ABSTRACT
Marx family council decided that Karl should go to the university. Most students from Trier went to Bonn as the nearest university town. The natural sciences were so badly represented at Bonn that Marx resolved to postpone his study of physics and chemistry until going to Berlin, where he would be able to study under the real authorities on those subjects. In 1858 Lassalle, after some unpleasant fellow had sent him a challenge, wrote to Marx and asked him his opinion of duels. As an eighteen-year-old student at Bonn Marx evidently thought the same. There was foundation for his father's fears. Before the end of the summer term Marx's father had given the Bonn university authorities his consent to his son's transfer to Berlin. A longer stay in Bonn would have profited Karl nothing and only threatened duels on the one hand and police persecution on the other.
