Adorno, who since 1922 developed a highly fruitful activity as a theoretician and musical critic, did not publish his first work properly philosophical - the book on Kierkegaard - until 1933. The writings collected in this volume document for the first time the prehistory of Adorno's philosophy. If they remained unpublished in the life of the author, it was not by chance, because he had no opportunity to publish them, but because they failed to satisfy him very shortly after his writing. The fact that they appear in the Complete Works is justified, however, not only because of the historical interest aroused by the origin and evolution of Adorno's thought, but also because this was his will.