Alexander Kluge, the German filmmaker, writer and philosopher, has died age 94.
Born in 1932 in Halberstadt, Kluge started his career as a lawyer. He became legal counsel at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, where he first met Theodor Adorno and became one of the preeminent intellectual heirs to the Frankfurt School. Later in his life, his collaborator the philosopher Oskar Negt apparently referred to him as ‘Adorno’s favourite son’.
In 1958, Kluge started working in cinema as Fritz Lang’s assistant. He was one of the signatories of the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962 calling for the establishment of New German Cinema, of which he became one of the most influential figures throughout the 1960s and 70s. He also founded his own television production company in 1987, Development Company for Television Program (DCTP) as a bid to bring quality programming to German television channels.
A widely-decorated director, some of his films include Yesterday’s Girl (1966), that won six prizes at the Venice Film Festival; Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968), that won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion; Strongman Ferdinand (1976), that was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival; Germany in Autumn (1978) that won a special recognition award at the Berlin International Film Festival. His latest film, Primitive Diversity (2025), ventured into experiments with generative AI.
As a writer, Kluge is mainly known for his short fiction stories and works of social criticism. He has been awarded many of the major German-language literary prize in recognition of his contributions to German literature and intellectual history, including the George Büchner Prize (2003), the Heinrich Böll Prize (1993) and the Heinrich von Kleist Prize (1985).
