Karl Heinrich Marx Biography

Karl Heinrich Marx is born in Trier to lawyer Heinrich Marx and Henriette Pressburg.

Marx is baptised into the Protestant Church together with his siblings.

Marx begins attending the Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium in Trier.

Marx completes his secondary education and receives his school-leaving certificate.

Marx enrols at the University of Bonn to study law.

Marx becomes secretly engaged to his childhood friend Jenny von Westphalen.

Marx transfers to the University of Berlin and studies law and philosophy.

Marx becomes associated with the Young Hegelians and studies Hegelian philosophy.

Marx writes a long letter to his father describing his intellectual development.

Marx compiles notebooks on Epicurean philosophy while preparing his doctoral research.

Marx submits a dissertation comparing the natural philosophies of Democritus and Epicurus.

The University of Jena awards Marx a doctorate in philosophy in absentia.

Marx publishes articles defending freedom of the press against Prussian restrictions.

Marx investigates the poverty and grievances of wine-growing communities in the Moselle region.

Marx writes critically about Prussia's revised censorship regulations.

Marx begins contributing political and philosophical articles to the Rheinische Zeitung.

Publishes an article examining political centralisation and local autonomy in the Rheinische Zeitung.

Publishes a critique of the Kolnische Zeitung's treatment of philosophy, religion and political discussion.

Marx becomes editor of the Rheinische Zeitung and sharpens its criticism of government policy.

Publishes an article responding to attacks on communism in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung.

Begins publishing a series on debates in the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly.

Publishes an article on communal reform and the political position of the Kolnische Zeitung.

Publishes an article criticizing weaknesses in the liberal opposition in Hanover.

Publishes an editorial note on the proposed Prussian divorce bill.

Publishes an article criticizing a cabinet order affecting the daily press.

Publishes a response to criticism directed at the Rheinische Zeitung by a Kolnische Zeitung correspondent.

Publishes an article examining Hanover industrialists and the politics of protective tariffs.

Publishes an article discussing the attitudes of Georg Herwegh and Arnold Ruge toward The Free.

Publishes an article criticizing the polemical methods of the Augsburg newspaper.

Publishes an article examining the role of commissions of the Prussian estates.

Publishes a fuller article on the political and legal issues surrounding the Prussian divorce bill.

Marx drafts a critique of Hegel's account of the state and political institutions.

Marx writes On the Jewish Question while examining political and human emancipation.

Publishes the opening instalment of an article opposing the ban on the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung.

Publishes a reply to Oberpraesident von Schaper during the Rheinische Zeitung's dispute with Prussian authorities.

Begins a series of polemical articles answering the Allgemeine Zeitung.

Publishes an article on local elections of deputies to the provincial assembly.

Publishes a polemical response to the Rhein-und-Mosel-Zeitung.

Publishes a further critique of the Rhein-und-Mosel-Zeitung's political journalism.

Marx resigns shortly before the authorities suppress the Rheinische Zeitung.

Marx marries Jenny von Westphalen after a lengthy engagement.

Marx moves to Paris with Jenny and enters a community of radical intellectuals.

Marx develops ideas about alienated labour, private property and human emancipation.

Marx and Arnold Ruge publish the only issue of the Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher.

Marx publishes an introduction arguing that material conditions shape political and religious criticism.

Marx and Friedrich Engels meet in Paris and begin their lifelong collaboration.

Marx renounces his Prussian citizenship and remains stateless for the rest of his life.

Marx and Engels begin The German Ideology, developing a materialist interpretation of history.

Marx writes concise theses emphasising practical activity and social relations.

French authorities expel Marx following pressure from the Prussian government.

Marx settles in Brussels and continues his political and economic studies.

Marx and Engels publish The Holy Family against the Young Hegelian critics.

Marx and Engels study British industry, political economy and working-class organisation.

Marx helps establish a committee linking socialist and communist groups across Europe.

Marx publishes The Poverty of Philosophy as a critique of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

Marx and Engels join the Communist League and influence its political programme.

The Communist League commissions Marx and Engels to prepare a political manifesto.

Marx lectures German workers on wages, labour and capitalist production.

Marx and Engels publish the Manifesto of the Communist Party.

Marx and Engels issue political demands for the German revolutionary movement.

