Founder of Modern Socialism:

Karl Marx

Main Life Accomplishments:

The German philosopher, radical economist, and revolutionary leader Karl Marx founded modern scientific socialism. His basic ideas--known as Marxism--form the foundation of socialist and communist movements. Marx spent most of his life in exile, antagonizing Prussian, French, and Belgium governments. He settled in London, where he spent the rest of his life in dire poverty and relative obscurity. His reputation began to spread only after the emergence of the socialist parties in Europe, especially in Germany and France, in the 1870s and 1880s. From then on, Marx's theories continued to be hotly debated in the growing labor and socialist movements everywhere, including Czarist Russia.

 

Basics:

Born: May 5, 1818 Trier, Prussia

Died: March 14, 1883 (aged 64)London, United Kingdom

Nationality:  German

Religion:  Atheist

Fields:   Philosophy

Main Accomplishments:  Economist advocated deficit necessity.

 

Chronology of Life Events:

May 5, 1818

A son Karl is born to barrister Heinrich Marx and his wife, Henriette, in Trier.

 

Nov 28, 1820

A son Frederick is born to textile manufacturer Friedrich Engels and his wife, Elisabeth, in Barmen

 

Jul 27-29, 1830

Revolution in France

 

Oct 1830

Karl Marx is enrolled at the Trier Gymnasium.

 

Aug - Sep 24, 1835
Marx graduate from the Trier Gymnasium and receives his school leaving certificate.

 

Oct 1835

Marx enrols at Bonn University as a law student.

 

Summer 1836

Marx is engaged to Jenny von Westphalen in Trier

 

Mid Oct

Marx moves to Berlin. On October 22, he enrols at Berlin University as a law student and soon becomes a member of the Young Hegelian Doctor's Club.

 

May 10, 1836

Marx's father dies

 

May - Oct 1843

Marx stays at Kreuznach, a small resort town, where Jenny; von Westphalen and her mother were staying at the time. There, Marx begins critical revision of Hegel’s doctrine of the state and law. The outcome of this work is an unfinished manuscript, published for the first time in 1927 in the Soviet Union under the title, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law.

Simultaneously, Marx studies world history, concentrating on analysis of socioeconomic and sociopolitical processes.

Seeing that political activity in Germany is impossible, Marx decides to move to France. He negotiates the publication in Paris of a magazine, Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher

 

Jun 19, 1843

Marx marries Jenny von Westphalen

 

Late Oct

Marx and his bride move to Paris, where he takes up the history of the French Revolution, studies the work of utopian socialists and English an French economists. In Paris, Marx attends workers’ meetings, gets in touch with the leaders of the secret League of the Just, and meets member of clandestine French workers’ societies

 

May 1, 1844

A daughter, Jenny, is born to Karl and Jenny Marx

 

Feb 1845

Marx moves to Brussels, where his family joins him in mid-February

 

Apr - Dec 1845

Marx and Engels establish contacts with Belgian democrats and socialists

 

Feb 22 - 24 1847

Revolution in France

 

Mar 4, 1848

Marx and his wife are kept under arrest for 18 hours by the Brussels police. They and the children leave Brussels and head for France

 

May 16, 1849

The Prussian authorities hand Marx a government order to leave Prussia. Legal proceedings are instituted against Engels for participating in the Elberfeld uprising

 

Jun 1849

Marx comes to Paris, where a major revolutionary outburst is expected. However, democratic petty-bourgeois leaders fail to direct the struggle of the people, and an attempted uprising fails

 

Apr 2, 1868

Marx’s daughter Laura marries Paul Lafargue, a French socialist

 

Dec 2, 1881

Marx’s wife Jenny dies in London after a long illness

 

Feb - Oct 1882

With his health deteriorating, Marx goes to Algeria, the south of France and Switzerland for a rest and cure, and visits his daughter Jenny in Argenteuil

 

Jun 1882 - Jan 1883

Marx studies organic and inorganic chemistry

 

Jan 11, 1883

Marx’s eldest daughter Jenny dies in Paris

 

Mar 14, 1883

Marx dies in London

 

Early Life:

Marx was born in Trier, Rhenish Prussia, on May 5, 1818, the son of Heinrich Marx, a lawyer, and Henriette Presburg Marx, a Dutchwoman. Both Heinrich and Henriette were descendants of a long line of rabbis. Barred from the practice of law as a Jew, Heinrich Marx became converted to Lutheranism about 1817, and Karl was baptized in the same church in 1824, at the age of 6. Karl attended a Lutheran elementary school but later became an atheist and materialist, rejecting both the Christian and Jewish religions. It was he who coined the aphorism "Religion is the opium of the people," a cardinal principle in modern communism.

Karl attended the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Trier for 5 years, graduating in 1835, at the age of 17. The gymnasium curriculum was the usual classical one - history, mathematics, literature, and languages, particularly Greek and Latin. Karl became proficient in French and Latin, both of which he learned to read and write fluently. In later years he taught himself other languages, so that as a mature scholar he could also read Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Scandinavian, Russian, and English. As his articles in the New York Daily Tribune show, he came to handle the English language masterfully (he loved Shakespeare, whose works he knew by heart), although he never lost his heavy Teutonic accent in speaking.

