly cracking down on left-wing agitators.

Paris in the 1840s was a hotbed of revolutionary activity. Here, Marx met many revolutionaries such as
Frederick Engels – an English radical. These two were to become lifelong friends and supporters; Engels
would later become the chief financial support for Marx.

Engels wrote an influential book The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. This helped
Marx develop his idea of a proletarian revolution. This led to Marx’s first work – Communism Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. This philosophical work sought to show Communism as a moral
force for good to overcome the alienation of labor under capitalism.

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