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Marx at 200: Germany torn over revolutionary's legacy
TheLocal.de ^ | 1 May 2018 10:09 CEST+02:00

Posted on 05/01/2018 9:16:17 AM PDT by Olog-hai

As Germany prepares to mark Karl Marx’s 200th birth anniversary, the revolutionary philosopher’s legacy remains divisive more than a quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

With scars from the Cold War still fresh, people from capitalist former West Germany and the once communist East are of two minds about the 19th-century philosopher. Some hail Marx as a visionary scholar who foretold the ills of the market economy, while others revile him for inspiring Stalinist regimes.

In the western town of Trier, the icon’s birthplace which is planning 600 events for his bicentenary, it is not lost on critics that the centerpiece of the celebrations is a gargantuan statue offered as a gift from communist China. […]

“Karl Marx developed the foundation upon which all subsequent communist dictatorships have built until today,” Dieter Dombrovski, president of the Union of the Victim Groups of Communist Tyranny, told AFP.

“He wrote these works; sure, he did not implement them, but he developed the thought and the communist dictatorships implemented everything that he wrote word for word. According to our penal system today, if someone were to incite a person to commit murder, and if the other person carries out the murder, then the one who incited is also convicted, which is only right,” said Dombrovski, who was once jailed by the East German dictatorship. More people were killed under communist regimes than under Adolf Hitler, he added. […]

Officials in Trier reject the accusations, arguing that Marx cannot be blamed for regimes which distorted his theories to their own ends. …

(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...


TOPICS: Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: communism; dieterdombrovski; europeanunion; eussr; germany; karlmarx; marx; nato; trier
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1 posted on 05/01/2018 9:16:18 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai; GraceG
It's not about fighting oppression.

It's about becoming the oppressor.

2 posted on 05/01/2018 9:29:57 AM PDT by KC_Lion (If you want on First Lady Melania's, Ivanka Trump's or Sarah Palin's Ping Lists, just let me know.)
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To: Olog-hai
Honoring Karl Marx is little different than honoring a Charles Manson. Admittedly Manson's victims were far less than on ten millionth of Marx's. But Manson danced to the same fiddle player.
3 posted on 05/01/2018 9:36:56 AM PDT by Ohioan
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To: Olog-hai

Why are they going all out to celebrate Karl Marx?

Is this yet another political statement often made, to the effect that the theories of Marx are wonderful, it was just the implementation by a series of despots and tyrants which gave socialism and communism a bad name????


4 posted on 05/01/2018 9:37:25 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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Officials in Trier reject the accusations, arguing that Marx cannot be blamed for regimes which distorted his theories to their own ends.
Their lying throats should be cut. Thanks Olog-hai.

5 posted on 05/01/2018 9:38:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: KC_Lion; GraceG
Yes, and the Manifesto says as much.
… [T]he first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.

Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production. […]

… If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class—if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions of production—then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class. …
So by turning the tables in a class war, it can abolish a class war? Not how it works. But by advocating “despotic inroads”, Marx admits that the only goal is for the “proletariat” to become the oppressor.
6 posted on 05/01/2018 9:38:49 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

Godless totalitarianism, what could possibly go wrong?


7 posted on 05/01/2018 9:39:18 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (...the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light...)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
political statement often made

"It's never been tried."

Ha!

8 posted on 05/01/2018 9:40:14 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: SunkenCiv

Historic tradition says that Trier was founded by none other than Nimrod. The rationalists rejected that tradition and have done their utmost to cover it up; given that this city spawned one of the biggest rebellions against God in the modern age, it’s not hard to fathom why.


9 posted on 05/01/2018 9:45:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
"Is this yet another political statement often made, to the effect that the theories of Marx are wonderful, it was just the implementation by a series of despots and tyrants which gave socialism and communism a bad name?"

By jove, Dilbert San Diego, I think you've got it!!!

10 posted on 05/01/2018 9:48:58 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: Olog-hai

“distorted his theories to their own ends.”

Oh yeah, it’s always “THEY JUST DIDN’T DO IT RIGHT”.

“But WE WILL!”

This is why this bastard is still being celebrated - the constant foolhardy belief that somehow, someone will make it work.


11 posted on 05/01/2018 9:49:35 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
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To: MUDDOG
Or...

"Nobody has done it right yet!"

12 posted on 05/01/2018 9:50:07 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

Yep; they still think that tearing down human society and rebuilding it by abolishing family, private property, religion and national borders (the pillars of human society) can work.


13 posted on 05/01/2018 9:51:17 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

Herr Dombrovski has the right idea.

I wonder what kind of commemorations German —and American — universities will have.


14 posted on 05/01/2018 9:52:33 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
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To: Olog-hai

Marx is more intellectually honest than his current supporters in the west. In order to convert from a free market economy to a centrally controlled communists economy the property and business owners will have to agree to give up their property (personal, intellectual, business) to the state.

Marx realized that it would have to be brought about by force. The dimwits today I guess believe that we’ll all just volunteer to give it up. Yeah, that’s gonna happen. I think the only time in history it ever happened was the 1871 Paris Commune which lasted a couple of months. Every other time, property was seized by force.

In a debate with a communist or anarchist, that is the question that I would ask. If we converted to a centrally controlled economy in America, how would you convince people to voluntarily give up all their possessions in order to be re-distributed by the state? If they are honest and say by force, then I would ask how are you any different than Stalin in the 20s? And they wonder why we love the 2nd Amendment....


15 posted on 05/01/2018 9:54:30 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Olog-hai

Trier is a beautiful little city to visit. Very close to the French border. They have a lot of Roman ruins that date back to something like 500 ad to include a Roman gate, baths and even a coliseum where they had gladiator fights. Now we have another reason to visit, to throw eggs at the Karl Marx statue....


16 posted on 05/01/2018 9:56:43 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Olog-hai

Marx is proof that if you have a crappy-enough idea, human beings are stupid enough to flock to it.

It helps though if your idea advances murder and totalitarianism.


17 posted on 05/01/2018 9:58:56 AM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

What Marx and Engels are not honest about is the proletariat “abolish(ing) its own supremacy as a class” once they take absolute power and the state “wither(ing) away”. All-powerful totalitarian regimes always seek to perpetuate themselves.


18 posted on 05/01/2018 9:59:49 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: KC_Lion

Well said.


19 posted on 05/01/2018 10:03:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Olog-hai

He’s responsible of the killing and misery of more people than anyone in history. Quite a legacy.


20 posted on 05/01/2018 10:05:08 AM PDT by aquila48
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