Who was Karl Marx? | DW Documentary

[Music] i'd put him in a category with freud and darwin three thinkers who have vastly expanded our human knowledge he was the first economist to describe the basic laws and mechanisms that drive our economic order and much of that is still relevant today marxism has long played the most important role in chinese society and will continue to do so in the future [Applause] marx was a liberal to the child of the enlightenment for marx the only thing another battle was freedom there is no seeming alternative to capitalism people just look at stalin and mao and say the alternative doesn't work [Music] what i find most compelling about marx is his belief that social liberation for the individual can only happen if that hope for liberation is available to everyone karl marx was a philosopher journalist and economist 200 years after his birth his ideas are still relevant today the sweeping changes happening in the wake of globalization are sparking fresh debate about capitalism and social inequality marx himself insisted that the job of philosophers was not just to interpret the world but to change it over the years many have sought to put his ideas into practice in widely differing ways and with widely varying results [Music] is in many parts of the world people have invoked karl marx proclaimed revolutions in his name turn society on its head most of those experiments are now history but capitalism which marx despised has proven more resilient than he would ever have imagined the traditional marxist idea that you enact a revolution put others in charge and your problem is solved that's proven itself a failure and it's no surprise when you have class struggle and suddenly everything is turned around and the previous winners are now losers they won't just suddenly roll over and give up [Music] for change to happen we need social solidarity for everyone three [Music] [Music] the industrial revolution was the central preoccupation of the 19th century its groundbreaking inventions would radically transform people's lives but also bring catastrophic working conditions to the new factories the misery and deprivation sparked numerous uprisings across europe [Music] karl marx was born in trier a tranquil town in what is now western germany climax of particular interest to the chinese because they adore marx it's why our city has a very intensive relationship with china the chinese offered us a sculpture as a gift for karl marx's 200th birthday we looked into the idea and located a place to put it then we haggled over the size and arrived at a total height of 5 meters 50. the chinese were happy with that because 5-5 is marx's birthday we hadn't even noticed that symbolism but it helped us arrive at the compromise on size here in the spring and then inaugurated on may 5th [Music] mark spent his childhood in trier as a jew his father a lawyer was not permitted to practice his profession in prussia the family converted to protestantism at 19 karl marx began studying law in bonn a year later he moved to berlin berlin is also where marx first became interested in philosophy which eventually became his focus marx's systematic study of higger's doctrine of dialectics would become the cornerstone of his future ideas and work as marx would later argue industrialization gave rise to a new economic system capitalism and a new class of people the proletariat this new proletariat he believed would inevitably cast off the yoke of capitalist depression and give rise to a new social order but this revolution was a long time coming it did not take place until long after marx's death and it happened where marx least expected it in backward russia with vladimir lenin the communist revolutionary at its head lenin via lennon had for decades associated with a group of left-wing politicians the second international they all believed that if they educated workers about their true situation workers would all refuse to go to war against one another instead the international proletariat would join forces and unite and spark a world revolution that didn't happen which was a crushing blow for many socialists lenin included [Music] the first world war was the first total war which demanded not only mobilization of an army but mobilization of the civilian population to meet the needs of the war effort and this was something the tsarist system simply could not cope with increasingly food was short the only party that is calling clearly for an end to the war is the bolshevik party using this rising tide of anti-war feeling lenin begins to argue that the bolshevik party must seize power in the name of the soviets marx is often said to be a determinist in the sense that he thought that socialism would come about fairly inevitably from the contradictions of capitalism lenin was much more of a voluntary study he believed in willpower and lenin didn't think that capitalism alone would create revolution so lenin developed this very particular conception of the party in which professional revolutionaries would lead the masses without lenin there wouldn't have been a bolshevik revolution the revolution was a hugely charismatic event for some a vision and inspiration for others a nightmare [Music] lenin's hope was that the russian example would be taken up by the german workers and that the two countries in alliance could make a revolution and overcome russia's problem which was its intense poverty and its intense social and economic backwardness germany was absolutely central in the perspective of the bolsheviks for the first few years founded the spartacus league in response to russian events they hope germans had grown so tired of war and its cost so dissatisfied that a revolution might be possible they tried three times and they failed and i think they failed not because of poor tactics but because they were up against a much much stronger opposition [Music] as a student in berlin karl marx became known among his fellow students for his keen intellect he was considered a leftist which drew the attention of the prussian secret police marx completed a doctorate but his left-wing ideas made it impossible to secure an academic post in early 1842 he began working for a daily newspaper in cologne the saitong which was critical of the prussian government in berlin [Music] marx used the newspaper to describe the desperate conditions of the working class the censors banned many of his articles but in his short tenure as the paper's editor marx helped change the face of political journalism journalism also had a powerful impact on marx as a newspaper editor he was forced to address the struggles faced by local farmers at the dawn of capitalism before that he was an intelligent clever radical thinker but very abstract and idealistic i began reading mark shortly after finishing my confirmation