Karl Grün

Karl Theodor Ferdinand Grűn (German: [ˈkaʁl ˈɡʁyːn]; 30 September 1817 – 18 February 1887), also known by his alias Ernst von der Haide, was a German journalist, political theorist and socialist politician. He played a prominent role in radical political movements leading up to the Revolution of 1848 and participated in the revolution. He was an associate of Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Feuerbach, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin and other radical political figures of the era. Though less widely known today, Grün was an important figure in the German Vormärz, Young Hegelian philosophy and the democratic and socialist movements in nineteenth-century Germany. As a target of Marx' criticism, Grün played a role in the development of early Marxism; through his philosophical influence on Proudhon, he had a certain influence on the development of French socialist theory.

Karl Theodor Ferdinand Grün was born in Lüdenscheid, a Westphalian town then under Prussian control. His father was a schoolmaster. His younger brother, Albert Grün, was a poet who later gained some notoriety for his role in the Revolution of 1848–49. While a secondary student at Wetzlar, Grün became involved in radical political activism, helping produce and distribute illegal democratic pamphlets. From 1835 to 1838 he studied philology and theology at the University of Bonn and philology and philosophy at the University of Berlin, where he completed a doctorate. One of Grün's fellow students was Karl Marx. Grün and Marx frequented the radical philosophical circles of the Young Hegelians and were strongly influenced by the 'humanistic materialism' of Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx' rivalry with Grün subsequently led to a personal breach between them. Grün was also strongly influenced by contemporary French socialist theories, combining them with Young Hegelian and Feuerbachian philosophy and democratic politics. He was associated with the group of 'True Socialists' around Moses Hess, a Young Hegelian philosopher and forerunner of labour Zionism. (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels sharply criticized the 'True Socialists' as utopian crypto-idealists.) Grün was also acquainted with several figures of the Vormärz period—the period of radical political ferment leading up to the abortive March Revolution of 1848—such as Arnold Ruge, Bruno Bauer, Heinrich Heine, Georg Herwegh and others.

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