His most famous work was his study of the class struggles through the ages. His works up to 1917, such as the Das Kapital and Communist Manifesto, gained even more backing when the Bolsheviks won the October Revolution. By then Marx's ideas have been called Marxism, and the only thing Marx had to say about it was a “The only thing I know is that I am not a Marxist.”.
Until he was thirteen, Marx was taught at home. In 1835, when he was 17 he went to the Bonn University to study Law. He wanted to study Philosophy and Literature, but his father wouldn't let him because he was scared that Karl would not be able to live comfortably as a scholar.
His father sent him to the more serious and more academically-focused school, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, in which he wrote many essays and poems about life using the philosophy of the Young Hegelians who were popular in Germany at the time. In 1841 he earned his doctorate with a thesis called the “The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature.”.
In France, Paris, Marx met up with lifetime collaborator, Friedrich Engels, who converted Marx into a Communist. In 1838, Marx was arrested and expelled from Belgium. At the same time, a radical movement seized the throne of France from King Louis and invited Marx back to Paris.
In 1849, Marx moved back to Cologne, Germany and restarted his old newspaper, calling it the “Neue Rheinische Zeitung “ or the “New Rhine-ish Newspaper”. While it was still printing he went to court twice, first time on February 7th, 1849 for a printing misdemeanor, and then on the 8th for Armed Rebellion and Incitement. He was found innocent of both crimes. They soon abolished the paper and Marx moved back to Paris, but was soon kicked out.
