Editing Karl Marx (section)

== Personal life ==

=== Family ===
[[File:Jenny laura marx.jpg|thumb|upright|Jenny Carolina and Jenny Laura Marx (1869): all the Marx daughters were named Jenny in honour of their mother, Jenny von Westphalen.]]

Marx and von Westphalen had seven children together, but partly owing to the poor conditions in which they lived whilst in London, only three survived to adulthood.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Singer |author-link=Peter Singer |date=2000 |title=Marx: A very short introduction |page=5 |isbn=0-19-285405-4 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford}}</ref> Their children were: [[Jenny Longuet|Jenny Caroline]] (m. Longuet; 1844–1883); [[Laura Marx|Jenny Laura]] (m. Lafargue; 1845–1911); Edgar (1847–1855); Henry Edward Guy ("Guido"; 1849–1850); Jenny Eveline Frances ("Franziska"; 1851–1852); [[Eleanor Marx|Jenny Julia Eleanor]] (1855–1898) and one more who died before being named (July 1857). According to his son-in-law, [[Paul Lafargue]], Marx was a loving father.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Lafargue |author-link=Paul Lafargue |editor=[[Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute]] |publisher=Progress Publishers |year=1972 |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1890/xx/marx.htm |title=''Reminiscences of Marx'' (September 1890) |quote=He was a loving, gentle and indulgent father. [...] There was never even a trace of the bossy parent in his relations with his daughters, whose love for him was extraordinary. He never gave them an order, but asked them to do what he wished as a favour or made them feel that they should not do what he wanted to forbid them. And yet a father could seldom have had more docile children than he. |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=16 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816133812/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1890/xx/marx.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1962, there were allegations that Marx fathered a son, Freddy,<ref name=Montefiore>{{cite news|last=Montefiore |first=Simon Sebag |author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore |title=The Means of Reproduction |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/books/review/love-and-capital-by-mary-gabriel-book-review.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 September 2011 |access-date=25 September 2011 |archive-date=26 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926042626/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/books/review/love-and-capital-by-mary-gabriel-book-review.html |url-status=live}}</ref> out of wedlock by his housekeeper, [[Helene Demuth]],{{sfn|Wheen|2001|p=173}} but the claim is disputed for lack of documented evidence.<ref name="Carver, 1991">{{cite book |quote=this [claim] is not well founded on the documentary materials available |last=Carver |first=Terrell |title=The Cambridge Companion to Marx |date=1991 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-36694-6 |page=11 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-marx/C8B7D6342B659E2AA6203BA970A791DF |editor-last=Carver |editor-first=Terrell |chapter=Reading Marx: Life and Works |access-date=30 December 2020 |archive-date=8 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180608131100/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-marx/C8B7D6342B659E2AA6203BA970A791DF |url-status=live }}</ref>

Helene Demuth was also largely entrusted as a confidante. In her obituary, penned by [[Friedrich Engels]], her role is revealed as: "Marx took counsel of Helena Demuth, not only in difficult and intricate party matters, but even in respect of his economical writings".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helene Demuth Obituary |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/bio/family/demuth/obitry.htm |access-date=2024-07-08 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> 

Marx frequently used pseudonyms, often when renting a house or flat, apparently to make it harder for the authorities to track him down. While in Paris, he used that of "Monsieur Ramboz", whilst in London, he signed off his letters as "A. Williams". His friends referred to him as "Moor", owing to his dark complexion and black curly hair, while he encouraged his children to call him "Old Nick" and "Charley".{{sfn|Wheen|2001|p=152}} He also bestowed nicknames and pseudonyms on his friends and family, referring to Friedrich Engels as "General", his housekeeper Helene as "Lenchen" or "Nym", while one of his daughters, Jennychen, was referred to as "Qui Qui, [[Emperor of China]]" and another, Laura, was known as "[[Cockatoo|Kakadou]]" or "the [[Khoikhoi|Hottentot]]".{{sfn|Wheen|2001|p=152}}

=== Health ===
Marx drank heavily after joining the Trier Tavern Club drinking society in the 1830s, and continued to do so until his death.<ref name="drinking1"/>

Marx was afflicted by poor health, what he himself described as "the wretchedness of existence",{{sfn|Blumenberg|2000|p=98}} and various authors have sought to describe and explain it. His biographer Werner Blumenberg attributed it to liver and gall problems which Marx had in 1849 and from which he was never afterward free, exacerbated by an unsuitable lifestyle. The attacks often came with headaches, eye inflammation, [[neuralgia]] in the head, and rheumatic pains. A serious nervous disorder appeared in 1877 and protracted [[insomnia]] was a consequence, which Marx fought with narcotics.{{sfn|Blumenberg|2000|p=100}}

