alter Benjamin (1892–1940) is one of the most influential of modern thinkers – perhaps surprising given that his work does not neatly align with any particular discipline or theoretical position. Benjamin was loosely affiliated with, and at times financially supported by, the Frankfurt School of leftist critics, but he sustained friendships with a wide range of people, including the expert on Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem, the avant-garde artist László Moholy-Nagy, and the playwright Bertolt Brecht. His writings are equally hard to pigeonhole, ranging from philosophy to literary criticism, from history to anthropology. Benjamin was moreover a prolific journalist, broadcaster and creative writer.
Benjamin was born into a family of assimilated Ashkenazi Jews in Berlin; his father Emil was an auctioneer and investor, while his mother Pauline, née Schönflies, came from a wealthy merchant family. Walter’s younger sister Dora became an economist and sociologist, his brother Georg a paediatrician and resistance fighter, who was murdered by the Nazis. Benjamin studied German literature and philosophy at the Universities of Freiburg, Berlin and Munich. Inspired by his schoolteacher, the charismatic Gustav Wyneken, he played a leading role in the Independent Students’ Association, which campaigned for educational reform. In 1914, one of Benjamin’s closest friends, the young poet Fritz Heinle, committed suicide in protest against the outbreak of the war; devastated by this loss, Benjamin broke off all contact with Wyneken and the Students’ Association because of their endorsement of the war.
Read Full Article »
