Karl Marx was born in this house, number 10 Brückenstrasse on 5th May 1818, the third child of his Jewish parents, the lawyer Heinrich Marx (1777-1838) and his wife Henriette Marx, born Presburg (1788-1863). In 1727 the front building was newly built in baroque style, with the partly Gothic buildings behind being greatly altered. It was here that Marx was born in 1818. He spent only the first year and a half of his life in the house which his family had rented since April 1818. By 1819 his father had already bought a house of their own at number 8 Simeonstrasse where Karl Marx lived until his completion of secondary school and his departure from Trier in 1835.
The house at number 8 Simeonstrasse was left forgotten and was only identified as the birth place of Karl Marx by a Social Democrat because of a newspaper article. The Social Democratic Party bought the house in 1928 and had it extensively restored in order to open a memorial. However these efforts were in vain: in 1933 the house was subject to a compulsory purchase by the SA (the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party) and was turned into the headquarters and the printing press for the “Nationalblatt” newspaper. In 1947 the house was once again in the possession of the Social Democratic Party. Today it serves as a museum meant to convey the life, the works and the history of Karl Marx’s impact. In honour of the 200th birthday of Karl Marx, his place of birth was renovated and the permanent exhibition newly designed.
