Museum Karl-Marx-Haus

Karl Marx
Karl Marx is one of my favorite revolutionary philosopher. And if you are into philosophy, history, sociology or economy and happened to be visiting Germany, a visit to Museum Karl-Marx-Haus in Trier is a must. Museum Karl-Marx-Haus is a house where he was born. It is now a museum dedicated to life and work of Karl Marx as well as the history of the labor movement. Just a brief history on Karl Marx before I tell you more about the museum.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was born in Trier on May 5, 1818, where he received classical education. He studied jurisprudence in Bonn and Berlin, where, however, his preoccupation with philosophy soon turned him away from law. His interest was in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. After his studies, he wrote for radical newspaper in Köln, the Rheinische Zeitung and began to work out his theory of dialectical materialism. In pursuing that he found himself confronted with points of view which neither jurisprudence nor philosophy had taken account of. Proceeding from the Hegelian philosophy of law, Marx came to the conclusion that it was not the state, which Hegel had described as the 'top of the edifice', but 'civil society', which Hegel had regarded with disdain, that was the sphere in which a key to the understanding of the process of the historical development of mankind should be looked for. However, the science of civil society is political economy, and this science could not be studied in Germany, it could only be studied thoroughly in England or France.

After moving to Paris in 1843, he devoted himself primarily on studying political economy and the history of the Great French Revolution. He met Friedrich Engels in Paris, and the two men worked together on series of books. Exiled to Brussels, pursuing the same studies there, until the outbreak of February revolution. In Brussels, Marx was introduced to socialism by Moses Hess and finally broke off from the philosophy of Young Hegelians completely. While there, he wrote The German Ideology. 

At the beginning of 1846, Marx founded a Communist Correspondence Committee in attempt to link socialists from around Europe. Inspired by his ideas, socialists in England held a conference and formed the Communist League, and in 1847 at  a Central Committee meeting in London, the organization asked Marx and Engels to write Manifesto of the Communist Party. The Communist Manifesto, was published in 1848, and shortly after, in 1849, Marx was expelled from Belgium. He went to back to Köln with his friends and founded there Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the same year he was expelled from Prussia, and therefore had to move to Paris, from where he was once again expelled and from where he moved to London. In London, Marx helped found the German Workers' Educational Society, as well as a new headquarters for the Communist League. He continued to work as journalist as well as focusing himself on capitalism and economic theory, and in 1867, he published the first volume of Das Kapital. The rest of his life was spent writing and revising manuscripts for additional volumes, which he did not complete. He died in London on March 14, 1883.

Museum Karl-Marx-Haus in Trier

Karl-Marx-Haus

Marx's birthplace, No. 10 in what today is the Brückenstraße, was rebuilt and extended under a series of different owners. It was not recognized for a long time as the birthplace of Karl Marx. In 1904, it was 'rediscovered' by an announcement in the 'Trierische Zeitung' on 5 April 1818 in which Heinrich Marx announce his move to what was then Brückergasse No. 664.

Attempts of the SPD (Social Democratic Party) to acquire the house dragged out over many years. On 26 April 1928, the Social Democratic newspaper 'Volkswacht' proudly announced that the SPD had purchased the property. The seizure of power by the Nazis prevented the museum from opening. Immediately after the German capitulation, Social Democrats in Trier attempted to repossess it. With help from an international solidarity committee it was returned to the SPD, who opened it as a monument to Karl Marx in 1947. In 1968, the SPD entrusted the house to the care of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation.

Karl Marx quote

If you enter the exhibition room 02 you will witness the eventful history of the house from the subject of bitter dispute as a political symbol up to modern day museum. Room 03 shows an object hanging in the center onto which well known quotes from Marx and also critical utterances about him. In Room 11 you will find information about his roots, youth and education as well as his early bonding with Jenny von Westphalen.

Communist Manifesto

Room 12 shows the young journalist and political philosopher and the beginning of a lifelong friendship with Friedrich Engels. In Room 13 you can witness the great importance of the 1848 revolution which was followed by a life in exile for Karl Marx. In this room you can see an electronic book of the Communist Manifest in various languages.

