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Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe #9
Radio Benjamin
Walter Benjamin was fascinated by the impact of new technology on culture, an interest that extended beyond his renowned critical essays. From 1927 to ’33, he wrote and presented something in the region of eighty broadcasts using the new medium of radio. Radio Benjamin gathers the surviving transcripts, which appear here for the first time in English. This eclectic collection demonstrates the range of Benjamin’s thinking and his enthusiasm for popular sensibilities. His celebrated “Enlightenment for Children” youth programs, his plays, readings, book reviews, and fiction reveal Benjamin in a creative, rather than critical, mode. They flesh out ideas elucidated in his essays, some of which are also represented here, where they cover topics as varied as getting a raise and the history of natural disasters, subjects chosen for broad appeal and examined with passion and acuity. Delightful and incisive, this is Walter Benjamin channeling his sophisticated thinking to a wide audience, allowing us to benefit from a new voice for one of the twentieth century’s most respected thinkers.
424 pages, Hardcover
First published April 17, 2013
27 people are currently reading
658 people want to read
About the author
Walter Benjamin
854 books2,127 followersWalter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, Jewish mysticism, and neo-Kantianism, Benjamin made influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem. He was related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin Günther Anders, though the friendship between Arendt and Benjamin outlasted her marriage to Anders. Both Arendt and Anders were students of Martin Heidegger, whom Benjamin considered a nemesis.
Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) and "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Nikolai Leskov, Marcel Proust, Robert Walser, Trauerspiel and translation theory. 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.
Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher", while his younger colleagues Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno contend that he was "not a philosopher". Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction". Benjamin himself considered his research to be theological, though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority.
In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died by suicide at Portbou on the French Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich. Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown.
Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) and "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Nikolai Leskov, Marcel Proust, Robert Walser, Trauerspiel and translation theory. 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.
Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that "Benjamin was a philosopher", while his younger colleagues Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno contend that he was "not a philosopher". Scholem remarked "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction". Benjamin himself considered his research to be theological, though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority.
In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died by suicide at Portbou on the French Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich. Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 21, 2026
לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/רדיו...
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/רדיו...
February 20, 2015
I chose to read this book out of a deep-seated guilt that has remained with me ever since I left grad school and stopped reading scholarly books as a regular activity. Walter Benjamin was a theorist I heard of in several courses in grad school, and I was intrigued with what I heard of his work, though I had never read anything he wrote. So, I figured reading an advanced copy of this book (provided to me free in exchange for a fair review) would be worth doing.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the first half of this book. The second half is a bit dry and while no doubt of great interest to scholars in German studies, history, media studies and other fields, was not highly entertaining. For the last 150-200 pages I did feel like I was reading an assigned book for a class, which is what I would expect given the nature of the book. The first half, however, was delightful, a selection of radio shows Walter Benjamin wrote out, essentially essays that would have guided the actual radio broadcasts like a script. These essays/shows cover a very broad range of topics and describe a version of Europe, and especially of Germany, that we don't quite get post-WW2. Walter Benjamin, a Jewish intellectual working in radio in the early 1930's, did not know about concentration camps, and did not have the weight of the knowledge of what the Nazi's were up to, let alone knowledge of the terrible chaos that would tear Europe apart shortly after these radio shows were created.
For the modern reader, there are traces of interesting tension in some of Benjamin's choices of subject matter, but all quite subtle. He is talking about the vanishing art of puppeteers, the architecture of Berlin, and travels in Naples, among many other topics. There is a lot in these shows to interest the scholar, but in part because they were written for a youth audience these shows are also pleasant, easy reading that anyone outside academia could also enjoy. I read a few of these essays each night before bed, and they worked quite well for such a purpose. I would love to see them repackaged for the general public, actually. In the meantime, this is one book that academics might hang onto and read parts of to their kids once their research needs are satisfied.
(I received my copy of this book free in exchange for a fair review.)