classes god hadn't answered me so i looked for someone else who could explain the world to me that's how i came to the early marks it was basically the air of german idealism he wanted to explain the world and help create a new society based on a principle always driven by an immensely poignant desire for freedom marx the prophet marks the icon who is revered as someone who promised salvation to humankind he never actually existed that image is the result of bad propaganda [Music] that propaganda would later also be used to glorify the outcomes of communist revolutions these propaganda posters say nothing of the millions who were killed in the soviet union under stalin and in china under mao zedong this idea of propaganda reaches its extreme with mao zedong where the emphasis is very very much on the will of the communists today there are many people who would say china has already ceased to be socialist it is now a capitalist economy in a capitalist world with a regime that is communist in name only i'm not sure that we've seen the end of this story and maybe in 2050 there will be a chinese state that still calls itself socialist since 2008 the crisis of capitalism has steadily grown more acute but what does this crisis mean today we find ourselves confronted with the very same questions that karl marx once faced it's often said that the chinese revolution was a peasant revolution and that is basically true now sort ways of engaging peasants through for example using traditions of opera the problem about socialism in backward countries was that although it aspired to give people decent conditions of life it effectively meant squeezing the population for the resources that were needed to build a strong industrial and military state [Music] [Applause] every chinese person knows him marxism leninism is the basis of our political system we had big posters of marks at school that's how i came to know marxism right now my focus is on my own quality of life that's enough for me to be honest i believe marxism is slowly being forgotten the chinese government is investing a great deal of money to popularize marxist ideas in the form of books modern media and even its own tv show [Music] many young people wrote to us after the show they said it had given them an entirely different picture of karl marx mercs was no longer just a poster hanging on the wall they could now relate to him in their real actual lives karl marx is still influential even very influential he's still relevant today and his ideas are still useful at the 19th national congress of the communist party it was decided that china will be a modern socialist country by the middle of this century my my central theme is the great seeker this is at the core of marx's thought his philosophical views and his life all great individuals have two important characteristics first they have made a meaningful contribution to human society and second their spirit is marked by firm conviction a strong will and great determination these characteristics find their expression in this work the statue of marx has a high forehead and deep-set eyes but it's also decisive in the way that it strides to the future he is [Music] [Music] and marx is happy to be coming back home in early 1843 prussian census forced the rhineshitsaitung in cologne to shut its doors [Music] karl marx decided to leave for paris that same year he married his childhood sweetheart jenny von westfallen [Music] in the mid-19th century paris was a haven for freethinkers of all stripes they debated socialist and communist ideas such as the abolition of private property in paris marx met friedrich engels a young philosopher and revolutionary marx was deeply impressed by english's reports on the misery of the english working class marx decided to abandon journalism and focus on political and economic philosophy this is the period in which he began writing about class struggle and the self-emancipation of the proletariat in bourgeois society all members of society are formally equal and have equal rights in reality the proletariat can only choose where to sell their labor and choose where they will be chained although workers are paid for their labor what they produce is not in service of their own needs but the needs of their employer the worker produces grains for the mills of another the worker is trapped in a vicious circle his labor directly increases the wealth of the capitalists which only serves to intensify his own exploitation society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps into two great classes directly facing each other [Music] marx is amazingly relevant we've never had so many people in poverty or at risk of poverty so many homeless and refugees and extreme wealth is exploding today's working class includes white collar workers and salaried employees when jobs are at risk marx's ideas often come into play for example when all storm workers took up the fight against the plans of parent company general electric to slash jobs the french communist party supported their fight i'm here to assure you of the full and complete support of the communist party i just said at a joint union meeting that we calculated how much the shareholders will gain from the merger that's why your fight is a just one we support you here and in the entire country we'll continue forward together [Applause] [Music] i believe the demonstration we've witnessed here with aston employees is very typical of capitalism today it's a globalized capitalism which pits the workers of different countries or different locations against one another it turns workers into the play things of globalization so that they serve the interests of increasingly powerful groups this is a symbolic struggle to take a strong stand against capitalism the proletariat today must be much more united at the international level what we're seeing now is that the ecological crisis and the massive social and ethical issues the world is facing today are bringing us to rethink our society as a whole that's the genius of marx he understood that the contradictions within the system would become so extreme that we would eventually be forced to explore ways to overcome them the french communist party was very strong after the second world war because it had played an important role in the fight against fascism in europe in the 1930s many important social and economic advances are communist in origin especially social security which was introduced by a communist minister in 1945 i believe that euro communism was a key moment during the 1970s euro communism came into being when the european communist parties understood that the soviet system was collapsing [Music] euro communism in western europe emerged under the shadows of the cold war the new reborn socialist model was to cast off the shackles of soviet