The house at today’s Brückenstraße 10 is a baroque bourgeois residential building from the eighteenth century. Karl Marx is born here on 5 May 1818. After the family moves out in the autumn of 1819, the house is rebuilt and extended by the subsequent owners. It is not until 1904 that the Social Democrat Friedrich Schnetter discovers that this is the house where Marx has been born. After the First World War, Social Democrats and Communists fight over the political symbol. The SPD buys the house in 1928 and the architect Gustav Kasel restores the building. However, the establishment of a memorial never materialises: the Nazis occupy the Karl Marx House in 1933. After the Second World War, it is restored by an international aid fund. The SPD regains it and opens a museum in 1947. Since 1968, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation has run the museum, which provides information on the life of Karl Marx, his ideas and their impact to the present day.

When the Marx family lives in the front building, the rear building does not yet exist. When the building is restored in 1930-31, the Jewish architect Gustav Kasel from Trier adds architectural elements to the courtyard, such as Roman arches, timber framework and columns.

In the nineteenth century, townhouse gardens are often used to grow fruit and vegetable – sometimes even to keep farm animals – to provide for the family. The reconstruction of the museum garden in 2013 is reminiscent of this. It also gives reference to Karl Marx and his work.