KARL MARX
Marx was was laid to rest in Highgate
Cemetery on Saturday, March 17 1883, in the
same grave as his wife, Jenny, buried 15 months
earlier.
ARTICLES BY ENGELS:
Mar 17 Highgate Cemetery, London:
Engels' speech
Mar 20 La Justice: Draft of a Speech at
the Graveside of Karl Marx
Mar 22 Der Sozialdemokrat: Karl Marx's
Funeral
May 03 Der Sozialdemokrat: On The
Death of Karl Marx
May 17 Der Sozialdemokrat: On The
Death of Karl Marx
On the 14th 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 -- but
for ever.
An immeasurable loss has been sustained both
by the militant proletariat of Europe and
America, and by historical science, in the death
of this man. The gap that has been left by the
departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough
make itself felt.
Just as Darwin discovered the law of
development or organic nature, so Marx
discovered the law of development of human
history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an
overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first
of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing,
before it can pursue politics, science, art,
religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means, and consequently the degree
of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch, form the foundation upon
which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people
concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of
vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.
But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist
mode of production, and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of
surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of
both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark.
Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make
even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated -- and he investigated very
many fields, none of them superficially -- in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made
Such was the man of science. But this was not even half the man. Science was for Marx a historically
dynamic, revolutionary force. However great the joy with which he welcomed a new discovery in some
theoretical science whose practical application perhaps it was as yet quite impossible to envisage, he
experienced quite another kind of joy when the discovery involved immediate revolutionary changes in
industry, and in historical development in general. For example, he followed closely the development of
the discoveries made in the field of electricity and recently those of Marcel Deprez.
For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or
another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being,
to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its
own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element.
And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival. His work on the first
Rheinische Zeitung (1842), the Paris Vorwarts (1844), the Deutsche Brusseler Zeitung (1847), the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung (1848-49), the New York Tribune (1852-61), and, in addition to these, a host of
militant pamphlets, work in organisations in Paris, Brussels and London, and finally, crowning all, the
formation of the great International Working Men's Association -- this was indeed an achievement of
which its founder might well have been proud even if he had done nothing else.
And, consequently, Marx was the best hated and most calumniated man of his time. Governments, both
absolutist and republican, deported him from their territories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or
ultra-democratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him. All this he brushed aside as
though it were a cobweb, ignoring it, answering only when extreme necessity compelled him. And he
died beloved, revered and mourned by millions of revolutionary fellow workers -- from the mines of
Siberia to California, in all parts of Europe and America -- and I make bold to say that, though he may
have had many opponents, he had hardly one personal enemy.
His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work.
Scarcely 15 months ago most of us assembled
round this grave, then about to become the last
resting place of a grand and noble-hearted
woman. Today we have it reopened, to receive
what remains of her husband.
Karl Marx was one of those pre-eminent men
of whom a century produces not many. Charles
Darwin discovered the law of development of
organic nature upon our planet. Marx is the
discoverer of the fundamental law according to
which human history moves and develops itself,
a law so simple and self-evident that its simple
enunciation is almost sufficient to secure assent.
Not enough with that, Marx had also discovered
the law [which] has created our actual state of
society with its great class-division of capitalists
and wages-labourers; the law according to
which that society has become organised, has grown until it [has] almost outgrown itself, and according
to which it must ultimately perish like all previous historical phases of society. Such results render it all
the more painful that he should have been taken from us in the midst of his work, and that, much as he
did, still more he left uncompleted.
But science, though dear to him, was far from absorbing him entirely. No man could feel a purer joy
than he when a new scientific progress was secured anywhere, no matter whether practically applicable
or not. But he looked upon science above all things as a grand historical lever, as a revolutionary power
in the most eminent sense of the word. And as such he used, to such purpose he wielded that immense
knowledge, especially of history in all its branches of which he disposed.
For he was indeed, what he called himself, a Revolutionist. The struggle for the emancipation of the
class of wages-labourers from the fetters of the present capitalistic system of economic production, was
his real element. And no more active combatant than he ever existed. The crowning effort of this part of
his work was the creation of the International Working Men's Association of which he was the
acknowledged leader from 1864-72. The Association has disappeared, as far as outward show goes; but
the fraternal bond of union of the working men of all civilised countries of Europe and America is
established once for ever, and continues to live even without any outward, formal bond of union.
No man can fight for any cause without creating enemies. And he has had plenty of them. For the greater
part of his political life he was the best hated and best slandered man in Europe. But he scarcely ever
noticed calumny. If ever man lived calumny down, he did, and at the time of his death he could look with
pride upon the millions of his followers, in the mines of Siberia as well as in the workshops of Europe
and America; he saw his economical theories adopted as the undisputed creed of universal socialism, and
if he still had many opponents, there was scarcely one personal enemy left.
Marx was was laid to rest in Highgate
Cemetery on Saturday, March 17 1883, in the
same grave as his wife, Jenny, buried 15 months
earlier.
