Karl Marx, his ideas and their legacy down to the present

What is special about the new exhibition, however, is the third part: the impact of Marx's ideas in history down to the present day, now being presented in Marx's house of birth for the first time.

Marx lent an important impetus to the emerging workers' movement in the 19th century. He made astonishingly accurate predictions about future economic and social developments like globalization, but was unable to foresee how things would actually develop up until the 21st century.

Visitors are able to pick up a lot of interesting facts about the history of Marx's birth house thanks to a separate exhibition trail that extends through the entire house. 

Marx does not leave behind any finished and complete textbook, and he is most certainly not a prophet. Following generations filled in the gaps. While some used Marx to justify violence and dictatorship on the road to communism, others—among them German Social Democrats—opted for a parliamentary-democratic path to socialist society in the first third of the 20th century. In the shadow of the Soviet Union and China, Marxist ideas became globalised after 1945, embedded in political movements and propounded by intellectuals in the West. Finally, the exhibition looks at global developments following the collapse of the Soviet Union: although Marx was held by many to no longer be relevant, he and his theses are as relevant as ever in the era of globalised capitalism.

In the wake of the 2007-2008 financial and economic crisis, Marx has experienced a renaissance. This is why the exhibition ends with a look at the present day: What kind of world do we live in and what kind of world do we seek to live in?

Marx stands out as a source of impetus and ideas in a current analysis and critique of capitalist society in the 21st century. His appraisal of society and capitalism summons and calls upon us to understand today's world and its concealed underlying structures in order to change them and free people from the shackles of exploitation.

The FES' cooperation partners are staging additional exhibitions in Trier to commemorate Marx's anniversary. The National Exhibition "Karl Marx 1818 - 1883. His life, work and times", is showing at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum and in Stadtmuseum Simeonstift (link in German). The exhibit at Museum am Dom addresses "LebensWert Arbeit" ("decent work"). For further information see www.karl-marx-ausstellung.de.