Marx returns to revolutionary Paris after the fall of the July Monarchy.

Belgian authorities arrest and expel Marx during the revolutionary crisis.

Marx analyses the violent suppression of Parisian workers in the June Days.

Marx launches the Neue Rheinische Zeitung as a democratic revolutionary newspaper.

Marx defends the newspaper before a jury and is acquitted.

Prussian authorities order Marx to leave after withdrawing his right of residence.

The final issue appears in red ink after Prussian authorities order the newspaper closed.

Marx briefly returns to Paris before French authorities require him to leave.

Marx arrives in London, where he remains for the rest of his life.

Marx publishes essays interpreting the French upheavals of 1848 through class conflict.

Marx edits a political-economic review analysing the defeated European revolutions.

Marx and Engels urge the Communist League to maintain independent working-class organisation.

Marx's faction separates from members advocating an immediate new revolutionary uprising.

Marx begins writing regularly for the New-York Daily Tribune.

Marx publishes The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte in a New York periodical.

Publishes a New-York Daily Tribune article analysing the English election and the rivalry between Tories and Whigs.

Publishes a Tribune article examining the Chartist movement in Britain.

Publishes a Tribune article on corruption and bribery in British elections.

Publishes a Tribune analysis of the results and political consequences of the British election.

Publishes a Tribune article discussing Mazzini, Kossuth, Louis Napoleon and European revolutionary politics.

Marx supports dissolving the Communist League after the Cologne communist trial.

Publishes a Tribune article linking pauperism, free trade and the approaching commercial crisis.

Publishes a Tribune article on the political effects of commercial expansion and instability.

Publishes a Tribune article analysing attempts to create a new opposition grouping in British politics.

Publishes a Tribune article assessing British political parties and their immediate prospects.

Publishes a Tribune article on Kossuth, Mazzini and the politics surrounding Louis Napoleon.

Marx writes Tribune articles examining colonial rule and social transformation in India.

Marx publishes a defence of defendants convicted in the Cologne communist trial.

Publishes a response to claims made by the secretary of Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth.

Publishes a Tribune article examining the defeat of the British ministry.

Publishes a Tribune article assessing the outgoing administration and prospects for a coalition ministry.

Publishes a Tribune article contrasting commercial prosperity with political uncertainty and cases of severe poverty.

Publishes an article noting an unusual organised strike among agricultural labourers in southern Wiltshire.

Publishes a Tribune article discussing capital punishment, Richard Cobden and Bank of England regulations.

Publishes an article connecting an Italian insurrection with developments in British politics.

Publishes an article discussing forced emigration, political refugees and British electoral corruption.

Publishes an article covering parliamentary inquiry and renewed controversy over the ten-hour working day.

Writes an article analysing strikes, wage demands and the changing industrial situation in Britain.

Marx publishes a series analysing Spanish political history and revolutionary conflict.

Marx speaks about industrial progress, social contradiction and working-class emancipation.

Marx begins extensive economic manuscripts later known collectively as the Grundrisse.

Marx studies historical property systems and social formations preceding capitalism.

Marx publishes a major preliminary treatment of commodities, money and production.

Marx publishes Herr Vogt to answer political and personal accusations.

Marx and Engels analyse the American Civil War for European and American newspapers.

Marx unsuccessfully applies to regain Prussian citizenship.

Marx begins manuscripts tracing earlier economic theories of surplus value.

Marx visits Germany seeking financial support and discussing publishing plans with Ferdinand Lassalle.

Publishes an article examining British political attitudes toward the developing American Civil War.

Publishes an analysis of the causes and political character of the American Civil War.

Publishes a further article analysing military and political developments in the American Civil War.

Publishes an article on the dismissal of Union General John C. Fremont.

Publishes an article analysing the diplomatic crisis created by the Trent affair.

Publishes an article assessing the danger of conflict between Britain and the United States.

Publishes a further analysis of the international controversy surrounding the Trent affair.

Publishes an article examining slavery as the central political issue of the American conflict.

Publishes an article reviewing political and military news from the United States.

Publishes an article examining changing British public opinion toward the American Civil War.

Publishes an article contrasting newspaper positions with wider public opinion on the American crisis.

Publishes an article linking misleading French reports with the economic consequences of war.

Publishes an article on a British public meeting expressing support for the United States.

