On 5 May 1818, Karl Marx, one of the most influential political philosophers in modern history, was born in Trier, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia (present-day Germany). Marx would go on to co-author The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and lay the foundations for Marxist theory, a critique of capitalism that shaped political ideologies and movements across the globe.
Marx’s ideas—centred on class struggle, the exploitation of labour, and the call for a classless society—sparked both revolutionary action and fierce opposition. His magnum opus, Das Kapital, published in 1867, analysed the workings of capitalist economies in exhaustive detail and remains a cornerstone of leftist thought. Though controversial, Marx’s legacy endures, continuing to influence academic, economic, and political discourse to this day.
