Wohlfarth, I. Walter Benjamin and the German-Jewish Parnassus

8/11/2019 Wohlfarth, I. Walter Benjamin and the German-Jewish Parnassus

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/wohlfarth-i-walter-benjamin-and-the-german-jewish-parnassus 1/84

"Männer aus der Fremde": Walter Benjamin and the "German-Jewish Parnassus"Author(s): Irving WohlfarthSource: New German Critique, No. 70, Special Issue on Germans and Jews (Winter, 1997), pp.3-85Published by: New German CritiqueStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/488499 .

Accessed: 27/09/2014 23:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

New German Critique and Duke University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

extend access to New German Critique.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 200.145.3.40 on Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:21:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ngc

http://www.jstor.org/stable/488499?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp





http://www.jstor.org/stable/488499?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ngc



Manner aus der Fremde

Walter

enjamin

nd

the German-Jewish

arnassus

*

Irving

Wohlfarth

If we are ndeed

wo-sided,

ewish nd

German,

ll our

energy

as hith-

erto een directed owards

ffirming

he

German;

heJewish as

perhaps

only

been an

exotic,

outhern

worse

yet,

entimental)

roma n our

pro-

duction nd our lives. Nor

will

any

individual,

hort

f

being

an

artist,

develop

this

uality qually

within

imself.

ut the

way

will

be found.1

Walter

Benjamin

was indeed a

Jew

and a

German;

he

possessed

the

characteristics

f

both,

neither

f

which

dominated he

other.Once

I

saw

him

get angry

withGisele Freund

for

whom

he had

great

ffec-

tion)

for

favoring mingling

f the

Jews

with the

other

peoples,

so

that

hey

would no

longer

have to

suffer rom heir

eparation.

To revere he

mage

of divine

ustice

n

anguage

indeed

n

the

Ger-

man

language

itself

this is

the

genuinely

Jewish somersault

by

which

Karl Kraus]

tries

o break

thedemon's

pell.3

Only

very

few

among

the first-rate inds

of

German-speaking

ewry

did not succumb

to

[the

illusion of

belonging

to

Germany].

Freud,

*

The

presentssay

s

a

much-expanded

ersion f the

entry

Walter

enjamin

1940 obe

published

n heYale

Handbook

f

German-Jewish

riters

New

Haven,

997).

1.

Letter fWalter

enjamin

o

Ludwig

trauss

n

1912,

ited

n

HansPuttniesnd

Gary

mith,

enjaminiana

Giessen:Anagas, 991)

46.

2. Adrienne

onnier,

Un

Portrait

e

Walter

enjamin,

ue

de

l'Odcon

Paris,

1960)

180-82.

3. WalterBenjamin,One-Way treet, rans.EdmundJephcottnd Kingsley

Shorter

London:

NLB,

1979)

272;

translationodified.

hereafter

WS)

3

This content downloaded from 200.145.3.40 on Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:21:03 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions







4

Walter

enjamin

nd the German-Jewish

arnassus

Kafka,

and

Benjamin

belong among

those few. Almost

throughout

theirproductive ives theyshunnedGermanphraseology, ncluding

even the

phrase

we

Germans,

nd wrote

n

full

wareness f thedis-

tance

separating

hem

from heir

Germanreaders.

t

is as

much their

lives

that

ear

witness o that

istance,

ts

pathos

nd its

creative

ual-

ity

or

potentiality,

s their

writings,

n which

things

Jewish

figure

rarely

f

at all.

I

do not know whether

hese

men

would have been at

home

in

the and of Israel.

I

strongly

oubt t.

They

truly

ame

from

foreign arts

Mdnner

us der

Fremde]

and knew

t.4

To be

sure,

we have some

difficultyoday

n

understanding

hese

prob-

lemsortaking hem eriously, specially ince t s so temptingomis-

interpret

nd dismiss hem s mere eaction o an

antisemitic

milieu nd

thus

n

expression

f self-hatred. ut

nothing

ould be more mislead-

ing

when

dealing

with

men of the

human tature nd

intellectual

ank

of

Kafka,

Kraus,

and

Benjamin.

What

was decisive was

that hesemen

did not wish to return ither o the

ranks

f

the Jewish

eople

or

to

Judaism,

nd could not

desire

to

do so

- not

because

they

elieved

n

progress

and an automatic

disappearance

of

anti-Semitism r

because

they

were too

assimilated

nd too alienated

from

heirJew-

ish

heritage,

but because all

traditions

nd

cultures s well

as

all

belonging

had become

equally questionable

o them.

This is what

they

elt

was

wrong

with

he

return

o the

Jewish

old s

proposedby

the

Zionists;

hey

ould

all have said

whatKafka

once said

about

bein

a member f theJewish

eople:

. ..

My people,

provided

have one.

Those who

really

did most

for

he

piritual

ignity

f

their

eople,

who

were

great

nough

to

transcend

heboundsof

nationality

nd

to

weave

the strands f their

Jewish

enius

nto he

general

exture

f

European

life,

have been

given

short hrift

nd

perfunctoryecognition.6

t

was

precisely

my

passionate

commitment

o the Jewish

that no

doubt

played

a

central ole

in

the

development

f

our

friendship. enjamin

neverputthis ommitmentnquestion; fanything,e strengthenedt,

however

paradoxical

this

may

seem

in view of his

almost

total

gno-

rance

n

Jewish

matters.7

4.

Gershom

cholem,

n Jews nd

Judaism

n

Crisis,

d. Werner

.

Dannhauser

(New

York:

chocken,

976)

190-91;

ranslationodified.

hereafterJJ)

5.

Hannah

Arendt,

Introductiono

lluminations,

rans.

arry

ohn

New

York:

Harcourt,

race

&

World,

968)

32,

36.

hereafter).

These

remarks

onstitutecorrec-

tive o the

ndiscriminate

ccounts

f

Jewish

elf-hatredhat

ave

persisted

rom

he-

odor

essing

o

SanderGilman.

6. HannahArendt,heJew s Pariah, d.RonH. FeldmanNewYork:Grove,

1978)

67.

hereafterJP)

7.

Gershom

cholem,

Von

Berlin

nach

Jerusalem

Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

1977)

92-93.









IrvingWohlfarth

5

Walter

enjamin

as

born

n

1892 nto

wealthy,

ssimilated,

er-

man-Jewishamilyhatnhabitedfashionableesidentialreaof Berlin.

In

my

hildhood,

e would

write,

I was a

prisoner

f theold and the

new

West.

n those

aysmy

lan nhabitedhese wodistricts

ith

n atti-

tude

f tubbornness

Verbissenheit]

ingled

ith

elf-confidence

Selbst-

gefzhfl,

urning

hem nto

ghetto

hich t

regarded

s itsfief.

Com-

menting

n

this

assage,

HannahArendt elates he

stubbornnesso

a

residual ttachmento

Judaismnd the self-confidenceo the

position

that

Benjamin's

clan had meanwhile

onquered

n

the non-Jewish

world.9

he combinationf the wo

was

perhaps

lso

obscurely

alcu-

lated o

allay lurking

alaise.Notfor

othing

ad a

generation

f self-

made

Jews,

aving

eftmost f their udaism

ehind,

ow

entrenched

themselves

n

another,

elf-made

ghetto,

hich,

ignificantly

nough,

Benjamin

oesnot ven

place

between

uotation

arks.t

was

a

question

not

merely

fdivided

oyalties

ut

lso of nterlocked

ouble inds.Ger-

many

ignalled

oth

cceptance

nd

rejection

f ts

Jews,

nd

hey

n

turn

were

nwardly

ivided bout

heirJewish

eritage.

he

upshot

was a

peculiar,

verdeterminedersion

f

whatFreud

was

to

call Das

Unbe-

hagen n derKultur:10 ewishmalaise n German ulture. enjamin

belonged

o

themost cute

phase

n

the

history

f thisGerman-Jewish

family

ovel. With

heir

ind

egs,

wrote afka

n

1921ofhis

gener-

ationof

German-Jewish

riters,

they

till

tuck o

the

Judaism f

the

father,

nd

with heir ront

egs hey

ound

o

new

ground. 11

t

was

left

to themost

cute

mong

hem to

the

ikes f

Freud,

afka,

enjamin,

and Scholem

to reflectn

the

urking

alaise

hat

arlier

enerations

had

acted ut.

n

his

penultimate

etteroAdomo f

May

1940,

Benjamin

would

rgue

hat

deeply

idden,

ut

y

no means

nconscious,

odel

forProust's haracteristiceelinghat that's ot t - thefeelinghat

8. Walter

enjamin,

esammelte

chriften,

ds.

Rolf

Tiedemann

nd

Hermann

Schweppenhiuser,

ol.

4.1

Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

974-89)

87.

hereafter

S)

9. I 28-29. Elsewhere rendt

oints

ut

that

never

id

the

fact

f Jewish irth

play

uch decisive

ole n

private

ife nd

everyday

xistences

among

he

ssimilated

Jews

The

Origins f

Totalitarianism

Cleveland

nd

New

York:

World,

958]

84).

On

this

nalysis,

heir

liquishness

ould

have

been

protective

esponse

o the

lannishness

all around

hem.

10. Freud's

ssay

s

known

n

English

s Civilizationnd

ts

Discontents.

f.

on this

problematicohnMurray uddihy,heOrdeal fCivility.reud,Marx, evi-Strauss,nd

theJewish

truggle

ith

Modernity

New

York:Basic

Books,

1971).

11. Franz

Kafka,

Briefe

1902-24

Frankfurt/Main:

ischer,

975)

337. Their

despair

t

this,

afka

oes

on,

was their

nspiration.









6

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

turns

ven the

present

nto losttime

surely lay

in the

precarious

structuref assimilation. l12is ownMessianic ense f ife thefeel-

ing

hat

that's ot

yet

t

may

n

turn ave

odo

with

he nner

ynam-

ics of

a German-Jewishhildhoodived round 900.

After

inding

nitial iberation

mong

kindred

pirits

t the

free

school

t

Wickersdorf,

enjamin

tudied

hilosophy

t the

universities

of

Freiburg,

unich,

nd

Berlin,

where

he

became ctive n a

student

group

hat

e

would

ater all the ast rue

lite

f

bourgeois

erlin. 13

The Free

tudents,

s

they

alled

hemselves,

ere radical

ffshootf

the GermanJugendbewegung an ancestor f the anti-authoritarian,

extra-parliamentary

tudentmovement hich

would,

n

the

1960s,

transform

enjamin

rom

forgotten

uthor nown

nly

othe

happy

ew

into

n alternative

ather-figure

hose

xample

ent

ounter-authority

o

their culturalevolution. heoutbreakf

World

War

,

which

rovoked

a double uicide

mongBenjamin's

losest

riends,

bruptly

nded his

period

f

youthful

evolt

gainst

heworld ftheir

arents

one

which

in

retrospect

e would

find

woefully

dealistic,

isguided,

nd

sectarian.

His

peculiar

idea

of

youth

evertheless

onstitutedbulwark

gainst

an infinitelyoremisguidedormfyouthfuldealism.WhenGustav

Wyneken

the

guiding

pirit

f the

Wickersdorf

ommunity,

charis-

matic leader

Fiihrer]

f he

young,

nd

Benjamin's

irstnd

only

men-

tor called

upon

German

outh

o

take

up

armsfor he

fatherland,

Benjamin

olemnly

nnounced

n

a farewelletter

hathe

was

hereby

wresting

rom

Wyneken's rring

hands the

legacy

Wyneken

had

betrayed.

4

Like

his

younger

riend ershom

cholem,

e

was

thoroughly

immuneothe

atrioticuphoria

o

which

o

many

oung

ermans,

ews

andnon-Jews

like,

uccumbed

n

1914:

he

ure,

ne

might

all

it,

f

an

all-Germanymbiosis.hiswar, oo,wasn't it. Hiswarwas with he

worldwhose

war t

was.

After

voiding

onscription,enjamin

migrated

or

he est f hewar

to

Switzerland,

here e wrote

isdissertationor

he

University

f

Berne

on the

oncept

f criticism

eveloped

y

the

arly

German

omantics.15

He

thereby

aid the

philosophicalroundwork

orhis own

subsequent

12. The

Correspondence f

Walter

Benjamin,

eds.

Gershom

Scholem

and Theodor

W.

Adorno,

rans.

Manfred .

Jacobsonnd

Evelyn

M. Jacobson

Chicago:

U

of

Chicago

P, 1994)631-32.hereafter)

13. O WS

307.

14. C

75-76.

15. Der

Begriff

er

Kunstkritikn

der

deutschen

omantik,

S 1.1:7-122.









Irving

Wohlfarth

7

redefinition

f

the ritic's ask.

or he

irst

ime,

ut

y

no

means

he

ast,

he foundhimself reserving critical erman astfor heGerman

present

romcross

heGermanorder.

hen,

ifteen

ears

ater,

he

harge

of destructive

riticism

zersetzende

ritik]

ecame

n

antisemitic

logan,

and

creative

schaffend]

erman

apital

ame obe

opposed

o

ts

goug-

ing raffend]

ewish

ounterpart,enjamin

ould

ketchhe

portrait

f a

destructiveharacter

ho

voids

nly

creative

ork.16

It was

in a

series

f

exchanges

ith

udwig

trauss,

n

essayist

nd

poet

who tried

o

winhim

over

o

Zionism,

hat

enjamin

irst

elt he

need

o

come

oterms

ith

isJewish

rigins

ndwith ionism

as

a

pos-

sibilityndperhapss anobligation. 17As I hardly eedtellyou, he

wrote

o Strauss

n

1912,

I

received

liberal

pbringing.

had

my

decisive

ntellectual

xperi-

ence

Wickersdorf]

efore

udaism

ver ecame

n

mportant

r

prob-

lematic

ssue

or

me.

All knew f twas

really nly

nti-Semitism

and

vague

ense

f

piety.

twas

remotes a

religion,

nd nknown

tome

s

a

national

spiration.18

AlreadytWickersdorf,owever,e had discoveredis Jewishness

not

hroughpeculation

r

pure

motion,

ut rom

uter nd

nner

xpe-

rience

Erfahrung]. 19

is Jewishness

as,

he

wrote,

self-evident 20

sufficiently

o

to

spare

him he

nterminable

elf-questionings,

elf-deni-

als,

and/orelf-affirmations

o characteristic

fhis nd

ubsequent

ener-

ations

of

increasingly

imaginary

ews,

orevern searchof a lost

identity.21

hilehe

ater reamt

f

freeing

imself rom

Jewish)

heol-

ogy,

nd

could,

unlike

Adorno,

almly

ontemplatetrying

o do vio-

lence 22

o hisearlier

ositions,

tnever eems

ohaveoccurredo

him

o

effaceitheromponentfhisGerman-Jewishake-up. encehis mpa-

tience

with he

notion hatKarl

Kraus

had to wrestle own

Judaism

within imself'

n

order

o travel the

oadfrom udaism

o freedom. 23

Implicitly

efusing

he tandard

enlightened

odel f

emancipation

s

a

more r less

violent ct of self-abstraction

rom ne's ethnic

rigins,

16. OWS 158.

17.

GS

2.3:836.

18.

GS

2.3:836.

19.

GS

2.3: 837.

20. GS2.3: 839.

21.

Cf.

Alain

Finkielkraut,

e

Juiflmaginaire

Paris,

980).

22.

Cf.

C

587;

translation

odified

nd583.

23. OWS

272;

translation

odified.









8

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

Benjamin's

arly ssay

on

Dostoevsky

vokes

quite

different

elation

betweenheuniversalnd theparticular that f a humanityhat

comes nto ts

wn

only

y

floatingreely

n

the medium

f he

peo-

ple

[

Volkstum].24

he

only

uestion

as

what

uch model ouldmean

for German-Jewish

ntellectual

rying

o

keep

float

n

the

reacherous

medium f

people

hatwas neither

oreign

or

his

own.

Without ver

being

attractedo

religious

orms

f

Judaism

r

to

nationalistersions

f

Zionism,

enjamin

evertheless

hared heir ll-

exclusiveness.

Only

ne

[body

f

belief]

an

predominate,

e wrote

o

Strauss,

all others

ave o

prove

hemselves,

heJewish

ncluded. 25

is

own

single-minded

ommitmento the idea of

youth

recluded ny

other.

t

also

implicitlyrovided

n

initial lternativeoth o German-

Jewish

ssimilation,

hichmeant ccommodation

ith

society

which

ignored

he

young

nd

only

alf-accepted

he

Jews,

nd o a

reactivedis-

similation,

e it

religious

r

Zionist,

spoused

y

thosewho

sought

he

opposite

ay

out f heir

erman-Jewish

uality.

he

bestwest

uropean

Jews

were,

enjamin

laimed,

no

onger

ree s Jews. 26 heir reedom

lay

rather

n

a

certain

elation

ithin

nd

owardsheir

elinquent

ut

er-

sistent udaism in a free-floating,arefiedreligiosity hich,while

no mere

aroma,

as divorced romll

strictlyeligious

bservance.27

These

ingering

choes fJewish onotheismere

far

ry

romhe

polytheism

the

warring

laims fthe

good,

he

rue,

ndthe

beauti-

ful that

Max Weberwould

describe

n

1918as the

paradoxical

otof

the disenchanted orld

an

empty, ourgeois

world n

search

f

24. GS 2.1: 237.

25. GS 2.1: 237.

26.

Letter rom

enjamin

o

Strauss,

1

Sept.

1912

Ludwig

trauss

ollection f

theJewishNational nd Universityibrary, erusalem)ited n AnsonRabinbach,

Between

nlightenment

nd

Apocalypse: enjamin,

loch,

ndModemGerman

ewish

Messianism,

ew German

ritique

4

(Winter

985):

94. BesidesRabinbach's

ssay,

the

ollowing

ccounts

nalyze enjamin's arly

elationo

Judaism,ionism,

ndMessi-

anism

nd

place

t n a

larger

istorical

ontext: ichael

bwy, edemption

t

Utopie.

e

Judaisme ibertaire n

Europe

centrale

Paris:

Universitaires

e

France,

1988);

Hans Putt-

nies and

Gary

Smith,

enjaminiana,

specially

h.

