Free Republic

Historical coins are much more than just pieces of jewelry for collections and exhibitions and are of particular interest for research. The University of Trier has had a collection of mainly ancient coins for several years. The more than 500 copies have now been digitized and made accessible in portals. “The digitization of coin collections is a great benefit for science. Integration into databases and permanent access to a large number of coins opens up new options for research, but also for teaching,” explains Prof. Dr. Frank Daubner, the ancient historian responsible for the collection at Trier University. Researchers can...

According to the Volksfreund, a car has driven from the Porta Nigra to the main market square. According to information from SWR there have been two deaths and 15 injuries. Police is present and have locked down the area; a helicopter is circling above. The SEK (police tactical unit) from Wittlich was scrambled. A source close to RTL has said that a local school in the neighbourhood is on lockdown and following protocols in the scenario of a possible terrorist attack. Parents of children at the Ausonius-Grundschule were called to pick up their children, as they would not be allowed...

In the vicinity of Hermeskeil, a small town some 30 kilometers southeast of the city of Trier in the Hunsrueck region in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, archaeologists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have confirmed the location of the oldest Roman military fortification known in Germany to date. These findings shed new light on the Roman conquest of Gaul. The camp was presumably built during Julius Caesars’ Gallic War in the late 50s B.C. Nearby lies a late Celtic settlement with monumental fortifications known as the "Hunnenring" or "Circle of the Huns," which functioned as one of the...

Archaeologists have discovered a massive stone sarcophagus in Zülpich, Germany, dating to the 3rd century AD; inside, the remains of a Roman woman and her beauty tools... Because of the number of well-preserved artifacts in this burial and because additional burials were expected to be found, the finding was not announced until yesterday at a press conference. The sarcophagus required a full week to excavate, and its lid alone weighed two tons. When archaeologists removed it, they found the skeleton of a young woman, estimated to have been between 25-30 years old at the time of her death. They also...

Ahead of Karl Marx’s 200th birthday on Saturday, Xi Jinping referred to the German philosopher as “the greatest thinker of modern times,” calling his theories on communism a tool for China to “win the future.” According to the official Xinhua News Agency, he said Marx’s name was “still respected all over the world” and that “his theory shines with the brilliant light of truth.” He also claimed that putting “Marxism onto the flag of the Chinese Communist party was totally correct.” […] Xi has instructed all party members to read Marxist works and to adopt Marxist theories as a “way...

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...

In Rheinland-Pfalz, Marx’s 200th birthday bash is bringing in a lot of capital. Whether the communist philosopher would have been down with this commerce is hard to say. Karl Marx was born on May 5th, 1818 in Trier, in what is now Rheinland-Palatinate. Many cities in the surrounding area are using the upcoming anniversary to gain big capital from multiple Marx-themed memorabilia, including a “zero-euro” bill introduced in March with the likeness of Karl Marx, who had a very distant relationship to money.The German thinker is known for being the father of modern Communism, with groundbreaking works such as Capital—A...

Workers installed a 5.5-meter (18-foot) statue of Karl Marx in Trier’s city center on Friday ahead of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. The huge bronze figure was mounted atop a pedestal right in front of the former Marx family home, but it won’t be unveiled to the public just yet. That spectacle has been reserved for his birthday on May 5. […] The 2.3 ton statue was a present from the People’s Republic of China — a fact that has fueled plenty of debate in the community in recent months. “The glorifying Marx monument is a...

The German city of Trier has decided to accept a statue of Karl Marx from China, marking the 200th anniversary of the father of communism’s birth. The city council voted 42-7 with four abstentions Monday night to accept the gift, according to news agency DPA. The statue’s precise location and size are to be decided following further negotiations with China. […] Statues and streets named after Marx were common in communist East Germany. Many survived the collapse of communism, unlike tributes to more contemporary socialists. …