He Was Rumoured To Have An Illegitimate Son With His Housekeeper

Jenny von Westphalen, who was four years his senior and came from a renowned Prussian aristocratic family, became Karl Marx's fiancée in 1836. Jenny and Karl frequently crossed paths as kids, and as teenagers, they grew close. Due to the disparity in their backgrounds—religious and social—their union was contentious, but Karl was close with Jenny's father, Ludwig von Westphalen. On June 19, 1843, in a Protestant church in Kreuznach, then-Germany, Karl Marx web Jenny von Westphalen. Three of the seven children born to the couple Jenny Caroline (1844 - 1883), Jenny Laura (1845 - 1911), and Jenny Julia Eleanor (1855 - 1898) lived to adulthood. Marx loved to give his kids colorful nicknames like "Qui Qui'' and "Tussy," and he named all of his daughters after his wife.

Additionally, Helene Demuth, Marx's long standing housekeeper and friend, is alleged to have given birth to an illegitimate son they both named Freddy. He planned a successful cover-up with Helen Demuth and Friedrich Engels, two of Marx's friends and collaborators, out of fear that this transgression would ruin his marriage and harm his reputation. Engels claimed to be the father, and Miss Demuth corroborated the lie. Fredrick Demuth, a newborn, was abandoned and entrusted to a working-class family in London to raise. This assertion, however, cannot be proven with absolute certainty.