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MLPD party leader Gabriele Fechtner and sculptor Rainer Günther stand next to the new statue of Marx - and the older one of Lenin
Photo: Christoph Reichwein / dpa
The Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) unveiled a statue of the economist, philosopher and social theorist Karl Marx (1818-1883) in front of its headquarters in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday.
The 2.11 meter tall cast aluminum statue stands directly next to the controversial Lenin monument, which the party monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution erected in 2020 against the city's resistance.
"Marx and Lenin belong together," said party leader Gabi Fechtner, according to a statement.
"From August 27, we'll be complete with a Marx and a Lenin statue, so to speak."
The city had unsuccessfully sued the Lenin statue.
She later put up an information board nearby.
She points out that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) established a party dictatorship, suppressed all resistance and had thousands of people shot by his secret police, the Cheka.
The city of Gelsenkirchen did not want to comment on the unveiling of the Marx statue.
"It was Karl Marx who was the first to scientifically analyze that capitalism is a crisis system," said Fechtner.
Today, the crises of capitalism have "dramatically intensified."
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According to the MLPD, the statue was financed by donations.
In the depiction, Marx is holding a copy of his book Das Kapital.
According to estimates, the MLPD has around 2,700 members nationwide, said a party spokesman.
Across Germany, members of some local parliaments are involved in electoral alliances.
She has not won any mandates at the federal or state level.
scr/dpa