Karl Marx/Timelines

1818

Born of middle-class Jewish parents in the Prussian city of Trier.

1830

Attends Trier High School.

1835

Enrols in the University of Berlin, reading law, history and philosophy.

Becomes a Hegelian idealist.

1841

Graduates with a doctorate in philosophy.

1842

Moves to Cologne.

Is influenced by the humanist philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach[1].

1843

Marries Jenny von Westphalen[2].

Moves to Paris.

Writes Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right[3]

1844

Birth of daughter, Jenny.

Meets Friedrich Engels[4].

Writes The Paris Manuscripts[5], setting out his conception of communism and his proposal for the "dictatorship of the proletariat".

1845

Is expelled from France and moves to Brussels.

Writes Theses on Feuerbach[6]

1846

Sets up the Communist Correspondence Committee (with Engels).

1847

Lectures to the German Workers' Society[7]

Launch of the Communist League[8] (formerly the "League of the Just") with the motto "Workers of the World Unite!"

Writes The Poverty of Philosophy[9].

1848

French revolution of 1848 [10]

Returns to France.

Starts writing political pamphlets on The class struggles in France[11].

Publishes the Communist Manifesto[12] (written jointly with Engels)

1849

Moves to Cologne. Writes articles in the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung"[13] Moves to London.

1850

Writes (with Engels) the Address to the Communist League[14].

1852

Writes The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte[15].

1864

Supports the launch of the International Workingmen’s Association (the first International)[16]

1867

Publication of Das Kapital[17]

1869

Writes A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy[18].

1872

Attends The Hague Congress of the First International,[19]

1875

Writes Critique of the Gotha Programme[20], in which he coins the slogan "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need".

1881

His wife dies.

1883

Death and burial in London's Highgate Cemetery.