Karl Marx

Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, defined communism. In the Communist Manifesto, which they wrote and published themselves in London in 1848, Marx and Engels portrayed the natural evolution of a communist utopia from capitalism. This revolutionary theory added fuel to the social struggles that characterized Europe during the latter half of the 19th century. The working class, or proletariat, as defined by Marx, emerged from the increasing industrialization of Europe and the United States during that time. In Das Kapital, Marx explained that objects have value only in so far as human labour is used to make them. He believed that this “labour theory of value” inherently made the worker more important than the capitalist who exploits the labour of the worker. In Marx’s conception of utopia, communism, there is no capitalism and no state, just a working society in which all give according to their means and take according to their needs.

Archiv Fur Kunst und Geschicte

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Economics; Communist Manifesto; History and Historiography; Open Society; Marxism; International; Marx, Karl; Communism; Revolutions of 1848; Sociology; Germany, Federal Republic of

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