Karl Marx Can’t Escape Surveillance, Even in Grave

Karl Marx is resting in peace in his grave, but he is now under 24x7 video surveillance as his grave at the High gate Cemetery in London was being vandalized twice last year.

The Marx Grave Trust, which owns and maintains the monument has decided to monitor it with video cameras, which are being installed at the start of the year, with the hope to deter and check the vandals.

Though cameras are rare in cemeteries, some tombs of illustrious individuals are monitored, for example, a webcam feed of Andy Warhol’s grave in Virginia is readily available online. Karl Marx’s has now become the first one to be monitored at High gate Cemetery.

Though in the 19th century when Karl Marx was alive and lived in London, he has complained about being followed by Prussian spies or by the British informers, who often watched his door with “more than a doubtful look” and thus he can’t escape monitoring even during his time.

In January 2019, the marble plaque, which displays the name of Karl Marx with other details, was smashed up. Two weeks later, words such as “Doctrine of HATE” and “Architect of Genocide,” were found written on the gravestone. 

It was only after such vandalism that the Marx Grave Trust has decided to install cameras. Liz Payne, the chairwoman of the Marx Grave Trust said, “These cameras are not watching Marx, but for people who might come to damage Marx’s legacy.” 

Meanwhile, Ian Dungavell, who is the head of Friends of Highgate Cemetery said, “For some, Marx is a great source of inspiration, and for others he is responsible for all sorts of terrible things.” 

Although Karl Marx is hailed as an influential thinker of his time and his legacy has been inspiration for various revolutions across the world, but many still hold him responsible for the brutality that is committed in the name of his ideas and philosophy.

The grave of Karl Marx has long been considered as a pilgrimage site for many countries, as representatives of countries like China and Cuba come every year to pay tribute on his birth and death anniversaries, according to Mary Davis, a professor and the secretary of the Marx Memorial Library in London. 

The grave has a very turbulent existence. In the year 1960 swastikas were painted on the grave along with a slogan, which said, Karl Marx who was ethnically with Jewish background loved the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann. In 1970, a pipe bomb was also planted at the memorial.