Even though it is called Labor Day, May 1 is very popular in Germany. What is the reason for this? As a public holiday, it provides most of the population the opportunity to enjoy a day off. Politically active people, however, take part in demonstrations on May 1. Karl Marx, the German philosopher and founder of social theories now known as Marxism, would surely have welcomed such a commitment to the cause!

Marx was born in 1818 in the quiet town of Trier, and his birthplace is now home to a museum. After graduating, he worked as a political journalist in Cologne but increasingly found his work censored. So he moved abroad. He lived in Paris and Brussels before ending up in London, where his most famous work "Das Kapital" was published. Before his death, however, only the first volume appeared. His friend and colleague Friedrich Engels edited additional manuscripts, allowing for the publication of volumes two and three.

Marx and Engels were celebrities in the communist GDR; the state honored them with monuments, named streets after them, and their images appeared on banknotes and postage stamps. From 1953 to 1990, the city of Chemnitz bore the name Karl Marx City, and Leipzig University was called Karl Marx University.