2

Zionismus es

Geistes ;

Gary

Smith,

'Das

Jtidische

erstehtichvon

elbst.'Walter

enjamins

riihe

useinanderset-

zung

mitdem

Judentum,

eutsche

Vierteljahresschrift

June

1991):

318-34.

27.

Cf.

Dialog

tiber ie

Religiositat

er

Gegenwart

rittenn

1912

GS

2.1: 16-

35).

Another

ssay,

Uber

das

Programm

er

kommenden

hilosophie,

rittenn

1917,

refers ot oreligiosityut oreligiontself,ssigningttothe highestegion fa sys-

temwhich he uthor

s not ure

whetherocall

philosophical

r

theological

GS

2.1:

168).

We arefar ere rom

raditional

ewish

eligious ractice,

hich

enjamin

iscounteds a

source

f

Jewishntellectualenewal.









Irving

Wohlfarth

9

experience

Erlebnis].28hey

wereno ess

remote

rom

artin uber's

invocationf theJewishxperience, hich,longwith rnst iinger's

subsequent

ult fthe

war

xperience,

enjamin

iagnosed

s

the

eac-

tive

by-product

f

an

all-too-Germanitalism

Lebensphilosphie].29

he

neo-Romantic

ult f

Jewishness

an

early

ariation,his,

n the heme

of

roots was

as false

solution o

the

dilemma

f assimilationnd

uprootedness

s thefailure f

the

lder

eneration

o

confront

t.To

be a

west

European

ew

was

to

belong

o both

worlds

o the

xclusion

f

nei-

ther.f

das

Jiidische

as

self-evident,

o too

was

this ual

heritage.

A

crucial

dilemma

evertheless

emained,

ne

which

would

find

canonic ormulationn Kafka's Letter o theFather

1919):

that fa

lost

generation

hosefathers

ad

failed ither

o

pass

on their

athers'

faith r

to make clean

breakwith t.

Kafka, cholem,

nd

Benjamin,

whoall

broke

with hebad

faith ftheir

arents,

ll came

o

comparably

radical

erms ith his

ailuren

transmission.

he

family

esemblances

between

hem

epresent

o

many

variationsn Kafka's claim that

if

Zionism adn't

ot

n

the

way,

German-Jewishettersould asily ave urnednto new ecretoc-

trine,

Kabbala.he

makings

f his xist. ethow

ncomprehensible

a

genius

s needed

ere

odrive ew

oots

nto he ld

enturies,

r o

createhe

ld

enturies

new,

nd

n

ll that oes

not

pend

tself,

ut

only

ow

egins

o

pend

tself.30

It

was,

n

fact,

he ld

secret

octrine,

he

Kabbala

tself,

hatwould

28.

The elder

Mill

..

said:

f one

proceeds

rom

ure

xperience,

ne arrives t

polytheism....

Many

ld

gods

scend

romheir

raves;

hey

redisenchantedndhence

take he

orm f

mpersonal

orces.

hey

trive

o

gain ower

ver

ur

ives nd

gain hey

resumeheirternaltruggleith ne nother; hat s hard ormodemman,nd specially

for

he

younger eneration,

s to measure

p

to

workaday

xistence. he

ubiquitous

hase

for

experience'

tems

romhis

weakness;

or

t

s weakness ot

o

be able

to

countenance

the

terneriousness

f ur ateful

imes

Science

s

Vocation,

romMax Weber:

ssays

in

Sociology,

ds.

H. H. GerthndC.

Wright

ills

New

York:Oxford

P,

1958]

147-49).

29.

In

1912,

Benjamin

rites

o

Strauss

hat isrelation

o

Judaismid

not

develop

from a

Jewish,

r

any

ther,

rlebnis

utfrom he

experience

Erfahrung],

cquired

among

Jews

nd

non-Jews

like,

hatJewshave a self-evidentsenseof the

dea.

So

much o

thathe is

extraordinarily

lad

whenever e discovers his

ensibilitymong

Germans.

Judaism,

e

concludes,

s for

im

in

no

way

n end

n

tself ut

pre-emi-

nent earer

nd

representative

f he

piritual

GS

2.3:

838-39).

30. FranzKafka,Tagebiicher910-23, d. Max Brod Frankfurt/Main:ischer,

1973)

398-99.

Cf.

on

this

passage,

rving

Wohlfarthnd Vivian

Liska,

A

Dialogue

Across

heGhetto

Walls,

ense

nd Transcendence.

ssays

n

Honour

f

Herman er-

votte,

d. Ortwin

e

Graef(Louvain,

995)

232ff.









10 Walter

enjamin

nd the German-Jewisharnassus

provide

cholem

with he sotericredo f

properly

onceived

ionism.

InBenjamin'sase, omethingid ndeed et ntheway, uttwas Marx-

ism,

notZionism.WhileScholem

ever

eased

to

deplore

his

nterfer-

ence,

t was

not

without

dmirationhat e called

Benjamin

a

talmudic

scholar

marooned

n

the

profane. 31

t

was

not,

or ither afka r

Ben-

jamin,

matterf

painstakingly

nearthing

ne's ancestraloots

Ben-

jamin

would

likewise all

historicism

brothel

whereone

spends

oneself'

with

he

whore

Once

upon

time 32

but

of

driving

ew

roots

nto

he

old centuries

nd,

hrough

heir

nteraction,

f

both ecre-

ating

he

ld

and

reating

henew.33t s a remarkablend

uggestive

act

that hesameformulaehould o

precisely

ircumscribeafka's and

Benjamin's

espective

chievements.afka's

programmatic

elf-descrip-

tion

ums

p

Benjamin's

hole

roject

o

ess

strikingly

han

enjamin's

account

f Kafka'swork s

describing

n

ellipse

etween

he

mystical

tradition

nd the

most

ecent

modernity.34

ndwhere

afka

nvokes

he

incomprehensible

enius

hat s needed o achieve he

ask,

Benjamin

will nnounce

Copernican

urn fhistorical

emory.35

In his

exchange

ith

trauss,

enjamin

argely

ccepted

he

Zionist

diagnosis fGerman-Jewishssimilationndpartiallyupportedionist

solutions,

ut nevertheless

aw two

paths

for

modemwest

European

national

Jewry:

ionism

nd one other. 36

ertium atur: his

would

always

e

Benjamin's ay.

f

Palestinian

ionism as

a

natural

eces-

sity,

bove

all for ast

European

ews

fleeing

ersecution,

German

Zionism ften

mounted,

n

his

yes,

o

a

half-heartedultural

ybrid

in-

gularly

acking

n

Jewish

nspiration.

t

thereby

nadvertently

irrored

what t

opposed:

trauss

ad

ikewise alledGerman-Jewish

ssimilation

a

hybrid

ulture

Zwitterkultur].37

he

only

tand

e

was

willing

o

take

was for cultural, ot national,ionismwhichworked or Jewish

31.

OJJ 87.

32. 1264.

33.

As for he tatus f

doctrine

n

Kafka's wn

writings,

cholem nd

Benjamin

would

xchange ifferingnterpretations

f

his

fforts

o

catch he

ying

all f n

impe-

rial

message

lmost

ost

n

transmission.f. C

445-49,

52-54.

Benjamin

ites

Kafka's

story

An

mperial essage

t

the

eginning

f

radio alk Franz

Kafka: eim

Bau der

Chinesischen

auer

GS 2.2: 676-77.

34.

I 144-45.

35.

GS 5.1: 490-91.

36. CitednRabinbach 5. It spossible, egoeson, thatf succeednmaking

this

way,

nd

the

necessity

hat eads

me to

t,

omprehensible

o

you,

we will

greet

ne

anothers astonished

ompanions

Cited

n

Benjaminiana

0).

37.

GS

2.3:

838.









Irving Wohlfarth

11

values

verywhere,

hefirst

riority

eing

o

provide

twith

journal

f

its wn, ommittednly othe alues f the iteraryovement nd o n

internationalism

ncompatible

ith

ny

nationalist

genda.38

ut

f

his

was the

terra

irma

f the

Jewish

roblem,

t was not s

firm

s Ben-

jamin

nitially

ssumed. Zionism

f

the

pirit

mancipated

rom ew-

ish

belief,

t oddswith

olitical

ionism,

ut

which

ccentuated

certain

Jewish

esture

this

was,

he soon

conceded,

n

esoteric

ffair,

n

idea,

an inverted owerof Babel whichwould neverreach

the

ground;39

nd s for he

ournal

hat e himself

ried

ofound everal

ears

later

Angelus ovus)

t never

otbeyond

tsownMessianic

announce-

ment. 40ike

Benjamin's

hetoricf

youth,

uch ermss

religiosity

and

gesture

ouldnot urvive

hewar.

They

espeak

n

attitudeather

than

position,

nethats

all

themore

orcefulor

eing ngrounded.

Benjamin's

ersion

f

cultural

ionism

roved

obe far emovedrom

Scholem's.

rom 915

ill

940,

t

first

n

Berlin nd

Berne

nd,

fter

923,

between

erlin, aris,

nd

Jerusalem,

hey

ould

evertheless

ngage

n

an

exemplary

erman-Jewish,

ionist-Marxist

orrespondence

hatmmeasur-

ably

widened

nd

deepened

enjamin's

arlier

xchange

ith trauss. heir

lifelongialogue ealizedn mpressiveashion isownyouthfuldea ofa

friendship

f

foreign

riends'41

correspondents

hose

espective

om-

mitments

o

Zion

and

the revolution arked

ivergent

lternatives

within

onvergent

aradigms.

lready

s

a

student,

enjamin

addescribed

the

perfect

ommunity

f the

young

s the

precondition

or n essential

solitude.42

wenty

ears

ater,

is

friend ould

warn

im

gainst

longing

for

ommunity

the

apocalyptic

ommunity

f the evolution

that

was,

he

claimed,

false olutiono

a

legitimate

horrorf

oneliness.'43

Benjamin

n

urn

ouldnot

hare,

ut idnot

rgue

with,

isfriend's

ionist

dreams fJewishommunity.rom nalogouslyolitaryositionst the

margins

ftheir hosen

amps,

othwould ee their

espective

idea

ose

out o

Realpolitik

ithout

ver

etracting

heir

ommitmento t.

38.

GS

2.3:

838. Cited

n

Rabinbach

4.

39.

GS 2.3: 842-43.

Benjamin's osition

as

not,

owever,

to

the eft fthe

ossi-

ble

GS

3:281);

politics

eing

the rt f

the

mallest

vil,

he

knew

hat

e

would

have

to

find

ccommodation

omewhere

ithinhe

pectrum

f

he

eft-wing

arties.

40.

Cf.

Ankiindigung

erZeitschrift:

ngelus

ovus,

GS 2.1: 241-46.

41. C 57. Cf.

on

thisnotion

rving

Wohlfarth,

The Birth f Revolution rom

he

Spirit f Youth.Walter enjamin's eading fThe diot, nternationaleeitschriftir

Philosophie

Stuttgart]

1993):

146ff.

42. C 50.

43.

C

379. Cf.

lso

OJJ 97.









12 Walter

enjamin

nd

the German-Jewish

arnassus

Given he lective ffinitiesetween

enjamin

nd

Scholem,

n

exact

accountingftheirmutualndebtednesss no easymatter.While the

former

ertainly

earned lmost

verything

e

knew bout

Jewish

mysti-

cism

from he

atter,

hefirst

aragraph

f

Das Leben

der Studenten

(1914)

-

an

address

which

predates

heir

irst

meeting y

a

year

already

ontains

n a

nutshellheMessianic

hilosophy

f

history

hat

underlies

ll his

subsequent

hinking.

nd

while

Scholem's

esoteric

Zionism

ssentially eveloped

ut of

a

dissimilationist

mmersion

n

Jewish

mysticism

orn

f

visceral

ejection

f

German-Jewishssimila-

tion,

t

may

lso

bear races

fhis

early xchanges

ith

enjamin,

hose

Zionism fthe

pirit

as

itself,

y

his own

admission,

thoroughly

esoteric

dea.44

n

1930,

Scholem

laimed hat

n

an

enlightened ge

genuine

ewish

heology

as

opposed

o its

atter-day

ationalist

rav-

esty

was

obliged

o seek

refuge

n

art,Marxism,

r

psychoanaly-

sis.45 ut

when

enjamin roceeded

o

takewhatever

e

needed romhe

mystical eritage

hat cholemwas

taking

uch

pains

o

reconstruct,

he

latter

ehementlybjected

o

his

friend's

bandonmentf his

Jewish

calling. 46

hat

Jewish

heology ight

owadays

ave aken

refuge

n

Marxismwas one thing; enjamin's confusion freligionndpoli-

tics 47

as

quite

nother.

cholem id

not

o

so

far

s to call

Benjamin's

project

red ssimilationism 48an

accusation

evelled t

Communism

by

some

of

tsmost

ntransigent

ionist

ritics;

ut

self-deception

nd

self-betrayal

ere

erms

hat

e

applied

oth o

the

unrequited

ove

(as

Moritz

Goldstein

ad called

t)

of

German

ews or

heir ost

nation

andto

Benjamin's illegitimate

iaison 49 ith

Marxism. o

these

dmo-

nitions

enjamin

eplied

hat eitherommunismor

Judaism

eeded,

r

could ndeed

fford,

o

assert

hemselves

t

the

other's

xpense.

'Just,'

radical olitics, ewrote,

44. GS 2.2: 842.

45. In the

nineteenth

entury,

rites

cholem,

heology

llowed tself obe reduced

to a decorative

tone n the oof f

powerful

difices

. .

,

so

that

when

hilosophy

as

destroyed

t too

disintegrated

nd

important,

ssential

lements

f

it

disappeared;

hey

found

efuge

lsewhere,

won't

ay

for

ver,

ut

ertainly

or

long

ime

...

Whatwas

left o

theology

as an

nheritancehat

o

one

wanted ndthat

t tself

to

ts

hame)

was

ashamed o

nherit

..

Franz

Rosenzweig

nd ein

Buch Der

Stern er

Erlisung',

n

Franz

Rosenzweig,

er

Stern er

Erldsung

Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

988)

532.

46. C

379.

47. C 373,376.Cf,onassimilationistndcommunistelf-deception,WithGer-

shom cholem: n

nterview,

JJ -4.

48.

Cf

Arendt,

34.

49.

C 375.









IrvingWohlfarth

13

which or hat

ery

easonims

obe

nothing

ut

olitics,

ill

lways

beactivenbehalffJudaism,nd,whats nfinitelyoremportant,

will

lways

ind udaism

ctive n ts

ehalf.50

BetweenMarx's

crudely

niversalist

ubordinationf

the Jewish

question

o that

funiversal

mancipation

nd

n

equally

eductive,

ar-

ticularistnversionf

priorities

as

in

Scholem's

aradoxical

evision f

the

humanistredo: There

s

nothing

ewish

hats alien o

me 51)

urely

another

ay

was

possible.

While

onceding

hat is

position

s

a

Marxist

intellectualtranded

n

an

upper-class eighborhood

as

a

necessarily

false ne,Benjaminefendedt s a desperate but otentiallyroduc-

tive

alternative

o

evenfalser

options.52

owever

mbiguous

emanci-

pation

admeanwhile

roved

o

be,

notably

f

onewas

a

European

ew,

the

ompletion

f the

nlightenment

roject

till

emainedhe

only

on-

summation

evoutly

o

be wished.

n

the

meantime,owever,

ts

broken

promises

had

generated

alse

oppositions,

ardening

ontradictions

between niversalist

nd

particularist,

arxist

nd

Zionist,

rofane

nd

metaphysical

endencies.5 he idea hat

enjamin ought

o

realize,

t

least

on his own

account,

as the

iberationf

these ensions. eleased

from he talemate etweenonflictinglocs, hey ouldagainbecome

what

they

riginally

ere:

complementarynergies,

ree

ssociations,

50.

C

301;

translation

odified.

51. WithGershomcholem:

n

nterview,

JJ

2.

52.

.

..

not ven

n

my

wildest reams

oes

t

occur o me

to

claim

nfallibility,

r

evencorrectness

formy

ituation]

n

any

enseother han

hat f

necessary,roductive

falseness.

..

That

s,

am

determined

o

do

my hing

meineache]

underll

circumstances,

but his

hing

s

not

lways

he ame

n

every

ircumstance.t s instead

omething

hich

corresponds

o the ircumstances.

nd

t s not

within

ypower

o

be able

to

respond

or-

rectlyofalse ircumstances,.e.,withomethingcorrect'.C 377;translationodified).

53.

Scholem

ightly

aw

n Horkheimer's

ssay,

Die

Juden nd

Europa,

which e

despised,

n elaboration

f Marx's

ssay

On

the

Jewish

uestion

ndcould

only

nter-

pret

Benjamin's

eeminglynqualified

ndorsement

f it as

an

accommodationo

the

Marxist

ine

fthe

nstitutfilrozialforschung

venwhen ircumstances

idnot

equire

t

(Walter

enjamin.

he

tory

fa

Friendship

New

York,

988] 22). hereafter BS)

Ben-

jamin

writeso

Horkheimer;

No

political

nalysis

as

mpressed

e

othis xtent

n

years.

This s the

version f

events

hatwe havebeen

waiting

or

long

ime.

And

t

probably

could

nothave

made

tself

eard

ny

arlier.

hroughout,

had the

feeling

f

stumbling

upon

ruthshat

had ensed atherhan athomed.

..

