Otto Karl Werckmeister 1934-2023
With the death of Otto Karl Werckmeister on 7 June, the art history of the New Left has lost one of its most prodigious intellects and imposing personalities. Born in Berlin in 1934, Karl knew Nazism firsthand, witnessed the conquest of the city by the Red Army and had direct experience of de-Nazification as he sometimes reminded his friends. This likely explains his impatience with “committed” colleagues who claimed to conduct their struggles in the library. For Karl, Marxism was quintessentially the philosophy of praxis. It had to speak to the wider world outside the seminar room and engage with what was happening in the streets and workplaces. ...