On 1st October 1819 the lawyer, Heinrich Marx, father of Karl Marx, purchased the small baroque mansard roofed building at 1070 Simeonsgasse (now number 8 Simeonsgasse), not far from the Porta Nigra of a professional colleague, the legal counsel Peter Schwarz. For the amount of 18,987 francs and 20 cents it was agreed to make payment by installments, and so the family moved here from Brückengasse.
After the father had converted from his Jewish faith to protestantism between 1816 and 1819 in order to improve his chances of career progression, the children, Sophia, Karl, Hermann, Henriette, Louise, Emilie and Caroline were also christened as Protestants in this house on the 26th August 1824. Karl was home schooled by his father here until he moved to the local grammar school in 1830. Karl Marx lived in Simeonstrasse until his secondary school graduation in Autumn 1835.
Afterwards he left Trier to begin his studies at the University of Bonn, and only returned to Trier a few times and just for short visits. The mother, Henriette Marx, is last recorded as being at this address at the end of 1850 with the house probably sold between 1851 and 1852. With the interior renovated and greatly changed, a shop can now be found on the ground floor. Now only a memorial plaque above the entrance to the house serves as a reminder of the one-time resident, and of the city of Trier’s most famous son.
