Hans-Jürgen Krahl – an anthology

Adorno’s most radical student, and one of the leading figures of the West German student movement of the late 1960s, was killed in a road accident in 1970, leaving behind a body of texts and speeches, most of which were published in the collection Constitution and Class Struggle (Konstitution und Klassenkampf) in 1971. A small selection from this collection is published here for the first time in Greece, starting with the particularly characteristic Declarations about myself (Angaben zur Person), which Krahl delivered in court as accused of inciting to rebellion. Next comes the analysis of The Logic of Substance in Marx’s Commodity Analysis (Zur Wesenslogik der Marxschen Warenanalyse), with which Krahl pioneers a critical reading of the Marxian critique of political economy inter alia through the conceptualization of classical German philosophy, notably Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel. The combative critique of the modern state is summed up in his 1968 unfinished On the Philosophy of History of the Authoritarian State (Zur Geschichtsphilosophie des autoritären Staa¬tes), with which Krahl maps out the possibilities of emancipatory politics in the postwar political system. The Theses on the general relationship between the scientific intellect and proletarian class consciousness (Thesen zum allgemeinen Verhältnis von wissen¬schaftlicher Intelligenz und proletarischem Klassenbewusstsein) move in the same direction, from the point of view not only of the combination of the student and labor movement, but addressing the equally important question of the subjection of the scientific intellect to the exploitation of capital. The selection is framed by the text of Dimitris Karydas, Processes of reification, class consciousness and political formation. Hans-Jürgen Krahl – Theoretician of ’68, which has been specially compiled for this purpose. Krahl’s presentation marks the redefinition of a quest that has remained historically meteoric, although the critical focus remains strong and the interpretive issues active.