Karl Marx: Father of Communism

Understanding the real Marx, as seen by economist Thomas Sowell.

Karl Marx was easily one of the greatest minds to come out of the 19th century. In the minds of many Westerners, his legacy is inextricably tied to the Cold War against the Soviet Bloc. But who was this man? Is there any insight that can be gleaned from his unique perspective? Thomas Sowell, an economist and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, wrote a biography of Marx in his book Marxism: Philosophy and Economics, written in 1985. A former Marxist himself, Sowell came to reject this political philosophy after working an intern at the US Department of Labor, where he discovered that minimum wage laws increased unemployment in the sugar industry in Puerto Rico. Sowell’s insightful book was thus written as a systematic critique of the economic perspective he once espoused. Here is the biography of Karl Marx, as seen through the eyes of Thomas Sowell.

The Marx family

Marx was born in the small German town of Trier, in the Rhineland, in 1818. His birthplace was a three-story townhouse in a fashionable part of town. One of Marx’s neighbors was a baron; his daughter would later become Karl’s wife. The Marxes, like many other families, had servants, property, and education. They enjoyed prominence in the local community. Unlike the other families, however, Heinrich and Henriette Marx were both descended from a lineage of rabbis. The town’s chief rabbi was Heinrich’s brother, but the two siblings were estranged from each other, since Heinrich had rejected his Jewish religion. Karl Marx was baptized as a Lutheran. Throughout his life, he did not identify with the Jews, and actually disliked them. Karl was the third child of the family. He was the second to survive, as well as the eldest boy. Marx’s father was a prosperous lawyer, who owned vineyards and houses, which he rented out for additional income. Heinrich was a learned man of culture, and a political liberal. Karl idolized his father. Marx’s mother was a Dutch woman who spoke German with a heavy accent. A devoted housewife, she lacked much formal education and sophistication. Although Karl loved his mother as a child, he became estranged from her in his early adulthood. When she died many years later, Marx did not express much grief. 

University of Bonn

Karl grew up as a rich, spoiled child. He bullied his younger sisters, and taunted his classmates with his biting sarcasm. He had a dark skin color, earning him the nickname “the Moor.” Marx’s neighbor, Baron von Westphalen, took a great interest in the young boy. He often walked with Karl as they discussed Homer, Shakespeare, Voltaire, and other great writers in the many languages that the Baron spoke. As a young man, Karl attended the University of Bonn for a year. He was an enthusiastic student, but also a heavy drinker. He was rowdy, and engaged in at least one duel. So his father transferred him to the University of Berlin, a more serious institution. But the self-indulgent bohemianism of young Marx persisted. A lavish spender, he was sued several times for not paying his debts. Marx wrote some early poems, usually revolving around the themes of destruction, corruption, and savagery. Two of them were published in a small literary magazine of the time, under the title of “Savage Songs.” There was nothing at all political about these early writings. 

Berlin years 

Marx began his studies at Berlin a few years following the death of Hegel, whose posthumous influence was even greater than during his lifetime. Marx began to associate with the Young Hegelians, who studied philosophy and religion. They were staunchly atheistic, and held a strong opposition to Christianity. Marx began to decline in his formal studies. He took only two classes in the last three years at Berlin. He was a bohemian who regarded the campus as his camping group. He became largely self-taught. The death of his father in 1838, and his long engagement to Jenny von Westphalen, eventually forced him to finish up his studies. Marx applied for a doctorate at the University of Vienna. He wrote his dissertation on two ancient materialist philosophers, Democritus and Epicurus. Searching aimless for a career, Marx drifted into journalism. He became editor of a liberal newspaper called Rheinsiche Zeitung, meaning “Rhineland News”. His political views were typical of his Rhineland middle class upbringing. Under censorship from the Prussian state, political liberalism was very underground and taboo. Marx relished in this revolutionary thinking. During this same period, in the 1840s, Marx had a decisive break with his family. With his father dead, and an inheritance sufficient for eight people, Marx’s mother grew tired of financing her son. By this time, Karl was already fully grown and had a doctorate. He ran up bills that could not be paid, and was outraged when his mother cut off the remnants of his small allowance. 

Paris Radicals

Karl persuaded the von Westphalens to marry their 29-year-old daughter, who had waited faithfully for him for seven years. Neither family liked the marriage. There was a church wedding in 1843, but most of the two families did not attend. But the bride’s mother did pay for the honeymoon. In October of 1843, Marx and his now-pregnant wife moved to Paris. There, he was hired as a writer for a bilingual journal, intended for German and French readers. Only one issue ever appeared, because Marx had a falling out with the editor. He was now left broke in a foreign land. His friends in Cologne quickly scraped together some emergency funds for him, and the couple was rescued from financial ruin. It would not be the last time. Here in Paris, Marx began the studies that would lead him to communism. He met other radicals of the day, including poet Heinrich Heine, the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, and the French anarcho-socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Heine was initially a friend of Marx, but became alienated by his arrogance and dogmatism. Heine later described the Paris Radicals, including Marx, as “a crowd of godless, self-appointed gods.” 

