»Wisdom is the art of remaining faithful under shifting circumstances«
English world rights (Seagull)
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...
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.
Persons
Alexander Kluge
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...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Sand and Time

War Primer 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...
English world rights (Seagull)

The Book of Comments
English world rights (Seagull)

Circus / Commentary
English world rights (Seagull)

Russia Container
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...
English world rights (Seagull), Russia (Garage)

World-Changing Rage
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,...
English world rights (Seagull)

Kong’s Finest Hour
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...

30 April 1945
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
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture)

Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor
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...
English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Finis Terrae), Serbia (Kulturni Centar Novog Sada)

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

Drilling through Hard Boards
English world rights (Seagull), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa)

Anselm Kiefer in Conversation with Klaus Dermutz
»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...
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (The Commercial Press)

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

The Labyrinth of Tender Force
English world rights (Seagull)

Air Raid
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...
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
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...
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
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)