Karl Marx (born 5 May, 1818 at Trier, Germany) was the son of a lawyer, Hein­ rich and his wife Heneriette. He had early education at Trier. In 1835, he joined the law faculty at Bonn University and ultimately took law degree from Berlin University in 1836. In 1841, he obtained the doctorate in philosophy from Jena University. His thesis was on, "The difference between the Democritean and the Epicurean philosophy". He  was  at first a young Hegelian.

He started his career as a journalist in Rheinische Zeitung and later became its chief editor. He met Engels in 1844 who became his closest friend and life-long collaborator. In 1843, he married Jenny Von Westphalen from a family of Prussian nobles. He left editorship of Rheinische Zeitung and migrated to Paris and started publishing German-French Yearbook in 1844. In 1845, he was expelled from Paris at the insistence of German Government for his writings on Silesian weavers uprising. He  then  moved  on  to Brussels. In 1845, the first joint work of Marx and Engels The Holy Family appeared.

In 1846, Marx and Engels set up Communist Correspondence Committee in Brussels. They completed  the German Ideology. In 1847, he joined  the League of the Just and held the first congress of the  Communist  League  in  London. His work The Poverty of Philosophy  appeared at this time. He was  elected Vice-President of the Brussels Democratic Society. In 1848, he  published the programme  of the  Communist league,  Communist  Manifesto,  hailed  as birth  certificate  of scientific socialism.

Marx now started Neue Rheinische Zeitung and became its chief editor.  He took active part in organising democratic upsurge in Vienna, Frankfurt and Berlin. He was tried and deported from Germany, came  to  Paris  and  after  being  expelled from there emigrated to  London  where he lived till death. He kept close contact with all revolutionary movements including the Paris Commune of  1871.

He keenly observed the Indian developments. His despatches on the great Indian revolt of 1857 in New  York Daily Tribune, his Notes on Indian History and other writings and his scientific prognosis of British rule reflect his deep understanding of the Indian Society and the changes brought  about  by  the  British.

In 1864, he founded the International Working Men's Association, known  as First  International.  In  1867,  appeared the first volume of his magnum opus Vol. I of The Capital (DAS KAPITAL) in Hamburg.

He along with Fredrick Engels founded the theory of scientific communism, enunciated the laws of Dialectical and Historical Materialism and discovered the theory of  surplus  value.

He died in London on March 14, 1883 and buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department is happy to issue a commemorative stamp on Karl Marx on his one hundred sixty fifth  birth  anniversary.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India