Photo credit: Chineseposters.net

The arrival of a five and half meters high statue of the ‘Communist Manifesto’ writer Mr Karl Marx in his hometown of Trier, Germany, is causing quite the controversy amongst Germans, not in the least because it was a present from China to celebrate Mr Marx’s 200th birthday.

Mr Marx, recognized by many as the founding father of socialist thought, authored the "Communist Manifesto" in 1848 and later also wrote "Das Kapital".

Both books had an impact on European and even global politics, and conflicts for that matter, deep into the 20th century.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The city council of Trier voted in favour of accepting the bronze statue of Karl Marx from the Chinese government in March 2017. The 19th century thinker spent the first 17 years of his life in Trier near the Luxembourg border.<br> <a href="https://t.co/vZfqVyuZK7">https://t.co/vZfqVyuZK7</a></p>— Peace B (@PeaceBelgium) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeaceBelgium/status/985358484446306306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2018</a></blockquote>

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For this reason, and because of the mindset he stands for, the statue being erected in his honour is proving quite controversial for many Germans.

But the city of Trier itself sees it as an added tourist attraction (visited by 50,000 Chinese tourists annually, they are doing good business in this area), and therefore the council voted to accept the gift in early 2017.

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Zur Stunde wird die kontrovers diskutierte Marx-Statue in Trier aufgestellt. Enthüllt wird sie allerdings erst am 5. Mai. <a href="https://t.co/DTyWrmRqLg">pic.twitter.com/DTyWrmRqLg</a></p>— Karl-Marx-Haus Trier (@marx2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/marx2018/status/984731954884038656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Trier Mayor Mr Wolfram Leibe: "Karl Marx is one of the biggest citizens in this city and we should not hide it."

However Mr Ulrich Delius, director of the Society for Threatened Peoples, did not agree, saying that Mr Marx was "not just a scientist and philosopher," but also someone who "laid the spiritual foundations for the communist dictatorships that came afterwards."

Source:

http://www.tageblatt.lu/headlines/als-riesen-statue-karl-marx-kehrt-zum-200-nach-trier-zurueck/