doctrine and obtain democratic legitimacy this idea found enthusiastic supporters in many countries especially italy and france but even as communist parties in western europe increasingly distanced themselves from the soviet union communist east germany became ever more vocally supportive of moscow in communist east germany the party drew on authoritarian methods to enforce its interpretation of the marxist legacy in which the freedom of descent had no [Music] the place of chemnitz as karl marx on may 10 1953 was an important acknowledgement of the revolutionary tradition in this city and the contribution made by its working class to our workers in peasant state already created many statues of the greatest sons of our people time and again he has sought to fulfill lenin's legacy to immortalize the creator of revolutionary communist theory by drawing upon the art of monumental propaganda while working on his designs caribou read the works of marx he seeks to express the content of revolutionary marxist thought in visual form the irrepressible power of the passionate nature of the revolutionary and the scientists the karl marx memorial designed by professor lev ifinovich kerbel will bear witness to the shared struggle of the working class and laborers of the german democratic republic and the soviet union [Music] to the tumultuous applause of 250 000 residents and guests comrade eric honaker said the day will come when all peoples will have cast off the shackles of exploitation they will build a monument to the man who found the key to human liberation captured under the motto workers of the world unite karl marx he wrote about socialism but i don't know why chemnitz was renamed he wasn't a bad or evil man no i saw him i don't quite know what he did something to do with communism i personally agree with him that company should belong not only to the bosses but to the workers as well there is no dame there at all in east germany marx's writings were readily available of course the series with the blue covers i got them for my 18th birthday but if like me you interpreted marx in such a way that you then criticized ruling ideology or the ruling political system things could get a bit difficult for you i started reading marx when i was 18. i encountered him through my study of guten hegel and classical philosophy my interest in marx was an extension of that in a way marx is also an inheritor of the classical german philosophical tradition philosophy is i believe marx very aptly predicted this concentration of capital we see today the fact that capitalism is not simply a market economy but also contains a trend toward consolidation the formation of ever larger corporations he understood that this would ultimately destroy productivity that's exactly what we're seeing today in so many areas four or five large companies dominate the market divided up to suit their own interests and then they're no longer as innovation oriented as our current economic system likes to believe [Music] in 1845 prussia demanded that france extradite karl marx marx decided to emigrate to brussels a few months later he was joined by friedrich engess the pair wanted to pave the way for a new proletarian party and contacted wilhelm veitling who had become a leading member of the new league of the just in 1836 marx and engels had the group renamed the communist league and were commissioned to write its party program the communist manifesto was published in 1848 a year of republican revolts against european monarchies a spectre is haunting europe the specter of communism all the powers of old europe have entered into a holy alliance to exercise this specter let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains they have a world to win workers of the world unite [Music] in 1959 a young charismatic revolutionary led a faction who overthrew the cuban dictatorship fidel castro then established a socialist republic just off the shores of that bastion of capitalism the united states [Applause] less than a decade later young people in capitalist countries rose up to oppose their parents generation fidel castro and che guevara became the idols of the 1968 student movement of course we invoked marx when we told ourselves that intellectuals were merely a superstructure from which the revolution couldn't emanate the revolution we thought would have to emerge from the factory floor many of us actually went to work in factories for months some for years what we learned from the workers is that they weren't waiting for us to be their salvation that's when the theory of false consciousness became popular the idea that the workers didn't know what they truly needed that they'd been seduced by capitalism and that we had to explain to them their true needs that's when we started to question marx we cobbled together a new idea that consciousness had an important role to play in shaping the revolution that was almost un-marxist in a way because in classical marxism being determines consciousness and your revolution can only be achieved when the conditions of reality force you to imagine [Applause] and there was something else within marx that's always bothered and repelled me within the marxist edifice there's no single sentence that states simply thou shall not kill there's no principle that would forbid you to kill and kill in large numbers in the name of revolution and believe the answer for mention of supreme and jesus this lack of ethics is of course a terrible flaw that's inherent in the entire construction over and over again it's what's caused the edifice to collapse and what a giant it's huge up there some people prefer not to engage with it i was a mayor in the former east germany and i saw how people suffered under marxism leninism how their freedom was taken from them the constraints that were imposed on them that's why we have such difficulties with this ideology we agreed that the work will be finished around christmas and in january the transport will begin any small problems we still have will solve by then [Music] the year that the communist manifesto was published marx was forced to flee brussels and soon ended up back in cologne he was brought up on charges of inciting a rebellion and acquitted again he was expelled and meanwhile he had also lost his prussian citizenship and become stateless marx and his family went into exile in london at the time london harbored refugees from all over the world marx and his family lived in abject poverty three of the marx's six children died from illness time and again friedrich engers came to their aid [Music] with help from an inheritance the mark's family could move to a middle-class apartment marx then spent much of his time in the british museum's reading room where he worked on his most important manuscript the first volume appeared in 1867 das capital