Kluge is a German director, screenwriter, producer and writer. He grew up in the post-war Germany and studied history, law and music at the University in Marburg and at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. He received his doctorate degree in law in 1956 and at the same time began writing. At the instigation of his friend, philosopher Theodor Adorno he became interested in film. In 1958, Adorno introduced him to Fritz Lang and Kluge became his assistant director during the filming of Lang’s The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959). His short feature film debut was Brutalität in Stein (1961), which he co-wrote and co-directed with Peter Schamoni. With another twenty-six directors, in 1962, he signed the Oberhausen manifest and marked the beginning of the New German film. With two other film authors he founded the Ulm Institut für Filmgestaltung. Some of his ward-winning films are the drama Yesterday Girl (Abschied von gestern - (Anita G.), 1966), starring his own sister, drama Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos (1968), sci-fi comedy Der große Verhau (1971), comedy In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod (1974), which he co-wrote and co-directed with Edgar Reitz, dramas Strongman Ferdinand (Der starke Ferdinand, 1976), The Patriotic Woman (Die Patriotin, 1979) and The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time (Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit, 1985). In 1987, he founded a TV production house for which he directed many of his documentaries and interview with different famous people. As a writer he is an established social critic and he writes fiction, mostly in the form of short stories that he often adapted into films. He received many awards for his literary, film and TV work. In 1992, at the Venice Film Festival he was awarded the Golden Lion for his entire film career.