Editing Karl Marx (section)

=== Childhood and early education: 1818–1836 ===
[[File:Trier BW 2014-06-21 11-11-49.jpg|thumb|left|[[Karl-Marx-Haus|Marx's birthplace]], now Brückenstraße 10, in Trier. The family occupied two rooms on the ground floor and three on the first floor.<ref>{{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=178, Plate 1}}.</ref> Purchased by the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] in 1928, it now houses a museum devoted to him.{{sfn|Wheen|2001|pp=12–13}}]]

Karl Marx was born on 5 May 1818 to [[Heinrich Marx]] and [[Henriette Pressburg]], at Brückengasse 664 in [[Trier]], then part of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|pp=8, 12}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=1}}.</ref> Marx's family was originally [[Jewish secularism|non-religious Jewish]] but had [[Conversion to Christianity|converted formally to Christianity]] before his birth. His maternal grandfather was a Dutch [[rabbi]], while his paternal line had supplied Trier's rabbis since 1723, a role taken by his grandfather Meier Halevi Marx.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|pp=4–5}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|pp=7–9, 12}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|pp=2–3}}.</ref> His father was the first in the line to receive a secular education. He became a lawyer with a comfortably [[upper middle class]] income and the family owned a number of [[Moselle wine|Moselle]] vineyards, in addition to his income as an attorney. After Prussia's annexation of the [[Rhineland]] in 1815 and the subsequent abrogation of [[Jewish emancipation]],<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6q0OHHNyFeEC&pg=PA419 |title=Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews – A History |last=Carroll |first=James |year=2002 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |isbn=978-0-547-34888-9 |page=419 |language=en |access-date=2 April 2018 |archive-date=24 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924094733/https://books.google.com/books?id=6q0OHHNyFeEC&pg=PA419 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Heinrich converted from Judaism to the state [[Prussian Union of Churches|Evangelical Church of Prussia]] in order to retain his career as a lawyer.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|pp=4–6}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|pp=2–4}}.</ref>

Largely non-religious, Heinrich was a man of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], interested in the ideas of the philosophers [[Immanuel Kant]] and [[Voltaire]]. A [[classical liberal]], he took part in agitation for a constitution and reforms in Prussia, which was then an [[absolute monarchy]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|pp=5, 8–12}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|p=11}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|pp=5–6}}.</ref> In 1815, Heinrich Marx began working as an attorney and in 1819 moved his family to a ten-room property near the [[Porta Nigra]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|p=10}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=7}}.</ref> His wife, Henriette Pressburg, was a Dutch Jew from a prosperous business family that later founded the company [[Philips Electronics]]. Her sister Sophie Pressburg married [[Lion Philips]] and was the grandmother of both [[Gerard Philips|Gerard]] and [[Anton Philips]] and great-grandmother to [[Frits Philips]]. Lion Philips was a wealthy Dutch tobacco manufacturer and industrialist, upon whom Karl and [[Jenny von Westphalen|Jenny Marx]] would later often come to rely for loans while they were exiled in London.<ref>{{harvnb|Wheen|2001|loc=chpt. 6}}</ref>

Little is known of Marx's childhood.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|p=12}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|p=13}}.</ref> The third of nine children, he became the eldest son when his brother Moritz died in 1819.<ref>{{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=7}}.</ref> Marx and his surviving siblings were [[baptism|baptised]] into the [[Lutheran Church]] on 28 August 1824,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Turley |first=Justin |date=2020-08-24 |title=The Baptism of Karl Marx, 1824 |url=https://landmarkevents.org/the-baptism-of-karl-marx-1824/ |access-date=2024-08-28 |website=Landmark Events |language=en |archive-date=12 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712232703/https://landmarkevents.org/the-baptism-of-karl-marx-1824/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and their mother in November 1825.<ref>{{cite book |title=Karl Marx: Dictionary of National Biography |volume=37 |pages=57–58 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-861387-9}}</ref> Marx was privately educated by his father until 1830 when he entered Trier High School ({{Interlanguage link|Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium (Trier)|de|3=Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium (Trier)|lt=Trier High School}}), whose headmaster, [[Johann Hugo Wyttenbach|Hugo Wyttenbach]], was a friend of his father. By employing many [[Liberal humanism|liberal humanists]] as teachers, Wyttenbach incurred the anger of the local conservative government. Police raided the school in 1832 and discovered that literature espousing political liberalism was being distributed among the students. Considering the distribution of such material a seditious act, the authorities instituted reforms and replaced several staff during Marx's attendance.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976 |pp=12–15}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|p=13}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|pp=7–11}}.</ref>

In October 1835 at the age of 16, Marx travelled to the [[University of Bonn]] wishing to study philosophy and literature, but his father insisted on law as a more practical field.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|pp=15–16}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|p=14}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=13}}.</ref> Due to a condition referred to as a "weak chest",{{sfn|Wheen|2001|p=15}} Marx was excused from military duty when he turned 18. While at the University at Bonn, Marx joined the Poets' Club, a group containing political radicals that were monitored by the police.<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|p=20}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=14}}.</ref> Marx also joined the Trier Tavern Club drinking society and at one point served as the club's co-president.<ref>{{harvnb|Wheen|2001|p=16}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=14}}</ref><ref name="drinking1">{{cite news |title=Karl Marx: the drinking years|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/karl-marx-drinking-years/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/karl-marx-drinking-years/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |first=Rachel |last=Holmes |date=14 October 2017 |access-date=14 October 2017}}{{cbignore}}{{subscription required}}</ref> In August 1836 he took part in a duel with a member of the university's [[Corps Borussia Bonn|Borussian Korps]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|pp=21–22}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=14}}.</ref> Although his grades in the first term were good, they soon deteriorated, leading his father to force a transfer to the more serious and academic [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nicolaievsky|Maenchen-Helfen|1976|p=22}}; {{harvnb|Wheen|2001|pp=16–17}}; {{harvnb|McLellan|2006|p=14}}.</ref>