Engels

Among the radicals in Paris was a young German whom Marx had met before. His name was Friedrich Engels. Engels was two years younger than Marx. He came from an even richer family, which owned factories in Germany and England. He never attended university, but he was well-read. By middle age, he could read and write in nearly two dozen languages. Engels was sent away at the age of 17 to receive business training in Bremen. It was not a difficult job, and he was known to enjoy beer, cigars, poems, and correspondence. He took leisurely lunches and naps afterward in a hammock. He also had time to study Hegel, and became one of the Young Hegelians. In 1842, he met Marx for the first time at the liberal newspaper. From 1842 to 1844, Engels lived in Manchester, where he worked in the family business. These observations shaped many of his ideas, which were published in his first book, Conditions of the Working Class in England, in 1844. When he passed through Paris on his way back to the Rhineland, he again met Marx. This time, the two men became great friends. They remained so for several decades. By this time, Engels was already most communistic than Marx, and better versed in economics. Their first joint publication, The Holy Family, appeared a year later. The most famous collaboration between Marx and Engels was the famous Communist Manifesto. It was inspired by a radical organization in London, called the League of the Just, which later rebranded itself as the Communist League. Because of this, the work by Marx and Engels was called The Communist Manifesto. It was largely written by Marx, but it retained some ideas from Engels’ original draft. It was published in February of 1848 as the manifesto of the Communist Party. No authors were listed. Engels was elected as a delegate to the Communist League in 1847. The members of the Communist League were largely intellectuals and professionals. There were very few skilled artisans in its ranks. The average age was under 30. 

Revolutions of 1848

The year 1848 was marked by social revolutions in Europe. The bourgeoise and the proletariat were in alliance against the autocratic governments of continental Europe. As upheaval swept across the continent, Marx and Engels returned to Germany. The two men founded their own newspaper, but Engels was forced to flee under orders for his arrest for inciting violence. Engels made his way through France to Switzerland. Along the way, he enjoyed the sweetest grapes and the loveliest girls. Engels was a life-long womanizer. His amorous affairs included the wife of a fellow communist. He had a special taste for French women. “If there were no French women, life would not be worth living,” he told Marx in 1846. Engels returned to Germany in 1849, where a democratic revolution was in action. He took part in this armed resistance against the German government. An expulsion order was issued against Marx, who was forced to liquidate his newspaper. Facing persecution in Germany, Marx and Engels fled to England, where they spent the rest of their lives. 

Manchester years

It was 1850, and Marx and Engels now had to fend for themselves in England. Both men were in their 30s, and neither of them had ever been self-supporting financially. They had lived off allowances and gifts from their relatives, as well as the meager income scrapped together from their writings. Now, the money was running dry. Marx and Engels were both estranged from their families. Still, as late as 1849, Marx’s mother gave him enough money from his future inheritance to allow him to live comfortably for years. But Karl spent up all the money, often times on armed revolts that usually failed. Engels’ religious father, whom he greatly disliked, still supported his son financially. At age 30, Engels accepted his father’s offer to work in the family business in Manchester. This became the source of his livelihood, as well as much of Marx’s. Ironically, Engels described it as “forced labor”—a term that would gain a whole new meaning during the Marxist-Leninist regimes of the 20th century. He complained that he had to report to the office no later than ten in the morning. The firm employed about 800 workers. Engels started about mid-level, and earned enough of a living to retire at age 50 with substantial funds. It also allowed Marx to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Marx’s family moved into the slums of London, where they spent most of the next 20 years. Karl often struggled to earn money, pay rent, or buy the groceries. The family often dodged creditors, and had to live off bread and potatoes. Three of their kids died in this squalor. Despite the real poverty Marx experienced, his sources of money were still enough to afford a lower-middle class standard of living at that time. It was still about three times the income of an unskilled worker. It was during these harsh years of poverty that Marx wrote his most significant works. Much of his creativity died off in the last dozen years of his life, after he had obtained a comfortable bourgeoise existence from the capitalist system he decried. In the 1850s, Marx regularly studied economics at the British Museum. His research would eventually culminate in Das Kapital, his magnum opus. Over the years, Marx suffered from poor health. His sleeping patterns were irregular, and his alcohol habits did little to help. He lacked personal hygiene, and did not exercise much. But Marx tended to blame all of these personal troubles on the bourgeoise, vowing to exact revenge through his revolutionary activity. Even in these years of destitution, the Marx household had its own maid, a woman named Helene DeMuth. Her nickname was Lenchen. She had been a servant of the elder Baroness von Westphalen, who in 1845 sent her as a present to her daughter, who was unprepared to care for children herself. The Marxes were rarely able to actually pay her a wage; her services were supplied out of her own benevolence. From this woman, Marx secretly fathered a child named Freddy—or at least that was the rumor. 