Your

ssay rovides

y

ierce

ppo-

sition

othe

lissful

ptimism

f

our

eft-wing

eaders ith hemost ubstantial

rguments

(C 622;translationodified).enjamin's eplyoScholem's ttack nHorkheimer,fhe

wrote

ne,

has not survived.Without

ntirely

isagreeing

ith

Scholem's

verdict n

Horkheimer's

nalysis

f

the ituation

f

European ewry,

e

could

well havefound or-

roboration

n

Horkheimer's

nalysis

or isownnascentndictmentf

progress.









14

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

productive

ntagonisms

ithin

common

truggle.

he

extremes eet:

this ad lready een heMessianicntuitionf he Theologico-Political

Fragment

1921),

with ts

mystical mage

f

two

opposing,

ut

mutu-

ally

reinforcing,

ectors.54wo decades

ater,

notheruch

oincidentia

oppositorum

ouldbe reaffirmed

gainst

ll

odds,

n

the Theses

n

the

Philosophy

f

History,

otably

n

the

opening

llegory

f a

chess

automat

ithin hich

theological

unchback

ulls

he

trings

f

mate-

rialist

uppet.

afka's

mage

f

uncoordinated

ore-

nd

hind-legs

the

lattertuck

n

Judaism,

heformer

awing

hevoid

yields

here

pace

Adam

mith, egel,

nd

Marx)

o

that

f n

nvisible and.55

But

Benjamin's

ream f

common,

oordinatedesistance

rovoked

the

ommon,

ncoordinatedesistance

f

the

bjective

llies

hat

e

pro-

posed

to

yoke together.

heir

responses

urned he Theses

nto he

object

of a virtual

ug-of-war.

cholem ad

ongcomplained

bout

he

interferencesetween

enjamin's

ew-fangled

aterialist

phraseology

and

his

original etaphysical

insights. 56onversely,

recht,

fter ead-

ing

the

Theses,

noted

n

his

ournal

hat

Benjamin's

demystifying

Marxist

nsights

ere

marred

y persistent etaphors

nd

Judaismen.5

Alreadyn1918,Benjamin adwrittennhisessay nThe diot hat ot

even

Prince

Myshkin's

losest riend

if

uch

person

ere

maginable

couldhave found he

driving

idea

of his

ife.58

rom

his

youthful

espousal

f

youth

o his mature

ommitmento historical

aterialism,

Benjamin,

oo,

ntertaineduch n

idea:

that f

being

he idiot

f his

family.

e devoted

is

ife o

transforming

he

ituationntowhich

e

had

been

born

-

the

impossible

etwixt-and-betweeno

graphically

described

y

Kafka

into

viable,

Messianic o-man's-land:

he om-

mon

ground

taked

ut

by

he ross-fireetween is

foreign

riends.

But he esponseothe Theses hat enjamineems ohavefeared

most

fall

was

something

hat

e

enigmatically

alled

enthusiastic

is-

understanding. 59

ot even

Scholem,

ho

clearly

aw their

ifferences,

was

fully

bleto

resist his

emptation.

he

reappearance

f

Jewish

otifs

in

Benjamin's

ast

work

rompted

im o call

t

confessio

n

extremis.

TheJudaism

hat

peaks

ut f

he

Theses

s,

he

writes,

the

oal

which

54.

OWS 155.

55.

1255.

56. Cf.C 374andOJJ 86-87.

57.

Bertolt

recht,

rbeitsjournal,

d.

Werner

echt,

ol.

1

Frankfurt/Main,

973)

94.

58.

GS

2.1:

238.

59.

GS 1.3: 1223.









Irving

Wohlfarth

15

Walter

enjamin pproached

symptotically

hroughout

is

ife,

without

ever ttainingt; ndyet, eadds,Benjamin's eepestntuitionsprang

from

ts

center.60

he

paradoxical

igure

hat cholem

ere

escribes

that f

an

asymptotic pproach,

hichnevertheless

prings

rom

he

center

f ts

lleged

destination 61

is

surely

oo

teleo-theological

o

account

or

he

materialist

rogram

hat

enjamin

ventually

et

out

for

himself:

oridhimselff

heology

nd o

enlisttfor ther

nds. cholem

himself ere

pproaches,

utdoes

not

uite

each,

he

nsight

hat

en-

jamin's

deepest

ntuitions

merged

romhe

nterplay

etween is

erratic,

but ntense, udaismnd theclaimsofmodernity.enjamin wed his

profane

lluminations 62

o

the

very

interferences

hat,

n

Scholem's

eyes,

muddied heir

urity.63

La

po'sie,

elle aussi, writes elan, brille

les

&tapes. 64

enjamin's

est

nsights ay

ikewise e described s

a

series

of

short-circuits electric ontacts

aradoxically enerated

between

n

intermittent,

ut

intense,

udaism

nd the

countervailing

forces

hat,

n

Kafka's

xpression,got

n

the

way.

n

a

letter

o

Scholem

Benjamin

imilarly

escribed

afka's

work

s

an

ellipse

whose

far-

flung

oci

were

mystical

nd

modem

xperience.65

rue,

enjamin

rote

inhis ast etterhat here as no onger ny ccasion or he fieryis-

putations

f

yesteryear.

And t

may

wellbe

fitting,

e

added,

to

have

a

small

ocean between

s

when

hemoment omes

to

fall,

piritually

speaking,

nto

ne

another'srms. 66 ut

his istant

and,

s itturned

out,

farewell

gesture

f

intimacy

owards

he

closest

f

his

foreign

friends

as

surely

loser

n

spirit

o the

heologico-political

artnership

invoked

n

the

Theses

han o the

enfolding

mbrace

hat waits

he

return

fthe

rodigal

on.

When,

ater he

ame

year,

cholem oncluded

series

f

ectures

n

thehistoryf Jewishmysticismyconcludinghat hehidden radition

whose

subterranean

istory

e had

ust surveyed

ould

still

break ut

tomorrow

n

you

or n

me,

he

was

perhaps

hinking

ere

oo

of,

mong

others,

he

dead

friend

owhose

memory

e would edicate

he

ublished

60.

OJJ 97.

61.

OJJ 91.

62. Cf.OWS

227ff.

63.

C

374-75.

64. Paul Celan,GesammelteWerke,d. Beda Allemann,ol. 3 (Frankfurt/Main:

Suhrkamp,

983)

194.

65.

1144-45.

66.

C

623;

translation

lightly

odified.









16 Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

manuscript.67

ut

Benjamin

ad,

o the

ast,

imed o divert

hat

idden

stream,r whatwas left f t, nto istorical aterialism.n itsownway,

however,

he

llegory

f

a chess

utomat

akes

p

an idea

that

cholem

had

hrown

ut en

years

efore that fMarxism

s

a

refuge

or

he-

ology.

Butthat dea had

perhaps

een

prompted,

lready

hen,

y

Ben-

jamin's

xample.

uch

were he

ntricaciesf heir

ifelong ive

nd ake.

Benjamin

was,

like most

of

his

generation,

disinherited

ew.

Through

hat hannels

f

transmission

other

han

onversations

ith

Scholem nd

what

e called

the umorbout he rue

hings 68)

e

never-

thelessmanaged,ike rag-and-bonean,69opickupwhatheneeded

from

theology

emainss obscure s

the

oming

nd

going

f

the

ittle

hunchbackhathe

finally

hose

to

be its

emblem.

o

oversimplify:

s

Benjamin's hinking

volves,

heology

ndhistorical

aterialism

axand

wane

n

nverse

roportions.

n

this

espect,

hree

verlappinghases

may

be

schematicallyistinguished:

he

arly

heological

ritings,

hich

ac-

itly

ubstituteMessianic or tandard

nlightened,

isenchanted,

nd

n

this ense

profane,onceptions

fthe

rofane

rder

1916-25)70;

he

ub-

sequent

ncounter ithhistorical

aterialism,

hich

ntails heuristic

adoptionftheMarxist ialectic fhistory,nexperimentalommitment

to

the

Soviet

Union,

tself

onsidereds the

rena f

a

world-historical

experiment

nd,

o

the

xtent

o which

he

temperature

f

the

class

struggle

llows

t,

recasting

f

the

molten

heological

aterial

rom

the

first

hase

n

the rucible f

historical aterialism

1927-36)71;

nd

the

inal

eintroductionfbits nd

pieces

f

Jewish

heology

nto

version

of

historical

aterialismhich

an

now

no

longer

lace

ts

hopes

n

the

Soviet

Union r

ndeed

n

any

Hegelian-Marxist

movement

f

history

67. Gershom

Scholem,

Major

Trends n Jewish

Mysticism New

York:

Schocken,

1961)

350. The

dedicationo

Benjamin

eads: The friend f a

lifetime

hose

genius

united he

nsight

fthe

Metaphysician,

he

nterpretative

ower

f

the

Critic

nd

the

ru-

dition

f

the cholar.

68.

1 147.

69.

Cf.

rving

Wohlfarth,

Et

cetera? he Historian

s

Chiffonnier,

ew

German

Critique

9

Fall 1986):

142-68.

70.

Cf.,

n

Benjamin's heologicalonception

f the

rofane

rder

ndhis corre-

spondingly

essianic

ransvaluationf Weber's

notion f

disenchantment,

ohlfarth's

reading

fhis

Theologico-Political

ragment:

'Immer

adikal,

iemals

onsequent.

.

.'

Zur

theologisch-politischen

tandortsbestimmung

alter

enjamins,

ntike

nd

Mod-

erne.Zu WalterBenjamins Passagen,' eds. Norbert olz andRichardFaber

(Wiirzburg:

K6nigshauen

Neumann

986)

116-37.

71.

Cf.

C 486 and

Walter

enjamin,

eflections,

d. Peter

Demetz,

rans.

Harry

Zohn

New

York:

Harcourt

race

Jovanovich,

979)

231.

hereafter

)









Irving

Wohlfarth

17

but

nly

n

ts Messianic tandstill

1937-40).72

In Arendt's eading f theabove-quotedentence romA Berlin

Childhood

roundNineteen

undred,

t

was

only

stubborness

hat

impelled enjamin's

lan o

cling

o

ts

Jewishness.

rom

ere

t

was

only

a

step

o

concluding

hat he

ouble

ind

nehad

nheritedas

a

Gordian

knot hat

eeded o be cut.Sincethe

Judaismhat

e had received rom

his

father as a mere

nothing,

joke

-

noteven a

joke,

as

Kafka

writes

n

his Letter

othe

ather,

e

was unable o

understand

how ne ould o

anything

etter

ith

hatmaterialhan

et

id f

t

asfast spossible;reciselyhe ettingid f t eemedome obethe

devoutestction.

This

remark

nticipates

enjamin's

destructive

haracter,

hose

Brechtian

motto Efface he traces 74

may

be read

n

thiscontext s

expressing

he

ious mpiety

f

German-Jewishon owards

version

f

Judaismhat s

no

longer

orthy

f

thename.The terriblenner ondi-

tion f his

generation

f

German-Jewish

riters75as

due,

Kafka

lse-

where

laims,

o the act hat heir athersadfailed o

hand n

the aw

of

their athersr,alternatively,ogivetheir nambiguouslessing as

opposed

o an unclearonsent to

theirons'

emancipation

rom uda-

ism. This

ackof

larity,

e

observes,

was

the candal. 76utwas such

inconsistency

heirs lone?

Was

it

not

part

f what

Benjamin,

n

a

letter

devoted

o

Kafka,

would escribes

a

more

eneralsickening

f ll tra-

dition

nd,

oncomitantly,

f

ll

authority?

It

s,

he went

n,

this on-

sistency

f

truth

truth

n

ts

haggadic

onsistency

that

as

been

lost.'

As a

result,

riters

ow had the

unprecedented

hoicebetween

foregoingtransmissibility

or truth

r,

s

in

the

till

more

aradoxicalcaseof

Kafka,

erforming

he everse eat that f

acrificing

ruthor

the ake of

transmissibility.

n

either

ase,

he ask

was,

as

Benjamin

ad

once

put

t,

o

proceed

always adically,

ever

onsistently,

hen t

omes

to the most

mportant

hings. 78

herein

ay today's

monotheism.

n

Baudelaire's

hrase,

he

ruth,

owever

multiple,

s

never double.

72.

Cf.

1264-65.

73. Franz

Kafka,

Letterohis

Father,

New

York,

966)

76-78.

74.

Cf.OWS

157.

75. Kafka, riefe37-38.

76.

Kafka,

riefe

37-38.

77.

I

147.

78.

C

300;

translation

odified.









18 Walter

enjamin


arnassus

Consistently

r

not, afka,

enjamin,

ndScholem ent heir

espec-

tiveways, nd did so with heradicalismhat hey o sorelymissed n

their

arents.

ll three

ravitated

o those

heretical r

extraterritorial

dimensions

ftheir

eritage

mystical,iddish,evolutionary

which

their

lders,

arental,

ocietal,

r

rabbinical,

referred

o

gnore.

cholem

set about

countering

he ies and

self-deceptions

f a

German-Jewish

dialogue

y forging

German-Jewish

lliance f his

own,

t

once ike

and

unlike

hat

rganized

yBenjamin's

unchbacknside

he

materialist

automat.

arnessing

he

nert

pparatus

f

an

all-too-assimilatedissen-

schaft

es Judentumso the task

of

renewing udaism

rom

within,

extending

he

cholarly

ethodsndnationalimsof

German omantic

philology

o the

needs

of theJewish

eople,

he

sought

o reclaim

hose

secret reasures

fJewish

mysticism

hich

modem

abbinical udaism

had dismissed

s mere rubbish. 79

uch

was,

n

his

eyes,

he

piritual

precondition

or

ecreating

he

Altneuland

fwhich

ll Zionists reamed.

To

build n

entirely

ew

ociety

ith he

ld

theological

aterials

this

was also

Benjamin's uite

ifferent,

ommunist

ope.

There

ould,

or

a non-observant

ew,

e no

returning

o

the ld

religious

alendar

utof

which disenchantedodernityad rrevocablyallen.80or he oresee-

able

future,

he

old heirlooms ouldhaveto

be de osited t the

pawn-

shop

n

return

or he small

hange

f the

new.

1

While

dmitting

o

himself,

n

a late

note,

hat

is

thinking

as

as

saturated

y theology

s

blotting

aper y

nk,

enjamin

mmediately

dded

hat,

f

he

lotter

ad

its

way,

twould lot ut he

ast

estiges

f

holy

writ.82ere

ay

he

art-

ing

of

the

ways.

The

frontieretween

eligion

nd

nihilism 83

owards

which cholem

as

drawn,

hargedhough

t

was

with

mystical

adicality,

was

finally

hatmuch

ess

radical,

ndmore

consistent,

han he front

lineofthe raditionalists 84n which enjamin'sdestructiveharacter

chose

to

stand.

Theological hough

he

origins

f

Benjamin's

ihilism

were,

t

did

not

pare heology.

Within

he

measure fthe

ossible, 85

ts

79.

Cf.

WBS

173 nd Von erlin ach

Jerusalem

90.

80.

Cf.

161,

186.

81.

GS

2.1:

219.

82.

GS

5.1: 588.

83.

Cf.

Scholem's

A

CandidWord

bout

heTrue

Motives f

My

Kabbalistic

Studies,

uoted

n

David

Biale,

Gershom cholem.

Kabbalah and

Counter-History

(CambridgendLondon:Harvard P,1979)74-75.

84. OWS

158.

85.

Cf.

rving

Wohlfarth,

The

Measure

f

the

ossible,

he

Weight

f

he

Real,

the

Heatof

the

Moment,

ew

Formations

London,

994)

1-22.









Irving

Wohlfarth

19

traces, oo,

were

o be

effaced.

nly

f

traditionouldbe

made

handy

was t obe handed n. twas, na double ense, obe re-fused. 86

The

promised

and

owhich

enjamin

ooked

was,

n

hort,

truly

is-

enchanted

nlightenment

an

alternativeoth

o

the

isenchantment

hat,

according

o

Max

Weber,

onstitutes

ur

world-historical

ate nd to

any

reactive e-enchantment

fthe

world,

east f all

through

udaism,

hich

had

tself een

among

he arliest orld-historical

gents

f

disenchant-

ment.87

hether

as

is

often

aid)

Marxism

n

general,

nd

Benjamin's

n

particular

mounts

o

a secularized orm

f

Jewish

Messianism,

spe-

cially

n

the

parasitic

ense hat

cholem

ttachedo that

erm,88

s

ques-tionable. t all

events,

ecularized

essianism,

s

Benjamin

onceived

it,89

as

asopen

and

unfinished

project

s

the ionist

transition

hrough

secularism

was for cholem.

It

was

Scholem

who

bestdefined

heJudaism f

Benjamin,

afka,

and

Freud

whenhe

calledthemMdnner us der Fremde: ot

foreign-

ers

but rather

men from

he

foreign,

land

that,

nlike

Palestine,

could

notbe settled

nd whosefrontierserenot

easily

drawn. hor-

oughly

but not

exclusively

ewish,

hesemen were Jews

within nd

towards udaismtself. enjaminncespoke f the unbearableostur-

ings

of

the

theological

rofessionals

ho

have held

sway

over

all

Kafka

nterpretations

o

date. 91

afka nd his

kin

were,

or heir

art,

never

n

danger

f

adopting

he

elf-indulgentose

of

the

professional

Jew.

Self-evident

hough

as

Jiidische

as

as

an

experientialiven,

ts

meaning

as

not

o

be taken or

ranted.

Themore

losely ou

ook

t

a

word,

Karl Kraus

observed,

themore

distantly

t

ooks

back.' 92

he

word

Jew,

ead

through

he

distant

yes

of

these men

from

hefor-

eign,

was

such word.

Benjamin

ites

Kraus's

phorism

n

connection

86.

Cf.

Irving

Wohlfarth,

Re-fusing

heology.

ome First

Responses

o Walter

Benjamin's

assagenwerk,

ewGerman

ritique

9

Fall 1986)

3-24.

87.

