ABSTRACT
Marx spent the summer and autumn of 1836 in Trier, where he became secretly engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, his future wife. Her father was Ludwig von Westphalen and mother was Karoline Heubel, daughter of a minor Prussian official from the Rhineland. She was born at Salzwedel on February 12, 1814. We do not know when the love-affair between the Marx and Jenny first began, and we believe it to be a waste of time to try and find out from the rare and obliterated traces that are left. Karl's father was at first the only person to know of the secret engagement. Jenny, who with her pure, childish disposition was so utterly devoted to Karl, was from time to time a victim, against her will, of a kind of fear, heavy with foreboding, that he could not explain. At the end of 1837, Karl Heinrich Marx, a student nineteen years of age, became officially engaged to Jenny von Westphalen.
