Benjamin, Walter
| Name |
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| born on | 15 July 1892 at 22:30 (= 10:30 PM ) | ||||
| Place | Berlin, Germany, 52n29, 13e21 | ||||
| Timezone | LMT m13e21 (is local mean time) | ||||
| Data source |
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| Astrology data |   23°46'   08°19 Asc. 04°15'
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Biography
German literary critic, philosopher, social critic, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist. Combining elements of German idealism or Romanticism, historical materialism and Jewish mysticism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory and Western Marxism, and is associated with the Frankfurt School.
Among Benjamin's major works as a literary critic are essays on Goethe's novel Elective Affinities; the work of Franz Kafka and Karl Kraus; translation theory; the stories of Nikolai Leskov; the work of Marcel Proust and perhaps most significantly, the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
His turn to Marxism in the 1930s was partly due to the influence of Bertolt Brecht, whose critical aesthetics developed epic theatre and its Verfremdungseffekt (defamiliarisation, alienation). An earlier influence was friend Gershom Scholem, founder of the academic study of the Kabbalah and of Jewish mysticism.
Influenced by the Swiss anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen(1815–87), Benjamin coined the term "auratic perception", denoting the aesthetic faculty by means of which civilization may recover an appreciation of myth. Benjamin's work is often cited in academic and literary studies, especially the essays "The Task of the Translator" (1923) and The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936).
On 26 September 1940 Benjamin committed suicide in Portbou at the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape from the Nazis.
Relationships
- associate relationship with Adorno, Gretel (born 10 June 1902)
- associate relationship with Hessel, Franz (born 21 November 1880). Notes: Co-translators
- associate relationship with Kollwitz, Hans (born 14 May 1892)
- associate relationship with Sahl, Hans (born 20 May 1902)
- associate relationship with Strauss, Leo (born 20 September 1899)
- friend relationship with Brecht, Bertolt (born 10 February 1898)
- friend relationship with Scholem, Gershom (born 5 December 1897)
- friend relationship with Unger, Erich (born 25 October 1887)
- other kin relationship with Anders, Günther (born 12 July 1902). Notes: Cousin
- has other family relationship with Benjamin, Hilde (born 5 February 1902). Notes: Brother-in-law
- has other family relationship with Kolmar, Gertrud (born 10 December 1894). Notes: Cousin
- (has as) teacher relationship with Geiger, Moritz (born 26 June 1880)
Events
Source Notes
Lepovre quotes Birth Certificate email on September 6, 2014 "Benjamin was born "on the fifteenth of July 1892 at ten and a half in the afternoon" ("... am fünfzehnten Juli des Jahres tausend achthundert neunzig und zwei nachmittags um zehn ein halb Uhr")
Categories
- Personal : Death : Suicide
- Vocation : Humanities+Social Sciences : Philosopher
- Vocation : Writers : Critic
- Notable : Famous : Historic figure
