Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto. On February 21, 1848, “The Communist Manifesto,” written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, was published in London. Marx was born in Prussia in 1818, the son of a Jewish lawyer who converted to Lutheranism. Having moved to Paris in 1843, he became one of the founders of the communist movement. Expelled from France, he settled in Brussels, where he wrote “The Communist Manifesto.” The pamphlet opens with the dramatic words, “A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of communism,” and closes by stating, “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a whole world to win. Workers of the world, unite!” Also expelled from Brussels, he moved to London, where he lived in poverty with his family, while continuing to publish. In London, he composed his most significant work, “Das Kapital,” which prophesied the inevitable self-destruction of the capitalist system and became the bible of international communism. He died in extreme poverty and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, but his ideas influenced the entire 20th century.
