Walter Benjamin
German philosopher and cultural critic
Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. He is best known for essays such as The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
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Born 1892 in Berlin, Germany Died 1940
Influenced by Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche
About Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin (1892 to 1940) was born in Berlin and worked as a philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, essayist and translator. He drew on German idealism, Jewish mysticism and Western Marxism, and was associated with the Frankfurt School. His friends included Bertolt Brecht and Gershom Scholem. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction dates from 1935, and Theses on the Philosophy of History followed in 1940. He also wrote critical essays on Baudelaire, Kafka and Proust, and translated parts of Baudelaire and Proust into German. Benjamin died in 1940 at Portbou, on the French-Spanish border, while trying to escape the advance of the Third Reich. Wide recognition of his work came only after his death.