Editing Walter Benjamin (section)

{{Short description|German cultural critic, philosopher and social critic (1892–1940)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name             = Walter Benjamin
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[20th-century philosophy]]
| image            = Walter_Benjamin_vers_1928.jpg
| caption          = Benjamin in 1928
| birth_name       = Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1892|07|15|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Berlin]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1940|09|26|1892|07|15|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Portbou]], [[Catalonia]], [[Francoist Spain]]
| death_cause      = [[Suicide]] by [[morphine overdose]]
| school_tradition = [[Continental philosophy]]<br />[[Western Marxism]]<br />[[Marxist hermeneutics]]<ref>''Erasmus: Speculum Scientarium'', '''25''', p. 162: "the different versions of Marxist hermeneutics by the examples of Walter Benjamin's ''[[The Origin of German Tragic Drama|Origins of the German Tragedy]]'' {{sic}}, ... and also by Ernst Bloch's ''[[The Principle of Hope|Hope the Principle]]'' {{sic}}."</ref>
| education=[[University of Freiburg]]<br />[[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]]<br />[[University of Bern]] {{small|([[PhD]], 1919)}}<br />[[University of Frankfurt am Main]] ({{small|[[Habilitation candidate|Habil. cand.]])}}
| institutions     = University of Frankfurt am Main<ref name="SEP"/>
| main_interests   = [[Literary theory]], [[aesthetics]], [[philosophy of technology]], [[epistemology]], [[philosophy of language]], [[philosophy of history]]
| notable_ideas    = [[The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction|Auratic perception]],<ref>Walter Benjamin, "L'œuvre d'art à l'époque de sa reproduction méchanisée", 1936: "The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol. Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness, that is, its aura." [''Die Einzigkeit des Kunstwerks ist identisch mit seinem Eingebettetsein in den Zusammenhang der Tradition. Diese Tradition selber ist freilich etwas durchaus Lebendiges, etwas außerordentlich Wandelbares. Eine antike Venusstatue z. B. stand in einem anderen Traditionszusammenhange bei den Griechen, die sie zum Gegenstand des Kultus machten, als bei den mittelalterlichen Klerikern, die einen unheilvollen Abgott in ihr erblickten. Was aber beiden in gleicher Weise entgegentrat, war ihre Einzigkeit, mit einem anderen Wort: ihre Aura''.]</ref> [[aestheticization of politics]], [[dialectical]] image,<ref name="SEP">[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/benjamin/ "Walter Benjamin"] at the [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]</ref> the ''[[flâneur]]''
}}

'''Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ɛ|n|j|ə|m|ɪ|n}} {{respell|BEN|yə|min}}; {{IPA|de|ˈvaltɐ ˈbɛnjamiːn|lang|De-Walter Benjamin.ogg}};<ref>{{cite book| title=Duden Aussprachewörterbuch | edition=6 | year=2006 | publisher=Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG | location=Mannheim}}</ref> 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940<ref name=Witte>{{cite book|last=Witte|first=Bernd|title=Walter Benjamin: An Intellectual Biography (English translation)|url=https://archive.org/details/walterbenjaminin0000witt|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Wayne State University Press|location=Detroit, MI|isbn=0-8143-2018-X|pages=[https://archive.org/details/walterbenjaminin0000witt/page/9 9]}}</ref>) was a German-Jewish [[philosopher]], [[cultural critic]], [[media theorist]], and [[essayist]]. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of [[German idealism]], [[Jewish mysticism]], [[Western Marxism]], and [[neo-Kantianism|post-Kantianism]], he made contributions to the [[philosophy of history]], [[metaphysics]], [[historical materialism]], [[Aesthetics|criticism]], [[aesthetics]] and had an oblique but overwhelmingly influential impact on the resurrection of the [[Kabbalah]] by virtue of his life-long epistolary relationship with [[Gershom Scholem]].<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Scholem |first=Gershom |title=Walter Benjamin: the story of a friendship |last2=Scholem |first2=Gershom |date=1982 |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=978-0-571-11970-7 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Scholem |first=Gershom |title=Major trends in Jewish mysticism |date=1972 |publisher=Schocken Books |isbn=978-0-8052-0005-8 |edition=6. print |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Walter |title=The correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, 1932-1940 |last2=Scholem |first2=Gershom |last3=Smith |first3=Gary |last4=Scholem |first4=Gershom |last5=Benjamin |first5=Walter |date=1989 |publisher=Schocken Books |isbn=978-0-8052-4065-8 |edition= |location=New York}}</ref> 

Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought [[Gershom Scholem|Scholem]] wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher",<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Scholem |first=Gershom |title=On Jews and Judaism in crisis: selected essays |date=1978 |publisher=Schocken Books |isbn=978-0-8052-0588-6 |edition=1. paperback |series=Schocken paperbacks |location=New York |pages=177 |chapter="Walter Benjamin"}}</ref> while his younger colleagues Arendt<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last1=Benjamin |first1=Walter |title=Illuminations |last2=Zorn |first2=Harry |last3=Benjamin |first3=Walter |date=1999 |publisher=Pimlico |isbn=978-0-7126-6575-9 |editor-last=Arendt |editor-first=Hannah |location=London |pages=4, 14–15 |chapter="Walter Benjamin: 1892-1940"}}</ref> and Adorno<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Adorno |first=Theodor |title=A Portrait of Walter Benjamin |url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Adorno_Prisms.pdf |journal=Prism |pages=229}}</ref> contend that he was "not a philosopher".<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /> Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction".<ref name=":8" /> Benjamin himself considered his research to be [[theological]],<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last1=Benjamin |first1=Walter |title=The correspondence of Walter Benjamin: 1910 - 1940 |last2=Benjamin |first2=Walter |date=2012 |publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-04238-1 |editor-last=Scholem |editor-first=Gershom |edition= |location=Chicago, Ill London |pages=371–373 |chapter="Letter to (publisher) Max Rychner, 7 March 1931"}}</ref> though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":11" />

He was associated with the [[Frankfurt School]] and also maintained formative relationships with thinkers and cultural figures such as the cabaret [[playwright]] [[Bertolt Brecht]] (friend), [[Martin Buber]] (an early impresario in his career), Nazi constitutionalist [[Carl Schmitt]] (a rival), and many others. He was related to German [[political theory|political theorist]] and philosopher [[Hannah Arendt]] through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin [[Günther Anders]], though the friendship between Arendt and Benjamin outlasted her marriage to Anders. Both Arendt and Anders were students of [[Martin Heidegger]], whom Benjamin considered a nemesis.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Benjamin |first1=Walter |title=The correspondence of Walter Benjamin: 1910 - 1940 |last2=Benjamin |first2=Walter |date=2012 |publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-04238-1 |editor-last=Scholem |editor-first=Gershom |edition= |location=Chicago, Ill London |pages=82, 168, 172, 359–60, 365, 372, 571}}</ref>

Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays "[[The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction]]" (1935), and "[[Theses on the Philosophy of History]]" (1940).  His major work as a critic included essays on [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], [[Franz Kafka|Kafka]], [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Kraus]], [[Nikolai Leskov|Leskov]], [[Marcel Proust|Proust]], [[Robert Walser (writer)|Walser]], [[Trauerspiel]] and [[translation theory]]. He translated the ''Tableaux Parisiens'' section of Baudelaire's ''[[Les Fleurs du mal]]'' and parts of Proust's ''[[In Search of Lost Time|À la recherche du temps perdu]]''.

In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died during his flight into exile on the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the [[Third Reich]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Arendt |first1=Hannah |title=The correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem |last2=Scholem |first2=Gershom Gerhard |last3=Knott |first3=Marie Luise |date=2017 |publisher=University of Chicago press |isbn=978-0-226-92451-9 |location=Chicago (Ill.) |pages=4 |chapter=Second letter from Hannah Arendt to Gershom Scholem: Oct. 21st, 1940}}</ref> Having remained in Europe until it was too late, as [[Cynthia Ozick]] puts it, Benjamin took his own life to avoid being murdered as a Jew.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last=Ozick |first=Cynthia |title=Art & Ardor |publisher=Random House |year=1983 |pages=145-147 |chapter=The Magisterial Reach of Gershom Scholem}}</ref>  Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Benjamin |first1=Walter |title=Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings |last2=Jephcott |first2=Edmund |date=2007 |publisher=Schocken |isbn=978-0-8052-0802-3 |editor-last=Demetz |editor-first=Peter |location=New York, NY |pages=vii-xlii |chapter=Introduction by Peter Demetz}}</ref>