Walter Benjamin

Also known as

Add other possible names for this topic

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (July 15, 1892 – September 27, 1940) was a German-Jew Marxist literary critic, essay, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also greatly inspired by the Marxism of Bertolt Brecht and Jewish mysticism as presented by Gershom Scholem. As a sociological and cultural critic, Benjamin combined ideas drawn from historical materialism, German idealism, and Jewish mysticism in a body of work which... full article at wikipedia

Write new description for Freebase.com

Add a type

People

Person

8 empty fields

Gender

Male

Edit	Date of birth

Jul 15, 1892

Edit	Place of birth

Berlin

Country of nationality

detail view »

Germany

Profession

detail view »

Religion

Ethnicity

Parents

Children

Siblings

Spouse (or domestic partner)

Employment history

Education

institution
Humboldt University of Berlin
detail view »

Height

Weight

Quotations

Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.

He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.

Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.

Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information -- hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.

Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.

Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.

To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without fright.

detail view » more

Places lived

location
Berlin
detail view »

Deceased Person

4 empty fields

Edit	Date of death

Sep 27, 1940

Edit	Place of death

Spain

Cause of death

detail view »

Suicide

Edit	Date of cremation

Place of cremation

Edit	Date of burial

Place of burial

Publishing

Author

5 empty fields

Works written

Works edited

Series Written (or Contributed To)

Book editions published

Contributing author to

School or Movement

Visual Art

Art owner

0 empty fields

Artworks owned

artwork
Angelus Novus
detail view »

Influence

Influence Node

0 empty fields

Influenced By

Peers

peers
Georges Bataille
Hannah Arendt
Theodor W. Adorno
Bertolt Brecht
detail view »

Influenced

Philosophy (alexander) User-created view »

Philosopher

4 empty fields

Associated Movements

Notable Ideas

Interests

Influenced

Influenced By

With the exception of Wikipedia summaries and some images the content on this page is typically distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license or Public Domain.

The original description for this topic was automatically generated from the Wikipedia article "Walter Benjamin" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.