I was very pleasantly surprised by the first half of this book. The second half is a bit dry and while no doubt of great interest to scholars in German studies, history, media studies and other fields, was not highly entertaining. For the last 150-200 pages I did feel like I was reading an assigned book for a class, which is what I would expect given the nature of the book. The first half, however, was delightful, a selection of radio shows Walter Benjamin wrote out, essentially essays that would have guided the actual radio broadcasts like a script. These essays/shows cover a very broad range of topics and describe a version of Europe, and especially of Germany, that we don't quite get post-WW2. Walter Benjamin, a Jewish intellectual working in radio in the early 1930's, did not know about concentration camps, and did not have the weight of the knowledge of what the Nazi's were up to, let alone knowledge of the terrible chaos that would tear Europe apart shortly after these radio shows were created.
For the modern reader, there are traces of interesting tension in some of Benjamin's choices of subject matter, but all quite subtle. He is talking about the vanishing art of puppeteers, the architecture of Berlin, and travels in Naples, among many other topics. There is a lot in these shows to interest the scholar, but in part because they were written for a youth audience these shows are also pleasant, easy reading that anyone outside academia could also enjoy. I read a few of these essays each night before bed, and they worked quite well for such a purpose. I would love to see them repackaged for the general public, actually. In the meantime, this is one book that academics might hang onto and read parts of to their kids once their research needs are satisfied.
(I received my copy of this book free in exchange for a fair review.)
August 27, 2016
This has been such a fantastic and enjoyable read.
As the title implies, it is a collection of works (short stories, radio plays, lessons for children, etc.) that were either broadcast on the radio, produced for it and never broadcast or theoretical essays written about the phenomenon of radio in the early twentieth century Germany and its implications. These vary in length and topic, but none are long, which makes for a quite fun and light read. They deal with a variety of themes, from life in Germany/Berlin, to fantasy-like plays going through literary theory, commentaries on history (like the destruction of Pompeii), places (Naples, the Berlin markets), sociopolitical realities (the Prohibition in the US, the Witch Trials, housing crisis) to even some German folk/fairy tales.
I already had a healthy interest in Benjamin's life's work and this volume has only reaffirmed it.
I'll be revisiting this book again and again in years to come.
As the title implies, it is a collection of works (short stories, radio plays, lessons for children, etc.) that were either broadcast on the radio, produced for it and never broadcast or theoretical essays written about the phenomenon of radio in the early twentieth century Germany and its implications. These vary in length and topic, but none are long, which makes for a quite fun and light read. They deal with a variety of themes, from life in Germany/Berlin, to fantasy-like plays going through literary theory, commentaries on history (like the destruction of Pompeii), places (Naples, the Berlin markets), sociopolitical realities (the Prohibition in the US, the Witch Trials, housing crisis) to even some German folk/fairy tales.
I already had a healthy interest in Benjamin's life's work and this volume has only reaffirmed it.
I'll be revisiting this book again and again in years to come.
December 29, 2017
Just imagine how the listener, especially in this case Berlin (and German) children are exposed to the broad knowledge of the world by listening to a 20-30 minutes radio broadcast.
Of course, the next book one would like to continue from this specific surviving Benjamin work is Walter Benjamin for Children: An Essay on his Radio Years.
Of course, the next book one would like to continue from this specific surviving Benjamin work is Walter Benjamin for Children: An Essay on his Radio Years.