Cf.,

on the

homogeneous,mpty

ime f a disenchanted

odernity,

en-

jamin's

Theses n

the

hilosophy

f

History

1

263

passim),

nd,

or n

earlier,

lterna-

tive model of disenchantment

he reference

n

Appendix

B

to Jewish

ractices

f

remembrance

hich

stripped

entzauberte]

he

uture

f ts

magic

1 266).

88. Cf. the wo

djacent

ections Secular

Messianism

nd Walter

enjamin

f

WithGershom cholem:

n

nterview,

JJ

5-28.

89. In thenotion

f

the

lassless

ociety,

arx ecularized

he

notion f

Messianic

time.And his

was a

good

hing

GS

1.3:

1231).

90. OJJ 3.

91. C 449.

92.

1202;

translationodified.uch Platonic

ove

of

anguage

OWS

284)

is ofa

piece

with he

friendship

f

foreign

riends.









20

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

withhis

own definitionf aura as the

unique

ppearance

f a

dis-

tance,however lose itmaybe. 93Aura s,needless o say,no more

Jewish

phenomenon

han,

ay,

he

unconscious;

n this

ontext,

ow-

ever,

t s imbuedwith he

eculiar xperience

f

distance nown

o,

nd

embodied

y,

menfrom

he

foreign.

t s

surely

o accident hat

en-

jamin's

definitionf

ura

hould ave

aptured

ith

uch

ncanny

reci-

sion the

impression

hathe himself

nvariably

eftwith

his

foreign

friends.

here

was,

s it

were,

lways

small cean

between

hem.94

Scholem's

hrase arallels

ot

merely

enjamin's

efinitionfaura

but

also

Georg

immel'swell-known

Appendix

n the

tranger1908),95

postscript

o a

systematic

reatisen

sociology

nwhich the

tranger

himself

merges

s an

appendix

o the social

body.

The

logic

of der

Fremde,

s Simmel escribes

t,

s not

unlike

hat

f the

dangerousup-

plement

laborated

y

later ewish

hinker,

acques

errida,

n

connec-

tionwith ousseau's eflections

n

anguage.96

f

one

pursues

he

nalogy,

the

tranger

ouldbe to

the

ommunity

s

writing

s to

speech.

At

once

outside

nd nside

ociety,

nd

herebyreventing

t

from

eing

he losed

organic ody

fwhich t

dreams,

e s all

themore

oreign

or ot

eing

foreigner.e is, neffect,he trangerithin.inglingutEuropean ewry

as the

classic

mbodimentf

this

igure,

immel

efines is

situation,

much

s

Benjamin

ill

define

ura,

n

terms f

a

peculiar

oexistencef

proximity

nd

distance.While ome

uch

nterplay

oubtless

haracterizes

human elations

n

general,

t

cquires special

ntensity,ccording

o Sim-

mel,

n the nteractions

etween

society

nd

ts

trangers.

he atter

re,

as

a

result,

ell-placed

oobserve nd

udge

he

workings

f

he

ormer

an

apt

onclusion,

his,

o a

sociological

reatise

ritten

y

one of

the ew

German

ews

inceHermann ohen o

haveachieved

rofessorial

ank,

albeit elatedly,ta Germanniversity.enjamin ill nturndentifyer

93.

1

190,

24.

94. Cf. the

mpressions

f Lisa

Fittko,

he

womanwho

helped

Benjamin scape

across he

Pyrenees:

The

worldwas

coming part,

thought,

utnot

Benjamin's

olit-

esse.

GS

5.2:

1185).

Variously

dentified

s

French r

Castilian

Fittko),

erman

Mon-

nier)

ndChinese

Scholem),

enjamin's

haracteristiceserve

as,

t ts

best,

he

ivility

of

an

inalienable

stranger.

t is nevertheless

nderstandablehatWerner raft

hould

one

day

have

found

uch

icy

politeness,

secretiveness,

nd ceremonious

istance

combined

ith

pparent

steem

suddenly

ntolerable

cited

n

Marbacher

Magazin

5

[1996]:Wernerraft 896bis1991).

95.

Georg

immel,

oziologieLeipzig,

931).

96.

Cf.

Jacques

errida,

f

Grammatology

London

nd

Baltimore:heJohns

op-

kins

UP,

1976)

141ff.









Irving

Wohlfarth

21

Fremdewith heBrechtian

erfremdungseffekt:

he

revealing,

lien

per-

spectivenbourgeoislienation.97

The connectionsbetween

die

Fremde,

der

Fremde,

das

Jiidische,

ie

Ferne,

tc.,

ramify

tillfurther

f

one

uxtaposes

immel's xcursus n

The

Stranger

ith nother rief

oray

nto

qually un)familiar

er-

rain:

Freud's

essay

The

Uncanny.

here

ould,

n

fact,

e no

better

illustrationf

Kraus's

remark

bout

the distant

way

in

whichwords

return

ur

gaze

than he

trange

ehavior f

theworddas

Unheimliche

under reud's

philological

crutiny.

ot

merely

o thevarious

mean-

ings

of heimlich

homelike

nd/or

secret ] nsettlinglyingle

he

familiar ith he

unfamiliar,

ut the

prefix

n-

which

here

signifies

negation,

oncealment,

epression,

nd/or

heir

negation,

nconceal-

ment,

isclosure)

urther

ompounds

ts

nstability.98

n

thus onfound-

ing

a

whole

series of semantic

ppositions,

he word unheimlichs

already

n

itself as Unheimliche.

s

in

the ase of the

stranger

nd

the

supplement,

omething

other

urns

ut

to be

uncomfortably

close

to home.

n

Freudian

erms,

ghostly

return

f the

repressed

-

an intrusion

rom the other

cene

-

prevents

he

ego

from

ver

really eing he masternits ownhouse, hereby rovoking mal-

aise

endemic

o civilization tself. he

nalienablelien

hus

merges

from

immel's

nd Freud's

respectivenalyses

s a

key figure

ithin

both the

psychic

nd the social

economy.

n

this

sense,

we are

all

strangers

o ourselves

in

JuliaKristeva's

hrase),99

ll

foreign

od-

ies,

all

(as

Daniel Cohn-Bendit

ad

t)

German ews.

And theJew

s,

conversely,asily

made

the

scapegoat

or

the alien

workings

f

the

socio-psychic

pparatus.

e

can be

blamedfor

disturbing

therness

that we

prefer,

ll-too-humanly,

o

project

onto

others,

ut

which

belongs o thevery efinitionfthehuman. o the xtento which The

Appendix

n the

Stranger

nd

The

Uncanny mplicitly

ubstitute

logic

of the ncluded

ther or

hat

f the

excluded

hird,

oth an

be

read,

between he

ines,

s

studies

n

the

ogic

of antisemitism.

ot for

nothing

oes each

author

stablish

n

implicit

onnection

etween

is

cultural

ituations

a

( strange,

uncanny )

ew o

his choice

of

pro-

fession.

Where

immel elates he

position

f the

tranger

o that f

a

97.

Cf. GS

2.2:

522.

Cf.

lso Scholem's

ssay

Jews nd

Germans n the

lternat-

ingblame ndpraise fmodernewssprototypesf ocial alienation,OJJ 2ff.)

98. Cf.

Sigmund

reud,

Das

Unheimliche,

esammelte

erke,

ol

12

Frankfurt/

Main,

1972)

229-68.

99. Cf.Julia

risteva,

trangers

' Nous-memes

Paris:

ayard,

988).









22 Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

social

observer,

reud

otes

hat

sychoanalysis

as,

by

virtue

f

study-

ing the ncanny, tselfcquired reputationor eing ncanny.100

Hannah

Arendt as in turn

dentifiednother

nner lien as

the

emblem f

Benjamin's

ll-fatedxistence

das bucklicht

dnnlein

f

German

ursery

orewho

urnshe ables n

the

hild

y

playing

mischief

on themischief-maker.101

n his shiftsnd

twists,

he

igure

fthe

little

hunchback

who

recurs

hroughout

enjamin'swritings)

s

nothing

f

not

un)canny.

n odd and devious

ogic

s at work

a

logic

of

calcu-

lated

happenstance,

ishaps,

nd

happiness.

s the

lleged

ause

of our

bungling,hedeformedittle rickster akesunluckyJews fus all;

but,

s the

scapegoat

ntowhoseback

we

can shift

he

blame,

he

also

functionss our Jew. n this atter

apacity,

e

is

to

the

Nebbich

what

the

evil

s toPeter chlemihl. s

an

emblem f

misfortune,

as

bucklicht

Mdnnlein

ay

n

effect

e

associated ith hat

ewish

aplessness

hat

well-knownilent

ilm

alledDas

yiddische

liick;

nd

s the

denizen f

the

displaced

ife, l02

e

may

lso

be said to

embody

he

position

f

the

German

ews,

who were

o become

displaced ersons

n

an

increas-

ingly

sinister ense.

Displacement

Entstellung]

a

term ommon

to

BenjaminndFreud operates ere nmanyevels. ike the ermas

Unheimliche,

he littlehunchback

not

merely

means,

but is and

does a

seriesof semantic

nd

grammatical

isplacements.

ust s der

Fremde

and das

Unheimlichere

strange

ybrids,

djectives

ecome

nouns,

attributesecome

ualities,

o

the

hunchbacks an

odd cross

between

subject

ndan

it,

notunlike

he

Freudianid

[das Es],103

tself

pro-

noun urned oun.All

these

isplacements

oint

othe

trange

omplicity

between he

anny

nd

he

ncanny,

nowing

nd

unknowing,

emember-

ing

nd

forgetting,

hat

haracterizes

as

Unheimliche.

Freud's onceptionf theuncannys the returnftherepressed

may

lso be

extended

n

the

resent

ontext

o

the

ersistence

f certain

displaced

udaism

hrough

everal

enerations

f

emancipated

strange-

ment. is own

scattered

emarksn

the

mysterious

nd

powerful

orces

that

ound

im

oJudaism

ntimatehatt

would ave

aken

notherreud

100.

Freud,

Das

Unheimliche 57.

101.

Cf.

5ff

nd

Irving

Wohlfarth,

'Marchen

iir

ialektiker.'

Walter

enjamin

und sein

bucklicht

annlein,

Walter

enjamin

nddie

Kinderliteratur,

d.

K.

Doderer

(Weinheim,988)121-76.

102.

I

134;

translation

odified.

103.

The

id

was, ndeed,

n

unwitting

ode-wordor

he

Yid

(Cuddihy

12;

cf.

also

23,

26,

29-30).









Irving

Wohlfarth

23

to

analyze

hem.104

cholem,

or is

part,

xplicitly

esortso

words uch

as unheimlichndgespenstischnorderodescribe he trenuousfforts

made

both

y

ssimilated erman

ewry

o

efface

ts

rigins

nd,

orrela-

tively, y

assimilated ewish

cholarship

o

deny ny

value

to the

Kab-

bala.105A

far-reachingarallel

s thus

observable

etween

reud's,

Kafka's,

cholem's,

nd

Benjamin's espectiverojects.

ll

are

devoted

to

unassimilable

strangers,

o

foreign

riends

s

far-flung

s

Jewish

mysticism,

heGerman

aroque,

ndthe

human

nconscious,

ll

ofthem

constituting

o

many bjective

orrelativesf heir wn

ituations.

If,

as Scholem

nsists,

enjamin's

Marxism,

ike Kafka's

writings,

obscurely

arks ack othe ost, soteric,ndthus

oubly

ecretore f

Jewish

mysticism,106

t

also

partakes

f secular

ewish

raditions arked

by

secrecy

f a secular

ind.Hannah

Arendt as written

n

this

onnec-

tion

fa hidden radition

fthe

Jewish

pariah,

xtending

rom eine

to

Bernard

azare,

Kafka,

ndCharlie

haplin.

07

saac Deutscher as

n

turn

ituated imself

ithinn

overlapping,

utnot

ntirely

dentical,

ra-

dition f

the non-Jewishew

including,mong

thers, eine,Marx,

Freud,

nd

Trotsky),

hich e

traces ack o

Spinoza

nd

places

under

he

104. In

a brief ddress o members

f

the

B'nai

Brith n

his

seventieth

irthday,

Freud

peaks

fthe

many

ark

motionalorces hat indhim o Judaism. either

eli-

gious

nor

nationalist,

all themore

owerful

he

ess

they

an

be

grasped

n

words,

hey

point

o

the

secrecy

f the amemental

make-up

Heimlichkeit

er

gleichen

eelischen

Konstruktion]

Freud,

Gesammelte

erke,

ol.

17).

n his

Preface

o

theHebrew di-

tion

f Totem

nd

Taboo,

Freud

peaks

f

himselfs one who s

completely

lienated

from

is

fathers',

nd

any

other,

eligion,

unable o

participate

n

nationalistic

deals,

and

yet

who has never enied

elonging

o

his

people

Thus,

Freud

oes not

pace

Arendt refuse

ll notions f

belonging).

f

he

goes

on

-

he were

sked

what s still

Jewish

bout

him fter e has

given p

so much hat

s common

o

his

fellow-Jews,

e

wouldreply:Notverymuch, robablyhe ssential. e is,however,nable oput he

latternto

words. It

will,

he

concludes,

some

day

certainly

e amenable

o

scientific

understanding

Freud,

esammelte

erke,

4:

569).

ndirectly,

is

ssay

The

Uncanny

is

a

contribution

o

such

understanding

cf.

Cuddihy

7).

One

symptom

f

this

Heimlich-

keit s the

bility

f

Jews

o

recognize

ne

another.

You

are

familiar,

rites

enjamin

o

Adorno,

with he famous

assage

n

Sodom nd Gomorrha

here

omplicitymong

homosexuals

s

compared

ith he

peculiar

onstellationhat etermines

hebehavior f

Jews

mong

hemselves

C

632;

translation

lightly

odified).

105. Cf. Judaica

I

(Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

970)

39,

217;

Von

Berlinnach

Jerusalem

0;

andScholem's Nachwort o

Der

Stern

er

Erlosung

35.

106.

As he

proceeds,

e

s

liablewithout

arning

o

switch rom he

profane

o

the

theologicalpproach,or e has a precise eel or he utlinefthe heologicalubstance

even

when

t

seemsdissolved

ltogether

n

the

world

f

the

wholly

emporal

OJJ

82;

cf.

lso

186-87,

91,

192,194).

107.

TJP

7-90.









24

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

patronage

f

Akher,

he

stranger

r other

who,

according

o the

Midrash,neday eft heJewish oldnever o return.108ogether,hese

retroactive

enealogies

ring ogetherheterogeneous

uropean

iaspora

of Jewswho

might

avetaken s their

motto

afka's

wry roviso:

My

people,

rovided

have one .. Without

eeking

o be

different,

en-

jamin

did

not

ntirelyelong

o either fthese raditionsf

non-belong-

ing.

For

one

thing,

e did

not,

for ll his

cosmopolitanism,

ravel

he

alleged

road

from udaismo freedom. 109s an

extraterritorial

but

hardly

non-Jewish

Jew,

e

sought

athero

position

imself

t

the

intersection

etween everal

nderground

raditions.ut

n

so

doing,

e

also

sidestepped

everal f themost

assionately

ebatedlternativesf

the

day,

notably

hat

etween ewish

articularism

nd

enlightenment

universalism.

is

orientation

as,

certainly,lways

owards he

univer-

sal,

but

he idea or

language

n

question

was a Messianic ne

-

a

particular

deaof he

niversal,

n

other

ords,

ndonewhich

quated

he

universal

ith he

oming

ftheMessiah.

n

other

espects,

oo,

he

ni-

versal ould

only

e

reached,

ccording

o

Benjamin,

n

and

through

he

particular,

ot

by bstracting

rom

t.110

Of all the ositionsvailable nhis ime, enjaminerhapsame los-

est,

hrough

combinationfchoice nd

circumstance,

o

being

azare's

conscious

ariah

the

igure

hat annah

rendt

pposes

o

the nter-

related ewish

igures

fthe

ariah,

he

chlemihl,

he

chnorrer,

ndthe

parvenu.111

is

programmatic

imas a

revolutionary

ntellectual

as,

n

effect,

o

betray

isclassof

origin;112

nd

his

actual

rajectory

as that

ofthe

gentleman

ein

vornehmer

err]

who

finds imselfna

disrepu-

table avern nd refrainsut of shame rom

iping

is

glass

clean. l13

Unlike

hosewho

empathize

ith he

powers

hat e and

survey

he

greatraditionike generalakinghe alute,he materialististorian,

108.

Cf.

saac

Deutscher,

he

Non-Jewishew nd Other

ssays

New

York,

968)

26-41.

109.

OWS

272.

110.

This s

argued

t

the

pistemological

evel

n

the

Preface

o The

Origin

f

Ger-

man

Trauerspiel

nd

t

thenationalevel nthe

ssay

n The

diot,

ccording

o

which

he

great

ationalists,

ar

rom

pposing

he

particular

nd

the

universal,

ee

in

the

former

the

nly

iable ccess othe atter.

111.

TJP 6-79.

112.

Cf.

R

237.

113. I 147;translation odified.enjamin lsewhereescribes rnst lochas the

opposite

ind

fvornehmer

err,

ne

who

displays

is

reasures

n n

area

demolished

y

an

earthquake,

nstead f

having

is

Persian

arpets

ut nto

lanketsnd

his

fancy

es-

sels

melted

own

C

478).









Irving

Wohlfarth

25

as

Benjamin

onceives

im,

eeps

his

ears

to

the

ground

nd istens or

the traditionftheoppressed a discontinuumhat an never e

entirely

ffaced

y

the

continuum

f

oppression.114

hileno

single

people

an

ever

ay

exclusive,

et lone

proprietorial,

laim o so vast

nd

internally

issured

n

archipelago,

his

millennial

raditionfthe nsulted

and

he

njured

as

n

Benjamin's

ifetime

lso,

nd

n

terrifying

easure,

that

f

he

uropean

ews.

Benjamin,

ho

sked

n

1929whether

he

interruption

f

career

might

otbe essential

o the rtist's nd ntellectual's

ew

revolutionary

function,115

ad

a

sense

not

o

much

f

mission

s of

task nd

call-

ing

the

Berufung

orwhich cholem earednhisfriend'sehalf.116

These

notions

ound heoretical

xpression

n the

arly

ssays

On

Lan-

guage

s

Such nd

on

the

anguage

f

Man

1916)

and

The

Task

of he

Translator

1923).

In

essential

espects,

enjamin

would ndeed

pend

the est f

his ife

iving

ut he

Messianic

hilosophy

f

anguage

ormu-

lated n

these

arly

heological

ritings.ccording

ohis

reading

fGen-

esis,

Adam allsCreation

y

tsname a name

which

s

not

merely

he

last

calling-out

der

letzte

Ausru/]

but also

the

actual

calling-toder

eigentlichenruj] f anguage ;117heFall is one from damicnaming

into Babel

of

arbitraryigns;

nd

the

resulting

ask

s to translatehe

many

allen

anguages

owards

heone

pure anguage. 118

enjamin's

later

uggestion

hat roust's

ecurrentense hat

this sn't t was trace-

able

to the

xperience

f

French-Jewish

ssimilationould hus

lso have

a

bearing

n his

own

heory

nd

practice

ftranslation.

anguages

ren't

it

either;

ranslation,

owever,

nables it

to

appear.Contrary

o

received

pinion,

he ask

fthe

ranslator

s to

be

a

medium,

ot

medi-

ator

not,

hat

s,

toassimilate

nother

anguage

o

one's

ownbut o

ren-

derbothforeigno themselves.n coming loserto true r pure

language,

owever,

anguages

lso become ess alien

o

themselves.

ike

the

stranger

ho

disrupts

he

community's

alse

ense of

symbiosis,

translationccentuates

n alienation hat

s

endemic

o all fallen an-

guages.

n

estranging

hem

rom uch

strangement,

t

prepares

or heir

ultimate

integration. 119

Embryonically

refiguring

he Messianic

114. Cf.1258-59

nd GS 1.3:

1236.

115.

OWS

238.

116. C 379.

117.

OWS

112;

translationodified.

118.

Cf.

74ff.

119. 177.









26 Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

idea of a universal

anguage

which

s

quite

close and

yet

nfinitely

remote, 120ranslationould hus enerateomethingnthe rder f in-

guistic

aura.

Conversely,

ura

the

nique

ppearance

f

distance

-

would be definable

n

terms

of

the

coming

the

quietest

approach l121

of the

Messiah.

Languages

re

not,

n

this

view,

finally

foreign

o one

another;

hidden

elationship

btains etween

hem;122

hey

re,

n

this

ense,

foreign

riends.

nypremature

ttempt

o

reconcile

heir ifferences

can,

however,

nly

produce

travesty

f theuniversal

anguage

hat

s

still

truggling

o

be born. he

organicgrowth,ripening,

nd

birth-

pains 123

f

languages

owards heir

enuine

Messianic

ntegration

s

replaced

y

their

ll-too-synthetic

ssimilation one

which,

nstead f

ending

he

Babel

of

anguages,

asks

nd

perpetuates

t.

Esperanto,124

s

its

name

unwittinglyuggests,

s

thefalse riendf

Messianic

ope, ust

as

assimilation

mounts o thefalse

ntegration

f the

tranger.

nd

f,

conversely,

he

promise

f ultimate

reconcilation l125

rovisionally

entails

heightenedstrangement,

his

urely

recludes

ll

premature

symbiosis,

e

it

German-Jewish,

ntra-German,

r

intra-Jewish.ike

Kafka's etter n thefour-foldmpossibilityfbeing German-Jewish

writer

ndCelan's ater

ectureDear

Meridian,

enjamin's

metaphysics

of

translation,

ith tsmodernist

oetics

f

estrangement,

ater

elayed

by

his

advocacy

f

Brecht's heaterf

alienation,

s that f

a

foreigner

to all

existing

ome-

nd father-lands.

enjamin

belonged,

f

t

all,

to

language.126

ere

oo,

however,

n

auratic

r

uncanny

ombination

of alienness nd

proximity

eems o have

been t

work. or

Benjamin's

120.

172,79.

121. OWS238.

122. 172.

123.

173-74.

124. Cf.

GS

1.3: 1239.

125.

175.

126.

In

1924

Benjamin

rites o

Hofmannsthal

hat,

f

he s

not

mistaken,

hey

hare

the onviction

hat

very

ruthas ts

home

Haus],

ts

ncestral

angestammt]

alace,

n

language,

hat his

palace

is built rom

he

most

ncient

ogoi ;

and he

opposes

uch

grounded

ruth o

the

nomadic

haracterf

modem

cientific

erminology,

hich

foists

nto

anguage

he

irresponsible

rbitrarinessf

mere

ign

anguage

C

229;

trans-

lation

modified).

his

appeal

to

the

ancient

ogoi

clearly

choes

earlier

enjamin's

account ftheFall ofnames nto igns.AccordingoArendt,talso points orwardo

someof

Heidegger's

ssays

f

the

ortiesnd

fifties

146).

Be

this

s it

may,

enjamin's

gesture

urely

as a

very

ifferent

rigin.

n

the

ve

of

being

educed o an

uncertain

ere

turning

he

ables n

modernityydenouncing

t

s

thenomad.









Irving

Wohlfarth

27

German

rose

was

all

the

more onsummateor

aving

eenwritten

rom

an mperceptibleistance.127

A similar

ogicguidedBenjamin's nalysis

f German-Jewishela-

tions. Three times mistrust

f

all

reconciliation:etween

lasses,

between

ations,

etween

ndividuals, l128

e

wrote n

1929.

The

same

wentfor he German-Jewish

ymbiosis

a

form f

self-deception

which

ookdesires or

eality,

hebettero

deny

he

reality

f

antisemit-

ism.129

German

nd

Jew,

enjamin

ad writteno

Scholem

n

1917,

confront

ne another

s

related

xtremes. 130

ere

oo,

here bove

ll,

t

was

a

question

f

hidden elations

etween

oreign

riends.

enjamin

as

persuaded

hat or heforeseeableuturehe

nly

iable ontacts etween

Germans

nd Jewswouldhaveto shun he

public ye.

Hencehis

nitial

decision

ot o add

his

signature

o Die

deutsche

Bauhtitte,

political

manifestoddressed

n

1923

o we

Germans

y

Florens hristian

ang,

thefriend ho

n

Benjamin's

yes

best

mbodiedtrueGermanness. I

Benjamin's

etter f

explanation

onstitutesis

most xtendedtatement

on

the

ubject

f

German-Jewish

elations,

nd

will thereforee

quoted

here

n somedetail.

Benjaminegins y tressinghe epthfhis ttachmentowhat evar-

iously

refers o as das

Deutsche,

das

deutsche

hanom,

and

Deutschtum,

but

not,

ignificantly

nough,

s Deutschland.

lready

n his

early ssay

on The

diot

he

had

approvinglyuoted ostoevsky's

hrase

this

windy

127. Arendtikewise

ontrasts,

ithout urther

omment,

he

perfection

f Kafka's

prose

with is

ccount

f

theGerman-Jewish

riters'

ortured

elationo theGermanan-

guage

1

33-34).

128.

And,

he added

with

ncanny

rescience,

unlimitedrust

nly

n

.

G. Farben

and he

eaceful

erfection

fthe

ir

force

OWS 238).

129. 129.Cf., nassimilationistelf-deception,he nalysesfArendt132-33; The

Jews

nd

Society,

he

Origins f

Totalitarianism

4-88)

nd

Scholem,

otably

is

ssays

Jews

nd Germans

nd

Against

he

Myth

f a

German-Jewish

ialogue OJJ 1-92,

61-64).

130. C 98.

131.

In the

nd,

Benjamin

id write

letter

f

support

nd

allow t

to be

published

(GS

4.2:

791-92).

When

Rang

died,

Benjamin

wrote hat t was

to his

example

hat e

owed essential lements

f German

ildung.

ang

hus

epresented

hat

Benjamin

lse-

where

alls,

citing

tefan

George

gainst

imself,

the

ecret

Germany.

ts life

burst

forth

rom im ll themore

olcanically

or therwise

ying

rozen

nder he rust

f

contemporary

ermany

C

252;

translation

odified).

enjamin

as

recourse

o similar

metaphorshen escribingis ownrelationo theGermananguage that freleasing

the

original

ife of the

language

rom ts

terminological

nslavement

nder he

encrusted

urface

f

petrifiedonceptual

rmor

C

323).

The ubterranean

ife f he

German

anguage

this

oo,

s

the ecret

ermany.









28 Walter

enjamin

nd

the German-Jewish

arnassus

Europe

and

approved

the

typical

iew of the

great

nationalists,

ccord-

ingto whichhumanityanunfold nly n themedium fthepeople [Volk-

stum]. '32

Thereby

he

had

characteristically

efused he

usual

alternative

between

nationalism nd internationalism:nlike

he

nternationalists,

e

had

selectively

ndorsed

he

thinking

f

the

great

nationalists,

utwith-

out

drawing

Zionist

consequences.

In

the

letter

o

Rang,

he likewise

denounces

the mistaken cult

of

the

European

[das

Europdiische]

espoused by

a

Jewish

friend,

rich

Gutkind,

who has

probably

never

experienced

what s

positive

n

the

German

phenomenon.

Gutkindhad

presumably eplaced

heGerman-Jewish

ymbiosis

with

nother,

xtended

form

f assimilation thehumanist

myth

f

a

supra-national

urope:133

For me circumscribed

ationalities

[Volkstiimer]

ere

lways

entral:

the

German,

he rench.

hat am

bound

o

he

ormer,

ndhow

deeply,

is

something

f

which

neverose

ight,

east f ll n

my

urrentork.

For

nothing

eads

deeper

ndbindsmore

ntimately

han he

salvaging

[Rettung]

folder iterature

Schrifttum]

hat

have n

mind.

34

Benjamin

s

referring

ere,

n

untranslatably

erman

erms,

o

his work

on GermanBaroque literature,o whichwe will shortlyeturn.

Having

made this

preliminary

cknowledgement

f his irrevocable

attachment

o

das

Deutsche,

Benjamingoes

on to

name a number

f

fac-

tors

whose decisive

significance

orhis situation

s a

German

Jew not

even

his interlocutoreems

fully

o

appreciate.

he

fact

s

that

only

those

who

belong

to a

people

are,

at its

most terrible

moments,

alled

upon

o

speak

n itsname.

urthermore,

nly

hose

who

belong

othis

eople

nthemost minentense

may ay

not

nly

mea

res

gitur,

ut

lso

propriam

e

go.

TheJew

hould

ertainly

ot

speak

ut

reden].

.. Should e even

peak

p

mitreden]?l135

In

a

quite

different

ontext,

enjamin

had once cited the

condescending

phrase

with which

precociousyoungsters

re

put

in

their

lace

by

their

elders

nd

betters:

Griiner

unge,

r

will

chon

mitreden. l3

he dilemma

132.

GS 2.1:

240,

237.

133.

Cf.

Arendt's

ritique

f Stefen

weig's

spurious uropean

redentials,

hich

she

compares

o those

modem

assports

hich

rant

he

bearer

he

right

o

sojourn

n

every ountryxcepthe nethat as ssuedt TJP120).

134.

C

214;

translation

odified.

135.

C

215;

translation

odified.

136.

GS 2.1:

214.









Irving

Wohlfarth

29

of the GermanJew was

not

entirely

issimilar.

egally

emancipated,

e

neverthelessemained minor, second-class itizenwhobelongedwith-

out

belonging.

We Jews dminister

verwalten]

he

ntellectual

roperty

f

a

people,

Moritz

Goldstein,

hitherto

nknown

uthor,

ad

stated

n an

impressive

nd much-debated

rticle,

German-Jewish

arnassus,

pub-

lished

n

1912,

whichdenies

us

the

right

nd the

bility

o

do so :

Among

urselves,

e Jews

may

havethe

mpression

f

speaking

s

Germans

o

other ermans

we

havethe

mpression.

e

may

feel

quite

German,

ut he

thers

eel s tobe

quite

n-German. e

may

e

calledMax Reinhardtndmay avebroughthe heateronewheights;

orwe

may,

n

the

erson

f

Hugo

von

Hofmannsthal,

ave

eplaced

he

stale

anguage

f

Schillerwith new

poetic tyle:

we

may

call this

German,

he thers

all

t

Jewish,

hey

etect he

Asiatic

lement

nd

miss German

eeling

Gemiit],

nd

f,

espite

heir

eservations,

hey

areneverthelessorcedo

recognize

ur

chievements,

heir

nly

wish

is that e would

chieve

hat

much ess. ..

We

do notwant

o

give

up

[our

German

eritage].

ut we also do not

want o

go begging

or

favors

hat ave o

long

eenwithheld favors

hat,

fter

period

f

seeming

econciliation,

re

being

withheldrom s all

over

gain.137

Aware thathe was

breaking

oth ntra-Jewish

nd

assimilationist

aboos,

Goldstein

prefaces

his

remarks

y observing

hat

he,

too,

would have

pre-

ferred

o wash his

dirty

inen

at

home. But we

have no

home of our

own. He

then

goes

straight

o

the

point.

Not

merely

does the

German

Jew's love forhis

country

o unrequited,

ut he is

the

object

of a

hatred

which

no

amount

f

reasoning

an

hope

to

dispel.

With

Goldstein's

tate-

ment he German-Jewish

ymbiosis

tood

exposed

as

the

pitiful

uphe-

mism

that

t was.

In a famous etterwrittenoMax Brod n 1921,Kafka would takeup

another

spect

of

the Jewish

writer's

usurpation

Anmassung]

f

alien

property.

his

time the

patrimony

was the German

language,

which

remained

lien

property

ven

if no-one

could

point

o a

single

inguistic

error.

Having

stolen

it in

(relatively)hasty

fashion,

instead

of

acquiring

t,

the

German-speaking

ewishwriter oundhimself

aught,

according

o

Kafka,

between

no

less

than

four

mpossibilities

hich

may,

for

he ake

of

simplicity,

e said to be

linguistic,

utwhich could

also

be

called

quite differently:

hat f

writing

n

German,

f

writing ifferently,

ofnotwritingnd,finally,fwritingt all. Kafkaaddsparenthetically:

137. Der Kunstwartnd

Kulturwart,

4.11

Mar. 1912).









30

Walter

enjamin

nd

the German-Jewish

arnassus

(for

he

despair

was not

omething

o be

calmed

hrough riting,

t

was an enemy f ife nd ofwriting, riting as here nly provi-

sional

tate,

s

in

the ase

of

he

man

whowrites istestament

hortly

before

anging

imself a

provisional

tate hat

an

very

well ast

whole

ifetime)

And

so,

the etter

oncludes,

efore

reaking

ff:

itwas

in

every espect

n

mpossible

iterature,

gypsy

iterature

hat

had stolen heGerman hild

rom he

radle

nd somehow ixed t

up

in

great

aste,

ecause omeone

as,

fter

ll,

to

dance

on the

ight-

rope Butit was not ventheGermanhild, twas nothing,twas

merely

lleged

hat omeone as

dancing).138

There

is,

for

Kafka,

as for

Goldstein,

no

way

out. And

yet

the fourfold

impossibility

f

writing

lso cancels itselfout beforeour

eyes,

succes-

sivelyturning

nto n

impossible

iterature,

tour

deforce

and an

imagi-

nary

cenario.

At another

evel,

Benjamin's

destructive

haracter,

ho

does not

know

theword

impossible,

hould

perhaps

lso be

considered

against

he

background

f

German-Jewish

espair.

Benjaminhad closelyfollowed hepublic controversyrovokedby

Goldstein's

article,

nd seems to have

agreed

with

ts

analysis.

He never-

theless

et out to

become,

s

he would ater

ut

t

significantlynough,

n

French),

he foremost

ritic f

German iterature

a

task

which

also

entailed

recreating

riticism

s

a

genre l139

nd

rooting

t

in

crisis. 140

Large though

uch

aspirations ndoubtedly

re,

they

differ

harply

rom

Rudolf Borchardt's mbition

o

be,

in

Benjamin's

words,

the

appointed

guardian

Verwalter]

f

the

German]

eople's

intellectual nd

linguistic

resources. 141

ix

years

afterGoldsteinhad

argued

hat

he

Jews re the

unauthorized uardians fGerman ulture, enjaminhaddenounced he

pretensions

f

a

converted

ew

o be

its uthorized

uardian.

uch

a func-

tion,

he

claimed,

ould not

yet

in 1918)

exist

n

Germany.

east

of all

-

138.

Kafka,

riefe

36-38.

139. C 359.

140.

Benjamin

roposed

o edit

ournal

Krisis

nd

Kritik ith recht.

f.

GS

6:

619-20.

141. C 126.Borchardtconsumes imselfn

portraying

or

he

Germans

type

hat

does not xist

mong

hem,

hat

annot

et

xist

mong

hem,

hat

heymay

not

chieve

throughalse retences,ndthat eobscurelyenses obe a futurerospect:hepublicly

responsible

mbodiment

Person]

f the

eople,

he

ppointed

uardian

f

ts ntellectual

and

inguistic

eritage

C

126;

translation

odified).

enjamin

dds

that e

cannot

ere

separate

he

romise

rom

he

misunderstanding

nherentn

uch

conception.









IrvingWohlfarth

31

we

may

fill

n

-

forGerman

ews,

o whom

representative

ositions

wouldpresumablyecome availableonlywhen theso-calledJewish

question

o

onger

ivided he

eople

gainst

tself.

o

masquerade

s the

spokesman

f

culture

o which

ne

was admitted

nly

s

a

second-class

(and,

n Hans

Mayer's

ater

hrase,

revocable l142)

itizen

was,

on

this

analysis,

o

perpetrate

ot

merely political

rror ut

n

ethical

iasco.

