“For some, Marx is a great source of inspiration, and for others he is responsible for all sorts of terrible things,” Mr. Dungavell said. “But he’s dead, he rests underneath, and it’s sad that some won’t respect those who are dead to the point of smashing their graves.”
Although Marx is hailed as one of history’s most influential thinkers, his legacy is complicated, and many hold him responsible for brutality committed in the name of his ideas.
Marx was born in Germany in 1818, but he spent most of his adult life in London after moving there in 1849. He did much of the research and writing for perhaps his most important work, “Capital,” at the British Museum, and he was intimately connected to British thinkers of his time, as he followed the evolution of the socialist movement.
When Marx died in 1883, he was buried under a plain, flat slab on a small side path at Highgate, with only a dozen people attending his funeral. The grave was neglected for decades, increasingly hidden under overgrown weeds, until Marx’s remains were moved in 1954 to a more visible location in the cemetery, and the monument was added. He is buried there along with his wife, one of his daughters, two grandchildren and the family’s housekeeper.
The massive granite gravestone, topped by a bronze bust of Marx, is a listed monument, a British designation for structures of special historical importance. Etched into the stone are two of the best-known lines from his writings: “Workers of all lands unite,” and “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point however is to change it.”
Along the alleys of the cemetery’s eastern end, Marx’s is one of the last remarkable graves before visitors find themselves in a beguiling maze of smaller, crumbling tombs covered with weeds, or cracked by the roots of trees that have reclaimed some territory.
Marx’s grave has long been a pilgrimage site, with representatives of countries such as China and Cuba coming to pay tribute on anniversaries of his death, according to Mary Davis, a professor of labor history and the secretary of the Marx Memorial Library in London.
Source : Nytimes
