Marx-Engels-Forum is a public park in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of The Communist Manifesto of 1848 and regarded as two of the most influential people in the socialist movement. The park was created by the authorities of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1986. In 1977, the sculptor Ludwig Engelhardt was appointed as director of the project to redevelop the park as a tribute to Marx and Engels. While the adjacent Nikolaiviertel was to be rebuilt, the GDR authorities in 1977 set up plans for a green space between the Palast der Republik and the Fernsehturm. It consists of a rectangular wooded park with a large, circular paved area in the center with Engelhardt’s sculpture of Marx and Engels. Behind the statues is a wall with reliefs showing scenes from the history of the German socialist movement. The inauguration took place in 1986. The bronze sculpture, larger than life-size, depicts Marx seated and Engels standing upon a small platform, gazing fixedly towards the east, “past the stelae and toward a socialist paradise.