Publishes an article discussing a suppressed diplomatic dispatch associated with William Seward.

Publishes a Tribune article examining English public opinion toward the United States.

Publishes an account of a London workers' meeting concerning the American Civil War.

Publishes an article examining the British cotton crisis produced by disruption of American supplies.

Publishes an article reviewing political and military developments in the United States.

Publishes an article on British supporters of secession and recognition of the Union blockade.

Publishes an article examining British press reaction to the Union capture of New Orleans.

Marx participates in founding the International Workingmen's Association.

Marx drafts the association's inaugural address linking political organisation with workers' emancipation.

Marx prepares organisational rules for the International Workingmen's Association.

Drafts an International Workingmen's Association address congratulating Abraham Lincoln on his re-election.

Helps formulate a resolution governing admission of organisations to the International Workingmen's Association.

Writes to J. B. Schweitzer assessing Proudhon's ideas and political significance.

Drafts resolutions for the International's Central Council concerning conflict in its Paris section.

Publishes a statement explaining the causes of the break with the German newspaper Social-Demokrat.

Publishes The President of Mankind during his political work for the First International.

Drafts an International address to United States President Andrew Johnson after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Marx presents an explanation of wages, value and profit to the International's General Council.

Drafts a resolution calling for a general congress of the International Workingmen's Association in 1866.

Participates in the London Conference of the International and its organisational deliberations.

Drafts a resolution on procedures for discussing the International's congress programme.

Issues A Warning in connection with organisational disputes inside the International Workingmen's Association.

Drafts a resolution defining the programme for the International's Geneva Congress.

Prepares instructions for International delegates on major questions to be considered at the Geneva Congress.

Marx is elected to the International's General Council while absent from its Geneva congress.

Addresses a London meeting supporting Poland and links national liberation with wider democratic struggle.

Drafts resolutions on the agenda for the International Workingmen's Association congress at Lausanne.

Drafts a resolution defining the International's attitude toward the League of Peace and Freedom.

Marx publishes the first volume of Capital, analysing capitalist production and exploitation.

Drafts an International resolution concerning Fenian prisoners and events in Manchester.

Helps define the International's position on Prussian protectionist tariff policy.

Participates in a General Council resolution changing the venue of the International's 1868 congress.

Participates in a General Council resolution responding to Felix Pyat's conduct.

Helps issue an International declaration concerning British government policy toward Tsarist Russia.

Helps prepare a Brussels Congress resolution on the consequences of machinery under capitalism.

Helps prepare a resolution advocating reduction of the working day for the Brussels Congress.

Prepares the Fourth Annual Report of the General Council of the International.

Writes on relations between the International and the International Alliance of Socialist Democracy.

Helps prepare a summary of General Council meetings for publication in The Bee-Hive.

Helps issue an International address to European and American workers condemning violence in Belgium.

Drafts an address from the International to the National Labor Union in the United States.

Prepares the General Council report on the right of inheritance for the International.

Writes on British government policy toward imprisoned Irish Fenians.

Writes a confidential communication analysing Bakunin's political activity and disputes inside the International.

Drafts the International's first address on the Franco-Prussian War.

Drafts the International's second address after the fall of Napoleon III and proclamation of the French Republic.

Speaks at an International banquet on the political significance of the Paris Commune.

Helps formulate the International's resolution affirming the importance of independent working-class political action.

Marx publishes an address defending the Paris Commune and assessing its historical significance.

Completes with Engels a private circular answering factional attacks and preparing for confrontation with Bakunin's supporters.

Publishes an article arguing for nationalisation of land as part of a broader social transformation.

Marx participates in the International's Hague Congress during conflict with the anarchist faction.

Publishes Political Indifferentism, criticizing anarchist arguments against working-class political action.

Marx writes critical marginal notes on the proposed programme of German social democracy.

Publishes A Workers' Inquiry, a questionnaire designed to collect detailed information about workers' labour and living conditions.

Writes to Vera Zasulich discussing the Russian rural commune and possible paths of social development.

Marx's wife Jenny dies after decades of political exile and collaboration.

Marx travels to Algiers seeking relief from chronic respiratory illness.

Karl Marx dies at his London home, aged sixty-four.

Marx is buried at Highgate Cemetery in London in a small funeral ceremony