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War Primer
136 pages, Hardcover
Published December 2, 2024
7 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Kluge
139 books65 followersKluge was born in Halberstadt at the year 1932.
He studied history, law and music at the University of Marburg Germany, and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, where befriended the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, who was teaching at the Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School.
In 1960 he shooted his first films, before the launch of the New German Cinema.
He also is a remarkable fiction writer, which tend toward the short story form, significant for their formal experimentation and insistently critical thematics.
He studied history, law and music at the University of Marburg Germany, and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, where befriended the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, who was teaching at the Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School.
In 1960 he shooted his first films, before the launch of the New German Cinema.
He also is a remarkable fiction writer, which tend toward the short story form, significant for their formal experimentation and insistently critical thematics.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 16, 2025
3.5-4 stars
Kluge has been exploring war through words and images throughout his career. This book, inspired by Bertolt Brecht's book of the same name that took images from WWII from the news, and responded with four line poems, Kluge responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with this volume that gathers brief historical accounts, anecdotes and stories—factual and fictionalized— and presents them together with images and clips from his characteristic artistic films (often shifting triptychs against musical scores) accessed through QR codes. Although some of the textual material directly references the current conflict in Europe, the effect is to create a mosaic of contextual commentary and musings about the nature of war, the military mindset, the long human history of conflict. This is not an in depth study, those with a strong background in military history will find it too slight, but if you are familiar with Kluge's work, his perspective against the context of today's conflict in Ukraine at the age of 91 (when this book was first published in 2023) is important.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/09/15/wa...
Kluge has been exploring war through words and images throughout his career. This book, inspired by Bertolt Brecht's book of the same name that took images from WWII from the news, and responded with four line poems, Kluge responds to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with this volume that gathers brief historical accounts, anecdotes and stories—factual and fictionalized— and presents them together with images and clips from his characteristic artistic films (often shifting triptychs against musical scores) accessed through QR codes. Although some of the textual material directly references the current conflict in Europe, the effect is to create a mosaic of contextual commentary and musings about the nature of war, the military mindset, the long human history of conflict. This is not an in depth study, those with a strong background in military history will find it too slight, but if you are familiar with Kluge's work, his perspective against the context of today's conflict in Ukraine at the age of 91 (when this book was first published in 2023) is important.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/09/15/wa...
Displaying 1 of 1 review