[1] A member of the Socialist German Students' Union, Negt studied philosophy and sociology in Frankfurt with Theodor Adorno, and was an assistant of Jürgen Habermas.

He was one of the mentors of the Außerparlamentarische Opposition, and when the protest movement fragmented, tried as leader of the Sozialistisches Büro in Offenbach to establish an "over-factional consciousness".

He is known for his collaboration with the filmmaker and visual artist Alexander Kluge, including books that were translated into English as Public Sphere and Experience and History and Obstinacy.

His father was involved in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) during World War II, facing pressure under the Nazi regime.

[1] When the camp doors were finally reopened, Negt and his sisters were reunited with their parents in Soviet-occupied Berlin after having been placed in quarantine near Rostock on their return to Germany.

[6][3] After his Abitur in 1955,[3] Negt followed a wish of his father[3] and studied law at the University of Göttingen;[3][4] he found the commitments entailed by membership in the local Burschenschaft overly burdensome.

[4] Negt was offered a position as a research assistant for Habermas (on the topic of Marxism and the SDS) at the University of Heidelberg in 1961,[7] where he wrote his habilitation about the education of workers (Arbeiterbildung) in 1968.

Negt's work with Kluge has been described as "highly unconventional" but significant in "an attempt to reinstate the human body to its rightful place in critical theory.

[7] Negt was brought up as the son of a small farmer and a member of the Social Democratic Party, and this "rural and... proletarian existence" led him to have ties with SPD causes, including trade unions.