Room 14 gives an impression of Marx life with his family in London and of his daughters and their private situation. In Room 15, you will find further information about the great universal scholar, journalist and author of his comprehensive major work, Das Kapital.  The first volume did not appeared until 1867. Volumes 2 and 3 were not published until after his death.

Room 16 shows you the relationship of Karl Marx and the labour movement. An object clearly shows the climax of his second and last active political phase within the International Workingmen's Association (Internationale Arbeiter-Assoziation/IAA). Room 17 gives you an impression of the decade after Marx' death and points out the importance of Friedrich Engels for early Marxism.

Here in this floor, there is an open hallway, where you can see several names of intellectuals which were influenced for their entire lives or maybe periodically by Marx and his ideas.

Intellectuals influenced by Marx 

In Room 21, you will see the impact of Marx's ideas. Central themes are splitting of the labour movement during the First World War and in the wake of the Russian Revolution as well as the contrast between communists and social democrats. Room 22, describes the splitting of Europe after the Second World War with its symbolic Berlin Wall all the way through to the overcoming of this division in 1989.

Room 23 is the last room which is focused on the world-wide utilization of the ideas of Karl Marx with the help of a world map which is lowered into the floor. With the breakdown of the state socialism in Middle and East Europe and the transformation of the Asiatic communism in partly capitalistic development dictatorship, the influence of Karl Marx does not end.

If you are interested in buying his books or souvenirs, there is a small shop inside the museum, besides the entrance. There are wide range of souvenirs to choose from, like shirts, canvas books bags, books, statues of Karl Marx and even Karl Marx Wine.  

Note: This blog is research based on various sites and private visit to the Museum

Van Gogh - The Master and His Museum

Self Portrait of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh
Born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, a village in Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands. In 1880, Vincent van Gogh decides to become an artist, moves to Brussels and considers enrolling at the art academy, but instead tries to study independently, sometimes in the company of Dutch artist Anthon van Rappard. In late 1881, van Gogh spends several weeks in The Hague, taking painting lessons from his cousin by marriage, Anton Mauve, a leading member of the Hague School. Mauve introduces him to watercolor and oil technique. Van Gogh makes his first independent watercolor and painted studies in the summer 1882. In the same year, he receives his first commission. His uncle Cornelis van Gogh asks him to produce 12 pen and ink drawings of The Hague. In 1885, he completes his first masterpiece - The Potato Eaters.

Van Gogh was a largely self-taught artist who went on to change the face of Post-impressionism forever. A troubled yet highly-skilled painter, van Goghs work was an outlet for his emotion, particularly battling depression. Upon moving to Paris, van Gogh was hugely inspired by the works of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and he adopted their bright palette and developed a unique style which continues to be emulated by artists to this day.

Working at an often furious pace, van Gogh produced more than 2.000 works of art, including 900 paintings and 1.100 drawings and sketches in his 10-year career. However, he sold only one painting during his lifetime and did not become successful until after his death.


The Museum in Amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum - Amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam contains the largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh in the world. Every year the museum attracts approximately 1,5 million visitors from all over the world. The Museum's permanent collection includes more than 200 paintings by Van Gogh and many drawings and letters. If you visit the museum, you will see various works in periods of : Early Works until 1886; Paris (1886-1888); Arles (1888-1889); Saint-Rémy (1889-1890); Auvers (1890). You will also see works by other artists, Van Gogh's friends and contemporaries, those who inspired him and those who drew inspiration from him, such artists as Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and many others including Japanese drawings and pictures that inspired Van Gogh. 

The Museum is easy to find in Amsterdam. In the same neighborhood you will also find Rijksmuseum, the largest museum of art and history in the Netherlands and Stedelijk Museum, dedicated to modern and contemporary art and design. Although until 25 April 2013 Van Gogh Museum collection are located in Hermitage Amsterdam due to renovations in Van Gogh Museum. Hermitage Amsterdam is located at Amstel  51.

