Q 01/05

In the Communist Manifesto, which class owns the means of production and employs wage earners?

A) The proletariat

B) The bourgeoisie

C) The aristocracy

D) The peasantry

Answer · why

B) The bourgeoisie

The bourgeoisie, the Manifesto argues, builds modern industry and so produces, above all, its own grave-diggers: the class of wage earners that will o...

Q 02/05

What is the title of Marx's multi-volume critique of political economy, his magnum opus?

A) The German Ideology

B) The Poverty of Philosophy

C) Das Kapital

D) The Holy Family

Answer · why

C) Das Kapital

Das Kapital: after its first volume came out in 1867, Engels himself wrote reviews of the book in an effort to drum up publicity for it.

Q 03/05

In which city was Marx born in 1818?

A) Düsseldorf

B) Berlin

C) Trier

D) Cologne

Answer · why

C) Trier

Trier, on the Moselle, was given a bronze statue of Marx by the Chinese government in 2018 to mark 200 years since his birth there.

Q 04/05

Marx's mother came from a Dutch Jewish family that later founded which famous company?

A) Heineken brewing

B) Royal Dutch Shell

C) Philips Electronics

D) Unilever foods

Answer · why

C) Philips Electronics

Philips Electronics was founded in 1891 by the son and grandson of Marx's uncle Lion Philips, who in 1861 gave his hard-up nephew £160.

Q 05/05

Why did Marx's father Heinrich convert from Judaism to Christianity?

A) To inherit a vineyard

B) To marry a Christian

C) He had a religious conversion

D) To keep his career as a lawyer

Answer · why

D) To keep his career as a lawyer

To keep his career as a lawyer: Prussian law barred Jews from the profession, so Heinrich was baptised even though his own father and brother were bot...