ABSTRACT
Marx was born in Trier in the Rhineland province of Prussia in 1818 to middleclass Jewish parents. He went to read law at Bonn University in 1835, from where he moved to Berlin University, mixing his formal studies of law with his own studies of history, literature, art history, and philosophy, culminating in the completion of his doctoral thesis (comparing the classical philosophies of Democritus and Epicurus) in April 1841. During these Berlin years Marx became familiar with the philosophy of Hegel (whose death in 1831 had left a powerful legacy), and associated with a group known as the Young Hegelians. These were radical intellectuals who, unlike their counterparts, the Old Hegelians, did not interpret Hegel as implying a staunchly conservative defence of the status quo in Prussia and other German states. Instead, they seized upon Hegel’s ‘Idea of Freedom’ to use as a weapon of criticism against Prussian authoritarianism. A passage from Engels (1820-1895) who associated with the Young Hegelians in 1841 (and was from 1844 to become Marx’s life-long friend and co-worker) gives a flavour of their idealism. ‘. . . Such is the power of the Idea [of Freedom] that he who has recognised it cannot cease to speak of its splendour or to proclaim its all-conquering might. . . . Let us not think any love, any gain, any riches too great to sacrifice gladly to the Idea . . .’.1
