In the summer of 1982, Friedrich Kittler submitted his postdoctoral thesis (Habilitationsschrift) to the then four philosophical faculties of the Albert-Ludwig University in Freiburg. Titled Aufschreibesysteme 1800/1900— and later known in English as Discourse Networks 1800/1900—the work amounted to 581 pages in typescript. Its author, mischievous as ever, was perhaps already anticipating that it would test the limits of the entire academic process. Two years passed before the appointed committee, having sought eleven instead of the typical three evaluations, was able to make its final decision and, despite one dissenting opinion, bring the process to a positive conclusion. In 1987, Kittler was offered a professorship in modern German literature at the Ruhr University in Bochum, which he left behind in 1993 to become a professor of aesthetics and the history of media at Humboldt University in Berlin. He would hold the latter position until his retirement.

In Kittler’s Habilitation process it is possible to identify, in nuce, many of the aspects that would come to characterize his later academic career. An examination of this historical constellation sheds light, that is, on what Kittler’s writings stand for and what they are directed against; it also does much to explain the antagonistic tone that characterized them for so long. The text that follows this article—a preface written after the fact by Kittler and published here in English for the first time—likewise originated in the context of this legendary process. Kittler wrote it to fulfill a rather unusual request to clarify more precisely the approach and methodology of his work and to situate it within contemporary debates. To publish this preface more than thirty years later provides an opportunity to reflect upon the role that this important book has played in establishing a field known as Medienwissenschaft.

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