Hans-Jürgen Krahl: Social Constitution and Class Struggle

Abstract

The chapter offers an insight into the intellectual profile of Hans-Jürgen Krahl (1943-1970). Mainly known as the "rebellious student" of Th. W. Adorno who turned against his teacher in the student revolts of the late sixties, Krahl embodied also an understanding of critical theory which is completely alien to the academic drifts that have prevailed since the 1970s. Besides offering a profile of Krahl's brief but intense intellectual biography, the paper analyses the focus he attempted to give to the west german anti-authoritarian movement, where he stood out as its main theoretician, and also how he sought to articulate in it the relationships between critical theory and emancipatory praxis.