»Wisdom is the art of remaining faithful under shifting circumstances«

Suhrkamp | Insel
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)


»Wisdom is the art of remaining faithful under shifting circumstances« / »Klugheit ist die Kunst, unter verschiedenen Umständen getreu zu bleiben«

Anselm Kiefer and Alexander Kluge have been friends for many years – and they share an aesthetic and analytical interest in the deeply human possibility of reliability. But what is reliability? And how does it relate to the four currencies – power, love, truth, and money – that govern our lifetimes? But what is time, actually? And how are our present, past and future intertwined?

»To remain faithful under shifting circumstances« – according to Hölderlin, this can...

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Anselm Kiefer and Alexander Kluge have been friends for many years – and they share an aesthetic and analytical interest in the deeply human possibility of reliability. But what is reliability? And how does it relate to the four currencies – power, love, truth, and money – that govern our lifetimes? But what is time, actually? And how are our present, past and future intertwined?

»To remain faithful under shifting circumstances« – according to Hölderlin, this can be considered a guiding principle of our actions. For Kluge and Kiefer, however, this phrase also harbours an artistic mission, namely that of keeping all that has become existentially and historically calcified fluid, to not allow the dead to remain dead, and to welcome the unborn into our midst.

Alexander Kluge and Anselm Kiefer make pictures and texts oscillate sympathetically – they probe deep into the strata of history and offer diagnoses of the most contemporary social phenomena. In doing so, they sharpen our poetic perception of what keeps our polyform times together.

»... Kluge and Kiefer give thought a good old shake. Which is productive, because they demonstrate what it means to ›not go mad‹ in complex and confusing situations (and is there any other kind?), and that though the mind ›knows precision‹, it also ›knows how to find its bearing in the approximate‹.« Jörg Magenau, taz.de
»... Kluge and Kiefer give thought a good old shake. Which is productive, because they demonstrate what it means to ›not go mad‹ in complex and confusing situations (and is there any other kind?), and that though the mind ›knows precision‹, it also ›knows how to find its bearing in the approximate‹.« Jörg Magenau, taz.de
2024, 240 pages
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Persons

Alexander Kluge, born in 1932, is the director of numerous films and countless TV broadcasts as well as an author, but: »My books are my most important work.« He has received numerous awards for his oeuvre.

Alexander Kluge, born in 1932, is the director of numerous films and countless TV broadcasts as well as an author, but: »My books are my...

Anselm Kiefer, born in 1945, studied law, Romance studies and art. He was a student of Horst Antes and Joseph Beuys.

Anselm Kiefer, born in 1945, studied law, Romance studies and art. He was a student of Horst Antes and Joseph Beuys.


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Sand and Time
Year of Publication: 2025
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2025
What do we find when we dig in the sands of history? What doe history produce for the present and the immediate future? Alexander Kluge reveals unforeseen connections by gathering together texts and vast numbers of images, for which he partially uses artificial intelligence as a kind of »virtual camera«. His image atlas enable him to firstly keep history alive, and secondly to articulate an...
War Primer 2023
Year of Publication: 2023
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2023

»War is back.« Alexander Kluge begins his latest book with this first of six stations, prompted by a war of aggression that is initially being waged in a European setting, but...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

The Book of Comments
Year of Publication: 2022
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2022
Published to mark his 90th birthday, this is perhaps Alexander Kluge’s most personal book. The Book of Comments follows hot on the heels of its playful sibling Circus /...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

 

Circus / Commentary
Year of Publication: 2022
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2022
The circus has fascinated Alexander Kluge since his earliest childhood and it is a phenomenon of his devotion that is preserved throughout his cinematic work (Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel,...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

 

Russia Container
Year of Publication: 2020
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2020

Not just in light of a currently contested pipeline but also after centuries of both exchange and rejection, Russia and Germany were and are as far away from each other as they are connected. The...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Russia (Garage)

World-Changing Rage
Year of Publication: 2017
Georg Baselitz, Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2017

Rage and obstinacy are closely related. In the work of Georg Baselitz and Alexander Kluge they are fundamental categories. Rage is dynamic: it can grow and suddenly erupt into flaming protests,...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

Kong’s Finest Hour
Year of Publication: 2015
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2015

To dissolve theory in concrete stories has been Alexander Kluge’s lifelong approach. To him, there is music in the texture of thoughts, and so with this book, Chronicle of...

Rights sold to:
English World rights (Seagull)
30 April 1945
Year of Publication: 2014
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2014
The thirtieth of April 1945, a Monday, was the last working day observed in the Third Reich. It is followed by a national holiday and the transfer of what remained of the state to powers which had no...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), France (P.O.L.)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (W.A.B.)

Dispatches from Moments of Calm
Year of Publication: 2013
Alexander Kluge, Gerhard RichterYear of Publication: 2013
The international artist and the most eminent chronicler of our time: 60 images by Gerhard Richter in dialogue with new texts by Alexander Kluge.

In the golden autumn of 2012...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture)

Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor
Year of Publication: 2013
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2013

Alexander Kluge's work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, and the extermination of the Jews forms its gravitational center. Kluge is forever reminding us to keep our present...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Finis Terrae), Serbia (Kulturni Centar Novog Sada)

Notebooks
Year of Publication: 2011
Anselm KieferYear of Publication: 2011
This great artist is also a great writer. Anselm Kiefer’s Notebooks reveal his strong affinity to language and let the reader witness the process of how thoughts, experiences and...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Playbook)

Drilling through Hard Boards
Year of Publication: 2011
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2011
Politics, says Kluge, is an exceptional aggregate state of everyday feelings. It’s everywhere. It sets private and public biographies in motion.

It was Max Weber who said...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa)

December
Year of Publication: 2010
Alexander Kluge, Gerhard RichterYear of Publication: 2010
»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,...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture), France (Diaphanes), Italy (La Grande Illusion), Turkey (Everest)

Anselm Kiefer in Conversation with Klaus Dermutz
Year of Publication: 2010
Anselm Kiefer, Klaus DermutzYear of Publication: 2010

»The only visual artist to have won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Anselm Kiefer is a profoundly literary painter. In the ten conversations with the writer and theologian Klaus...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (The Commercial Press)

The Labyrinth of Tender Force
Year of Publication: 2009
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2009
There is no human quality that is older and more vital to survival than love. He who loves, it is said, loves with every fiber of his being. At the same time, as Bizet's Carmen proclaims, love is...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull)

Air Raid
Year of Publication: 2008
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2008

Alexander Kluge’s account The Air Raid on Halberstadt on 8 April 1945 first appeared in 1977. Exactly twenty years later, it became one of the most important points of reference...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), France (Diaphanes), Italy (Meltemi), Netherlands (Cossee), Korea (Moonji), Turkey (Ketebe), Israel (Pitom)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Machado), Poland (Ossolineum)
Cinema Stories
Year of Publication: 2007
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2007

The 120 stories of this volume are literary essays told in Alexander Kluge's customary short and laconic style. At the same time, they also expose director Kluge's deep fondness for...

Rights sold to:

Spanish rights Latin America (Caja negra), France (Diaphanes)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (L'Orma), Turkey (Lemis)
The Devil's Blindspot
Year of Publication: 2003
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2003
With a collection of 500 stories, Alexander Kluge picks up the thread of his Chronicle of Feelings, which had been published in 2000. Catchphrases such as Revolution, Holocaust, World War,...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (New Directions), France (P.O.L.), Israel (Pitom)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Anagrama)
Chronicle of Feelings
Year of Publication: 2000
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2000

Rights sold to:

Russia (NLO), France (P.O.L.)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (New Directions), Sweden (Brutus Östling)