ARTICLES BY ENGELS:
Mar 17 Highgate Cemetery, London:
Engels' speech
Mar 20 La Justice: Draft of a Speech at
the Graveside of Karl Marx
Mar 22 Der Sozialdemokrat: Karl Marx's
Funeral
May 03 Der Sozialdemokrat: On The
Death of Karl Marx
May 17 Der Sozialdemokrat: On The
Death of Karl Marx
On the 14th 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 -- but
for ever.
An immeasurable loss has been sustained both
by the militant proletariat of Europe and
America, and by historical science, in the death
of this man. The gap that has been left by the
departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough
make itself felt.
Just as Darwin discovered the law of
development or organic nature, so Marx
discovered the law of development of human
history: the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an
overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first
of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing,
before it can pursue politics, science, art,
religion, etc.; that therefore the production of the immediate material means, and consequently the degree
of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch, form the foundation upon
which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people
concerned have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, instead of
vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.
But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist
mode of production, and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created. The discovery of
surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of
both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark.
Two such discoveries would be enough for one lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make
even one such discovery. But in every single field which Marx investigated -- and he investigated very
many fields, none of them superficially -- in every field, even in that of mathematics, he made
Such was the man of science. But this was not even half the man. Science was for Marx a historically
dynamic, revolutionary force. However great the joy with which he welcomed a new discovery in some
theoretical science whose practical application perhaps it was as yet quite impossible to envisage, he
experienced quite another kind of joy when the discovery involved immediate revolutionary changes in
industry, and in historical development in general. For example, he followed closely the development of
the discoveries made in the field of electricity and recently those of Marcel Deprez.
For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or
another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being,
to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its
own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element.
And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival. His work on the first
Rheinische Zeitung (1842), the Paris Vorwarts (1844), the Deutsche Brusseler Zeitung (1847), the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung (1848-49), the New York Tribune (1852-61), and, in addition to these, a host of
militant pamphlets, work in organisations in Paris, Brussels and London, and finally, crowning all, the
formation of the great International Working Men's Association -- this was indeed an achievement of
which its founder might well have been proud even if he had done nothing else.
And, consequently, Marx was the best hated and most calumniated man of his time. Governments, both
absolutist and republican, deported him from their territories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or
ultra-democratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him. All this he brushed aside as
though it were a cobweb, ignoring it, answering only when extreme necessity compelled him. And he
died beloved, revered and mourned by millions of revolutionary fellow workers -- from the mines of
Siberia to California, in all parts of Europe and America -- and I make bold to say that, though he may
have had many opponents, he had hardly one personal enemy.
His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work.
Scarcely 15 months ago most of us assembled
round this grave, then about to become the last
resting place of a grand and noble-hearted
woman. Today we have it reopened, to receive
what remains of her husband.
Karl Marx was one of those pre-eminent men
of whom a century produces not many. Charles
Darwin discovered the law of development of
organic nature upon our planet. Marx is the
discoverer of the fundamental law according to
which human history moves and develops itself,
a law so simple and self-evident that its simple
enunciation is almost sufficient to secure assent.
Not enough with that, Marx had also discovered
the law [which] has created our actual state of
society with its great class-division of capitalists
and wages-labourers; the law according to
which that society has become organised, has grown until it [has] almost outgrown itself, and according
to which it must ultimately perish like all previous historical phases of society. Such results render it all
the more painful that he should have been taken from us in the midst of his work, and that, much as he
did, still more he left uncompleted.
But science, though dear to him, was far from absorbing him entirely. No man could feel a purer joy
than he when a new scientific progress was secured anywhere, no matter whether practically applicable
or not. But he looked upon science above all things as a grand historical lever, as a revolutionary power
in the most eminent sense of the word. And as such he used, to such purpose he wielded that immense
knowledge, especially of history in all its branches of which he disposed.
For he was indeed, what he called himself, a Revolutionist. The struggle for the emancipation of the
class of wages-labourers from the fetters of the present capitalistic system of economic production, was
his real element. And no more active combatant than he ever existed. The crowning effort of this part of
his work was the creation of the International Working Men's Association of which he was the
acknowledged leader from 1864-72. The Association has disappeared, as far as outward show goes; but
the fraternal bond of union of the working men of all civilised countries of Europe and America is
established once for ever, and continues to live even without any outward, formal bond of union.
No man can fight for any cause without creating enemies. And he has had plenty of them. For the greater
part of his political life he was the best hated and best slandered man in Europe. But he scarcely ever
noticed calumny. If ever man lived calumny down, he did, and at the time of his death he could look with
pride upon the millions of his followers, in the mines of Siberia as well as in the workshops of Europe
and America; he saw his economical theories adopted as the undisputed creed of universal socialism, and
if he still had many opponents, there was scarcely one personal enemy left.
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