7;t attend his father’s funeral, because the trip was too far, and he was to busy (Payne 55). Marx spent a total of five years at the University of Berlin. People can be the greatest influence on a person’s life. One of the greatest influence on a person is the spouse. Jenny von Westphalen was born on February 12, 1814 (Peters 1). Karl Marx’s older sister Sophie introduced Karl to Jenny (Peters 14). Jenny was the center of society at Trier, and had many suitors to choose from, but she had fallen in love with Marx (Peters 19). The romance continued even after Marx was at the University of Berlin, and while there he sent her love letters, and poems (Payne 47). The wedding of Karl Marx and Jenny von Westphalen took place on June 19, 1843 (Peters 41). Another great influence on Marx was Jenny’s father the Baron von Westphalen. Baron von Westphalen found in Karl a formidable intelligence, and a fierce determination to know and understand everything (Payne 28). The two would spend whole mornings trampling over hills and through the woods discussing philosophy, science, and the art of government. It was from Baron von Westphalen that Karl Marx first learned about socialism. These long talks with the Baron were an essential part of Marx’s education, perhaps the most essential part (Payne 28). One of the people that people usually don’t associate with Karl Marx is a man by the name G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel was a German philosopher that argued in order to understand any aspect of human culture, we must retrace and understand its history (World Book Encyclopedia 165H). Hegel was a professor of philosophy at the University of Berlin from 1818 until his death, which means that Karl Marx must have taken a class with Hegel. Hegel must have inspired Marx, and if Marx hadn’t taken his class some of Marx’s best-known work would not have been written, because the majority of his work is written on...
