1st LD-Writethru: Karl Marx House reopens as Trier celebrates thinker's anniversary

TRIER, Germany, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Karl Marx House, in which the German thinker was born and later was turned into a museum, reopened after full renovation on Saturday, to mark the 200th birthday of the man whose ideas are still influencing the world.

In a short re-opening ceremony on Saturday morning at the Brueckenstrasse 10 of Trier, where the House is located, Frederique Longuet-Marx, the philosopher's great-great granddaughter, was invited to return to the birthplace of her ancestor.

"As for my family, Marx is not only a philosopher who changed the world, but he is also always actual for us. Now we still talk about Marx often," said Longuet-Marx at the ceremony.

"If we're going to celebrate, then this is the time. And, in light of Marx's worldwide importance, (it is) completely reasonable," said Andrea Nahles, chairwoman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which was heavily influenced by Marx in the late 19th century and its Friedrich Ebert Foundation owns the Karl Marx House.

The gate of the museum re-opened after Longuet-Marx's son and daughter cut off a red band in front of over one hundred guests.

The museum also presented a permanent exhibition named From Trier to the World: Karl Marx, his ideas and their impact to the present.

The exhibition gives more spaces to describe the impacts of Marx and his ideas, especially to the world after the 2007/2008 global financial crisis.

"We want to show that these ideas are still alive; these ideas are still up to date," Elisabeth Neu, head of the museum, told Xinhua.

Among the new exhibits included an armchair in which Marx died on March 14, 1883.

The very first edition of Communist Manifesto in 1848, and a Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, which supposedly inspired Marx for writing Das Kapital, were exhibited in the Karl Marx House for the first time.

Marx was born in this three-floor baroque-style house on May 5, 1818 and spent the first 17 years of his life here. He died in London in 1883.

The re-opening of the house was followed by the formal unveiling of a Karl Marx statue, a gift from China.

The city is holding and will hold a series of events to memorize its most famous son. Enditem