Arendt ould

peak

n this

onnectionf

the

pariah

urned

arvenu,143

and

of

Benjamin

empathizing

ith

he ictor.

Eleven

years

fter oldstein's

rticle,

nthe

ettero

Rang,

Benjamin

drew

he

political

onclusions

rom

is

own

equally

ober ssessment

f

theGerman-Jewishilemma.

TheJew

oday

ndangers

ven he

estGerman

ause

or

which e

stands

ppublicly,

ecause

ny ublic

ermantatement

nhis

part

is

in

deeper

ense)

ecessarily

enal;

t

annot

roduceroof

f ts

authenticity.144

The

ast

metaphor

nticipates,

nd

diverges

rom,

artre'sater

nalysis

f

the Jewish

uestion,

mplying

s itdoes that

ersonal

authenticity

s

not nough,t east nthe ublic phere.Proof' sneeded authentica-

tion

which,

ike ll

credentials,

ust e

furnished,

r at east

ecognized,

by

he

ublic

uthorities.

therwise

he

most

uthenticct

will

not e

free

from

he

uspicion

fbad

faith.

Lacking

nequivocal

ecognitiony

the

nation,

hemembers

f

the

German-Jewish

inority

re

thus

educed,

n crucial

espects,

o the

ta-

tus

of

a

minor.

Where

hemost

ritical es

publica

re at

stake,

he

Ger-

manJew

has no credible

olitical

oice.

f he

pretends

o

one,

he

will

inevitably

ind imself

n

a

false

osition.

e

may,

moreover,

ave

o

pay

theconsequencesf hisvenalityna quitedifferentoin.LikeKafka,

Benjamin

ees

a

certain

necessity

n themurder

f

Walter

athenau

the

Jew

who

as

German

oreign

inister

ad

negotiated

ar

reparations

on

behalf

f

the

nation.

ut t

s

another

ssassination

hat,

ccording

o

Benjamin,

eighs

armore

heavily

n

the

national

onscience:

hat

f

Gustav

andauer,

he

evolutionary

narchist ho

screamed

gainst

he

nation

nstead

f

speaking

n tsname.

142. Cf. Hans Mayer,Ein Deutscher uf Widerruf, vols. (Frankfurt/Main:

Suhrkamp,

982,

1984).

143.

Cf.

TJP

8,76,

78.

144. C

215;

translation

odified.









32

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

Benjamin's

conclusion s

unambiguous:

Everything

oncerning

erman-Jewishelations hat

has

a

visible

impact

oes so to

their

etriment;

salutary

omplicity

bliges

he

noble haracters

mong

oth

eoples

o

keep

ilent bout heir ies.145

Given the

unequal

statusof

Germans nd

Jews,

he

only legitimate

bondbetween hem ies nthe secret elations hat

might

evelop

between

their inest

epresentatives.orty-threeears

ater,

cholem

who

in

1931

condemns

empirical

ionism

for

having

betrayed

he

secret

reasures

thatwere its spiritual aisond'etre146)will likewise oncludehis essay

Jews nd Germans

y

claiming

hat,

n

the

ftermath

f

the

Shoah,

fruit-

fulrelations etween he

wo

peoples

can

only

be

prepared

n

secret. l147

Benjamin

proceeds

o

evoke the

uestion

f

emigration,

nd then

dds:

Wherever

then

may

e,

will

not

orget

he

German

das

Deutsche].

However,

his

oo

must

e said:the tubbornnessith

which his

eo-

ple

is

outdoing

tself t

this

very

hour

n

prolonging

ts

prison-like

confinement

ill

gradually

ake ts

ntellectualreasures

usty,

iffi-

cult

o

handle nd

to

move,

f

ndeed tdoes

not

bury

hem live.

We

know hat he ast snot set f rownewelsondisplayn amuseum,

but s

always

ffected

y

he

resent.

he

German

ast

s

today

uffer-

ing

from he

country's

solation

rom he rest

f the

planet.

Who

knows

owmuch

onger

t

ancontinue

o

stay

live n

this

art

f

he

world.

,

for

my

part,

ave

lready

eached

he

imit.148

With

uncanny

recision,

his

passage anticipates

oth

Benjamin's

whole

theory

f historical

nowledge

s

a

relation o the

past

that s

determined

by

the

historian's

r

critic's

particular

resent

nd

his

own

position

within

sucha constellation.f,as he will claim in 1930, he has come close to

realizing

he

goal

of

being

considered

he

foremost

ritic

f German

it-

erature,

e

will

clearly

have done

so not

by

abstracting

rom is

German-

Jewish

ituation

ut,

on

the

contrary,

rom he

peculiar

vantage-point

hat

it

affords. he

inner

migration

hat he best Germanswere

to choose

during

heNazi

era had

long

been thenormal ituation

f

themoreclear-

sighted mong

the

German-Jewish

ntelligentsia.

n

the letter

o

Rang,

Benjamin

describes

t as

an

inner xile from nd of

Germany

tself an

145. C 215;translationodified.

146.

WBS

171-73.

147. OJJ

1;

translation

odified.

148.

C

215;

translation

odified.









IrvingWohlfarth

33

exile

that

s

thus

epresentative

f

thenation

s

a

whole. t

s

thus ot s

an officialuardianut s an exile hat necan,paradoxically,peakfor

the

nation t

large.

Just s

thetranslator

lienates

lienated

anguages

from

hemselves,

o theGerman-Jewish

ritic

s in

exile

from nd

with

his

country's

wnexile

from

he

world.149

s

Germany

roceeds

o so-

late

tself ver

further

rom heworld

nd

to

force

ts

Jews

utof

nner

and

nto uter

migration,

t

will

be

left

o

men ike

Benjamin

o save

a

rusting

eritage

rom

ts

unworthy

eirs. t

is

they,

nd not

he

German

Jews,

ho

have

usurped

t.

Benjamin's

Germanistic

ycle,

s he calls

t,

is

largelyompletedy

the ime

e

emigrates.

utGoldstein's

laim hat

Jews renot ntitledoadministerhe ntellectual

roperty

fthenation

now

acquires

ven

darker

vertones

han

t

already

ad

n 1912. But t

also stands

efuted.

enjamin's

osition

may,

n

effect,

e summed

p

as

follows. he

German

ew

s

no

position

o

speak

ut

n

political

matters,

but

he

is

peculiarly

ell-placed

o be a

criticfGerman

iterature

and,

y

his

etour,

oaddress

erman

olitics

fter

ll. t s

only

certain

kind

f

pariah,

nd

not he

arvenu,

hat

an

salvage

whateveran

be real-

ized

of

the

ver-ambitious

rogram

hat orchardt

ad

ethimself that

ofbeingtheguardianf thepeople's linguisticnd literaryeritage:

(Ver)Walter

enjamin.150

Before

we consider

enjamin's

arious

ttempts

o

save German

it-

erature

rom

tself,

word

hould e

added bout

nother,

elated

otif

hat

recurs

n his etter

o

Rang:

nvisibility.ecrecy,

or

German

ews

fBen-

jamin's

generation,

ould

ome o

have n

ncreasingly

rgent

eaning.

n

his

commentary

n

the

pening oem

fBrecht's

Lesebuch

fir

t~dtebe-

wohner,

hich

s

punctuated

y

the efrain

Efface he

races,

enjamin

recalls

rnold

weig's

emark

hat hese

oems

ave

meanwhile

cquired

sinisterewmeaning.hey ow lsopointo he xperiencef he migrant

in a

foreignountry.

o this

enjamin

merely

dds

hat

he

xperience

ut

149.

Cf for n

analysis

f

Gershom

cholem's

nner

xile within

ionism nd

its

relation

o

kabbalist

otions

fGod's

inner

ithdrawal

rom he

world,

rving

Wohlfarth,

'Haarscharf

n

der

Grenze

wischen

eligion

ndNihilismus':

um

Begriff

es

Zimzum

bei

Gershom

cholem,

ershom

cholem

wischen

en

Disziplinen,

ds.G.

Smith

ndP.

Schaifer

Frankfurt/Main,

995)

176-256.

150.

Cf.

the

end of

Benjamin's

ssay

Zur Kritik er

Gewalt,

wherehuman

nd

divine

ustice

re contrasted

s

die verwaltendend

die waltende

ewalt

GS

2.1:

203).

Benjamineemshere ohave ncounteredpartialnagramfhisownfirst amen par-

ticularly

uggestive

ontext that

f the

divine

uthority

hich

is

own

writings

ften

invoke

nd ndeed

nact. uch

n

appeal

o a

divine

ustice

eyond

uman

aw

is

surely

also

a

function

fhisGerman-Jewish

ituation.









34

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

of

which

hey

rew

that

fthe

llegal

ommunist

artisan

is

that

f

anemigrantnhis owncountry l151a remark hichtself iscreetly

effaces

hetraces f

Benjamin's

wn nner nd outer

xile

behind he

anonymous,

ollective eaturesf the

migrant

t home

nd broad.

Agesilaus

antander a

crypticutobiographical

antasy

ritten

on

Ibiza n the ame

year

n

whichHitler

ame

to

power

plays

labo-

rate

variations

n

the heme

f

German-Jewish

ecrecy.

is

far-sighted

parents

so

the

uthor

laims)

rovided

im

with

hese

wo

middle

ames

as the

libi152

hat

e

might

eed

f

he

should

ne

day

want o

become

writer.

ut when

hat

daycomes,

he

opts

for

n

alternative

trategy.Instead f

making

ismiddlenames

public,

hebettero

hide

behind

them,

e

chooses o

hide hem rom

ublic

view.

Thereby

e

claims o

have converted

hem nto

he secret

ame

thatJews

raditionallyive

their

hildren.

cholem,

n

his

commentary

n

this

ext,

otes hat he

(Hebrew)

name

n

question

s

secret

nly

because

assimilated

ews

generally

ake

no

use

of t.153

heauthor

f

Agesilaus

antander

ay

thus

e

confusing

wo

quite

different

orms f

secrecy.

Whethere

does

so

wittingly

r

not s less

significant

han hefact

hat e s

therebyut-

ting nassimilated ew's gnorancefJewishbservanceso anti-assim-

ilationist

se. He

does

so, moreover,

n

quasi-accordance

ith the

talmudic

octrine f

the

forty-nine

evels of

meaning

ontained

n

every assage

of

the

Torah. l154

he

names

Agesilaus

antanderontain

several uch

ayers,

ne

more secret han he ther.n the

first

lace,

the uthor

as

replaced

hemiddle ames

hat is

parents

ctually

ave

him

Benedix

Schonfliess)

ith

ntirely

pocryphal

nes.

These

pen

names

re,however,

armore xotic han

is

given

names,

nd

can thus

hardly

erve

s an

incognito

a

fact hat aises ome

uspicion

bout

hisparents'lleged ar-sightedness.nthe econd lace,heproceeds,n

alleged

accordancewithJewish

ustom,

o

keep

these

lleged

middle

names ecret.

e

has,

s it

were,

dissimilated

hem.

y

first

hanging

and

then

hiding

is

middle

ames,

e

has

convertedhe

ssimilationist

alibi

provided y

his

well-meaningarents

nto he secret

names hat

they ailed

to

give

him.

Thereby

e

s

no

doubt

rotesting,

ike

Kafka

n

his Letter o the

ather,

gainst

heir ailureo

pass

on

their

athers'

151. GS

2.2:

556.

152. Ali Bei is thename hat enjamin lsewherettributeso a Turkishultan

(GS

4.2:

777).

153.

Scholem,

Walter

enjamin

ndsein

ngel

Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

983)

1.

154. Cf.

C

372.









IrvingWohlfarth

35

the

Father's

name.Buthe

s also

ironicallyointing

o the

unilateral,

literary,ven rbitraryaturef his owndissimilationistesture, hich

is,

n

effect,

orlds

part

rom

ny

ctual eimmersion

n

the

raditionf

his forefathers.

ot

merely

o his fictivemiddle ames ound

ven

ess

Jewish

han is

given

nes,

but

hey

ave o

outlandish

ring

s to

sug-

gest

furtherevel

of

secrecy.

t was

Scholem,

he

practised

abbala

scholar,

ho racked

he

ode,

decipheringAgesilaus

antander

s the

almost

erfect

nagram

f Der

Angelus

atanas. 155

This

multilingual

lay

on words s like distant

iterary

cho

ofkab-

balistic

onceptions

f

a secret

anguage.

t is also reminiscent

f

those

Jewish

okes

in which ll effortso

keep

a Jewish ame ecret

merely

result

n the eturnf

the

epressed.

ere, oo,

ecret

ames alculated

o

efface

ewish

rigins

urn ut

ocontainthers

hich,

n

accordance

ith

Benjamin's

heory

f

naming,

old he

key

otheir earer's

estiny.156

n

this

nstance, owever,

henames

n

question

re

pureblasphemy

nd

pure

nvention.

hatever

ruth

hey

ontains authenticated

nly

by

the

author's

wn,

ar

rom

iblical

word,

nd

marks

wilful iolation

freli-

gious

radition.

he

oxymoronic

angel

f

Satan

s

as Janus-faced

s the

little unchback,he ricksterho lternatelyiguresnBenjamin'swrit-

ings

as the

adversary

f

the Messiah

nd

-

slightlydjusted

ike

an

almost

erfect

nagram

as his secret

gent.157

ne

level

of

displace-

ment

hus onceals

nother.

hat ies wo r

three

ayers

own

s no

Jew-

ish

bedrock

there

s

nothing

articularly

ewishbout

hell's

angels

but

further

anifestation

f he

ncanny.

At this

oint,

enjamin roceeds

o

give

similar

wist

o the

almu-

dic

egend

f the

new

ngels

who

ing

heir

phemeral

ymn

f

praise

to

God

before

isappearing

nto hin

ir.His

angel

was,

he

claims,

nter-

ruptednmid-song.ere oo he ittle unchbackasevidentlyeenupto

his

tricks.

otcontent

ith

utwitting

he

ssimilationist

trategy

f

Ben-

jamin's

arents,

e has

also truncated

is

ngel's

message.

And

yet

omething

dentifiably

but

mpurely

Jewish

as

sur-

vived

n

and

through

hese

umulative

isplacements

f

Jewish

radition.

It has

been

transplanted

rom hemedium

f thecreative

Word

the

secret

assword

f

Creation,

s

Benjamin's

arly

ssay

on

language

155.

Scholem,

Walter

enjamin

nd ein

Engel

50.

156. Cf.OWS116.

157. This ittle

man

..

will

disappear

ith

he

oming

f

the

Messiah,

f

whom

great

abbi nce

aidthat

e

didnotwish

o

change

heworld

y

force,

utwould

merely

make

slight djustment

o

t

I 134).









36 Walter

enjamin


arnassus

calls

t to that

f the

iterary

ord,

which ere

reely

nventshibbo-

leths f tsown.Perhaps,s Benjaminnd Scholem oth urmised,ew-

ish tradition

est survives

y

way

of

such

displacement.

erhaps,

s

various cattered

emarksfKafka

uggest,

t s

only

when ollow

ieties

are

destroyed

hat

newKabbala an

begin

o

emerge.

iberated rom

all

liturgical

orms

the

barbarism,

s

Benjamin

alled

t,

of

formulaic

language 158),

he

surviving

etters

f

traditionan then

ecombine

n

unprecedented

ays.

n this

ense, oo,

Benjamin

s,

n

Arendt's

hrase,

the

asthomme e lettres.159

n

reinscribing

is

magined

ameswithin

andagainsthe raditionf theName, he uthorfAgesilaus antander

plays

utobiographical

ariations

n

his

arger roject

f

re-fusing

he-

ology.

He writes is

way

out f he locked lternative

etweenssimila-

tion

nd returnothe old

y

playfullyewriting

isown

genealogy.

is

parents'

onhas

ndeed

ecome

writer,

utnot

he

ne

hey

ad

n

mind.

Benjamin

ad

already

iscovered

hat

heJewish stablishmentas

no

more

avorableo

theunbiased

tudy

f

German-Jewishelationshan

was

theworld roundt.

The

article

hat

e was

commissionedo

write

n

1930

for he

German

ncyclopaedia

udaica

n

Jews

n

German

ultural

life 160aredittleetterhan he nehewrote fewyearsater nGoethe

for heGreat oviet

ncyclopaedia.

ewritten

nd

bridged

y

he

ditors,

it

was,

n

Benjamin's

ords,

purged

f

everything

ssential.

n

edify-

ing

nd

elf-justifying

rand f Jewish

tudies

Judaistik]

wept

very-

thing

lse

n

ts

wake;

Benjamin raised

annah

rendt's ookon Rahel

Vamhagen

or

wimming

gainst

his

urrent

with

owerful

trokes. l161

Religion

specially,

e

had

written

n

the

announcemento

his

pro-

jected

eview

Angelus

ovus,

s a

matter

nly

or

free

pirits. l162

The whole

ontradictory

asis

Fundus]

'63

of

Benjamin's hought,

itsexperimentalharacternd Janus ace 164argely riginatenthis

German-Jewish

uality.

ot

for

othing

oes

Benjamin

ee Kafka'swork

as

describing

n

ellipse

between

he

wo

foci of Jewish

mysticism

and

modem

urban

xperience.165

t the

cross-roads l166

f his own

158.

C

229;

translationodified.

159. 128.

160.

Cf.

GS 2.2: 807-13.

161.

C

596.

162. GS 2.1: 244.

163. C439.

164.

Cf.

WBS

197,

09.

165.

Cf.

I

144-45.

166. C

455.









