Book presentation: Kojèves verkannte Autorität

At the invitation of Jacob Taubes, the Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève came from Beijing to West Berlin in 1967 to give a lecture at the Free University in the heated climate of Berlin one year before 1968. In contrast to the previous speaker, Herbert Marcuse, who refused to give any instructions to the rebelling students, Kojève already had some advice ready upon his arrival at the Hotel Berliner Hof on Lake Diana, where he was surrounded by Rudi Dutschke and other SDS leaders: the most important thing they had to do now was to learn Greek. He left the bewildered crowd behind and wanted to leave Berlin as quickly as possible. Taubes wanted to know where his journey was taking him. “To Plettenberg in the Sauerland!” replied Kojève. “Where else should one go in Germany? Carl Schmitt is the only one worth talking to.” But in truth, Kojève did not only talk to Carl Schmitt: In his famous and provocative seminars in Paris between 1933 and 1939, he conveyed the German “Weltgeist” Hegel to his audience, who later achieved great fame themselves, in a way that made him the philosopher of the end of what had until then been a blood-soaked history of humanity. While Walter Benjamin remained skeptical, Kojève's interpretation of Hegel had a lasting influence on an entire generation of intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Bataille, Jacques Lacan, and Hannah Arendt.

The documenta Institut and Hofbuchhandlung Vietor invite you to the book presentation of “Kojèves verkannte Autorrität,” published by Turia + Kant Verlag. In conversation with author Marius Kemper and Heinz Bude, founding director of the documenta Institut, the impact of Kojève on a wide range of intellectuals will be examined in detail.

Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Time: 7.30 p.m.
Venue: Hofbuchhandlung Vietor GmbH
Ständeplatz 17
34117 Kassel

Admission: €7