View of the Karl Marx exhibition at the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte (MfDG)

The first of the Museum for German History exhibitions held in the Zeughaus (Armoury) was the Karl Marx Exhibition on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Marx's death. It opened in May 1953 and was billed as a reclamation of the Zeughaus from its militarist past. As a "biographical exhibition" it not only detailed the life and work of its protagonist; it traced the development of Marx's ideas to the (then) present, positioning the GDR as the heir of "Germany's greatest son".