The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said today that the German philosopher Karl Marx should not be judged by the crimes committed by his supporters decades after his death.
Junker attended today in Trier the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Marx, the political philosopher and greatest critic of capitalism.
Alluding to the crimes of various revolutionaries in Russia, China and other countries, Junker said that "Marx is not responsible for the crimes of his alleged successors."
The city of Trier will mark two centuries since the birth of Marx, economist, philosopher, theoretician of socialism, with a series of events, including the unveiling of a 5,5-meter-high statue that was a gift from China.
More broadly, the glorification of Karl Marx is controversial, especially in countries that lived under communism.
On the one hand, the victims of communism and their descendants react strongly to anything that can look like the rehabilitation of totalitarianism. On the other hand, nostalgia for communism still exists, mainly because of social and workplace security in that period.
In addition, many believe that Marx's political ideas should not be blamed for what happened in Lenin's time and for the crimes of Stalinism.
Germany is a special case, as it was Marx's homeland and was divided until the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Bonus video:
