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For other uses, see Marx (disambiguation). Page semi-protected Karl Marx Karl Marx 001.jpg Marx in 1875 Born Karl Heinrich Marx 5 May 1818 Trier, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation Died 14 March 1883 (aged 64) London, United Kingdom Residence Germany, United Kingdom Nationality German Era 19th-century philosophy Region Western Philosophy, German philosophy Religion Protestantism; later, none (atheist) School Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Materialism Main interests Politics, economics, philosophy, sociology, labour, history, cla ss struggle, natural sciences Notable ideas Co-founder of Marxism (with Engels), surplus value, contribution s to the labor theory of value, class struggle, alienation and exploitation of t he worker, The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, materialist conception of histo ry Influenced by[show] Influenced[show] Signature Karl Marx Signature.svg Karl Heinrich Marx (German pronunciation: [ka???l 'ha?n?? 'ma???ks], 5 May 1818 4 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journ alist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and has influen ced much of subsequent economic thought.[4][5][6][7] He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867 1894). Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier in the Prussian Rhineland, Marx studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. After his studies , he wrote for a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out his theory of dialectical materialism. He moved to Paris in 1843, where he began writing fo r other radical newspapers and met Fredrick Engels, who would become his lifelon g friend and collaborator. In 1849 he was exiled and moved to London together wi th his wife and children where he continued writing and formulating his theories about social and economic activity. He also campaigned for socialism and became a significant figure in the International Workingmen's Association. Marx's theories about society, economics and politics collectively known as Marx ism hold that human societies progress through class struggle: a conflict betwee n an ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides the labour for production. He called capitalism the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie," believing it to be run by the wealthy classes for their ow n benefit; and he predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalis m produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replac ement by a new system: socialism. He argued that class antagonisms under capital ism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would eventuate in the working class ' conquest of political power in the form of a dictatorship of the proletariat a nd eventually establish a classless society, socialism or communism, a society w ould be governed by a free association of producers.[8][9] Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for their 1

implementation, arguing that social theorists and underprivileged people alike s hould carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring ab out socio-economic change.[10] Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history. [11][12] Revolutionary socialist governments espousing Marxist concepts took pow er in a variety of countries in the 20th century, leading to the formation of su ch socialist states as the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People's Republic of Chi na in 1949. Many labour unions and workers' parties worldwide are influenced by Marxism, while various theoretical variants, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotsk yism, and Maoism, were developed from them. Marx is typically cited, with mile Du rkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.[13]