Karl Marx

Hate Him or Love Him

The spread of Communism from the 19th century to the present, is due largely to the writing of Karl Marx. With the so-called collapse of Soviet Communism in 1991, many felt relieved and believed the end of that threat was at hand. Time however, has proved that hope in vain. Communism is on the rise again in South America, Central America, Asia, and even Russia is a cause for worry.

That being the case, we would do well to look briefly at the life and writings of this man Marx. Karl was born at Treves, Germany, on May 5, 1818. For several generations, his male ancestors on both sides of the family had been scholars and distinguished rabbis. Karl Marx's father ended this long tradition by breaking away from the synagogue and taking up with Protestantism. He also began practicing law. This all occured when Karl was about six years of age.

In elementary school, young Karl showed himself to be very quick and inclined towards scholarship. He also revealed a characteristic that would plague him for the rest of his life. It was his inability to keep a friend. He began his university career at age seventeen. It was in the year 1835 that he entered the University of Bonn to study law. While there, Karl joined a tavern club, fought a duel, and did poorly in his studies.

The Univeristy of Bonn decided it was time for him to go. Karl's father agreed and sent him to the University of Berlin. There he became deeply interested in philosophy and decided that he would like to teach. For his doctoral dissertation Marx chose "The Difference Between the Natural Philosophy of Democritus and of Epicurus". In this work he chose to align himself with materialism. He declared his hatred for God and fell in with the left-wing school of Hegelians at the University. They were determined to eliminate Christianity and began publishing the "Journal of Atheism". Marx claimed that the highest divinity was the human self-consciousness itself.

The German government took a dim view of Karl's position and he was compelled to go elsewhere to complete his doctoral studies. In April, 1841, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Jena. Shortly thereafter, Marx and his companion Bruno Bauer, wrote an inflamatory and revolutionary pamphlet which aroused the Prussian officials. Karl was told he would never be permitted to teach in a German university.

In June of 1843, Karl Marx married Jenny von Westphalen, the popular daughter of a German aristocrat. He never acquired even the slightest comprehension of the responsibilities which a husband or father would have to assume as head of a family, but Jenny remained loyal to him under unbelievable circumstances which would have ruined a woman of weaker nettle.

By 1853 Karl Marx was a political fugitive who had been driven from Germany, France, and Belgium. He and his wife and children were existing in a two room hovel in one of London's slums. The British Government made routine checks on political exiles and the report of one official is most revealing. The slum apartment was said to have been filled with tobacco smoke. There was not one clean or decent piece of furniture to be seen. The utensils were dirty and the only large table in the place was covered with manuscripts, books, newspapers, and children's toys. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust and everything that could be broken, was broken.

Even in the most extreme poverty, Marx was unable to provide for his family. While they sat at home going hungry, he could be seen pouring over books and papers at the library. In 1852, his daughter Francisca died. In 1854 his son Edgar died. In 1856, another child died at birth.

Perhaps the most ardent admirer of Karl Marx was his only real friend, Friedrich Engels. He first met Karl in Paris, in 1844. He proved to be the perfect soul-mate for the revolutionary ideas of Marx and he often helped him financially. Together, they raised the red flag of revolution and published a book entitled "The Holy Family".

This was a blasphemous work designed to rally other communists and disavow Christian mortality. By 1847, Marx and Engels attended the congress of the Communist League in Brussels and dominated its agenda. The program adopted at that meeting included the following.

• The overthrow of free-enterprise capitalism
• Abolition of private property
• Elimination of the family as a social unit
• Abolition of all classes in society
• Overthrow of all governments
• Establishment of a communist order with communal ownership of property
• Support of world wide revolution to accomplish their goals

The Communist League fell into hard times in Germany when its leaders were arrested in 1852 and sent to prison. Marx attempted to help them but to no avail. His presence among his comrades was always divisive and his agitating spirit was usually the cause of splinters and quarrels in the ranks. In 1862, and shortly thereafter, a second great attempt was made to organise a communist movement. This time Marx asserted himself and what began as a labor movement in London, was soon hijacked by Karl and his supporters only to become the First International, or International Workingmen's Association.

Marx and Engels set about at once to destroy any possible threats to their plan for world wide revolution. Bakunin in Russia, and Schweitzer in Germany, were among the first to fall. The First International was failing by 1873, but the seeds of violent revolution had been sown. During the years leading up to 1867, Marx had been working on the book that would change the world. This book was "Capital". In that year, the first of three volumes was complete. After the death of Karl Marx, Engels published volumes two and three by 1894.

The final years for Karl were terrible. He was very sick and never lived long enough two see volumes two and three go to print. His final years were sterile, sad, and lonely. Jenny remained steadfast to the end but his daughter Eleanor committed suicide.

Another daughter, Laura, also took her own life. Finally Jenny could go on no more and died of cancer in 1881. A little more than a year later, Marx's favorite daughter Jenny, named for her mother, died very suddenly. On March 14, 1883, Karl Marx died of ill-health, loneliness, and abandonment. He died sitting alone in his chair. Three days later only half a dozen persons accompanied the casket to Highgate cemetery in London, where his only abiding friend, Friedrich Engels delivered the funeral oration.

Karl Marx was egotistical to the point of insanity. He was intolerant, vain, and unforgiving. It is perhaps true that his own inability to compete in a capitalistic economy caused him to create a device for interpreting history which made progress inescapable and a communist millenium unavoidable. When he died he had failed to produce the genuine world wide revolution. In eastern Europe however, there was a sleeping giant which would soon heed the call to arms and the ensuing blood bath would cause the deaths of many millions of people. That sleeping giant was Russia.

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