Database: Karl Marx

Date of Birth: 5 May 1818.

Born in Trier, in what was then the Kingdom of Prussia, Karl Marx was a philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist.

Marx studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. Afterwards, he wrote for a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work on the theory of the materialist conception of history. In 1843, he moved to Paris, where he continued to write for other radical publications. It was there he met Friedrich Engels, who became his friend and frequent collaborator. After he was exiled, he and his family moved to London in 1849, where he continued writing and developing his theories about social and economic activity. Real page-turners.

Marx published many books during his lifetime, with the most recognizable being the Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867-1894), which arguably laid the foundation for our current understanding of the relationship between labor and capital. But perhaps his greatest contribution to society was to inspire millions of young men around the world to grow disastrous neck beards, wear skinny jeans, and bloviate endlessly about the "capitalist machine" whilst drinking thimbles of artisanal coffee in neighborhoods that cats wouldn't be caught dead pissing in.