Laura Marx
Encyclopedia
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...
and Jenny von Westphalen
Jenny von Westphalen
Baroness Johanna Bertha Julie "Jenny" von Westphalen was the wife of the philosopher Karl Marx. They became engaged in 1836 and married in 1843. They had six children.- Background :...
. In 1868 she married Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy...
. As an elderly couple, the two committed suicide together in 1911.
Life and Death with Paul Lafargue
Laura Marx was born in Brussels. Paul LafarguePaul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy...
was a young French socialist who came to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1866 to work for the First International. There he became a friend of Karl Marx
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...
and got to know Marx's family, especially Laura Marx, who fell in love with him.
Paul and Laura married in 1868, and the Lafargues began several decades of political work together, translating Marx's work into French, and spreading Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
in France and Spain. During most of their lives Laura and Paul Lafargue were financially supported by Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
. They also inherited a lot of Engels' money when he died in 1895.
In 1911, the elderly couple committed suicide together, having decided they had nothing left to give to the movement to which they had devoted their lives. Paul Lafargue left a suicide note saying:
- Healthy in body and mind, I end my life before pitiless old age which has taken from me my pleasures and joys one after another; and which has been stripping me of my physical and mental powers, can paralyse my energy and break my will, making me a burden to myself and to others. For some years I had promised myself not to live beyond 70; and I fixed the exact year for my departure from life. I prepared the method for the execution of our resolution, it was a hypodermic of cyanide acid. I die with the supreme joy of knowing that at some future time, the cause triumph to which I have been devoted for forty-five years will triumph. Long live Communism! Long Live the Second International.
Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
spoke at their funeral in Paris. Krupskaya said that Lenin told her, "If one cannot work for the Party any longer, one must be able to look truth in the face and die like the Lafargues."
Works
- Laura Lafargue / Eleanor Marx – Aveling:Briefe und Schriften von Karl Marx ... Oktober 1895. In: Die Neue ZeitDie Neue ZeitDie Neue Zeit was a German socialist theoretical journal of the Social Democratic Party of Germany that was published from 1883 to 1923. Founded by leading socialist politicians and theorists, it became the most important organ of the SPD competing with Sozialistische Monatshefte...
, 1895, p. 121 - Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels:Manifeste du parti communiste. (Traduction de Laura Lafargue). V. Giard et E. Brière, Paris 1897
- Karl Marx (das ist Friedrich Engels):Révolution et contre-révolution en Allemagne. Trad. par Laura Lafargue. V. Giard et E. Brière, Paris 1900 (Bibliothèque socialiste internationale 6)
- Friedrich Engels:Religion, philosophie, socialisme. Trad. par Paul & Laura Lafargue. Jacques, Paris 1901 (Bibliothèque d'études socialistes 8)
- Karl Marx:Contribution à la critique de l'économie politique. Traduit sur la 2e édition allemande de Karl Kautsky par Laura Lafargue. V. Giard et E. Brière, Paris 1909 (Bibliothèque socialiste internationale 11)
Biographies
- Franz MehringFranz MehringFranz Erdmann Mehring , was a German publicist, politician and historian.-Early years:Franz Mehring was born 27 February 1846 in Schlawe, Pomerania, the son of a bourgeois family.-Political career:...
: Paul und Laura Lafargue. In: Die Neue ZeitDie Neue ZeitDie Neue Zeit was a German socialist theoretical journal of the Social Democratic Party of Germany that was published from 1883 to 1923. Founded by leading socialist politicians and theorists, it became the most important organ of the SPD competing with Sozialistische Monatshefte...
, Stuttgart, 30. jg. 1911-1912, 1st Vol., p. 337-343 - Friedrich Engels Paul et Laura Lafargue. Correspondance. Textes recueillis, annotés et présentés par Émile Bottigelli. Traductions de l´anglais par Paul Meier. Tome I.Édition Sociales, Paris 1956
- Friedrich Engels Paul et Laura Lafargue. Correspondance. Textes recueillis, annotés et présentés par Émile Bottigelli. Traductions de l´anglais par Paul Meier. Tome II., Édition Sociales, Paris 1956
- Friedrich Engels Paul et Laura Lafargue. Correspondance. Textes recueillis, annotés et présentés par Émile Bottigelli. Traductions de l´anglais par Paul Meier. Tome III., Édition Sociales, Paris 1959
- Olga Meier (Hrsg.): Die Töchter von Karl Marx. Unveröffentlichte Briefe. aus dem Französischen und dem Englischen von Karin Kersten und Jutta Prasse. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 1981 ISBN 3-462-01432-3
- Irina Bach / Olga Senekina: Briefe von Mitgliedern der Familie Marx an Friedrich Engels. In: Marx-Engels-Jashrbuch 6. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1983, p. 311-366
- Olga Worobjowa / Irma Senelnikowa: Die Töchter von Marx 4. ed. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1984
- Rosie Rudich: Neue Briefe von Karl Marx und Laura Lafargue. In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 8. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1985, p. 283-314
- Inge Werchan: Engels begutachtete Laura Lafargues überarbeitete französische Übersetzung des "Kommunistischen Manifests" aus dem Jahre 1894. In: Beiträge zur Marx-Erngels-Forschung 24, Berlin 1988, p. 112-116
- Katharina Raabe (Hrsg): Deutsche Schwestern. Vierzehn Porträts. Rowohlt Berlin, Berlin 1997
- Familie Marx privat. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2005 ISBN 3-05-004118-8
- Renate Merkel-Melis: „… that most untranslateable of documents …“. Engels’ Revision der französischen Übersetzung des „Kommunistischen Manifests“ von Laura Lafargue. In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 2006. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2007