December 26, 2024
Amb Benjamin em passa quelcom que no em passa amb ningú més —em decep, i no deixo de donar-li oportunitats. És evident que les Tesis sobre la història són extraordinàries en moltíssims aspectes, i probablement constitueixen uns dels escrits més importants de filosofia de la història mai escrits. Però, que té més enllà d’això? Sí, l’Obra d’art en la seva època de reproductibilitat tècnica és també molt bo, posant en paraules la decadència en l’art tan fàcilment observable. La resta dels seus escrits, però, em semblen d’una banda majorment observacions culturals, de l’altra embrutats per la seva pròpia prosa, que no podem titllar de literària sinó d’innecessàriament enrevessada i obscura. En aquest llibre, Benjamin parla als nens sobre alguns temes força interessants, i és bo sentir-lo amb aquesta veu. La meitat del llibre, però, és formada per obres teatrals per a ràdio de mediocre qualitat. En definitiva, en l’obra de Benjamin hi ha alguns diamants, però s’ha de picar moltíssima pedra per a trobar-los.
March 28, 2015
I purchased this book after reading the review in the March 2015 issue of Harper's Magazine. Being of French descent, I know very little of pre-war German culture. The little I learned as a child was at best dismissive and at worst highly pejorative.
Benjamin's essays provide a delightful basis for exploration. Aimed at children, the essays cover a wide range of topic and never fail to lead to unexpected places. The essay on Toys led me to read about Tinche and then Faust. The one about Berlin dialect made me look deeper into the distinction between Berlin and the rest of Germany.
The language can be a bit old fashioned and many of the jokes are lost on me but the book is vast treasure hunt that should not be missed.
Benjamin's essays provide a delightful basis for exploration. Aimed at children, the essays cover a wide range of topic and never fail to lead to unexpected places. The essay on Toys led me to read about Tinche and then Faust. The one about Berlin dialect made me look deeper into the distinction between Berlin and the rest of Germany.
The language can be a bit old fashioned and many of the jokes are lost on me but the book is vast treasure hunt that should not be missed.
July 11, 2022
I can't say how much I enjoyed this. I suppose obviously you'd already have to be an avid lover of Walter Benjamin to consider reading it, but who isn't that? (ahem) The thing is, this book surprised me with its massive random toss-off insights and also it's pure accessibility. The early part of the book, for example, is a "Children's" radio-hour, which includes random advice on reading E.T.A. Hoffmann, or charming jokes of working class Berliners. Every sentence of this thing is riveting.
September 6, 2023
Some Random Thoughts - Reading Radio Benjamin
There isn't really a need to write much more because Wang Fanke's translation of the afterword is already an elegant and flawless evaluation of the book. I still want to add a few spices, though, because I adore Benjamin and this tiny book and have a fan-like devotion for him.
1 For Mystery
By personal choice, "The Witch Hunt Trials" and "Kaspar Hauser" are my two favorite radio plays. This is probably because the mystery and the unknown are always the most fascinating and unnerving, and it's also human nature to experience a peculiar thrill from crucifixion scenarios.
After finishing these two chapters, I was compelled to Ssuma Chien: immediately! Find the 49 volumes right away at the Munich State Archives. And so I did—not on the following flight to Munich, of course, but rather in a more "modern" and practical manner—by Googling. I won't mention all the stuff I found using the search engine since if I did, it would turn this brief review into a running joke about non-experts trying to find information using the bibliography system. But as when I first started reading the book, all I really wanted to do was write down some fleeting, superficial emotions.
Nothing more.
2 Regarding Superficial
Just the description of this book as "Benjamin's work with a nice cover" was enough to convince me to buy it. In contrast to the grueling Enlightenment, this small book with a child's perspective and the tried-and-true addition of the radio medium made me feel at ease in a way that I hadn't experienced in a while. This is why I wrote these few brief paragraphs in a stream-of-consciousness style, which is obviously a self-aggrandizing way to phrase things, rather than using the word-for-word format that I typically use when writing academic papers.
When I consider the "crisis of literary legitimacy," a subject that has come up frequently in the academic discussions in which I have participated recently, I wonder if we will ever be able to truly universalize literature until we make the connection between literature and the modern world rather than using the word "uselessness" to categorize and appease ourselves.
(Since I've brought up this subject, I'd like to suggest a book I've been reading lately, The Limits of Criticism by Rita Felski.)
