Book Launch at Istanbul University

Author: Hassan Maarfi Poor

I would particularly like to thank Prof. Ates Uslu for inviting me to this wonderful book launch. Thank you very much to all of you who took the time to be here.

This is a provisional edition of the book. My colleagues Astrid Wind and David Mora have printed 12 copies so that we can proofread the book again on paper. There are still many errors in this internal edition, which will be corrected in the official edition. Of course, Prof. Ates will receive both a copy of this edition and a final copy as soon as the book is on the market. However, the book will most likely be on the market in two months’ time at the latest, free of errors, and I will send Prof. Ates a final version in which a few changes have been made. Konstantin Baehrens is proofreading the book once more. He has written an article entitled ‘Lukács and the First World War’ and is quite well versed in Georg Lukács. He is writing his PhD thesis at the University of Potsdam on Lukács’s ‘The Destruction of Reason.

The idea for this anthology arose following the “international” Georg Lukács Day in Heidelberg, conceived by my colleagues Dr. Astrid Wind, Executive Director of the Heidelberg Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HGGS), and Prof. Cástor David Mora. The foreword to this anthology was written by Astrid Wind, while David Mora has contributed an essay entitled “A Brief Introduction to the Extensive and Productive Life of Georg Lukács.”

Without the supportive backing of the HGGS and the hard work of David and Astrid, the publication of this book would not have been possible. The HGGS provided partial financial support for the Georg Lukács Day and supported the editing and publication of this anthology.

The idea for an international Georg Lukács Day originated in 2019, while I was considering a master’s thesis on his late aesthetics (The  Specificity of the Aesthetic). While researching Lukács’s intellectual biography, I was struck by a significant disparity: despite spending nearly a decade in Heidelberg and serving as a pivotal member of the Max Weber Circle, almost no traces of his presence remain within the university or the city today.