This contribution summarily reconstructs the genesis and development of the notion of ‘work’ in Hegel's philosophy, from the Jena years to the Berlin period. The topic is treated mainly in connection with such questions as ‘recognition’ and culture. On the one hand (as observed by Marx and Lukács), while realizing the contradictory character of capitalism, Hegel ultimately still underestimates the general question of exploitation in industrial production. On the other hand, however, the biblical conception of work as a condemnation is, so to say, aufgehoben in Hegel’s view of Bildung by a revaluation of work as the only actual possibility of negating the status quo and setting oneself free from the historical various forms of servitude (Marcuse, Taubes). In this sense, each cultural production can be regarded as the result of a ‘work’ accomplished by Spirit in its historical becoming.