In spite of this, I do not discount the current importance of literary studies. As a literary scholar, I have always had a reverent attitude toward the evolution of literature, but being trapped in a maze of self-reflective mirrors is ultimately not what literature is all about.
In light of this,
Turn on the radio, please.
Please take a moment to listen, and feel free to explore.
Chaniya Yang
2023.09.06
There isn't really a need to write much more because Wang Fanke's translation of the afterword is already an elegant and flawless evaluation of the book. I still want to add a few spices, though, because I adore Benjamin and this tiny book and have a fan-like devotion for him.
1 For Mystery
By personal choice, "The Witch Hunt Trials" and "Kaspar Hauser" are my two favorite radio plays. This is probably because the mystery and the unknown are always the most fascinating and unnerving, and it's also human nature to experience a peculiar thrill from crucifixion scenarios.
After finishing these two chapters, I was compelled to Ssuma Chien: immediately! Find the 49 volumes right away at the Munich State Archives. And so I did—not on the following flight to Munich, of course, but rather in a more "modern" and practical manner—by Googling. I won't mention all the stuff I found using the search engine since if I did, it would turn this brief review into a running joke about non-experts trying to find information using the bibliography system. But as when I first started reading the book, all I really wanted to do was write down some fleeting, superficial emotions.
Nothing more.
2 Regarding Superficial
Just the description of this book as "Benjamin's work with a nice cover" was enough to convince me to buy it. In contrast to the grueling Enlightenment, this small book with a child's perspective and the tried-and-true addition of the radio medium made me feel at ease in a way that I hadn't experienced in a while. This is why I wrote these few brief paragraphs in a stream-of-consciousness style, which is obviously a self-aggrandizing way to phrase things, rather than using the word-for-word format that I typically use when writing academic papers.
When I consider the "crisis of literary legitimacy," a subject that has come up frequently in the academic discussions in which I have participated recently, I wonder if we will ever be able to truly universalize literature until we make the connection between literature and the modern world rather than using the word "uselessness" to categorize and appease ourselves.
(Since I've brought up this subject, I'd like to suggest a book I've been reading lately, The Limits of Criticism by Rita Felski.)
In spite of this, I do not discount the current importance of literary studies. As a literary scholar, I have always had a reverent attitude toward the evolution of literature, but being trapped in a maze of self-reflective mirrors is ultimately not what literature is all about.
In light of this,
Turn on the radio, please.
Please take a moment to listen, and feel free to explore.
Chaniya Yang
2023.09.06
March 17, 2019
1929-1933 yılları arasında kaleme aldığı radyo konuşmaları, oyunları, skeçler vd. metinlerde Benjamin'in "Bin Dokuz Yüzlerin Başında Berlin’de Çocukluk"tan esinlenen pek çok detay var. Özellikle radyo programları için hazırladığı konuşmalarda Berlinli sokak satıcıları, kiracı kışlaları, oyuncakçılar ve gündelik hayata dair pek çok başka gözlem imge-yoğun bir dil kullanan Benjamin'in oldukça sade ve naif bir dile de sahip olduğunu gösteriyor. Berlin dışında, Pompeii, Napoli, Lizbon, Kanton, Mississippi üzerine kaleme aldığı metinlerle birlikte "Klasiklerin Yazarları Henüz Yazmaktayken Almanlar Ne Okuyordu?" gibi radyo oyunları" okura "edebiyatçı" Benjamin'i tanıtıyor...
September 14, 2025
Que grande!!! Algunas de las locuciones radiofónicas de Walter Benjamin para niños que merecen ser leidas por mayores para comprobar la genialidad de Benjamin (y de camino aprender muchas cosas). Especial mención merecen las locuciones “Bandolerismo en la antigua Alemania” e “Historias verídicas de perros”.
November 9, 2021
מהנה ומלמד, ספר קליל.