First International

Marx is so widely recognized today, that it is very difficult for modern readers to realize how obscure he was in his own lifetime. In the early 1860s, Marx had few followers. His writings were largely ignored. Even John Stuart Mill, one of 19th-century England’s most famous writers, lived the same city as Marx for 20 years without knowing him. Marx rose out of obscurity by founding the International Workingmen’s Association in 1864. Like the Communist League, Marx appeared on the scene of an activist organization in flux. He seized the opportunity to maneuver his way into control. Marx’s role in the First International was challenged by a Russian anarchist named Mikhail Bakunin. Their struggle for control ultimately destroyed the organization. Marx had Bakunin expelled, and the headquarters was moved to the United States, where it was safe from European politics. In the last decade of Marx’s life, following the collapse of First International, he published little. His financial worries were largely behind him, but he and his wife suffered from poor health. The publication of Kapital was delayed for various reasons. He was often distracted by ventures into other subjects, such as writing a history of Russia, which required him to learn the Russian language. Marx had been sitting on Kapital since 1845. Engels had urged him for years to finish this proposed book on economics. For over two decades, Karl didn’t know how to finish the second and third volumes of his book. They remained unfinished after his death. A fourth volume was published separately as Theories of Surplus Value. Marx once observed that his earnings from Kapital would not pay for the cigars he smoked while writing it. The book sold poorly. It took four years to sell a thousand copies. Although translations were produced, Marx remained an obscure figure in his own lifetime. His name was little known outside of a small collection of scattered revolutionaries. In his lifetime, Marx received some attention after he vocally defended the Paris Commune of 1871. His book on the subject, The Civil War in France, sold many more copies than the Communist Manifesto. Marx relished in this public notoriety, although it came at the cost of death threats. 

Sowell’s assessment 

Marx’s personal relationships with his children and grandchildren show a very human side to the man. He was a gentle and loving father, who amused his kids with original fairy tales. The deaths of his kids in infancy deeply wounded him for years. But Marx, for all of his skepticism of religion, was an insufferably dogmatic individual. Carl Schurz, a German revolutionary before becoming a famous American statesman, wrote of Marx, “I have never seen a man whose bearing was so provoking and intolerable. To no opinion which differed from his he accorded the honor of even a condescending consideration. Everyone who contradicted him he treated with abject contempt. Every argument that he did not like, he answered with biting scorn at the unfathomable ignorance that had prompted it, or with opprobrious suspicions upon the motives of him who had advanced.” Marx had a tendency to glance at those who contradicted him and utter, “I will annihilate you.” For four decades, he alienated nearly all of the big names of the revolutionary left in 19th-century Europe. Even the patient Engels came close to breaking off ties with him. The younger Marx of the 1840s was more humane and humorous than the older Marx. Many modern-day radicals who become disillusioned by their beliefs often turn to Marx’s earlier writings, rather than the relentless brutality of his later writings, which seem to anticipate the dictatorships of Lenin and Stalin. But the authoritarian and terroristic tendencies of Marx’s writings are present all throughout his career. Engels’ first draft of the Communist Manifesto called for compulsory labor, destruction of the nuclear family, and the replacement of private households with commonly-owned accommodations. Marx wrote threateningly in Rhineland News, “When our turn comes, we shall not disguise our terrorism.” Furthermore, Sowell draws attention to the essential role that Engels played in the formation of Marxism. Marx, an autodidact, had been cut off from the academic world of journals, scholarly conferences, and other forms of institutional intellectual life. Nor did he correspond with the leading minds of his time, such as Mill, Darwin, Tolstoy, Menger, or Dostoyevsky. The supercilious Marx treated his fellow revolutionaries as disciples, or else as enemies—never as equals. Only with Engels did Marx engage in much serious academic thought. Engels provided the economic insights which Marx later systematized and elaborated in Kapital. After Marx’s death, it was Engels who pieced together and edited the posthumous manuscripts of Kapital. This monumental effort required more than a decade of diligent labor. Engels was a better writer, and articulated Marxist ideas better than Marx himself. This was especially true regarding the Marxist conception of history.  The utopian scientific socialism of Engels remains the most powerful formulation of the Marxist credo. After four decades of intellectual exchange, it is impossible to disentangle the contributions of Engels from those of Marx. The relationship between Karl Marx himself and the later Soviet-aligned regimes of the 20th century is fiercely debated. But to Sowell, this 19th-century German thinker must be understood on his own terms, without reference to later interpretations of those ideas. First and foremost, Karl Marx was a flesh-and-blood man. In this regard, Sowell cited Marx’s self-written epitaph: “Nothing that is human is foreign to me.” “Others made him an abstraction and an icon,” Sowell concluded of Marx’s legacy. 

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