Author of Capital and leader of the First International
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!" — Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
Born into a lawyer's family in Trier, he began as editor of the Rheinische Zeitung. He renounced his Prussian citizenship in 1845 and remained stateless for the rest of his life, living in London exile from 1849. Over forty years with Engels he wrote the Communist Manifesto and Capital and led the First International. The late Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) takes apart, line by line, the Lassallean thinking lodged in the German workers' party's unity programme, his last answer to the idea of the state as the instrument of socialism.
Activities and affiliations
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1847–1852
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1842–1843Editor of the Rheinische Zeitung until Prussian censorship closed it
- 1844Met Engels in Paris, beginning a lifelong collaboration
- 1845Renounced Prussian citizenship; stateless thereafter
- 1848Published the Communist Manifesto; edited the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
- 1849–1883Exile in London, writing Capital in the British Museum reading room
- 1864–1872Drafted the Inaugural Address of the International Working Men's Association and led its General Council
- 1867Published Capital, Volume I
- 1871The Civil War in France — defended the Paris Commune as a form of working-class government
- 1875Wrote the Critique of the Gotha Programme, sent to Bracke for the leadership alone
- 1883Died in London and was buried at Highgate Cemetery
Related historical events
- 1870–1871The Franco-Prussian WarAuthor of the General Council's addressesWrote the General Council's addresses of 23 July and 9 September 1870 denouncing a dynastic war and opposing the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, and publicised the arrest of the Brunswick committee in the British press.
- 1848.02–1851.12The French Revolution of 1848 and the Second RepublicAuthor of The Class Struggles in France and The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis BonaparteCame from Brussels to Paris in March 1848 before going to Cologne; analysed the June Days as the first great battle between bourgeoisie and proletariat and the coup as Bonapartism.
- 1848.03–1849.07The German Revolution of 1848–1849Editor-in-chief of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, leader of the Communist LeagueWrote the Demands of the Communist Party in Germany with Engels, ran the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne and became president of the Cologne Workers' Association in October 1848. Expelled in May 1849, he wrote the League's Address of March 1850.
- 1848.03–1849.10The Hungarian Revolution and War of IndependenceEditor-in-chief of the Neue Rheinische ZeitungPublished the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne from June 1848 to May 1849, calling for a revolutionary war against Russia and support for the Hungarian revolution.
- 1848.01–1849.08The Italian Revolutions of 1848–1849 and the First War of IndependenceCritic of MazziniHeld Mazzini's ideas to be "the old idea of a middle-class republic" and considered them reactionary after 1848.
- 1848–1849The Revolutions of 1848Leader of the Communist League, editor of the Neue Rheinische ZeitungWrote the Communist Manifesto with Engels and edited the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne; set out permanent revolution in the 1850 Address.
- 1870–1871The Paris CommuneAuthor of The Civil War in FranceDefended the Commune as a working-class government for the International’s General Council.
The Paris Commune and The Civil War in France
On 18 March 1871, the workers of Paris rose in armed rebellion and held the city for 72 days. Marx tracked events from London, gathering newspaper clippings and correspondence from Commune leaders, and drafted The Civil War in France as the official address of the General Council of the First International. The pamphlet was published in June 1871, barely two weeks after the Commune was crushed. Marx called the Commune "the form at last discovered": the political form that proved that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes." A standing army abolished and replaced by the armed people, elected councillors revocable at short term, a working body both executive and legislative: this was the outline Marx drew from the Commune. In his 1891 preface, Engels explicitly named it an example of the "dictatorship of the proletariat," and Lenin, in The State and Revolution (1917), made this passage the centerpiece of the Marxist theory of the state.