SOURCE: Introduction to Case Histories, by Alexander Kluge, translated by Leila Vennewitz, pp. ix-xix. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1988.

In the following essay, Moeller offers a thematic and stylistic analysis of the stories comprising Case Histories, which has also been published under the title Attendance List for a Funeral.

Radically experimental, Alexander Kluge's writings, films, and other creative activities have contributed greatly to the development of contemporary Central European intellectual life. Although recognition of his achievements has been slow in coming, he is now recognized as one of the leading lights of the German cultural scene. Indeed, on November 22, 1985, Kluge was awarded the Heinrich von Kleist literary prize in Berlin—a prize whose past recipients include Bertolt Brecht, Robert Musil, and Anna Seghers.

Born in 1932, Kluge was the only son of Ernst Kluge, a physician, and his wife, Alice, who settled in Halberstadt, now part of the German Democratic...