Germany marked the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth on Saturday, but the event was marred by protests against the revolutionary philosopher who remains a divisive figure almost three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Marx’s birth city of Trier led commemorations of the man officials describe as a “great son of the city”, with 600 events planned around the 19th-century scholar hailed for foretelling the ills of capitalism.
The centrepiece of the festivities was the unveiling of a 5.5-metre (18-foot) tall statue of the philosopher — a gift from communist China. It was wrapped in a red cloth and nearly 1,500 people attended the event, including a Chinese delegation and the head of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD).
It shows Marx in a frock coat striding forward.
SPD chief Andrea Nahles said Marx was still relevant, adding:
“We are well advised to re-read some of his analyses in the context of present times.”
A permanent exhibition was also unveiled at the house where he was born on May 5, 1818.
However, scores of people from an association representing victims of communism marched with a banner showing Marx sitting on human skulls. They blame him for inspiring Stalinist regimes.
“We want to protest loudly against the unveiling of the Marx statue and raise our voices against the glorification of Marxism,” said Dieter Dombrowski, president of the Union of the Victim Groups of Communist Tyranny.
For Dombrowski, Trier’s decision to accept the gift from China is “disrespectful and inhuman” to those who suffered under communist regimes.
‘Neither glorify nor vilify’
Born in the western German city close to the border with Luxembourg, Marx developed his theories as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace.
Due to Marx’s reputation as the Father of Communism, he was largely derided in the former capitalist West Germany during the Cold War.
But since reunification, and particularly over the past decade, unbridled capitalism and its discontents have fuelled renewed interest in Marx’s work.
His theories on inequality and oppression of the working class find resonance today as societies once again see social and political upheaval.
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