PHILOSOPHER

Walter Benjamin

1892 - 1940

Photo of Walter Benjamin

Icon of person Walter Benjamin

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( BEN-yə-min; German: [ˈvaltɐ ˈbɛnjamiːn] ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western Marxism, and post-Kantianism, he made contributions to the philosophy of history, metaphysics, historical materialism, criticism, aesthetics and had an oblique but overwhelmingly influential impact on the resurrection of the Kabbalah by virtue of his life-long epistolary relationship with Gershom Scholem. Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher", while his younger colleagues Arendt and Adorno contend that he was "not a philosopher". Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction". Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Walter Benjamin is the 99th most popular philosopher (down from 92nd in 2019), the 145th most popular biography from Germany (down from 115th in 2019) and the 14th most popular German Philosopher.

Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist. His most famous work is "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Walter Benjamin by language

Loading...

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Walter Benjamin ranks 99 out of 1,267. Before him are John of Damascus, Aristippus, George Berkeley, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Carl von Clausewitz, and Jacques Derrida. After him are Jean Bodin, Al-Tabari, Friedrich Fröbel, Roger Bacon, Boethius, and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

Most Popular Philosophers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1892, Walter Benjamin ranks 9. Before him are Josip Broz Tito, Francisco Franco, Edward Victor Appleton, Louis de Broglie, Mary Pickford, and Ivo Andrić. After him are Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Pearl S. Buck, Manfred von Richthofen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, and Alexander Alekhine. Among people deceased in 1940, Walter Benjamin ranks 7. Before him are Leon Trotsky, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. J. Thomson, Selma Lagerlöf, Paul Klee, and Neville Chamberlain. After him are Mikhail Bulgakov, Arthur Harden, Nikolai Yezhov, Robert Wadlow, Carl Bosch, and Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse.

Others Born in 1892

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1940

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Walter Benjamin ranks 145 out of 7,253. Before him are Henry the Fowler (876), Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (980), Adolf Windaus (1876), Leopold I of Belgium (1790), Ernst Chain (1906), and Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472). After him are Augustus II the Strong (1670), Eduard Buchner (1860), Leni Riefenstahl (1902), Frederick William IV of Prussia (1795), Friedrich Fröbel (1782), and Alfred Wegener (1880).

Others born in Germany

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among PHILOSOPHERS In Germany

Among philosophers born in Germany, Walter Benjamin ranks 14. Before him are Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775), Karl Jaspers (1883), Ludwig Feuerbach (1804), Rudolf Christoph Eucken (1846), Jürgen Habermas (1929), and Carl von Clausewitz (1780). After him are Friedrich Fröbel (1782), Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767), Meister Eckhart (1260), Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900), Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776), and Baron d'Holbach (1723).

German born Philosophers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous