Heinrich Marx
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Marx was a lawyer and the father of the socialist philosopher Karl Marx
.
of Trier
, a role which his older brother would later assume.
Heinrich Marx qualified as a lawyer in 1814, but upon Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo
, the Rhineland
came into the conservative control of the Kingdom of Prussia
, from its more detached French administration. Prussia was a Christian state which claimed to be based on the divine right of kings
, and had Christian churches answerable to its political leadership. An 1812 edict, unenforced by the French, asserted that Jews
could not occupy legal positions or state offices, and Prussian enforcement of the law led to trouble for Heinrich Marx.
Marx's colleagues, including the President of the Provincial Supreme court, defended him and sought an exception for him. The Prussian Minister of Justice rejected their appeals. In 1817 or 1818, Marx converted to the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. His wife and children were baptized in 1825 and 1824, respectively.
Isaiah Berlin
writes of Heinrich Marx that he believed
Heinrich Marx became a passionate Prussian patriot and monarchist who educated his family as liberal Lutherans.
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
.
Life
Heinrich Marx was born Herschel Mordechai, to Marx Levy Mordechai (1743–1804) and Eva Lwow (1753–1823). Heinrich Marx's father was the rabbiRabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
of Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
, a role which his older brother would later assume.
Heinrich Marx qualified as a lawyer in 1814, but upon Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
came into the conservative control of the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
, from its more detached French administration. Prussia was a Christian state which claimed to be based on the divine right of kings
Divine Right of Kings
The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...
, and had Christian churches answerable to its political leadership. An 1812 edict, unenforced by the French, asserted that Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
could not occupy legal positions or state offices, and Prussian enforcement of the law led to trouble for Heinrich Marx.
Marx's colleagues, including the President of the Provincial Supreme court, defended him and sought an exception for him. The Prussian Minister of Justice rejected their appeals. In 1817 or 1818, Marx converted to the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. His wife and children were baptized in 1825 and 1824, respectively.
Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...
writes of Heinrich Marx that he believed
that man is by nature both good and rational, and that all that is needed to ensure triumph of these qualities is the removal of artificial obstacles from his path. They were disappearing already, and disappearing fast, and the time was rapidly approaching when the last citadels of reaction, the Catholic Church and the feudal nobility, would melt away before the irresistible march of reason...
Born a Jew, a citizen of inferior legal and social status, he had attained to equality with his more enlightened neighbours, had earned their respect as a human being, and had become assimilated into what appeared to him as their more rational and dignified mode of life.
Heinrich Marx became a passionate Prussian patriot and monarchist who educated his family as liberal Lutherans.
Relationship with Karl Marx
Heinrich had his son educated at home until the age of twelve. After graduating from the Trier Gymnasium, Karl enrolled in the University of Bonn in 1835 at the age of seventeen; he wished to study philosophy and literature, but his father insisted on law as a more practical field of study. At Bonn Karl joined the Trier Tavern Club drinking society (Landsmannschaft der Treveraner) and at one point served as its president. Because of Marx's poor grades, his father forced him to transfer to the far more serious and academically-oriented University of Berlin, where his legal studies became less significant than excursions into philosophy and history.Works
- Einige Bemerkungen über das napoleonische Dekret vom 17. März 1808 bei Gelegenheit der glücklichen Vereinigung unseres Landes mit der königlich-preußischen Monarchie (gedruckt in Adolf KoberAdolf KoberAdolf Kober was a rabbi and a historian.- Life :Kober studied History, Philosophy and Oriental Languages at the University of Wrocław and received a PhD there in 1903 with a thesis on the medieval history of the Jews in Cologne...
: Karl Marx' Vater und das napoleonische Ausnahmegesetz gegen die Juden 1808 - Ueber den Werth der Handelsgerichte in den Königl. Preußischen Rheinprovinzen; In: Niederrheinisches Archiv für Gesetzgebung, Rechtswissenschaft und Justiz-Verwaltung; I. Bd., Köln 1817, p. 7 ff. (Digisat Archiv für Sozialgeschichte Bd.8, 1968, p. 277 ff. online)
- Festrede zu Ehren der Landtagsdeputierten vom 13. Januar 1834; gedruckt bei Heinz Monz: Karl Marx - Grundlagen der Entwicklung zu Leben und Werk; Trier 1973, p. 134
Literature
- Aus finsteren Zeiten. In: Neue Welt. Beilage Vorwärts Berlin 19. Jg. 1894, Nr. 18 and 19
- Bernhard Wachstein: Die Abstammung von Karl Marx. In: Festkrift i anledning af Professor David Simonsens 70-aarige Fodestag. Kobenhavn 1923, p. 278-289
- Eugen Lewin-Dorsch: Familie und Stammbaum von Karl Marx. In: Die Glocke. 9. Jg., 12923, p. 309 ff. und 340 ff.
- H. Horowitz: Die Familie Lwów. In: Monatszeitschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums. 72. Jg., 1928, p. 487-499
- Bernhard Brilling: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Juden in Trier. In: Trierisches Jahrbuch 1958, Trier 1958, p. 46-50
- Adolf Kober: Aus der Geschichte der Juden im Rheinland. In: Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz. 1931 Heft 1. Düsseldorf 1931, p. 11 ff.
- Adolf Kober: Karl Marx' Vater und das napoleonische Ausnahmegesetz gegen die Juden 1808. In: Jahrbuch des Kölnischen Geschichtsvereins e.V. Bd. 14. Köln 1932
- Hans Stein: Der Uebertritt der Familie Marx zum evangelischen Christentum. In: Jahrbuch des Kölnischen Geschichtsvereins e.V., Bd. 14, Köln 1932, p. 126 – 129
- Heinz Monz: Karl Marx und Trier. Verhältnisse Beziehungen Einflüsse. Verlag Neu, Trier 1964
- Heinz Monz: Die rechtsethischen und rechtspolitischen Anschauungen des Heinrich Marx. In: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte Bd. VIII, 1968, p. 261 ff.
- Heinz Monz: Die soziale Lage der elterlichen Familie von Karl Marx; In: Karl Marx 1818 – 1968 – Neue Studien zu Person und Lehre; Mainz, 1968, S. 67-130
- Adalbert Bauer: Karl Marx zum 150. Geburtstag. Kurzer Hinweis auf Vorfahren und Nachkommen. In: Genealogie. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Familienkunde. Bd. IX., 17./18. Jg., 1968/69, Neustadt a. d. Aisch 1968, S. 179-181
- Eugen Rapp: Epithaphen für Vorfahren von Karl Marx auf dem jüdischen Friedhof in Trier. In: Trierer Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kunst des Trierer Landes und seiner Nachbargebiete. 1970, S. 175-182
- Heinz Monz: Karl Marx. Grundlagen zu Leben und Werk. NCO-Verlag, Trier 1973
- Heinz Monz: Die jüdische Herkunft von Karl Marx; In: Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Geschichte; 2. Band, Tel Aviv 1973, S. 173
- Richard Laufner / Albert Rausch: Die Familie Marx und die Trierer Judenschaft. Trier 1975 (=Schriften aus dem Karl-Marx-Haus-Trier Heft 14)
- Heinz Monz: Der Waldprozeß der Mark Thalfang als Grundlage für Karl Marx' Kritik an den Debatten um das Holzdiebstahlsgesetz. In: Jahrbuch für westdeutsche Landesgeschichte. Bd. 3. Koblenz 1977, Sonderdruck p. 1-24
- Heinz Monz: Advokatenanwalt Heinrich Marx. Die Berufsausbildung eines Juristen. In: Jahrbuch für westdeutsche Landesgeschichte. Bd. 3. Koblenz 1977, Sonderdruck
- Heinz Monz: Advokatenanwalt Heinrich Marx. Die Berufsausbildung eines Juristen im französischen Rheinland. In: Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Geschichte. Bd. VIII. Tel Aviv 1979, p. 125-141
- Heinz Monz: Neue Funde zum Lebensweg von Karl Marx' Vater. In: Osnabrücker Mitteilungen. Bd. 87. Osnabrück 1981, p. 59-71
- Heinz Monz: Die Trierer Gehöferschaften als Vorbild für die senegalesischen Communautés rurales. In: Jahrbuch für westdeutsche Landesgeschichte. Bd. 11. Koblenz 1985, p. 153-184
- Manfred Schöncke: Karl und Heinrich Marx und ihre Geschwister. Köln 1993, S. 98-359 und 477-482 ISBN 3-89144-185-1
- Heinz Monz: Neue Lebensdaten zu den Vorfahren von Karl Marx. In: Landeskundliche Vierteljahresblätter, Trier 2004, p. 11
- Manfred Schöncke: Die Bibliothek von Heinrich Marx im Jahre 1838. Ein annotiertes Verzeichnis. In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 2005, Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2006, p. 128-172 online