Karl Marx
Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German philosopher, historian, economist, and revolutionary socialist whose analysis of capitalism and theory of historical materialism profoundly shaped twentieth-century political movements, economics, and philosophy. Born in Prussia, educated at Bonn and Berlin, Marx collaborated intensively with Friedrich Engels before producing his major works: The Holy Family (1845), The German Ideology (1845–1846), The Communist Manifesto (1848, with Engels), and Das Kapital (1867–1894). His historical materialism—the theory that material economic conditions and class relations fundamentally determine social consciousness and historical development—provided a systematic critique of capitalist political economy and a theoretical foundation for communist revolution. Marx's analysis of surplus value, alienation, class struggle, commodity fetishism, and the inevitable contradictions of capitalist accumulation became foundational to Marxist theory, influencing not only political movements but also twentieth-century sociology, history, anthropology, literary criticism, and philosophy.