September 16, 2025
Found his overarching project here inspiring on a personal level
Read
December 14, 2016yang pertama-tama menarik saya adalah bagaimana catatan-catatan WB tentang radio dan materi siaran yang ia bikin itu didudukkan dalam situasinya.
ini dilakukan dengan baik oleh pemberi kata pengantar buku ini.
lecia rosenthal memuaskan saya dengan pengantar yang bagus.
di masanya, WB memang terpesona oleh alat komunikasi satu arah yang bernama radio. suatu alat yang mampu menyembunyikan sumbernya, tapi mampu memancarkan suaranya kemana-mana berlipat ganda. alat yang memancarkan suara ke mana-mana sampek ujung dunia ini dikasih nama radio: yang memancar dari suatu sumber.
ini direnungi oleh WB dan renungannya jauh ke depan, ke masa kita ketika saya membacanya via ebook yang saya download gratisan. hal yang merupakan kelanjutan dari renungan WB adalah: bahwa cara kita berkomunikasi akan diubah oleh kemajuan teknologinya. mirip yang dia pikirkan mengenai produksi karya seni di masa ketika pelipatgandaan karya itu dimungkinkan dengan mudah.
kebanyakan, atau porsi terbesar, isi buku ini adalah tulisan-tulisan WB mengenai berlin. tempat ia tinggal masa itu. tentang dialek orang berlin, tentang jalanan dan pasar di berlin, tentang gedung kesenian berlin...kesemuanya ada empat bab.
---stop doloo---
ini dilakukan dengan baik oleh pemberi kata pengantar buku ini.
lecia rosenthal memuaskan saya dengan pengantar yang bagus.
di masanya, WB memang terpesona oleh alat komunikasi satu arah yang bernama radio. suatu alat yang mampu menyembunyikan sumbernya, tapi mampu memancarkan suaranya kemana-mana berlipat ganda. alat yang memancarkan suara ke mana-mana sampek ujung dunia ini dikasih nama radio: yang memancar dari suatu sumber.
ini direnungi oleh WB dan renungannya jauh ke depan, ke masa kita ketika saya membacanya via ebook yang saya download gratisan. hal yang merupakan kelanjutan dari renungan WB adalah: bahwa cara kita berkomunikasi akan diubah oleh kemajuan teknologinya. mirip yang dia pikirkan mengenai produksi karya seni di masa ketika pelipatgandaan karya itu dimungkinkan dengan mudah.
kebanyakan, atau porsi terbesar, isi buku ini adalah tulisan-tulisan WB mengenai berlin. tempat ia tinggal masa itu. tentang dialek orang berlin, tentang jalanan dan pasar di berlin, tentang gedung kesenian berlin...kesemuanya ada empat bab.
---stop doloo---
May 5, 2026
A collection of the short essays and plays Walter Benjamin prepared for a children’s radio hour from 1927 to 1933. Much like Apollinaire before him, Benjamin is concerned with “all the little episodes that are outside the main current of history but that give history its flavor.” His introductory paragraph to an essay on the Faust legend serves as a perfect encapsulation of this philosophy:
And so, in treating children to pocket histories on Kaspar Hauser, Cagliostro, robber bands in old Germany, the tradition of puppetry in Berlin public squares, and tall tales about dogs (including the Boot Dog, the Coach Poodle, and the Death Hound), Benjamin becomes for us the third teacher, who is less preoccupied with the forces that make the world turn, and more interested in the little bon mots that make life worth living.
[Copied from my blog.]
And so, in treating children to pocket histories on Kaspar Hauser, Cagliostro, robber bands in old Germany, the tradition of puppetry in Berlin public squares, and tall tales about dogs (including the Boot Dog, the Coach Poodle, and the Death Hound), Benjamin becomes for us the third teacher, who is less preoccupied with the forces that make the world turn, and more interested in the little bon mots that make life worth living.
[Copied from my blog.]
December 28, 2025
Waste of time
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