Alexander Kluge

Alexander Kluge’s work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, and the extermination of the Jews forms its gravitational centre. Kluge is forever reminding us to keep our present catastrophes in perspective—“calibrated”—against this historical monstrosity. Kluge’s newest work, Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor, is a book about bitter fates, both already known and...

Max Weber famously described politics as 'a strong, slow drilling through hard boards with both passion and judgement'. Taking this as his inspiration, Alexander Kluge brings readers yet another literary masterpiece - a kaleidoscopic meditation on the tools available to those who struggle for power. The Drill certainly embodies intelligent tenacity as a precondition for political change. But what is...

In a world full of devils, the giant ape Kong defends what he loves the most. But who and what is this undomesticated animal? Might it reside within us? As we tread confidently, is this where the earth opens up beneath us? In Kong’s Finest Hour, Alexander Kluge explores anew the accessible spaces where Kong dwells within us and in...

An intellectually stimulating yet accessible collection of short vignettes on Russia and Germany by Alexander Kluge. Not just in light of a contested pipeline during the war in Ukraine, but also after centuries of both exchange and rejection, Russia and Germany were and are as far away from each other as they are intrinsically linked. The geopolitical present seems critical,...

A highly engaging exploration of existential questions, written in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Book of Commentary / Unquiet Garden of the Soul confronts the reader with questions of existential meaning, questions rendered all the more potent by the backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic: How fragile are we as human beings? How fragile are our societies? What is...

A profound exploration of the enduring impact of war in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "War is back again." So begins Alexander Kluge's latest book, War Primer, prompted by a war of aggression that, though being waged in Europe, is of global importance. Blending simple stories with multimedia and reflecting on human responses and hope, the author...

Alexander Kluge explores the madcap, multifaceted world of the circus through a global geopolitical lens. The circus has fascinated Alexander Kluge ever since he was a child, and his devotion to it has been preserved throughout his cinematic output and his most recent literary work. In the circus, he finds both the shadow image of work and the epitome of...

Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor – 48 Stories for Fritz Bauer is a book about bitter fates—both already known and yet to unfold—and the many kinds of organised machinery built to destroy people. Alexander Kluge’s work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, with the extermination of the Jews forming its gravitational centre....

A poignant exploration of post–World War II life, blending fictional and non-fictional stories that challenge traditions and reflect on the enduring impact of historical disruptions. Lifespan Narratives deals with stories, fictitious and non-fictitious, presenting a sad chronicle that questions tradition from several perspectives. Originally comprising Alexander Kluge's first book, these stories were written between 1958 and 1962, during which he...

Collects 166 of Alexander Kluge’s love stories previously concealed among his vast library of more than 2,000 texts. The latest offering from one of the greatest living German writers, The Labyrinth of Tender Force masterfully explores the greatest peaks and the most dreadful crevasses of passionate love through an inspired combination of Kluge’s vignettes with drawings, photographs, and other archival...

As past and future blur, this work from Alexander Kluge reveals the emotional and intellectual currents that drive human survival. A kaleidoscopic journey through history and the vast landscape of human emotion, The Long March of Basic Trust presents Alexander Kluge at his most expansive and incisive. Moving seamlessly across time and space, Kluge weaves a tapestry of lived and...

A highly readable and lighthearted, yet intellectually stimulating exploration of the modern human condition. This volume concerns itself with the question of time, from the description of a brief fragment passing by in a matter of minutes to stories of the unexpected stock-market crash of 1929, a once-in-a-century event that Europeans call ‘Black Friday’ because Wall Street’s collapse reached the...

On October 5, 2012, the German national newspaper Die Welt published its daily issue—but things looked... different. Quieter. The sensations of the day, forgotten as soon as they’re read, were missing, replaced with an unprecedented calm, extracted with care from the chaos of the contemporary. That calm was the work of Gerhard Richter, who had been granted control over Die...

On October 5, 2012, the German national newspaper Die Welt published its daily issue — but things looked... different. Quieter. The sensations of the day, forgotten as soon as they're read, were missing, replaced with an unprecedented calm, extracted with care from the chaos of the contemporary. That calm was the work of Gerhard Richter, who had been granted control...

In the historic tradition of calendar stories and calendar illustrations, author and film director Alexander Kluge and celebrated visual artist Gerhard Richter have composed December, a collection of thirty-nine stories and thirty-nine snow-swept photographs for the darkest month of the year. In stories drawn from modern history and the contemporary moment, from mythology, and even from meteorology, Kluge toys as...

A layered and lyrical collaboration between two great artists—Anselm Kiefer and Alexander Kluge—that explores what it means to remain faithful amid the shifting forces of power, love, truth, and money. What holds us together in times of uncertainty? For decades, artist Anselm Kiefer and filmmaker-writer Alexander Kluge have explored this question—both as friends and collaborators. This latest volume, Intelligence Is...