Irving

Wohlfarth

37

thinking,

comparable

heologico-political

olarity

ntersectsith

Ger-

man-Jewishne. nstead fdenyingitherart f hisculturalmake-up,

Benjamin

made

he ension etween

hem

hemedium fhis

hinking.

e

inhabited

oth

worlds

nd

neither,

lacing

imself etween he

fronts,

s

on his childhood

utings

henhe remained

always

half

step

back n

order

ot

o form

front venwith ismother.167

n

the

ne

hand,

e

considered

German ulture

rom Jewish

ngle;

on

the

other,

he

approached

is

own Jewishness

y way

of an

inverse

efraction.

n

his

youth,

e had wanted o measure

is Judaism

gainst

he

Wickersdorf

idea ;

in

1928

he

responded ratefully

o Scholem's

uggestion

hathe

should or he ime

eing

llow theJewish imensionfhis

thinking

o

emerge

rom

ts

latency nly

rom ithinhe

protective

enclosure

f

his

French

nd German

nterests.168

e

may

havebeen

alluding

ere

o

the ncient

njunction

o make fence round

he

Torah ;

f

o,

the

dif-

ference

s all the

more

ignificant.

he

European

enclosure

round

en-

jamin's

Jewish

world

s

perhaps

not

entirely

issimilar

rom he

materialist

utomat

hat

will

ater

ouse he

heological

warf.

ut

who,

inboth

ases,

s

safeguarding

hom?

t

s almost

s

if

he

afeguarding

f

the nner anctum ere lso ntendeds a protectiongainstt; s if ach

world

were

o

positioned

s

to save the ther

rom

tself.

stranger

o

German

nd French ulture

y

virtuef his

German-Jewishness,

en-

jamin

may

n

turn

ave needed

certain

oreignness

n order o

guard

against

oo

endogamous

relation

o

Judaism.

ere

oo,

he ask

f

the

critic,

ike hat

f

the

ranslator,

as

to

estrange

oth

worlds

the ther

and

one's own

from,

nd

hrough

ne nother.

hus,

while

Benjamin's

Messianic

philosophy

f

language

s

clearly

Jewish

n

inspiration,

he

pure

anguage

t nvokes

s

clearly

otHebrew

as

ithad

been

ncertain

kabbalistheories),ut hematrixf ll humananguages. ence oo, er-

haps,

he

repeated

ostponement

f

Benjamin's

lans

to

visit

Palestine.

For his

Zion

was

a

country

f the

spirit,

land as

yet

untrodden.

Method,

e

wrote,

is detour. 169

t s as

if

his

own

methodical

etours

and

delays

onstituted

he

necessary

ondition

or

his

asymptotic

ela-

tion

as

Scholem

ermed

t)

to

Judaism;

s

if

certain

eed

for

strange-

ment

overned

ll his

relations;

s

if,

iketheBaudelairean

ldneur,

e

were

nowhere

more t

home

han

n the

lement

f

the

foreign;

s

if

the

167. Cf.GS4.1:287.

168.

C

327;

translation

odified.

169.

The

Origin

f

German

ragic

Drama,

trans.

ohnOsborne

London:

NLB,

1977)

28;

translation

odified.

hereafter

GT)









38

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

false situation

n which the GermanJew foundhimself lso contained

chance,perhapseven a promise.Notmerely id itaccentuate foreign-

ness common o

one and

all,

butthe

experience

f

being everywhere

nd

nowhere t

home also

prefigured

he end of

estrangement.

ewishMessi-

anism

was,

in

this

ense,

the

metaphysics

f the

stranger.

According

o the Theses

on the

Philosophy

f

History,

fleeting

constellation

btains etween

he

historian's

ndangered resent

nd

a no

less

oppressed ast.170

he

star

nder

which

Benjamin

himselfwas

born

is identified

n

Agesilaus

Santander

s

Saturn

the

planet

f

the low-

estrevolution,he tar fdetoursnddelays, heplanet, boveall,of mel-

ancholy

and

genius.171

Under

the influence

f

Jupiter,

e

elsewhere

notes,

harmful

nspirations

re transformed

nto beneficial

nes,

Saturn

becomes

the

protector

f

the

most sublime

nvestigations. 172

n Ben-

jamin's

own

case,

this

countervailing

nfluencewas

exerted

y

the

planet

that

ranz

Rosenzweig

had called

the star

f

redemption.

ut he came to

reinterpret

ewish

edemption

n

the

ight

f Marxist

evolution

which,

even as

late

as

1940,

he called

that un

which s

rising

n the

sky

of his-

tory. 173

aturn's

melancholy

nfluence

ould,

however,

e

made to

pale

only f inKafka'sphrase)nothinglse got n theway; only, hats, f he

revolution,

hen

t came

to

power,

did

not,

ike

Saturn,

roceed

o eat its

children.

n

1938,

Benjamin

came across L'Etemit&

par

les

Autres,

homespun

osmological

peculation

n

which,

from

is

last

cell,

Auguste

Blanqui,

the

most

feared

political

prisoner

f his

age, appeared

to have

acknowledged

he

defeat

f

a lifetime's

evolutionary

ctivism n

the

face

of

the

eternal

revolutions

f

the

tars.

f

this last

phantasmagoria

f the

nineteenth

enturyl74

onstituted

political

estament,

t was not

a

promis-

ing

one.

In

1939,

t

nevertheless

truck

powerful

nswering

hord

n Ben-

jamin,

whowonderedftherewas not n fact n inner onnection etween

Blanqui's

voluntarist

ope

and

his

quasi-scientific

espair,

etween

his

put-

schism

and his

astronomy.

f

Blanqui

had

always

avoided

probing

oo

170.

1257,265.

171.

GS 6:

522.

172.

OGT

151.

Benjamin

nows hat theJewswere

rohibited

rom

rying

nto he

future

nd

practiced

emembrance,

ot

oothsaying

I

266);

and he

adds

a tabooof

his

own on

consulting

ortune-tellers.n various

ccasions,

owever,

e

saves

astrology

and

soothsaying,eeing

n

themnot

merely

mythical

evelations

f

destiny,

ut also

mimeticrainingnways fgiving ate he lip.Cf. he irstraftf On theMimetic ac-

ulty

GS

2.1:

209)

and MadameAriane

Second

Courtyard

othe

eft

OWS 98-99).

173.

1

257.

174. GS

5.1: 75.









Irving

Wohlfarth

39

deeply

oth

nto

hetheoretical

oundationsf socialism nd the

ctual

structuresf hehistoricalorld,hiswas Benjaminurmised)ecausehe

sensed

hat he evolutionould

nly

e

achieved

gainst

ll

better

nowl-

edge,

natched

rom he

aws

of those orceswhose

uperiority

e

was

finally

orced o

acknowledge.175

hat

Benjamin

iscovered

n

Blanqui

was

not

merely counterpart

o

Nietzsche'seternaleturnf he

ame, 176

but

lso

a

part

f

himself.177

While

host f differences

eparates

lan-

qui's closing

nscientific

ostscript

rom

enjamin's

which

refers

o

salute

n

Blanqui

he

now tifledsound

f ron hat

hattered

he ast en-

tury 178),hey

emain

foreign

riends

answering

oices

rom

ithin

shifting

istoricalonstellation

overned

y

the

lanets

f

melancholy

nd

revolution.

Immense

melancholy

hat as been

mastered: 179his om-

ment

f

Benjamin's

n Charles

eguy pplies

qually

o

Benjamin

imself.

Benjamin's

major

ritical

work,

he

Origin

f

German

aroque

Drama

[Trauerspiel],

ritten

n

1925,

wells n

an

earlier

istoricalonstellation

of

melancholy,

hantasmagoria,

nd

wakening.

n

the ater

ocabulary

f

the

Theses,

t articulates

he

unique

xperience

hat

merges

rom

secret

endez-vous

etweenhe

resent

nd

highlypecific

ast.180

n

doingo, t lsotacitlyddresseshe secret elation etween ermansnd

Jews.

n the

ighly

pecific

ontext

revalent

t

hat

ime,

he

ystematic

el-

egation

f heGerman

aroque

o

he

margins

f he

cademic-literaryan-

theon

was not

without

ertain

arallels

ith

he ocio-cultural

ate f

the

modem

erman

ew.Not

for

othing

s an

mportant

ection f

Benjamin's

treatise

evoted

o

a

long-standingampaign

f

denunciation. 181

For

over

century,

t

begins,

the

hilosophy

f

arthasbeen

ubjected

o

the

rule f

usurper

ho

ame

o

power

nthe

onfusion

fRomanticism. l182

Here

s

elsewhere

enjamin

urns

he

ables:

t s no

longer

he

German-

Jewish riterutGermanomanticismho s now ast sthe surper.he

usurpation

n

question

s

that

f theRomantic

ymbol;

tsmost

ignificant

175.

Cf.

GS

1.3:

1154.

n

an

early

etter,

enjamin

itesthe formula

fraternity,

almost

gainst

ne's better

udgment

C

57).

176.

Cf.

GS

5.1:

75.

177.

Cf.

Benjamin's

etter

f

1935,

n whichhe considers

t

terribly

oubtful

whether

is

generation

ill

be the

ne to

do

what

heworld

s

waiting

or

to

arrest

ts

immemorial

ycle

fblood nd

horror

C 516).

178.

1262;

translation

odified.

179. C 147.

180.

1264,

256,

265;

translationodified.

181. OGT

162.

182.

OGT

159;

translation

odified.









40 Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

and intimate

nemy

s

allegory;

nd,

as so

often,

he

antagonism

betweenhe earlier nd he later ormsasbeen non-conceptual,eep,

and

bitter,

ll themore o for

aving

een

fought

ut

beneathhe urface

[im

tillen].183

enjamin

as

no

quarrel

ith

Romantic

efinitionsf the

symbol

s a

momentaryotality

hich nites he

ensuousnd he

uper-

sensuousn

mystical

ow. 184

e

objects nly

o he oncomitant

preju-

dice '185

the wordoccurs hree imes

against

llegory

s

being

outdated,ead,

rbitrary,

onventional,

bstract,

on-aesthetic,

tc.Thevio-

lent

ensions

e

observes etween

he

earlier nd the

later

rope

re

surely

eminiscentf thefarmore ncient

ntagonism

etween ews

nd

Christians.heGerman-Romantic

ymbol

laims,

n

effect,

o enact n

immediate,

edemptiveransfiguration

f

reality

one

which,

onsidered

from

German-Jewish

osition,

onstitutes

premature,

seudo-auratic,

quasi-sacramental

ulfillment

f

the

Messianic

romise.

llicitly raught

with hristian

heology,

he

ymbol

s celebrated

y

he

ominant

esthetics

as

a

kind

f

holy

ommunion,

eaving

llegory

n

the

osition

f

the lind-

folded

ynagogue.

n the

asis

of

Jewish

remises,enjamin

roceeds

o

transvalue

his oaded

pposition,einterpreting

he

rbitrary

aturef lle-

gorys a melancholyeflectionf ndon the all f anguagento he rbi-

traryigns,

he

unredeemed

raits

f

the

historical

orld. he

brooding,

allegorical aze

thus

onstitutes

n

indispensable

orrectiveo all

fleeting

epiphanies.

ust

s

theJew

s not

ully

dmittedo

German

olitics,

llegory

is

not

ully

dmitted

o

Germanesthetics.

llegory

ould hus e

to

sym-

bol what

he

stranger

s

to

society

its

ncanny

nner

ther,

he eturnf

a

repressed

nowledge

f

he

all,

he

writing

n

thewall.186

In

privileging

he

xcluded

ther,

enjamin

oes

not,

owever,

ro-

ceed to substitute

Jewish or Christian

rejudice.

Whereas

n

he

ymbol

eclines

transfigured

nd

he adiant

ace f

nature

leetingly

evealed

n

the

ight

f

redemption,

n

allegory

he

observer

s

confronted

ith he

acies

hippocratica

f

history

s a

pet-

rified,

rimordial

andscape.

verything

bout

istory

hat

as

been,

fromhe

ery

eginning,

ntimely,

orrowful,

bortives

etchedn a

face

orrathern

death's

ead.

7

183. OGT

161.

184.

OGT

165;

translation

odified.

185. OGT 163.

186.

Benjamin

hows

hat

llegory

as

been

persistently

ssociated ith

ieroglyphs,

inscriptions

nd

writing

n

general,

ncluding riting

n

thewall.

Cf.

OGT 162

passim.

187.

OGT

166;

translation

odified.









IrvingWohlfarth

41

What

enjamin

ontestss thus

ot he

ymbol

s

such,

ut ts

false,

ege-

monic, seudo-theologicallaims. tsonly in s its ttemptoexpropriate

allegory

nd o

usurp

ts

place

a

state

f

ffairs

hat

s

strangely

voca-

tive

of the ater

istory

f German-Jewish

elations.

ust s

Germany,

n

banishing

he

Jews,

xiles

tself,

o the

repression

f

allegory

edoubles

its

actuality.

he

ast

episode

n this

attle

f the

ropes

s

played

ut

n

the

Theses

n

the

hilosophy

f

History.

ere he atest mbodiment

f

the

millennial

enemy

ho

has

not

eased

o

be

victorious, '88

he

at-

est

usurper

f the

ymbol,

s thefascist

Antichrist,

hat alsest

f

false

Messiahs

who,

wearing

death's

head nd a

perverted

ross nhis

uni-

form,

promises

edemptionnd apocalypsenow, holy communion

through

xtermination.

he atest mbodiment

f the

llegorical aze

is,

in

turn,

he

angel

f

history,

hose

yes

re

rivetedo a

mountingeap

of

rubble

onsisting

f

the

arbitrary

igns

of

arbitrary

iolence the

ongoing

orld-historical

rauerspiel

hatwe

like ocall

progress.189

Yet

Benjamin's

elebrated

uxtaposition

f

allegory

nd

symbol

lso

suggests

hat

hey

onstitute

wo

qually

egitimate

ropes. erhaps,

here-

fore,

we

mayglimpse

ere

friendship

etween

oreign

riends

a

relationshipetween hristianndJew,tonce ntagonisticndcomple-

mentary,

fthekind

hat

merges

rom he

young

enjamin's

ccount

f

a

passionate

uarrel

ith isclosest

hristian

riend:

[Fritz

einle]

onfronted

e n he ame

f ove nd

countered

ith

the

ymbol.

..

even

hough

ach

fus

s

the

ther,

ach

must eces-

sarily

emain

rue o

his wn

pirit....

want he

ulfillment

hat

ne

can

nly

wait,

e

wants

o

fulfill.190

Benjamin

s here

nvoking

n

authenticallyheological

otion f

symbol,

as opposedto the vulgar, sentimentalravestyf it purveyed y

Romantic

esthetics.191

roperly

nderstood,

ymbol

s

indeed

a

momentaryotality:

amely,

chip

f

Messianic

ime, 192

temporal

pars pro

toto.As

such,

t

s

already

and

not

yet

the

Messianic fulfillment

thatt

ymbolizes.

s

a

fleeting

illumination,

fulfilled

refiguration

f

a fulfillment

et

o

come,

t

could,

n

this

ense,

e called

he

Christian

moment

within

enjamin's

Jewish

Messianism

the element

which

188. 1257.

189. 1259-60.

190.

C

56-57;

ranslationodified.

191. Cf.OGT

159-60.

192. Cf.1265.









42

Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

helps

save

it from

eing

reducible

o

onlyawaiting

he

Messiah.193

But theanatomy fmelancholy erformednBenjamin's study fthe

German

Trauerspielpoints

above

all

to the Jewish

world

concealed

behind

he

enclosure

of

his

literary

nterests.

ead

in

a

German-Jewish

perspective,

he

seventeenth-century

erman-Protestant

play

of mourn-

ing

here

oins

the medievalJewish

enre

f

complaint

Klage],

which

in

turns

orms

art

f an

age-old

Jewish iterature

f

lamentation

ating

from heBible

and the

Wailing

Wall.194 t s

in

this

ense

that

one

may

peak

f

the

rial

Prozess]

f

the reature

hose

omplaint

[Klage] gainst eath orwhoever lse tmay ndict isonly ar-

tially

ealt

with nd s

adjourned

t

the nd

of

he

Trauerspiel.195

A Jewish

onception

f

history

hus

finds

ts

Protestant

ounterpart

n

the

German

Trauerspiel.

Unlike

eitherAristotelian

ragedy196

r

theFreudian

work

of

mourning,

othof which

bring

athartic

esolution,

he

play

of

193.

Benjamin's

ersion f Messianism

hus

diverges

rom heone

against

which

Scholem

lays

ff

is

ownZionist ommitmento

history

hen e

writes

hat

n

Judaism

theMessianicdeahas compelled lifeivedndeferment,nwhich othingan be done

definitively,othing

rrevocablyccomplished The

Messianic dea inJudaism

New

York:

chocken,

971]

5). Profoundly

nreal,

bstract,

nd

provisionalhough

heMes-

sianic dea

s,

every ttempt

orealize

t,

whethern

religious

r

Marxist

erms,

tears

pen

the

bysses

which ead each of

ts

manifestations

d

absurdum ;

ven

Zionism

virtually

conjures p

both he

Messianic

laim nd

ts

risis

The

Messianicdea n

Judaism

5).

194.

Cf.,

on

Scholem's

mediation,

BS

82.

Benjamin

inds

emnants

f thismedi-

eval

genre

n

unexpectedlaces.

Thus,

Karl

Kraus ombats

he

aily

ress

with the ter-

nally

new

news'

that

has

come

in from

he

history

f

Creation: he

eternally

ew,

unabatedament

GS

2.1:

345).

And ertain

oems

fBrecht raise

he ament

bout he

newest

tate

f

affairs that

ament

o

onger

ven xists

GS

2.1:

550).

Benjamin

nd

Scholem

were,

owever,

mphaticallypposed

othe

onfusion

fJewish

nd

Christolog-

icalmotifserpetratedyErnst loch nGeist erUtopieWBS88-89). cholem's laim

thatBloch

projects

German-Jewishr

Jewish-German

hilosophy

f

history

nto

Judaism

t

arge

evertheless

lso

raises

omparableuestions

bout

heir wn

position.