The illness was aggravated by excessive nocturnal work and faulty diet. Marx was fond of highly seasoned dishes, smoked fish, caviare, pickled cucumbers, "none of which are good for liver patients", but he also liked wine and liqueurs and smoked an enormous amount "and since he had no money, it was usually bad-quality cigars". From 1863, Marx complained a lot about boils: "These are very frequent with liver patients and may be due to the same causes".{{sfn|Blumenberg|2000|p=100}} The abscesses were so bad that Marx could neither sit nor work upright. According to Blumenberg, Marx's irritability is often found in liver patients:

<blockquote>The illness emphasised certain traits in his character. He argued cuttingly, his biting satire did not shrink at insults, and his expressions could be rude and cruel. Though in general Marx had blind faith in his closest friends, nevertheless he himself complained that he was sometimes too mistrustful and unjust even to them. His verdicts, not only about enemies but even about friends, were sometimes so harsh that even less sensitive people would take offence&nbsp;... There must have been few whom he did not criticize like this&nbsp;... not even Engels was an exception.{{sfn|Blumenberg|2000|pp=99–100}}</blockquote>

According to Princeton historian [[Jerrold Seigel]], in his late teens, Marx may have had pneumonia or pleurisy, the effects of which led to his being exempted from Prussian military service. In later life whilst working on {{lang|de|Das Kapital}} (which he never completed),{{sfn|Blumenberg|2000|p=98}}{{sfn|Seigel|1978|p=494}} Marx suffered from a trio of afflictions. A liver ailment, probably hereditary, was aggravated by overwork, a bad diet, and lack of sleep. Inflammation of the eyes was induced by too much work at night. A third affliction, eruption of carbuncles or boils, "was probably brought on by general physical debility to which the various features of Marx's style of life&nbsp;– alcohol, tobacco, poor diet, and failure to sleep&nbsp;– all contributed. Engels often exhorted Marx to alter this dangerous regime". In Seigel's thesis, what lay behind this punishing sacrifice of his health may have been guilt about self-involvement and egoism, originally induced in Karl Marx by his father.{{sfn|Seigel|1978|pp=495–496}}

In 2007, a [[retrodiagnosis]] of Marx's skin disease was made by [[dermatologist]] Sam Shuster of [[Newcastle University]]. For Shuster, the most probable explanation was that Marx suffered not from liver problems, but from [[hidradenitis suppurativa]], a recurring infective condition arising from blockage of [[apocrine]] ducts opening into [[hair follicles]].{{sfn|Shuster|2008|pp=1–2}} Shuster went on to consider the potential [[psychosocial]] effects of the disease, noting that the skin is an organ of communication and that hidradenitis suppurativa produces much psychological distress, including loathing and disgust and depression of self-image, mood, and well-being, feelings for which Shuster found "much evidence" in the Marx correspondence. Professor Shuster went on to ask himself whether the mental effects of the disease affected Marx's work and even helped him to develop [[Marx's theory of alienation|his theory of alienation]].{{sfn|Shuster|2008|p=3}}

=== Death ===
[[File:Grave of Karl Marx Highgate Cemetery in London 2016 (10).jpg|thumb|[[Tomb of Karl Marx]], East [[Highgate Cemetery]], London]]

Following the death of his wife Jenny in December 1881, Marx developed a [[catarrh]] that kept him in ill health for the last 15 months of his life. It eventually brought on the [[bronchitis]] and [[pleurisy]] that killed him in London on 14 March 1883, when he died a [[Statelessness|stateless person]] at age 64.<ref name="stateless"/> Family and friends in London buried his body in [[Highgate Cemetery]] (East), London, on 17 March 1883 in an area reserved for agnostics and atheists. According to [[Francis Wheen]], there were between nine and eleven mourners at his funeral.{{sfn|Wheen|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3KOyuSakn80C&pg=PA382 382]}}<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/> Research from contemporary sources identifies thirteen named individuals attending the funeral: [[Friedrich Engels]], [[Eleanor Marx]], [[Edward Aveling]], [[Paul Lafargue]], [[Charles Longuet]], [[Helene Demuth]], [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], Gottlieb Lemke, [[Frederick Lessner]], G Lochner, Sir [[Ray Lankester]], [[Carl Schorlemmer]] and [[Ernest Radford]].<ref>John Shepperd, 'Who was really at Marx's funeral?', in "Friends of Highgate Cemetery Newsletter ", April (2018), pp. 10–11. https://highgatecemetery.org/uploads/2018-04_Newsletter_final_web.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204074940/https://highgatecemetery.org/uploads/2018-04_Newsletter_final_web.pdf |date=4 February 2020 }}</ref> A contemporary newspaper account claims that twenty-five to thirty relatives and friends attended the funeral.<ref>'Dr Karl Marx', in ''[[The Sunday People|The People]]'', 25 March 1883, p.3.</ref> 

