Walter Benjamin

Chronology

 
1892 Walter Benjamin is born on 15. July as the oldest of three children in Berlin. He grows up in a wealthy and assimilated Jewish family.
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1902-1905 Benjamin attends Kaiser-Friedrich School in Berlin Charlottenburg.
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1905-1906 Two-year sojourn at a boarding school in Haubinda, where Benjamin is a student of Gustav Wyneken.
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1912 Benjamin is awarded a diploma from the Kaiser-Friedrich School in Berlin.
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1912-1915 Benjamin majors in philosophy at the Universities of Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich and Berlin, his minor subjects are German literature and psychology; he is also an active participant in the republican-oriented student organization “Freie Studentenschaft”.
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1912 Benjamin’s friendship with the author C.F. Heinle begins.
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1914 Benjamin meets his future wife, Dora Sophie Pollak. Fritz Heinle and his companion commit suicide at the outbreak of the war. Benjamin resigns from the student organization.
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1915 Continuation of his university studies in Munich. Benjamin breaks with his teacher Gustav Wyneken. Benjamin begins his friendships with Gershom Scholem and Werner Kraft.
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1916 Benjamin formulates his essay Über die Sprache überhaupt und über die Sprache des Menschen (On Language as Such and on the Language of Man).
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1917 Benjamin marries Dora Sophie Pollak.
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1917-1919 Continuation of his university studies in Berlin.
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1918 Birth of Benjamin’s only son Stefan. Acquaintanceship with Ernst Bloch.
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1919 Under the aegis of Richard Herbertz Benjamin is awarded his doctorate „summa cum laude“ in Bern; he submits a dissertation entitled Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik (The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism).
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1920 Benjamin returns to Berlin, where he experiences financial difficulties.
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1921 The literary journal „Angelus Novus“ is projected.
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1922 Benjamin pens his essay Goethes Wahlverwandschaften (Goethes Elective Affinities). Friendship with Florens Christian Rang.
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1923 Initial acquaintanceships with Siegfried Kracauer as well as with Gretel and Theodor Wiesengrund (Adorno). Contacts are established to the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. Benjamin attends the University of Frankfurt during the summer semester, in order to lay the groundwork for his Habilitation in the history of modern German literature.
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1924 Benjamins critical essay Goethes Wahlverwandschaften appears in the „Neue Deutsche Blätter“, which is edited by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Benjamin spends several months on the isle of Capri. Benjamin produces the first version of the Trauerspielbuch (The Origin of German Tragic Drama). He falls in love with Asja Lacis, who encourages him to study Marxism.
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1925 Benjamin’s Habilitation attempt fails, when his work Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels is rejected by the University of Frankfurt. He is advised to withdraw his request. Benjamin lives in Berlin as a free author and reviewer.
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1926 Benjamin translates Proust, together with Franz Hessel. Benjamin spends several months in Paris. Benjamin begins to write for the “Frankurter Zeitung” and “Die literarische Welt” .
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1926-1927 In December and January Benjamin visits Moskow, where he sees Asja Lacis again.
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1927 Benjamin commences work on the Passagen-Werk (The Arcades Project) in Paris; meetings with Gershom Scholem. Benjamin considers plans to go to Palestine. First experiments with marijuana.
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1928 Einbahnstraße (One-Way Street) and Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels (The Origin of German Tragic Drama) are published by Ernst Rowohlt in Berlin.
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1929 Debut on the radio. First meeting with Bertolt Brecht. Asja Lacis in Berlin.
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1930 Divorce from Dora Benjamin. Benjamin plans to publish a journal “Krise und Kritik” in cooperation with Bertolt Brecht and Bernard von Brentano.
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1931 Benjamin works on a volume of essays to be published by Rowohlt. He pens the Kraus essay.
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1932 Benjamin spends several months on Ibiza. His literary activities revolve around the Berliner Chronik (A Berlin Chronicle) and the Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert (A Childhood in Berlin around 1900), both of which are published after his death.Benjamin returns to Nice, where he makes plans to commit suicide and thus makes his will.
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1933 Benjamin emigrates to Paris; sojourn on Ibiza. Benjamin begins employment at the Institute for Social Research.
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1934 Benjamin spends time at Brecht’s retreat in Svendborg/Denmark, and in San Remo at the home of his ex-wife. He recommences work on the Arcades Project. He financial situation worsens. Benjamin contributes to Max Horkheimer’s “Zeitschrift for Sozialforschung” and receives some material support from the Institute for Social Research, now located in New York.
Friendships with Hannah Arendt, Hermann Hesse and Kurt Weill.
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1936 An anthology of letters, entitled Deutsche Menschen, is released in Switzerland under Benjamin’s nom-de-plume, Detlef-Holz. A French version of Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction) is published in the „Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung“.
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1937-1938 Benjamin works on his book about Baudelaire.
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1938 Last visit to Brecht in Denmark; the first part of the Baudelaire book, Das Paris des Second Empire bei Baudelaire (The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire), is completed.
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1939 Benjamin begins working on the second part of the Baudelaire book, Über einige Motive bei Baudelaire (On Some Motifs in Baudelaire). He loses his citizenship. Benjamin is incarcerated in a camp near Nevers.
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1940 Benjamin returns to Paris. He writes his Thesen über den Begriff der Geschichte (Theses on the Philosophy of History). In June he flees to Lourdes with his sister. In August he receives a visa to travel the United States, which Max Horkheimer negotiates. In September Benjamin’s attempt to flee over the Pyrenees fails. Benjamin dies on September 26, 1940 in Port Bou (Spain), most probably as the result of a self-induced overdose of morphine.
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