Heinrich Marx

Marx, Heinŕich 

Born April 1777 in Saarlouis; died May 10, 1838, in Trier. Father of Karl Marx. Son of a rabbi.

Heinrich Marx was a lawyer and Justizrat. He converted to Protestantism, because he regarded it as a more “rational” religion and also to overcome obstacles to his legal career. He was an advocate in the High Court of Appeals in Trier and a senior member of the bar in the city. Marx was a highly respected lawyer. Strongly influenced by the ideas of the French Enlightenment and by philosophical rationalism, he was a freethinker and a member of the liberal opposition circles among the urban intelligentsia. He was a close friend of the enlightened privy councillor Ludwig von Westphalen, whose daughter Jenny later married his son Karl.

REFERENCES

Marx, K., and F. Engels. Soch., vols. 28, 30, 32, 40. (See name index.)
Marx, H. “Briefe an Sohn.” In Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe, part 1, vol. 1, fasc. 2. Berlin, 1929.
Il’ina, E. Neutomimyi putnik. Detstvo, iunost’ i molodye gody K. Marksa. [Moscow, 1964.]
Mönz, H. Karl Marx und Trier. Trier, 1964.