16 Facts About Henriette Pressburg

Henriette Pressburg was the second of the five children of Isaac Heymans Pressburg and Nanette Salomons Cohen.

Isaac was the cantor of the synagogue in Nonnenstraat where his father, Hirschl Henriette Pressburg, had been the rabbi.

Henriette Pressburg married Hirschel Marx on 22 November 1814 in the Nijmegen Synagogue, she receiving a twenty thousand guilder dowry.

In 1819 the family moved to a ten-room property opposite the ancient Roman Porta Nigra gateway, where Henriette Pressburg lived with her family for the next 23 years.

Heinrich contracted tuberculosis and died in May 1838, when Henriette Pressburg still had six of their children living at home.

Henriette Pressburg became concerned with his lifestyle away from home, including his membership of a local drinking society in Bonn.

Henriette Pressburg's view was that he should do more to earn money, commenting "if only Karl had made Capital, instead of just writing about it".

Henriette Pressburg did however pass funds to him from time to time, although things did not always go smoothly.

In 1820 Henriette's younger sister Sophie Pressburg married the tobacco merchant Lion Philips in the Nijmegen synagogue, before moving to the Dutch town of Zaltbommel.

Henriette Pressburg occasionally stayed with them in Zaltbommel, regularly corresponded with Lion Philips and often borrowed money against his legacy, particularly after he moved to London in 1849.

Henriette Pressburg was the last of the family to be baptised, in November 1825, more than a year after her children and about eight years after her husband.

Henriette Pressburg was never completely at ease either in writing or in speaking high German, and biographers of Marx often describe Henriette Pressburg as uneducated, and perhaps of modest intellect, a view partly based on her surviving letters written in ungrammatical German with little punctuation.

Henriette Pressburg handled money better than her famous son Karl Marx.

Henriette Pressburg Marx continued to live in Trier, where she died on 30 November 1863, aged 75.

Henriette Pressburg was buried at the Protestant cemetery after a service at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.

Henriette Pressburg left her four surviving children substantial legacies, although much of Karl's share was paid to his uncle Lion Philips in settlement of his debts.