Alexander Kluge

Alexander Kluge (born 14 February 1932) is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director.

Early life, education and early career

Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany.

After growing up during World War II, he studied history, law and music at the University of Marburg Germany, and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. He received his doctorate in law in 1956.

While studying in Frankfurt, Kluge befriended the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, who was teaching at the Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School. Kluge served as a legal counsel for the Institute, and began writing his earliest stories during this period. At Adorno's suggestion, he also began to investigate filmmaking, and in 1958, Adorno introduced him to German filmmaker Fritz Lang, for whom Kluge worked as an assistant on the making of '' The Tiger of Eschnapur''.

Cinematic works

Kluge directed his first film in 1960, ''Brutality in Stone'', a twelve-minute, black and white, lyrical montage work which, against the German commercial ('' Papa's Kino'') cinematic amnesia of the prior decade, inaugurated an exploration of the Nazi past. The film premièred in 1961 at what would become the showcase for the new generation of German filmmakers, the Westdeutsche Kurzfilmtage (now known as the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen) in Oberhausen, Germany.

Kluge was one of twenty-six signatories to the Oberhausen Manifesto of 1962, which marked the launch of the New German Cinema. That same year, with filmmakers Edgar Reitz and Detlev Schleiermacher, Kluge established the Ulm Institut für Filmgestaltung, to promote the critical and aesthetic practices of Young German Film and the New German Cinema.

In 1965 he was a member of the jury at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival.

He has gone on to direct a number of films which have an inherent critique of commercial cinema and television through the creation of a ''counter-public sphere'' and their deployment of experimental forms, including montage. They include ''Abschied von Gestern'' ('' Yesterday Girl'') (1966), an adaptation of Kluge's story "Anita G."; ''Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos'' ('' Artists under the Big Top: Perplexed'') (1968); and '' The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time'' (1985).

In 2017, Kluge and his studio are featured in the film ''Finite and Infinite Games'' by artist Sarah Morris. The film, which focuses around the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, includes debate between Kluge and Morris on architecture, music, and the religious philosophy of American academic James P. Carse.

Television work

In 1987, Kluge founded the television production company Development Company for Television Program mbH (DCTP), which produces late-night and night-time independent television slots on the private channels RTL Television, Sat.1, and VOX.

Much of the DCTP programs consist of television documentaries by Kluge (often characterized by the lack of spoken narration and a heavy reliance upon text as well as graphical montages and image editing) as well as many interviews Kluge leads with various international personalities from the fields of arts, entertainment, science, philosophy, and politics. Some of the interviewed are fictitious characters portrayed by professional actors Helge Schneider and Peter Berling, or factual people parodied by the two, including, but not limited to, Adolf Hitler, historical Roman generals, Napoleon's political advisors, or the lawyer of Michael Jackson.

Beside Kluge's own productions, DCTP also co-produces so-called ''Magazinsendungen'', which are investigatory programs in cooperation with Der Spiegel (''SPIEGEL TV''), Stern ('), Süddeutsche Zeitung (''Süddeutsche TV''), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (''NZZ Format''), and the British Broadcasting Corporation
...