Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin was a German-Jewish critic and philosopher associated with the Frankfurt School. Born in Berlin, he lived in exile in Paris after 1933 and died at Portbou on the Spanish border in 1940 while fleeing the Nazis. His essay on the work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility argued that photography and film cause the withering of the artwork's aura, its unique presence in time and place, and transform art's social and political function. His writings on history, language and the modern city remain widely read.

Key ideas

• Technological reproduction withers the aura of the artwork, its unique presence in time and place.
• Freed from ritual, art's function can become political.
• Film trains new modes of perception suited to modern life.
• History should be read against the grain, from the standpoint of the defeated.

Major works

• The Origin of German Tragic Drama (Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels, 1928)
• One-Way Street (Einbahnstraße, 1928)
• "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility" (1935–1939 versions; first published in French, 1936)
• "On the Concept of History" (1940)

In the conversation

• Reading group Reading group: ‘The Culture Industry’ chapter of Dialectic of Enlightenment Gemma Pritchard · 5 replies
• Debate Reproduction did not wither the aura of art; it made the aura more valuable Chiara Bellandi · 5 replies