Alexander Kluge

Alexander Kluge was a polymath who refused to be categorized. Trained as a lawyer and historian in post-war Germany, he became a central figure in the New German Cinema movement, co-signing the Oberhausen Manifesto that declared the old cinema dead. His early films, like 'Yesterday Girl,' were fragmented, essayistic critiques of German society. But Kluge’s true medium was thought itself. He produced a vast and interconnected body of work—short stories, theoretical books, television programs, and public lectures—that treated history, philosophy, and personal anecdote as raw material for montage. He founded his own TV production company, dctp, securing a late-night slot where he broadcast unconventional interviews and collages that challenged mainstream media formats. Kluge’s lifelong project was to create an 'archive of feelings,' using every tool at his disposal to probe how power, war, and love shape human experience.