capital a critique of political economy marx presented it to his publisher with the words i don't believe anyone has ever written so much about money who has so little of it in the uk unfortunately i think we associate it more with marx and spencers which is a retail brand but because the culture i don't think is developed to know as much about karl marx as we should i think there's a little plaque on a house uh that is here but um i don't believe he wasn't british though at all was he was he might have been german or something like that i think marxism is clearly a uh very much a political philosophy that aspects of which are still subscribed to by people like jeremy corbyn and that sort of thing in this country clearly it's opposed to capitalism and here we are right in the center of capitalism in europe it's a real issue i think there's a lot of overseas investment chinese russian money you can drive around areas of north london and they they're pretty much deserted which is a huge shame and the indigenous population has been forced to move to the kind of periphery of london if you want a different life unfortunately you have to move out and you can get a better house bigger house better life maybe outside london but it's going to cost you a lot of hours of commute so yeah when i wrote my book city boy which is a massive warning about not to do what i did and become a banker every single email i've got many thousands of emails are from people some from germany young men saying i read your book could you get me a job in a bank please they think who cares if you're cheating society if you're earning that kind of money i don't see what happened in banking as irrational with the financial crisis those guys who invented these false products that exploded at a later date they were very rational because they would get a bonus every year before they were found out everyone views karl marx quite simply as a discredited ideology you know capitalism won but he still had a lot of interesting things to say about the system we currently live in the the alienation it causes how it has possibly the seeds of its own destruction but one possible mistake he made thinking that just because you're a member of the working class you will automatically have solidarity with everyone else and you will soon then realize that these capitalists are exploiting you and there will be a world global revolution and so forth whereas the reality is that there are many other things that give that can divide people so race religion you know and other aspects your football team which city you're in with your country i can't really see anything that is going to replace capitalism anytime soon we're all stuck with it today many native londoners can no longer afford to live in their own city [Music] but london is still considered one of the winners of neo-liberalism another capital has become the symbol of the dark side of capitalism athens after the 2008 global finance crisis greece plunged into an economic depression its fate depended on the decisions of international donors since then the country has been in a permanent state of emergency capitalism brought excellent new joys and pleasures but a great deal of pain and poverty and despondency that we had never experienced in the past the global proletariat has increased it has not shrunk the problem is for the west that the jobs that migrated left behind a part of europe that has become steeped in despondency in uncertainty in joblessness in lack of prospects it's a distributional issue but that was always the problem with capitalism it generates simultaneously immense wealth and new forms of deprivation growing up in greece during the dictatorship which banned marx gave me a great incentive to find out about marx because you know how it is with young people you say to them under no circumstances get it and then the only thing you want to do is really get it beyond that i was extremely eager to understand capitalism there is a very interesting dichotomy in liberal capitalist societies according to which the political sphere is democratized and the economic sphere is completely hierarchical and feudal max's view was that you cannot have democracy with this split whenever a technological innovation creates economies of scale there is a tendency that the owners of this technology are going to use it in order to monopolize power over the rest of us and to deny us the benefits of that knowledge it happened in the second industrial revolution it's happening a lot more now with google facebook and the artificial intelligence internet-based technologies it is crucial that instead of losing this fantastic opportunity through monopolization humanity learns finds ways of democratizing this the tools that effectively we produce jointly [Applause] what we're experiencing today is a transformation in the conditions of production which are blurring the boundaries between production and ordinary everyday activities we're productive we're creating value when we carry out an online search on google how are many clicks generate profits for google we don't like to think about it but it's a fact the socialization of production we have today has taken on a completely new form different from anything marx could have imagined we just don't have a logical way of comprehending it yet the people in power do whatever's necessary to maintain the status quo which they benefit from they'll do what we call quantitative easing they'll just print money they'll put interest rates down to this they'll adapt and do something with taxes whatever's necessary to maintain the system in 1881 karl marx's wife jenny died of cancer marx struggled to cope with the loss two years later he died in his armchair in his london apartment perhaps marx intuited that he would have been dismayed by some of the uses to which his writings were put over the years though marx remained convinced of his ideas he was famously reported to have said one thing is certain i am not a so-called marxist [Music] marx at the end of his life marx was convinced that in a functional democracy something akin to what we now call a social market economy founded on a cooperative basis would eventually emerge through entirely peaceful means [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 1,430,513

Rating: 4.3559933 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, Karl Marx, German philosopher, communism, Marxism, Lenin, capitalism, Soviet Union, financial crisis, DW, the communist manifesto, documentary 2018, communism vs capitalism, history documentary, dw documentary, dw documentaries english

Id: 9FaOKNpAiIM

Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Sat May 05 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Patterson9191717]

Remember when they talked about that 5’5 statue being delivered on 5/5?