Your first thought upon awakening be: ‘Atom’. For you should not begin your day with the illusion that what surrounds you is a stable world. [...] Your second thought after awakening should run: ‘The possibility of the apocalypse is our work. But we know not what we are doing’. We really don’t know, nor do they who control the apocalypse: for they too are ‘we’, they too are fundamentally incompetent. […] Your next thought after awakening should run: don’t be a coward. Have the courage to be afraid. Force yourself to produce that amount of fear that corresponds to the magnitude of the apocalyptic danger.

It is no coincidence that there has been a recent increase in interest in the work of Günther Anders – His critique of technology and thoughts on the apocalypse seem to be equally, if not more urgent now, than at the time of writing. What does it mean to read Anders today? How can it guide our thought and action? How do we deal with the omnipotence of technology’s destructive power? How do we overcome our own incompetence and inability to act in the face of the machine? Over six sessions, we will read and discuss some of Anders’ better-known and some of his more obscure works. Staying close to Anders’ idea of Gelegenheitsphilosophie (‘occasional philosophy’), the reading is structured around some of the major events and topics that shaped his philosophy and life. At the end of the reading group, we will have gotten a good overview of both his unique style and his major philosophical contributions. The texts we will read take on different forms, including excerpts from his dystopian work of speculative fiction Die molussische Katakombe, (fictional) interviews, diary entries, letters and correspondence, and two chapters from The Obsolescence of the Human. Unfortunately, a lot of his work has not been translated into English; we encourage readers of German, Dutch, French and Italian to also consult Anders’ writing beyond what is available in English.

Günther Anders Reading List

7 October - Jewishness, identity, exile, genocide, and anti-Zionism

Primary reading

• Anders, G. (1982). Letter to the Jewish community of the city of Vienna (J. Blumenfeld, Trans.). Endnotes. https://www.endnotes.org.uk/palabre/why-i-am-giving-up-my-membership-in-the-jewish-community (Original work published 1982 in Das Argument, 136, 847.)
• Anders, G. (1978). Mein Judentum. In H. J. Schultz (Ed.), Mein Judentum. Kreuz Verlag. (English translation will be provided.)

Secondary reading

• Blumenfeld, J. (2024, July). Welcome to the Anderscene. The Brooklyn Rail. https://brooklynrail.org/2024/07/field-notes/Welcome-to-the-Anderscene/
• Traverso, E. (2023, December 14). Auschwitz and Hiroshima (D. Fernbach, Trans.). Historical Materialism. https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/article/auschwitz-and-hiroshima

Optional

• Anders, G. (1964). Wir Eichmannsöhne: Offener Brief an Klaus Eichmann. C. H. Beck. Not available in English.

14 October - Anti-fascism: excerpts from Die Molussische Katakombe

Primary reading

• Anders, G. (2025). Ancestor murder and other Molussian pieces (C. D. Godwin, Trans.). Beyond Alexander Platz. https://beyond-alexanderplatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ancestor-Murder-complete.pdf (Original work published 1992.)
• Anders, G. (2021). Resistance today (C. J. Müller & J. Dawsey, Trans.). Journal of Continental Philosophy, 2(1), 131-140. (Original work published 1963.)

Secondary reading

• Bolin, H. (2024, September). Unworldliness: A pathology of humankind: On Günther Anders's negative anthropology. e-flux Journal, (147). https://www.e-flux.com/journal/147/625279/unworldliness-a-pathology-of-humankind-on-g-nther-anders-s-negative-anthropology

Optional

• Anders, G. (2025). The Molussian Catacombs (C. D. Godwin, Trans.). Beyond Alexander Platz. https://beyond-alexanderplatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MOLUSSIAN-CATACOMBS-Complete-2025.pdf (Original work published 1992.)

28 October - Promethean shame

Primary reading

• Anders, G. (2025). On Promethean shame (C. J. Müller, Trans.; pp. 25-89). In C. J. Müller & C. Dries (Eds.), The obsolescence of the human (Vol. 1): On the soul in the age of the Second Industrial Revolution. University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1956.)

11 November - Hiroshima is everywhere

Primary reading

• Anders, G. (1962). Theses for the Atomic Age. The Massachusetts Review, 3(3), 493-505.
• Eatherly, C., & Anders, G. (1962). Burning conscience: The case of the Hiroshima pilot Claude Eatherly, told in his letters to Günther Anders. Monthly Review Press. Read Letter 1; Commandments in the Atomic Age (pp. 11-20); and Letter 65.
• Anders, G. (1986, June). Ten theses on Chernobyl. Presentation delivered to the Sixth World Congress of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Cologne, Germany.

Secondary reading

• Babich, B. (2021). Political media theory, Hiroshima, and nuclear power plants. In Günther Anders' philosophy of technology (pp. 197-208). Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350228610.0023

Optional viewing

• Panoramiek. Beeld & Geluid. https://schatkamer.beeldengeluid.nl/serie/2101608030021496931/panoramiek/aflevering/2101608050039319831

25 November - The end of time and apocalypse blindness

Primary reading

• Anders, G. (2025). On the bomb and the roots of our apocalypse blindness (C. J. Müller, Trans.; pp. 203-251). In C. Dries & C. J. Müller (Eds.), The obsolescence of the human (Vol. 1): On the soul in the age of the Second Industrial Revolution. University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1956.)
• Anders, G. (2019). Apocalypse without Kingdom (H. Bolin, Trans.). e-flux Journal, 97. (Original work published 1959.)
• Anders, G. (2019). Language and End Time (C. J. Müller, Trans.). Thesis Eleven, 153(1), 134-140. (Original work published 1989.)

9 December - On violence

Primary reading

• Anders, G. (1987). Gewalt - ja oder nein: Eine notwendige Diskussion (M. Bissinger, Ed.). Droemer Knaur. (English translation will be provided.)
• Anders, G. (1982). Die Beichte. In Ketzereien. C. H. Beck. (English translation will be provided.)

Additional reading

• Cospito, A. (2021, March 25). Italy: Speech of Alfredo Cospito at the debate on the anti-nuclear struggle. Anarxiki-Omospondia.gr. https://www.anarxiki-omospondia.gr/italy-speech-of-alfredo-cospito-at-the-debate-on-the-anti-nuclear-struggle