Karl Marx

             Many scholarly pieces have been written on Karl Marx, the author of the communist manifesto. Many of these pieces critically analyze and focus solely on the beliefs and social structures that Marx assembles in his writings. Although errors and contradictory theories can be found in his writings, which are excellent catalysts for discussion, it is the focus of this paper to establish Marx's fundamental influence regarding modern-day politics and economics. His, at the time, tainted views of working class citizens and their quarrels with employers has earned him the position of one of the most highly regarded political philosophers of all time. .
             Karl Marx was born on May 5th, 1818, in Trier in the German Rhineland. His grandfather was a rabbi and his father was a successful lawyer who had his entire family baptized for business and social reasons. Marx studied law at Bonn and philosophy at the University of Berlin. While in Berlin he became acquainted with the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. At age twenty-four he became editor of a paper in Cologne, Germany but his radical ideas soon got him into censorship trouble, and he went to Paris, partly to escape arrest. With him went his beautiful young wife, Jenny von Westphalen, whom he had married in spite of both families' misgivings. Because of his uncompromising nature, he had few friends and in turn was devoted to his children and wife. One friend, however, remained faithful to him and paid his bills. He was Friedrich Engels, a textile manufacturer whose ideas were in complete accord with Marx's and who collaborated with him in his writing. Expelled from Paris in 1845, Marx lived for a time in Brussels, Belgium. While in Brussels Marx and Engels had written the pamphlet "Manifesto of the Communist Party', published in 1848. It contains the simplest expression of Marx's beliefs and the ideas in it were later developed at length in the three volumes of Marx's major work, "Das Kapital' (Capital).