Air Raid

Alexander Kluge is one of the major German fiction writers of the late twentieth century and an important social critic. As a filmmaker, he is credited with the launch of the New German Cinema movement. Martin Chalmers is a Berlin-based translator from Glasgow. He has translated some of the best-known German-language writers, including Herta Müller, Elfriede Jelinek, and Hans Magnus Enzensberger.

• The Air Raid on Halberstadt on 8 April 1945What Does ‘Really’ Mean in Retrospect? 17 More Stories About the Air WarDragonflies of DeathCommentary on ‘Dragonflies of Death’The DragonflyThe Long Paths to KnowledgeWhat Does ‘Really’ Mean in Retrospect?Love 1944Cooperative BehaviourFires Inside PeopleZoo Animals in the Air RaidsWhat Holds Voluntary Actions Together?Fire Brigade Commander W. Schönecke ReportsThe Run-Up to the CatastropheInexplicable Reactions in Sandstone RockHow the ‘Flying Fortresses’ Disappeared in Lake ConstanceThe Gleam in the Enemy’s EyeTotal ToothacheNews of Star WarsW. G. SebaldBetween History and Natural History.On the Literary Description of Total Destruction. Remarks on KlugeSources

“An accomplished filmmaker as well as a novelist, Kluge was trained as a lawyer and studied cultural theory with Theodor Adorno. An attorney’s reserve and gravitas are evident throughout his work. The harnessed energy is incorporated in various forms. . . . In Air Raid, one voice is followed by another—the testimonies of survivors, observations of reporters, explanations by American officers.”