5th May: Karl Marx

On this date in 1818, Karl Marx, founder of international Communism was born. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in Trier, Prussia, now part of Germany. He was the third of nine children. He came from a long line of rabbis, although his own father was a largely non-religious lawyer, and converted to Lutheranism in order to circumvent a law preventing Jews from serving in the profession.
2. As a young man, he was a heavy drinker and smoker which may have affected his health to the extent that he was diagnosed with “a weak chest” and hence got out of military service. His health problems continued and worsened as he got older. Ailments he suffered from included headaches, eye inflammation, joint pain, insomnia, liver and gallbladder problems, severe boils which were so painful that he couldn't sit down, and depression.
3. As a student he was always in trouble. He joined a radical political group called the Poets’ Club and a drinking club called the Trier Tavern Club. He clashed several times with a Prussian militant group called the Borussia Corps and even duelled with one of them.
4. Marx’s father was dismayed at his son’s wild lifestyle and anti-Prussian views. He even once suggested that Karl should write a poem praising Prussia in order to show he was becoming more responsible. Karl refused and stopped visiting his parents after that, and didn’t even attend his father’s funeral.
5. He started several radical newspapers which got him banned from both Prussia and France. He was arrested in Belgium for allegedly arming workers and had to flee from there as well. He eventually settled in England, although he was never allowed to become a British citizen and died stateless.
6. He’s known for his political writings, but he wrote poetry and fiction as well. He wrote several love poems, a play and a satirical novel, Scorpion and Felix. None of it was published until after he died. In fact, he didn’t have a particularly high opinion of his literary talent and burned parts of it, meaning only fragments survive.
7. He married Jenny, the daughter of his father’s friend Ludwig von Westphalen. He’d known her virtually all of his life, first meeting her when he was a year old. She was four years older than him. When Marx was 18, they became engaged, although their union was frowned upon because, not only was she older than him, but from a different social class and she’d broken off an engagement to a more suitable suitor. They had seven children but only three survived. All the daughters were named Jenny after their mother.
8. The family were so poor that Jenny once had to pawn her husband’s Trousers to buy food, so he couldn’t leave the house for days.
9. He died at the age of 64 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.
10. His political works, The Manifesto of the Communist Party and Das Kapital, are now UNESCO World Heritage documents.

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