It's Karl Marx's Birth Anniversary today. Here are five things you didn't know about him...
1. He once famously said, "All I know is I'm not a Marxist."
2. As a student, Marx was a social butterfly and his father had to bail him out when he was in university because he had racked up an enormous debt.
3. A self-proclaimed champion of the working class, he never once in his life did a labour job.
A holder of various degrees, no university allowed him to teach as he proclaimed himself to be an atheist. His writings in a radical newspaper got him expelled from Germany. He married Jenny, a baroness, who loved him and was devoted to him. They moved to Paris, from where he was expelled again due to his writing. On their return home to Germany, they were expelled again after he insulted the church and the government.
The couple moved to London, where they stayed for 30 years. They had six
children. Marx also had a child from a mistress. The Marx family lived
in dire and abject poverty. He tried to find gainful regular employment
only once - as a clerk in a railway office - but was turned down because
of his illegible handwriting. Living in abject poverty and deep in
debt, three of his children died of malnutrition or lack of proper care.
Their condition was said to be so dismal that he couldn't afford to buy
a coffin for one of his children. Soon, Jenny also died and Marx was
left with only two children. Later, he looked back at his life with
regret and said, "You know that I have sacrificed my whole fortune to
the revolutionary struggle. I do not regret it. Quite the contrary if I
had to start my life over again, I would do the same. But I would not
marry."
4. He lived a painful life
5. Marx had suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of 19. Perhaps he never recovered his mental composure after that.
Perhaps that is what led author Saul K. Padover to say this about Marx in his book Karl Marx: An Intimate Biography:
"In private life he is a highly disorderly, cynical person, a poor host; he leads a gypsy existence. Washing, grooming, and changing underwear are rarities with him; he gets drunk readily. Often he loafs all day long, but if he has work to do, he works day and night tirelessly. He does not have a fixed time for sleeping and staying up; very often he stays up all night, and at noon he lies down on the sofa fully dressed and sleeps until evening, unconcerned about the comings and goings around him..."
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