Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, Prussia and was one of nine children. While his family had a rabbinical background, his family converted to Christianity when he was six. However, he later became an atheist. Up to the age of 12, Marx was home-schooled. Then, in 1830, he went onto learning at Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium, a high school. In the fall of 1835, Marx was enrolled in the University of Bonn, but later withdrew and entered the University of Berlin, on the encouragement of his father due to his reckless behaviour. While studying law and philosophy, Marx joined a group called the Young Hegelians, which influenced his radical philosophy on the then economic systems in place. In 1841, after completing his studies, Marx became a journalist for a liberal newspaper, Rheinische Zeitung, and a year later became the editor. On June 19, 1843 Marx married his wife Jenny von Westphalen and shortly moved to Paris, where Marx would meet Friedrich Engels, who became his good friend and partner in writing. Two years later, Marx and Engels moved to Belgium. In 1847, the two drafted “The Communist Manifesto” for the Communist League in England. Afterwards, Marx moved to London where he would live out …show more content…
Major Contributions: “The Communist Manifesto”: In this work, Marx outlines the problems of capitalism and how its exploitation of workers is brewing up its own destruction. “Tendency of the rate of profit to fall”: Marx hypothesized how the falling rate of profit is counteracted by producers through a number solutions, which included reducing the wages of workers and using cheaper materials to produce goods. “Labour Theory Value”: In his work, Das Kaptial, Marx explains this theory, which describes that the value of an item can be determined by how much labour it took to produce it. He goes on to explain that workers are paid less than the value of labour they provide, and the rest, or surplus value, is taken for profit in capitalist systems. 3. Interesting