With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Posh Spice Is Descendant of Marx Comrade: Historian

Pop singer Victoria Beckham is a descendant of a 19th century German communist who was close to Karl Marx, a German historian was quoted as saying on Monday.

Beckham, born Victoria Adams and now wife of soccer player David Beckham, is the great-great-great-granddaughter of revolutionary and artist Carl Heinrich Pfaender, said Hans Mueller, a historian from the southwestern city of Heilbronn.

Mueller told news agency ddp he had researched the life of Heilbronn native Pfaender, who lived from 1819 to 1876 and was a close associate of Marx and Friedrich Engels. Pfaender took part in the failed revolution of 1848 and was forced to flee to London where he worked as a miniaturist and painter to make ends meet, he added...
Read entire article at Reuters