In October 1835 Marx matriculated in Bonn University, where he attended courses primarily in jurisprudence, as it was his father's ardent wish that he become a lawyer. Marx, however, was more interested in philosophy and literature than in law. He wanted to be a poet and dramatist, and in his student days he wrote a great deal of poetry - most of it preserved - which in his mature years he rightly recognized as imitative and mediocre. He spent a year at Bonn, studying little but roistering and drinking. He spent a day in jail for disturbing the peace and fought one duel, in which he was wounded in the right eye. He also piled up heavy debts.

Marx's dismayed father took him out of Bonn and had him enter the University of Berlin, then a hub of intellectual ferment. In Berlin a galaxy of brilliant thinkers was challenging existing institutions and ideas, including religion, philosophy, ethics, and politics. The spirit of the great philosopher G. W. F. Hegel was still palpable there. A group known as the Young Hegelians, which included teachers such as Bruno Bauer and bright, philosophically oriented students, met frequently to debate and interpret the subtle ideas of the master. Young Marx soon became a member of the Young Hegelian circle and was deeply influenced by its prevailing ideas.

Marx spent more than 4 years in Berlin, completing his studies there in March 1841. He had given up jurisprudence and devoted himself primarily to philosophy. On April 15, 1841, the University of Jena awarded "Carolo Henrico Marx" the degree of doctor of philosophy on the strength of his abstruse and learned dissertation, Difference between Democritean and Epicurean Natural Philosophy, which was based on Greek-language sources.
 

Wife Background:

Johanna Bertha Julie "Jenny", Freiin von Westphalen (February 12, 1814, Salzwedel – December 2, 1881, London) was the wife of Karl Marx, and the daughter of Johann Ludwig Westphal, 1st Freiherr von Westphalen (1770-1842), a professor at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, and wife Caroline Heubel (c. 1775-1856), and only sister of Edgar, Freiherr von Westphalen (Trier, Rheinland, March 26, 1819 – Berlin, September 30, 1890). Her paternal grandparents were Christian Heinrich Westphal (1723-1792) and wife Jenny Wishart (1742-1811), from Scottish nobility.

Jenny and Karl were married on June 19, 1843 in Kreuznacher Pauluskirche, Bad Kreuznach, and had seven children: Jenny Caroline (m. Longuet; 1844-1883); Jenny Laura (m. Lafargue; 1845-1911); Edgar (1847-1855); Henry Edward Guy ("Guido"; 1849-1850); Jenny Eveline Frances ("Franziska"; 1851-1852); Jenny Julia Eleanor (1855-1898); and one more who died before being named (July 1857). Jenny and Karl worked together; he wrote and she edited books that would remain influential throughout the world.

Even though she came from a wealthy family, she stood by Karl's side throughout their life in poverty. In the end of almost every month she had to mortgage her china, from her family, or her tablecloths.
 

Father Background:

Hirschel Marx, a lawyer, was a descendant of a respected family of rabbis. And yet, in 1816, when the edict went out from the Prussian government that no one of the Jewish faith could serve as a lawyer or an apothecary within the kingdom, Hirschel Marx abandoned his Jewish faith and embraced Protestantism. He entered the Evangelical Church as a convert and received the name Heinrich Marx. Nominally a Christian, he was a free thinker who attended church regularly, sang hymns and paid his tithes. He was prepared to conform to the outward form of the church, but did not believe that any faith was superior to any other. In his view Stoicism, Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism were all equally valid and equally vulnerable. In a letter sent to Karl Marx while he was a student in Bonn, Heinrich Marx said.

 

Mother Background:

Henrietta Pressborck, also came from Jewish background. Her father was a well-respected rabbi in Holland. At the time when her husband accepted the Christian faith, her father was still living and therefore she postponed her joining the church. She was baptized in 1825 after her father’s death. Unlike her husband she was not educated, and spent most of her time as a good housekeeper.

 
 
SuperAttainer

ANALYSIS SECTION:

 
 
1. Early Success
 

When did the SuperAttainer first display ability that was greatly above average and what were his accomplishments? 
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
2. Contrarian

 
What actions did the SuperAttainer take that demonstrated a mindset that was very different from those around him?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
3. Conceited
 
What are the actions and documented statements that exhibit an elevated sense of self importance of the SuperAttainer? 
 
REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
4. Hard-Knocked 
 
During what events did the SuperAttainer experience personal misery and severe anxiety?
  

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
5. Loner
 
Is there evidence of the SuperAttainer being comfortable spending time apart from others? 
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
6. Mentored & Motivated
 
Who was vital to developing the SuperAttainer and guiding his career and what significant actions were taken?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
7. Discontent
 
What evidence is there that the SuperAttainer was unsatisfied with even great personal accomplishment?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
8. Promoted
 
What actions or events were responsible for publicizing the tremendous achievements and abilities of the SuperAttainer?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

Overall Score:

x out of 8 = xx% 

PASS

SuperAttainer Type:

Describe the factors in the SuperAttainer’s background to indicate whether he is a Come-From-Nothing or Aristocratic type..

Conclusion:

Executive Search & Management Consulting:

Chalre Associates provides its Executive Search & Management Consulting services throughout the emerging countries of the Asia Pacific region with specific focus on Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.  Regional Managers use us to help bridge the gap between local environments and the world-class requirements of multinational corporations.