Highgate Cemetery and Karl Marx

This picture shows the original grave where Karl Marx was buried together with other four people including his wife Jenny von Westphalen, their grandson Harry Longuet, their housekeeper Helena Demuth and one of their daughters Eleanor Marx.

This great philosopher, sociologist, economist and revolutionary socialist died on the 14th of March, 1883, only 15 months after his wife's death. Eleven people attended to his funeral, which took place on the 17th in the Highgate Cemetery. 

"On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep—but forever". A passage of Friedrich Engels' speech during Marx's burial.

Despite that, nowadays thousands of people visit his grave and this was one of the reasons why his body was transferred to a new location in the main path on 1956. The tombstone was ordered by The Communist Party of Great Britain, who raised the money for the construction, and the socialist artist Laurance Bradshaw sculptured the bust.

Many people who were inspired by Marx have been buried in the same area and, ironically, the liberal theorist Herbel Spencer is resting directly opposite to him.