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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1997-02 > 0854803439


From: Maryjo Bruce <>
Subject: Re: Medieval Ancestry of Karl Marx
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 05:23:59 -0800
In-Reply-To: <32F2B262.63C1@worldnet.att.net>


The Unbroken Chain: Biographical Sketches and the Genealogy of Illustrious
Jewish Families from the 15th - 20th Centuries. Rosenstein, Neil. 1944 -
LC Call No. CS31
.R67
1990

#90-80924

Mary Jo Bruce, M.S., M.L.S.
Paralegal/Dispute Mediator
Technical Services Coordinator
Dallas County Civil Law Library

-----------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, D. Spencer Hines wrote:

> At 02:40 AM 1/28/97 +0000, William Addams Reitwiesner
> wrote:
>
> >I haven't seen very many genealogies of Groucho Marx and the Marx
> >brothers. On the other hand, if it's Karl Marx you're interested in,
> >you can find him, and his medieval ancestry, in Neil Rosenstein, *The
> >Unbroken Chain* [New York: CIS, 1990], vol. 1, p. 237.
>
> I've had zero luck finding Rosenstein's "The Unbroken Chain" to date.
> Thomas Sowell, the distinguished Stanford economist, who just happens to
> be an Afro-American, tells us some interesting things about Karl Marx's
> roots in Sowell's, "Marxism---Philosophy and Economics," William Morrow
> and Company, 1985. It seems that Marx was descended from a long line of
> rabbis. The chief rabbi in Trier, where Marx was born, was Marx's uncle.
> His mother was Dutch.
>
> Marx married Jenny von Westphalen, who was a Baron's daughter. He
> apparently mooched off and exploited his in-laws shamelessly. His poor
> wife Jenny, who was much neglected by her husband, seems to have been a
> champion Royalty Sniffer. At the time her husband was leading the First
> Communist International---The International Working Men's
> Association---she had cartes de visite printed up identifying herself as
> "Baroness von Westphalen"---a member of that class her husband had sworn
> to sweep into the dustbin of History. Surely the poor woman had very few
> pleasures living with such an unpleasant man---so perhaps we should not
> deny her a few foibles.
>
> Marx was surely the most disastrous of all the 19th Century European
> Intellectuals---his wacko theories have condemned hundreds of millions
> to economic privation and poverty and scores of millions to death. His
> favorite riposte according to Tom Sowell was, "I will annihilate
> you!"---and he certainly did that to millions of people.
>
> Marx's theories seem to have been pretty thoroughly discredited 113
> years after his death. Only in Pyongyang, Havana, and parts of Tirane,
> Berkeley and Harvard Yard----does he get much respect. But it would be
> delicious were he to have had "Royal Blood"----particularly if he knew
> about it and took some pride in it. The thought of Karl Marx as a closet
> Royalty Sniffer is somehow deeply satisfying, as theatre----but I'm not
> holding my breath or betting any money on it, yet.
>
> Can you please tell us whether he was indeed of Royal Descent---and how
> the purple trail was constructed, if he did?
>
> --
>
> D. Spencer Hines
> Fiel Pero Desdichado (Faithful But Unfortunate), Motto of the House of
> Marlborough as quoted by Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, The Last
> Lion, Visions of Glory (1874-1932), William Manchester (1983), p.810
>

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