Born in Germany on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx was a socialist, journalist, historian, economist, and philosopher (1818-1883). While studying at the University of Berlin, he joined a movement of radical thinkers known as the Young Hegelians. His journalistic writings eventually got him expelled from Germany, France, and Belgium. In 1848, he published The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and was exiled to London, where he wrote the first volume of Das Kapital and lived the rest of his life.

Born in 1820, Friedrich Engels was a German revolutionist, philosopher, businessman, and journalist who, along with Karl Marx, co-founded modern socialism.