The Karl Marx Monument (german: Karl-Marx-Monument) is a 7.10m (23.29ft)-tall stylized head of
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
in
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The heavy-duty sculpture, together with the base platform, stand over 13 meters (42 feet) tall and weighs approximately 40 tonnes. On a wall just behind the monument, the phrase "
Workers of the world, unite!
The political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" is one of the rallying cries from ''The Communist Manifesto'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (german: Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!, literally "Proletarians of all cou ...
" (from the
Communist Manifesto
''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...
) is inscripted in four languages: German, English, French and Russian.
It is the most famous monument in the inner city of Chemnitz, where it has gained the nickname "Nischel",
which is derived from the
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
term for head or skull.
History
After renaming the city and the district of Chemnitz to Karl-Marx-Stadt on 10 May 1953 for
Karl Marx Year
Karl Marx Year (german: Karl-Marx-Jahr) was a series of anniversaries of Karl Marx commemorated by East Germany in 1953, 1968, and 1983. The most prominent was in 1953, for the 70th anniversary of Marx's death, and included the renaming of Chemnitz ...
, the East German government decided to honour the namesake of the city, and hired a Soviet sculptor,
Lev Kerbel
Lev Yefimovich Kerbel (russian: Лев Ефимович Кербель; – 14 August 2003) was a sculptor of Soviet realist works. Kerbel's creations included statues of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Yuri Gagarin, which were sent by Soviet Gove ...
, to design a monument.
The monument was cast in the art foundry Monument Skulptura in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in bronze and then broken down into 95 pieces. In Karl-Marx-Stadt, these items were to be welded together again, but the Soviet technology was not suitable. Instead, it was decided to transfer the job to the VEB Germania. The monument stands on two pedestals with Korninskij granite, named after the mining region in southern Ukraine.
On 9 October 1971, the monument was inaugurated before a crowd of around 250,000 people along Karl-Marx-Allee (popularly referred to as "Nischelgasse" ("Skull Alley"), today's Brückenstraße).
As the landmark of the city, it served during holidays in the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
as a backdrop for pageants and other mass events. The monument remained intact after
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
, although the proposed demolition of the monument led to a heated debate when Karl-Marx-Stadt returned to its former name of Chemnitz. Many other cities around the world at that time reported interest in buying the monument; there have been discussions about a sale to Cologne.
Until 2007, the motto of the city was "Stadt mit Köpfchen" (the city with heads/brains), referring to the monument.
See also
*
List of statues of Karl Marx
*
List of statues of Vladimir Lenin
This article is a list of current and former known monuments of Vladimir Lenin. Many of the monuments in former Soviet republics and satellites were removed after the fall of the Soviet Union, while some of these countries retained the thousands o ...
*
List of statues of Stalin
This is a list of former and current known monuments dedicated to Joseph Stalin, many having been removed as a result of de-Stalinization. Some are now in Fallen Monument Park. Also, his name was removed from places, buildings, and the stat ...
References
External links
online Book on the statue, in German
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Chemnitz
Tourist attractions in Chemnitz
Outdoor sculptures in Germany
Monuments and memorials in Germany
Karl Marx
Busts of writers