The Karl Marx House museum (german: Karl-Marx-Haus) is a

writer's house museum Writers' homes (sometimes writer's, author's or literary houses) are locations where writers lived. Frequently, these homes are preserved as historic house museums and literary tourism destinations, called writer's home museums, especially when t ...

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

(

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

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 betwee ...

). In 1818,

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 ...

, the father of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, which influenced both modern

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

and

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

, was born in the house. It is now a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

about Karl Marx's life and writings as well as the history of communism.

History

The house was built in 1727 as a two-story baroque building. Karl Marx was born there on May 5, 1818. In October 1819, the Marx family moved to a smaller building near the

Porta Nigra The Porta Nigra (Latin for ''black gate'') is a large Roman city gate in Trier, Germany. It is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps. It was designated as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady i ...

. The significance of the house went unnoticed until 1904, at which point the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been ...

(SPD) attempted to acquire the home, succeeding in 1928. After the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

came to power in 1933, the building was confiscated and turned into a

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

house. On 5 May 1947 the building was opened as a museum of the life and works of Karl Marx. In 1968 it was integrated into the

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as th ...

, a political party foundation closely aligned with the SPD. On 14 March 1983, the 100th anniversary of Marx's death, the museum was re-opened after a year-long renovation that expanded it to three floors.

Exhibits

On the occasion of the bicentennial of Karl Marx's birth on May 5, 2018, the exhibition was completely reworked with a new concept entitled "From Trier to the World. Karl Marx, his ideas and their impact until today". The exhibition consists of three major units and features a further unit on the history of the house itself. The first area deals with the biography of Karl Marx, addressing his origins in Trier and his life in exile. The second is devoted to his work, where Marx appears as a philosopher, as a journalist, as a sociologist and as an economist, and the third shows the global impact of Marx up to the present day. Amongst the exhibits are Marx's reading chair, a first edition of

Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...

and a bust of Marx which was sculpted by his great-grandson. The Karl Marx House currently receives about 50,000 visitors a year, of which one third are Chinese tourists.

References

External links

Karl Marx House birthplace and museum
{{authority control Karl Marx Houses in Germany Buildings and structures in Trier Museums in Trier Biographical museums in Germany

Museums established in 1947 1947 establishments in Germany

History

Exhibits

See also

References

External links