Celebrity Graveland

May 05, 1818 – March 14, 1883

Love him, loathe him or just plain ignore him, it’s impossible to disregard the profound impact Karl Marx has had on the modern world. As a philosopher, economist and political theorist, his ideas of working class revolution as a means of stabilizing the corruption and imbalance he saw in capitalist society have influenced countless people – from idealistic students to full-on political rulers – over the past 150 years.

Born in the Kingdom of Prussia (modern day Germany), Marx studied at the University of Bonn and then the University of Berlin at the urging of his father, a classical liberal who raised Karl with the writings of Kant and Voltaire. Marx eventually moved to France, where he wrote for radical left-wing newspapers and was expelled from the country. From there, he moved to Belgium where he wrote for radical left-wing newspapers and was expelled from the country. After returning to Germany…he wrote for radical, left-wing newspapers and was expelled from the country.

A man without a home country, Marx landed in England. He continued to write and publish in newspapers across the western world including, but not limited to, the New York Daily Tribune. His major collected works, The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867), attempted to clarify his overarching call for the working-class “proletariat” to challenge and replace the ruling-class “bourgeoisie” and, in turn, became the founding documents for the “Marxist” political philosophy.

Marx suffered from poor health most of his life ranging from pleurisy to liver and skin conditions. Following the death of his wife, Jenny, in 1881, his health deteriorated further. He died in his London home and was hastily buried in Highgate Cemetery. A dozen or so mourners attended his funeral…mostly because the papers had failed to properly report on his death until days later. Today, his tomb is one of the most visited gravesites in the world.

Burial

Highgate Cemetery East – London, UK

Specific Location

Enter the East section and follow the signs. Marx’s large and unmistakable grave marker is located on the south side of Mound Road.

This entry was posted on October 16, 2023 at 10:20 am and is filed under Highgate Cemetery with tags Highgate Cemetery East, Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.