A writer in ''[[The Graphic]]'' noted: <blockquote>By a strange blunder ... his death was not announced for two days, and then as having taken place at Paris. The next day the correction came from Paris; and when his friends and followers hastened to his house in [[Haverstock Hill]], to learn the time and place of burial, they learned that he was already in the cold ground. But for this secresy [sic] and haste, a great popular demonstration would undoubtedly have been held over his grave.<ref>'Dr Karl Marx' in ''The Graphic'', 31 March 1883, pp. 319, 322</ref></blockquote>

Several of his closest friends spoke at his funeral, including [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]] and Friedrich Engels. Engels' speech included the passage: {{blockquote|On the 14th&nbsp;of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep&nbsp;– but forever.<ref name="1883: The death of Karl Marx"/>}}

Marx's surviving daughters [[Eleanor Marx|Eleanor]] and [[Laura Marx|Laura]], as well as [[Charles Longuet]] and [[Paul Lafargue]], Marx's two French socialist sons-in-law, were also in attendance.<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/> He had been predeceased by his wife and his eldest daughter, the latter dying a few months earlier in January 1883. Liebknecht, a founder and leader of the German Social Democratic Party, gave a speech in German, and Longuet, a prominent figure in the French working-class movement, made a short statement in French.<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/> Two [[telegram]]s from workers' parties in France and Spain{{Which|date=April 2021}} were also read out.<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/> Together with Engels's speech, this constituted the entire programme of the funeral.<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/> Non-relatives attending the funeral included three communist associates of Marx: Friedrich Lessner, imprisoned for three years after the [[Cologne Communist Trial]] of 1852; G. Lochner, whom Engels described as "an old member of the Communist League"; and [[Carl Schorlemmer]], a professor of chemistry in Manchester, a member of the [[Royal Society]], and a communist activist involved in the 1848 [[Revolution in Baden|Baden revolution]].<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/> Another attendee of the funeral was [[Ray Lankester]], a British zoologist who would later become a prominent academic.<ref name="GouldMcGarr2007"/>

Marx left a personal estate valued for probate at £250,<ref name="probate">{{cite web |url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk |title=Marx, Karl |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1883 |website=probatesearchservice.gov |publisher=UK Government |access-date=14 June 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150807135123/https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> equivalent to £38,095 in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=£250 in 1883 → 2024 {{!}} UK Inflation Calculator |url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1883 |access-date=11 April 2024 |website=www.in2013dollars.com |language=en |archive-date=28 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128173620/https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1883 |url-status=live }}</ref> Upon his own death in 1895, Engels left Marx's two surviving daughters a "significant portion" of his considerable estate, valued in 2024 at US$6.8&nbsp;million.<ref name="Montefiore"/>

Marx and his family were reburied on a new site nearby in November 1954. The [[Tomb of Karl Marx|tomb]] at the new site, unveiled on 14 March 1956,<ref name="auto">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/15/karl-marx-monument-highgate-cemetery-archive-1956|title=Marx monument unveiled in Highgate cemetery – archive, 15 March 1956|date=15 March 2016|access-date=7 January 2018|work=The Guardian|archive-date=27 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227094820/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/15/karl-marx-monument-highgate-cemetery-archive-1956|url-status=live}}</ref> bears the carved message: "[[Workers of the world, unite!|Workers of All Lands Unite]]", the final line of ''The Communist Manifesto''; and, from the 11th "[[Theses on Feuerbach|Thesis on Feuerbach]]" (as edited by Engels), "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways{{mdash}}the point however is to change it".<ref name="wh1" /> The [[Communist Party of Great Britain|Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)]] had the monument with a portrait bust by [[Laurence Bradshaw]] erected and Marx's original tomb had only humble adornment.<ref name="wh1"/>

The Marxist historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] remarked: "One cannot say Marx died a failure." Although he had not achieved a large following of disciples in Britain, his writings had already begun to make an impact on the left-wing movements in Germany and Russia. Within twenty-five years of his death, the continental European socialist parties that acknowledged Marx's influence on their politics had contributed to significant gains in their [[representative democracy|representative democratic]] elections.<ref>[[#Hob11|Hobsbawm 2011]]. pp. 3–4.</ref>