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Marx/Engels Collected Works: Volume 1 1835-1843

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The first volume of Marx and Engels’ Collected Works (MECW) covers Marx’s life from 1835 to March 1843. The earliest works in the collection are from his gymnasium examinations written in August of 1835. Whether or not these should be taken as expressions of Marx’s thought is debatable. They include a composition on the ideal profession, the exegesis of John 15: 1-4, and the reign of Augustus. The last was composed ex tempore in Latin, and provides an account of the Republican period, Augustus, and the Neronian age. The school’s final estimation of Marx’s Latin and Greek knowledge is preserved as well:  

In Latin, even without preparation he translates and explains with facility and circumspection the easier passages of the classics read in the gymnasium; and after due preparation or with some assistance frequently also the more difficult passages, especially those where the difficulty consists not so much in the peculiarity of the language as in the subject-matter and train of thought. His composition shows, in regard to material, a wealth of thought and deep insight into the subject-matter, but is often overladen with irrelevancies; in regard to language, he gives evidence of much practice and striving for genuine latinity, although he is not yet free from grammatical errors. In speaking Latin, he has acquired a fairly satisfactory fluency.

In Greek, his knowledge and abilities, in regard to understanding the classics read in the gymnasium, are almost the same as in Latin (643).


While Marx’s knowledge of ancient Latin and Greek is extraordinary by contemporary standards, it was part and parcel of the German gymnasium education system. In 1835, Marx attended the University of Bonn before transferring to the University of Berlin the following year. At the University of Berlin, he prepared to complete a dissertation on the history of Roman law, which would have prepared him to work in the Prussian civil service. He also prepared a translation of Tacitus’ Germania, Ovid’s Tristia, and Aristotle’s Rhetoric. To his own consternation and the extreme frustration of his father, Marx found a fatal flaw in his doctoral work which ultimately led him to abandon the subject and the school of historicism all together. Under the influence of his studies in Hegel and the Young Hegelians, he instead completed his dissertation on the philosophy of epicurus and Democritus: Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature (25-108). His preparatory studies are also preserved: Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy (403-509). Today, Marx would be considered a ‘Classicist’ who specialized in ancient Greek philosophy. The extent to which these early works are related to his mature ideas is a debated topic. However, his lifelong commitment to the problem of false abstraction (i.e. ideology) and understanding the material barriers that stand between history and the realization of liberation unquestionably began in these years. His thought is framed by the language and ideas of Classical antiquity, and his work cannot ultimately be understood without an understanding of the role they played in shaping his thought.

The following provides a list all references in Volume 1 to ancient Greece or Rome. See Appendix for the alphabetical index. All pages reference the MECW volume(s).

Gymnasia [1835]

1. Does the Reign of Augustus Deserve to be Counted Among the Happier Periods of the Roman Empire

2. Certificate of Maturity for Pupil of the Gymnasium in Trier

3. Does the Reign of Augustus Deserve to be Counted Among the Happier Periods of the Roman Empire

University [1836-1841]

1. Letter from Marx to His Father

2. Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature

3. Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy

Journalism: Rheinische Zeitung [1842]

1. Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction

2. Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly

3. The Leading Article in No. 179 of the Kölnische Zeitung

4. Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung

5. Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assemblommunism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung

6. A Correspondent of the Kölnische Zeitung vs. the Rheinische Zeitung

7. Stylistic Exercises of the Rhein- und Mosel-Zeitung

8. Letter to Arnold Ruge. April 27, 1842