German film director and author Alexander Kluge has died at age 94. Kluge played a key role in organizing the New German Cinema movement. Kluge was born in 1932 in Halberstadt, Germany.
He narrowly survived the bombing of Halberstadt by Allied forces on 8 April 1945, according to major media reports. He studied law, history, and church music at Frankfurt University, where he was mentored by philosopher Theodor Adorno, major media reports indicate. Kluge started his career as a lawyer but later transitioned to literature and film.
He won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film 'Abschied von Gestern' (Yesterday Girl), the first by a German director to do so after World War II, according to major media. He also won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1968 for his film 'Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed'. Kluge founded the production company DCTP in 1987, through which he made arts, magazine, and interview programs for German television, major media reports say.
He signed the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, which called on the German film industry to break free from shallow tearjerkers and patriotic Heimatfilme, according to major media. Kluge was a former assistant of expressionist master Fritz Lang, major media reports indicate, and was one of the last living torchbearers of the Frankfurt school of neo-Marxist cultural criticism, according to major media. He was a committed pacifist due to his wartime experience, major media reports say.
In a 2022 radio interview, according to The Guardian, Kluge described being happy to see US troops march into his hometown in 1945 and that there was nothing evil about capitulation if it ends the war. He collaborated with US author Ben Lerner on the book 'The Snows of Venice' in 2018, according to major media. The exact date and cause of his death have not been confirmed, nor has the specific publisher that announced it or the location where he died.