Karl Marx (GER)

Karl Marx (/mɑːrks/; German pronunciation: [ˈkaɐ̯l ˈmaɐ̯ks]; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist. Born in Prussia (now Rhineland-Palatinate), he later became stateless and spent much of his life in London. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought. 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 universities of Bonn and Berlin where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. After his studies he wrote for the Rheinische Zeitung, a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out the theory of the materialist conception of history. He moved to Paris in 1843, where he began writing for other radical newspapers and met Friedrich Engels, who would become his lifelong friend and collaborator. In 1849 he was exiled and moved to London together with 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—the collective understanding of which is known as Marxism—hold that human societies progress through class struggle: a conflict between an ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides the labour for production. States, Marx believed, were run on behalf of the ruling class and in their interest while representing it as the common interestof all; and he predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system: socialism. He argued that class antagonisms under capitalism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would eventuate in the working class' conquest of political power and eventually establish a classless society, communism, a society governed by afree association of producers. Marx actively fought for its implementation, arguing that the working class should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change.

Both lauded and criticised, Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history. Many intellectuals, labour unions and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx's ideas, with many variations on his groundwork. Marx is typically cited, with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.

Selected bibliography: 

The Philosophical Manifesto of the Historical School of Law, 1842
Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, 1843
On the Jewish Question, 1843
Notes on James Mill, 1844
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, 1844
The Holy Family, 1845
Theses on Feuerbach, 1845
The German Ideology, 1845
The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847
Wage Labour and Capital, 1847
Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848
The Class Struggles in France, 1850
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, 1852
Grundrisse, 1857
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859
Writings on the U.S. Civil War, 1861
Theories of Surplus Value, 3 volumes, 1862
Value, Price and Profit, 1865
Capital, Volume I (Das Kapital), 1867
The Civil War in France, 1871
Critique of the Gotha Program, 1875
Notes on Adolph Wagner, 1883
Capital, Volume II (posthumously published by Engels), 1885
Capital, Volume III (posthumously published by Engels), 1894
Marx and Engels on the United States (posthumously published by Progress Publishers, Moscow), 1979

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx