Karl Marx German Philosopher, Political

Karl Marx German philosopher, political economist and revolutionary -- was the most influential 19th century European. He has had the greatest impact on not just European history but the history of the whole world. During much of the second half of the 20th century, almost one-fourth of the world's population lived under governments that claimed to be Marxist. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Marx's reputation has no doubt been tarnished to an extent but this does not in any way detract from Marx's importance and the impact he has had on people's lives. In this essay I shall carry out a critical analysis of Karl Marx, his theories, and explain his significance in history.

Early Life, Education & Career

Karl Marx was born in Rhineland Germany in 1818 to Jewish parents who were well off without being wealthy. His father, Heinrich was a liberal-minded lawyer who had nominally converted to Lutheranism to make life easier for himself as a lawyer. At the age of seventeen, Marx enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bonn, where he got involved in radical students politics and unruly behavior. His father disapproved of such behavior and shifted him to the more serious University of Berlin. Being a rebel at heart, though, Marx was unable to keep aloof from politics; he joined the Young Hegelian movement in Berlin, produced a radical critique of Christianity and found the doors of a university education closed to him by the Prussian government. He then moved on to a career in journalism becoming an editor of an influential liberal Cologne newspaper in 1842. He soon got into trouble in his new profession too when he published articles on the economy that were not appreciated by the Government, which banned the paper and Marx was forced to immigrate to France. It was in Paris that Marx developed his theories on Socialism and Communism. (Kries, 2004)

Marx's Theories

In the Communist Manifesto (1848), which Marx co-authored with Friedrich Engels, Marx gave the first systematic statement of modern socialist doctrine -- a materialist concept of history that became the base of all subsequent socialist thought. The Manifesto's central theme was that the history of society is a history of struggles between the capitalist and working classes in which the capitalists exploit the working class. Under this premise, Marx concluded that such a situation could not continue indefinitely and the capitalist class would be eventually overthrown by a working-class revolution leading to a classless society. ("Marx, Karl," 2005)

In his greatest work, Das Kapital (published in 3 Volumes from 1867 to 1895) Marx carried out an exhaustive analysis of the capitalist system and developed the theory that the capitalist class exploits the working class by appropriating the "surplus value" produced by the working class. In the Civil War in France (1871) and Critique of the Gotha Program (1875) he expressed the view that it was necessary for workers to seize political power by armed insurrection in order to destroy the capitalist state; and that between the capitalist and communist systems a transition period -- the dictatorship of the proletariat -- would exist.

His Impact

The impact of Marx's theories was not as significant during his lifetime as in the 20th century after his death. Nevertheless, his ideas about class struggle were considered so dangerous by the governments dominated by the elite class that he was repeatedly prosecuted and exiled from major European countries such as France and Germany for propagating revolution. Besides his writings, he formed the Communist League and the First International to promote working class revolutions in the industrial countries, putting his own belief that "there is no point in gaining a deeper insight into the world unless it is a means of changing the world." ("Karl Marx: Man of Millenium.") After his death, however, with the growth of the labor movement in Europe, Marx's theories began to take on greater significance.

Various socialist movements around the world took up his analysis of capitalist economy, his theory of historical materialism, class struggle, and surplus value and made them the basis of scientific socialism. Towards the end of the First World War, Vladimir Lenin, a Russian revolutionary, inspired by Marx's theories on the nature of the capitalist state became the leader of the Communist movement. Considering himself the political and philosophical heir of Marx, Lenin developed a system called Bolshevism and led his followers in the October 1917 Revolution against the Czarist Russia to form a revolutionary Soviet government. Other socialist movements based on Marxism sprung up around the world in the 20th century -- the most significant of which was the one led by Mao Zedong in China. Marx's influence is not restricted to Communist societies alone: even conservative governments have ushered in social reforms to reduce the influence of Marxist movements in their countries. Right wing fascist movements in Europe, including Nazism were also supported by industrialists and conservative elements as bulwarks against Comunism. (Singer, 2000)