International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

In memoriam Alexander Kluge (1932-2026)

The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen mourns the loss of Alexander Kluge, one of the great directors and screenwriters of German cinema – and one of its great short-film makers. As a writer, philosopher, lawyer and television producer, he was one of the most versatile and influential intellectuals on the German cultural scene. He was one of the leading figures behind the Oberhausen Manifesto; in 1962, he presided over its proclamation at the West German Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, which ushered in the birth of the New German Cinema.

“His approach as a filmmaker shaped our Festival beyond that period, just as it did my own career in film history. I met Alexander Kluge at the premiere of Deutschland im Herbst (1978), and have always closely followed his film work and his ‘practical-realistic approach’. The line ‘Those who make an effort are lucky’ from one of his films has stayed with me ever since. I will never forget how, in February 2000, during our film series at the Filmmuseum München, Alexander Kluge invited the cinematographer and filmmaker Babette Mangolte to a dctp discussion in the midst of the Munich Security Conference and conversed with her about major and minor keys and feminist filmmaking, unimpressed by the generals standing around. We will keep his manifold legacy here at Oberhausen alive, despite our grief,’ said Madeleine Bernstorff, artistic director of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

Alexander Kluge’s early short films won numerous awards at Oberhausen, starting in 1961 with Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen for Brutalität in Stein (Brutality in Stone), a collaborative work with Peter Schamoni. This was followed by Lehrer im Wandel (Teachers in Transformation, 1963) and Porträt einer Bewährung (Policeman’s Lot), which won an award at Oberhausen in 1965, as well as Feuerlöscher E.A. Winterstein (Fire Fighter E. A. Winterstein, 1968). Kluge returned to short film time and again; in the 1990s, Oberhausen screened, amongst others, Das goldene Vlies und die Catch-Penny-Drucke (The Golden Fleece and the Catch Penny Prints, 1991), a contribution from his dctp production.

Biography

Alexander Kluge, born in Halberstadt in 1932, became known as a writer and filmmaker in the early 1960s: In 1962, he read from the volume Lebensläufe at a Group 47 event and, together with 25 other young filmmakers, published the Oberhausen Manifesto; in 1966, he became the first German since the war to receive the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Abschied von Gestern (Yesterday Girl), starring Alexandra Kluge in the lead role. This opened a door in Europe for New German Cinema, in which the critical theorist Kluge was never concerned merely with the success of individual works, but with the creation of an authentic public sphere, a stable connection with the audience, ‘and that is something individuals cannot achieve on their own’.

By the mid-1980s, Kluge had released 14 feature-length films, written four volumes of short stories, and, together with Oskar Negt, continued to develop Critical Theory from a philosophical and sociological perspective. Following the conservative government’s withdrawal of film funding, Kluge continued the concept of ‘auteur politics’ from 1988 onwards with his production company dctp in so-called ‘cultural slots’ on commercial television (RTL, SAT 1, VOX and Swiss television). In just under 20 years, approximately 1,500 hours of broadcast time were produced, comprising conversations with artists, academics, musicians, filmmakers, writers and politicians, as well as new TV formats such as music magazines, Bilder ohne Worte (Images Without Words) and the well-known series Facts & Fakes. Kluge remained active as a writer until the very end and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany with Star in 2025. As recently as February 2026, he personally accompanied his exhibition ‘At Night the Backdrops Dream of Unseen Images’ at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

With the passing of Alexander Kluge, Oberhausen loses a great mentor and supporter of the festival right up into the 2000s.

Oberhausen, 26 March 2026

Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, phone +49 (0)208 825-3073, niewalda@kurzfilmtage.de