Karl Marx Birth Anniversary: The German polymath Karl Marx’s birth anniversary marks on 5th May 1818.
Karl Marx was born on 5th May 1818 in Trier, Rhine province of Germany which was under the rule of Prussia at that time. He published the Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei commonly known as The Communist Manifesto along with Friedrich Engels. Marx also published another profound work of research, Das Kapital.
To commemorate the birth anniversary of Karl Marx, let us have a look at some lesser-known facts about him.
- Karl Marx was born into a family of orthodox Jews and was the grandchild of rabbis. However, at the time under Prussian rule, the political environment began to have second thoughts about Jewish emancipation, and Marx’s father converted to Christianity a year ahead of Karl’s birth. Karl Marx was baptized at the age of six years, but as he grew up, religion didn’t play a major role in shaping his ideology.
- Marx, a student of Greek and Roman mythology and the history of art, actively took part in customary student activities, fought a duel, and even spent a day in jail for being drunk and disorderly.
- Karl Marx presided at the Tavern Club, which was at odds with the more aristocratic student associations, and joined a poets’ club that included some political activities.
- Marx also advocated for freedom of the Press and was critical of censorship at a time when political rule was quite hostile.
- In the year 1849, Marx’s newly founded newspaper Neue Rheinische Zeitung urged a constitutional democracy and war with Russia.