My Favorite Van Gogh's Works
Some of my favorites that are located in this Museum :

Boulevard de Clichy, 1887

Boulevard de Clichy is a street in Montmarte, the artists' neighborhood where Vincent stayed with his brother Theo from March 1886. 

The Boulevard played an important role in Van Gogh's life. The Café du Tambourin and the Moulin Rouge were located here, as was the studio of Fernand Cormon, where he studied for a time.Several of his friends also lived here as well: John Russell, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. The Boulevard de Clichy is more Impressionist in style. This painting is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Fishing boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1988

At the Beginning of June 1988, Vincent visited the fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where, in a matter of days, he produced two seascape, a view of village and nine drawings.This painting is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Landscape at Twilight, 1890

One of my ultimate favorite. 'A Crepuscular Effect: two pear trees, wholly black, against a yellow sky, with grain-fields; and, in the purple background, the castle, enfolded by dark foliage'. This was how Van Gogh described the evocative landscape he painted shortly after sunset in the surroundings of the château at Auvers. This painting is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Pollard Birches, 1884

Trees were important source of inspirations for van Gogh. Gnarled willows, oaks and beeches are the main motif in some twenty of his drawings and paintings. In a letter to Theo from 1882, van Gogh revealed that he saw 'something like a soul' in trees. He must have been similarly inspired when he depicted these expressive, rather tragic-looking pollard birches. This work is one of a group of six pen drawings of landscapes that van Gogh produced in Nuenen during the first half of March 1884. This drawing is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

The Yellow House ('The Street'), 1888

In May 1888, van Gogh rented four rooms on the right-hand side of a house on the Place Lamartine in Arles. His living quarters were the ones with the green shutters. His bedroom lay beyond. Van Gogh had finally found a place where he could not only paint but also welcome his friends.His goal was to establish a "Studio of the South", where he and like-minded artists could work together.This painting is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

The Vicarage at Nuenen, 1885

Around 5 December 1883, Vincent left Drenthe, where he had been working for the last three months, for Nuenen - a village in the province of Brabant where his father was a pastor since 1882. He stayed with his family in the vicarage from December 1883 until May 1885. This painting is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Worn Out, 1882

'What a fine sight an old working man makes, in his patched bombazine suit with his bald head' van Gogh wrote to his brother on 24 November 1882, with reference to this drawing. The old workman was Adrianus Zuyderland, resident of the Dutch Protestant Almshouse for Old Men and Women. In return for a small payment, various residents of the almshouse regularly spent a morning or afternoon posing for van Gogh.This drawing is in the collection of Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.















Some of my favorites that are located elsewhere around the world:

The Round of Prisoners,1890

The Round of Prisoners was painted after an engraving by Gustave Doré. It is suggested that the face of the prisoner in the center of the painting and looking toward the viewer is van Gogh himself, although the noted van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker discount this. This painting is in the collection of Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow.

Starry Night over the Rhone, 1888

Starry Night over the Rhone is one of Van Gogh's paintings of Arles at night. It was painted at a spot on the bank of the Rhone river that was only a minute or two's walk from the Yellow House on the Place Lamartine which Van Gogh was renting at the time. The night sky and the effects of  light at night provided the subject for some of his more famous paintings, including Cafe Terrace at Night and The Starry Night. This painting is in the collection of Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Road with Cypress and Star, 1890

Road with Cypress and Star, was painted in May 1890. In earlier letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh wrote that cypresses were always 'always occupying (his) thoughts' and that he found them 'beautiful of line' and proportioned like Egyptian obelisk. He had also intended on painting a nighttime view of the trees since his stay in Arles in 1888.This painting is in the collection of Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo.

The Starry Night, 1889

The Starry Night, my other great favorite, depicts the view outside van Gogh's sanatorium room window at Saint-Rémy. Starry Night is one of the most well known images in modern culture as well as being one of the most replicated and sought after prints. Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo ' This morning I saw the country  from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big'. Rooted in imagination and memory, The Starry Night embodies as inner, subjective expression of van Goghs response to nature. This painting is in the collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York.





Note: This blog is based on research on various articles, books and sites as well as private visit to Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam