Walter Benjamin was born in Berlin in 1892 to a liberal, educated Jewish family. He died near the Spanish border and became the intellectual martyr of World War II. In a tragic series of events, Benjamin narrowly missed escaping to neutral Spain. Pushed out of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Benjamin became a Jewish expatriate in Paris until he was forced to flee once again.

An ardent Marxist and critical theorist, Benjamin also fused his understanding of Jewish mysticism with historical materialism, prompting critic Terry Eagleton to call him the “Marxist Rabbi.” His close friends included superstars of the Frankfurt School like Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, as well as political theorist Hannah Arendt and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem.īenjamin’s chief contributions to twentieth century intellectual history are likely his work on the aesthetic significance of image reproduction (like photography) and the character of modern urban spaces, such as the Parisian arcades, though he is also known as a consummate translator of Proust and Baudelaire.īenjamin’s life has also provided a theoretical model for a distinctly ambivalent stance on Jewish identity. A Renaissance man of letters, he wrote on topics ranging from art history and aesthetics to linguistics, politics, and psychedelic drugs. Walter Benjamin’s life and work is difficult to categorize. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate

Walter benjamin