Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary socialist whose theory of historical materialism analysed social change through class struggle and predicted that communism would replace capitalism. Born in Trier, he co-wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels; it was first published in February 1848. Expelled from Germany after the revolutions of that year, he settled in London, where he wrote Das Kapital, whose first volume was published in 1867. Elected to the General Council of the First International at its founding in 1864, he opposed the anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin.