The Karl-Marx-Haus in Trier

Our weekly snippet focuses on an interesting spot discovered by a Guild member on her or his travels. This time round, Nicky Gardner looks at the birthplace of Karl Marx.

Trier is one of those towns that could really annoy me. The town in the Moselle Valley has few gritty edges – bourgeois complacency has smoothed everything to perfection. Coffee and cake in excess. Yet tucked away in Brückenstrasse, just west of Trier’s picture-postcard town centre, is a remarkable museum.

Trier is especially popular with visitors to Germany from the People’s Republic of China – a little improbably it might seem, unless you know that Karl Marx was born in Trier. Marx’s birthplace is a beautifully preserved baroque town house, which now serves as a museum dedicated to the life and work of the great political philosopher. Sounds all very dry and academic perhaps, but staff at the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation which looks after the Trier museum have done a superb job in highlighting the continuing relevance of Marx’ thinking to the modern world. You can find out more about the Karl-Marx-Haus in Trier at www.fes.de/marx/index_e.htm.

So even sedate Trier has a star spot in Europe’s socialist history. Hasta la victoria siempre!