195. OGT 137.

196.

According

o

Benjamin,

reek

ragedy

s

also the

depiction

nd revision f a

mythic

rial,

ut he

new

resolution

L5sung, rlisung]

s

only

emporary,

roblematic

and imited

OGT 116-17).

Only

he

Trauerspiel,

owever,

epeatedly

akes

p

the om-

plaint.

ts

resumption

is

implicit

n

the

Trauerspiel,

nd

sometimest

actually

merges

from

ts

latent tate

....

Again

and

again,

the

seventeenth-century

rauerspiele

reat

he

same

ubjects

n

such

way

hat

hese

anand

must

epeat

hemselves

...

These

dramas

should

othave

had n

oddnumber

f cts

..

;

an

even

number

s

much

more

ppropriate

to the epeatablectionswhich hey escribeOGT 137;translationodified).enjamin

sees

n

the

aroque rauerspiel

specifically

erman

lternativeo

Greek

ragedy part

of a

side-path

hat

eadsfrom he

medieval

mystery

lay

hrough

he

sublime utbar-

ren

massif'

f

German lassicism o

Brecht's

epic

heater

GS

2.2:

523).









IrvingWohlfarth

43

mourning

xtracts

n

enigmatic,

ven adistic

leasure

rom

potentially

interminablerocess fmourning.reud's ssay MourningTrauer]nd

Melancholia as

thus

o be

counterpointed

y

anotheritle:

Terminable

and

nterminable

nalysis.

nterminable

ourning

s not nthis ontext

pathological

ymptom

ut he awof

repressedenre.

t

constitutes

pace

Nietzsche)

he

only

ommensurate

esponse

o the eternal

eturn

f the

same

to

a fate hat ere

as

nothing

eathen

r

Greek bout

t,

ut

s

predicated

n the

uilt

f

he all.197

ccording

o

Benjamin's

hilosophi-

cal

reading

f

thefirst

hapters

f

Genesis,

hecreature's

ament,

om-

plaint

r

accusation

the word

Klage

carries ll

these

meanings

originates

n the adnesshatmutes ature's liss t

being

amed.Nature

is,

as it

were,

he

Jew(ess)

matter

ndmaterial

of the

god-given

Word.

he

wordless

omplaiiit

f das

Traurige198

an

adjectival

oun

reminiscent

f

das

Jiidische,

as

Unheimliche,

tc.-

is a

polysemous

Klage

in

a

no

less

polyvalent,

ever-ending

trial

one

which,

s

in

Benjamin's

eading

f

Kafka,

inally

uts

he

ourt

tself

n

question.

rom

the

perspective

f

the

Trauerspiel

nd,

n

1940,

f

the

angel

f

history,

history,

ver

ince

ts bortive

nception,

s itself ne

ong

ndless rial.

More pecifically,heBaroque rauerspielives ormothedevelop-

ing

historico-religious

risis

hat

inds

xpression

wo

centuries

ater

n

Baudelaire's

llegorical

pleen.

enjamin's

ubsequent

ork n

Baudelaire,

which

e

pursues

n

the

middle

o

ate

hirties,

s

governed

y

a

three-point

constellation

etween

is

own

historical

resent,

ts

nineteenth-century

ri-

gins,

nd their

eventeenth-centuryrehistory.

here

Max Weber orre-

lates

he

rotestant

thicwith

he

pirit

f

capitalism,

nd

Wernerombart,

inMarx's

wake,

ocusses

n

the ole

fJews

nthe

mergence

f

he

api-

talist

conomy,

enjamin's

ovetailing

f

Protestant

nd

Jewish

heology

dwells ntheundersidefthe ame process. heworldmaybe disen-

chanted,

ut

t s not

redeemed;

he

ise

f he

ourgeoisie

oincides

ith

a

fall nto

ubjectivity;

nd

n 1925

ll that

enjamin

an

pit

gainst

he

phantasmagorias

f

he

all s

an

unashamedly

heological

wakening.199

Perhaps

his

s

why,

ven

s

he was

completing

he

roject,

e described

t

as

marking

n end

or

im not or

ny

rice

beginning. 200

If t

took

German

ew o

save theGerman

rauerspiel,

his

eha-

bilitation

f one

baroque

stranger

y

another

as

hardly

alculated

o

197. Cf.OGT129.

198.

Cf.GS2.1:

155.

199.

Cf.

OGT 232.

200.

C 261.









44

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

gain

him

Habilitationt

a German

niversity.enjamin,

ho

in his

youth ad iked o magine imselfs Dr.Nebbich f he Universityf

Muri, 201

escribed is

Trauerspiel

manuscript,

n

another,

rimmer

mockery

f the

German

niversity,

s a

SleepingBeauty hinly

is-

guised

n

themock-academicobes hehadventured

o weave t

an

old-

fashioned

pinning-wheel. 202

uch

unmitigated

hutzpah,

s he

him-

self alled he

epistemo-critical

ntroduction

o

his

manuscript,203

as

a

response

o

a

much

deeper

nsolence

that

f

a

Sombart,

ho,

n a

much-discussedrticle

ublished

n

1912,

had dvised

heJews

o volun-

tarily

enounce

he

public ositions

o which

hey

werenow

egally

nti-

tled. n his ectureWissenschaftls Beruf' 1919),Max Weberhad n

turn

aken

t for

granted

hatJews hould bandon ll

hope

of

finding

positions

t German

niversities.204

hen,

herefore,

enjamin

ubmit-

ted

his

Origin

of

German

Trauerspiel

o the

University

f Frankfurt

ix

years

ater,

he

gesture

as,

ike

o

many

f

his

nitiatives,

omething

f

sociological

xperiment

as

he

would

ater all Baudelaire's

andidacy

for he Academie

Frangais).205

hat

price

he

so-called

entry-ticket

thathad been

dangled

efore

uropean ewry

ver

ince ts

emancipa-

tion? n 1923,Benjamin ad declinedosign political etitionn the

grounds

hat he

ituation

f

German

ews

made

ny

uch

gesture

ook

suspiciously

ike n

attempt

o bribe ne's

way

n.

Now,

wo

years

ater,

Benjamin,

n

nveterate

ambler

nd

hess-player,

ried

ut

quite

iffer-

ent,

ounter-assimilationist

ove,

his

ime

n

academic

errain.

ould

they o

along

f

he

pretended

o

play

heir

ame?

Benjamin

reely

dmitted

isambivalence

is-6-vishe

cademy.

In

a letter

ou

ent

o

me

n

Capri,

e writeso

Scholem,

youwrote.. that ouhadthe mpressionhatmy nternalesistance

tothe abilitation

ould

ain

he

pper

and ow

hatt ookeds

if,

externally,

he

way

was

being

moothed.he

diagnosis

s

correct,

he

prognosis,

hope,

alse.206

Benjamin

ent bout

btaining

cademic

ecognition

ith

much

he ame

savagely

nscrutable

ormality

ith

which aul Celanwould

ater

ccept

literary

ecognition

from

Meine

Damen undHerren

upon receiving

201.

Cf.

WBS

101.

202. C 295.203. C 261.

204.

Cf.

Science

s

Vocation,

rom

Max Weber:

ssays

n

Sociology

34.

205.

GS 1.2:

680.

206.

C

260;

translation

odified.









Irving

Wohlfarth

45

the

Georg

Uichner

rize.207

n

ntricate

erman-Jewish

trategy

s

observ-

ablewithinndbehind enjamin'sext. otyet ware f heMarxistlter-

native orwhich e

later

pted,

e aimed o

rescue

he

best

philological

traditions

f heGerman

niversity

romheir

resent-day

ecline,

o

outdo,

and

thereby

o

subvert,

resent-day

bourgeois-idealist

erman

cholar-

ship,

without,

owever,

akingny

oncessionso he

nti-bourgeois

deal-

ism

of

the

George

school,

the

prevailing ounter-power

n

German

intellectualife.208

onforming

o

academic

onventions,

ven othe

oint

of

parody,

e

sought,

rom ehind hat

over,

o treat f matters hich

pointed

ar

eyond

ll

narrowly

cademic oncernso

genuine

onfluence

ofGermanndJewish

hought.

ut,

s Nietzsche's

psychology

fresent-

ment

ad

shown,

mediocrity

s not

asily

ooled,

nd

Benjamin

as

pre-

vailed

upon

to

withdrawis

manuscript.209

Intellect

Geist]

annot e

habilitated,

German

rofessor

ould ommentn

the

pisode

ecades

later.210

e was

referring

o

much he ame

Jewish)

intellect hat

ud-

wigKlages

had

ominously

pposed

othe

German)

soul

n a

work

Der

Geist

ls

Widersacher

er

Seele)

from

which

Benjamin

neverthelessid

not

withhold

is

dmiration.

lready

efore

WorldWar

,

he hadnot

hesitated

to dentifyimselfs a Literat edicatedo the ife fthemindGeist].211

Those

whoknew

im

est

would

escribe

im

s the

urest

f

minds.

After

is

calculated

ailureo

enter

he

niversity,enjamin

ived

y

his

pen

ntil

933,when,

o

onger

ble

o

publish

n

Germany,

e

oined

he

row-

ing

xodus

f

German

ews

and,

with

hem,

uch

f

German

ulture212

207.

Cf.

Paul

Celan,

Der

Meridian,

esammelte

erke,

ol.

3 187-202.

208.

Cf.

C

371-72.Arendt

omments:

Despite

heir

ose

of

being

bove

politics,

George's isciples

ere

ully

s

conversant

ith

he

asic

principles

f

iterary

aneuvers

as the

professors

erewith hefundamentals

f academic

olitics

r the

hacks

nd

our-

nalists ith heABC of one

good

urn eservesnother 'I 10).

209.

Cf.

rving

Wohlfarth,

Resentment

egins

t

home:

Nietzsche,

enjamin,

nd

the

University,

n

Walter

enjamin,

d.

Gary

mith

Cambridge:

IT,

1988)

224-59.

210. Cited

n

WBS119.

211.

GS

2.1:

28ff.

n his

correspondence

ith

udwig

trauss,

enjamin

dentifies

Zionism f the

pirit

with he

figure

f

der

heutige,

ntellektuelleiteraten-Jude.

n so

doing,

e transvalues

much-maligned

igure.

rendt

s

reported

y

Rolf

Tiedemann

o

have

aid oAdorno

n

NewYork hat

enjamin

as

a

Kaffeehausliterat.

his eems

ighly

unlikely

unless,

hat

s,

he erm

s

taken

nthe

ense

iven

t

by

he

young enjamin.

212.

In

the

pring

f

1933

Paris

ecame

he

rovisional

apital

fGerman

iterature....

For ome t was more ike

homecoming

han

n exile. Frederic

.

Grunfeld,

rophets

withoutonour. BackgroundoFreud, afka, insteinndtheirWorldNewYork:Holt,

Rienhart,

nd

Winston,

979)

220;

the

hapter

eading,

Ultima

Multis,

choes

he

nscrip-

tion

hat

enjamin

ound n

a

sun-dial

n

biza.

Grunfeld

oes

on

to

cite

Heinrich

ndTho-

masMann's

quations

fGerman

migration

ith

ermany

ndGermaniterature

t

arge.









46

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

from

ermany.

s

early

s

1923,

he had

envisagedmigration

s a

possi-

ble solutiono his materialndculturalituation,uccessivelyonsider-

ingCapri

and

ater

taying

n

Ibiza),

where

ife

was

sun-drenchednd

cheap,

Jerusalem,

here e would e able

to devote imselfo the

om-

mentary

f

holy

exts,

nd

Moscow,

which

eld ut o n

solated

ntellec-

tual uch

s himselfhe

romise

f

meaningful

ollective

ramework.

n

1933,

he

finally

migrated

o

Paris,

where

e

would

ke

out

a

meager

existence,

argely

n

the

asis

of

he

mall

tipend

e receiveds

a

regular

contributoro

the

emigre

Zeitschrift

fr

Sozialforschung.

he

choice of

Paris

the

econd

home,

ince he

middle

f the

nineteenth

entury,

f

so many xiles nd xpatriates213doubtlesseflectedisdeepestntel-

lectual

nterests.

t

was,

as

Arendt

otes,

ot

merely

geographical

ut

also

a

temporal

ovebackwardso thenineteenth

entury214

a

base

from

hich

e

could

tudy

hemove

forwardo

modernity.

esideswrit-

ing

many

rticles nd

publishing

is

Trauerspielmanuscript,

e

had

already ut

ogether

modernist

ontage

f short

olitico-literary

exts

entitled

One-

Way

Street

1928)

-

French urrealism

efracted

hrough

the

omplex ensibility

f

German-Jewish

arxist and

onceived he

ideaof project asedonthe aris rcades.

Shortly

fter

eavingGermany,enjamin

omposed

series

f arti-

cles entitled Berlin ChildhoodAround

NineteenHundred

n

order,

s he

put

t,

o

vaccinate

imself

gainst

hehomesickness

hich

e

anticipated

he wouldfeelnowthat e was

separated,

erhaps ermanently,

rom is

native

ity.215

hese ntricate

ieces

make n

instructive

ontrast ith

Stefan

weig's

World

f

Yesterday,

hich

laces

ts

nostalgic

memories

of a

prewar

hildhood

pent

n

the

gilt-edgedecurity

f the

Habsburg

Empire

within he

mmovable

rame

f a

golden ge. 216

he

idea of

213.

When

Benjamin

irst

isited aris

n

1913,

he felt

almost

more t home n ts

streetsndmuseumshan

n

hose fBerlin

C 27).

214.

1

19-20.

215. GS 7: 385.

216. Stefan

Zweig,

Die Welt

von

Gestern.

rinnerungen

ines

Europdiers

Frankfurt/

Main:

Fischer,

978)

2. HannahArendt's eview f

Zweig's

memoir

xposes

henine-

teenth-century

llusions

hat urvive

is

brutal

isillusionment:

Naturally,

he

world

which

weig

depicts

as

anything

ut

he

world

f

yesterday

...

But he are alue f

his

documents

in

no

way

essened

y

the

fact hat or

s

today

he

rellises ehindwhich

these

eople pent

heir

ives,

nd

owhich

hey

wed

heir

xtraordinary

eeling

f

ecu-

rity,eem ingularlyikeprisonrghetto alls Portraitfa Period, JP114). t is

precisely

his

bscure

wareness

f

trellises

nd

prison

r

ghetto

alls

that

lready

characterizes

enjamin's

hildhood

xperience.

f.

his

recollectionf

ooking

hrough

grate

n he

avement

nto he asement

wellings

f he

oor

GS

4.1:

30).









Irving

Wohlfarth

47

recounting

he

ast

the

way

t

ctually

as

-

Ranke'swiees

eigentlich

gewesenst217 was,for enjamin,heworst,hemost blivious ffic-

tions.As

the

xample

fProust's echerche u

Temps

erdu

had

shown,

autobiography

as,

ike

historiography,

shifting

onstellationetween

past

nd

present.218

ut

Benjamin

who,

artly

ith ranz

Hessel,

rans-

lated

hree olumes

f he

Recherche)

imed

o

pursue

his

nsight

eyond

the

imits fhisaddictivemodel.

he

mages

e hadretained

fhis

urban

childhood

ere

notably

hose hat

preformed 219

ater

istorical

xperi-

ence,

remonitions

fdisaster

nly

imly

ntuitedt the ime.

Meanwhile,

the

unseen

negatives

f

his childhood ad

developed,

s

in

a

dark

room,

nto

mages

which isclosed o

many

memoriesf thefuture

within

he

rotected

orld

f

yesteryear.220

he

closing

ection

f

A

Berlin

Childhood

dentifies

hehidden

hotographer

ho takes hese

ictures

whenwe aren't

ooking

s

the lusive

ittle unchback

fGerman

olklore,

the

rankster

ho

lways

atches

he

hild

nawares.221

ccording

o

Ben-

jamin,

t

s

only

t

moments

f

danger

and

not

nly,

s Proust

ad

t,

by pure

chance 222

that hese tolen

mages

re returned

o

us,

from

behind

is

back nd

ours.

As the

ast

masterf

oblivion,

Proustian)

inter-

mittences,nd (Freudian)belatedness Nachtrdglichkeit]hoplays

(Benjaminian)

havoc

Nachsehen]

ith ur

lans,

he

anny

unchback

acts as

the secret

gent

of memoire

nvolontairend

thereby

s

the

uncanny

host-writer

f

Benjamin's

wn

memoir.

What

A

Berlin Childhood

id

for

Benjamin'spast,

the so-called

Arcades

roject Passagenwerk]

hat

enjamin

ketchedut n

the

pro-

spectus

Paris,

Capital

of

the

Nineteenth

entury

as

to

attempt

or

the

prehistory

Urgeschichte]

f

the

world-historical

resent.

ere

too,

the

crucial

ensewas

the

future

lready resent

n

the

past.

At

a

timewhen therswere eekingo mediate etween istoricalmaterial-

ism and

psychoanalysis,

enjamin

onceived

he

materialist

istorian

217.

Cited

n

1257.

218.

Proust

idnot escribe

life

s

it

ctually

as,

but

life

s it

was

remembered

by

the ne

who

had

ived

t

1204).

219. GS

7.1:

385.

220.

Cf.

Anna

ttissi,rinnerung

n

die

Zunkunft.

alter

enjamins

Berliner

ind-

heit

um

Neunzehnhundert,

G6ttingen:

andenhoeck

Ruprecht,

977).

The

crucial

image

f

involuntary

emory

re,

ccording

o

a never-delivered

alk f

Benjamin's

n

Proust,hoseunconscious nesthat we never aw beforewe rememberedhem nd

which

meanwhile

developed

n he

ark

oom

f he ivedmoment

GS

2.3:

1064).

221. GS

4.1: 304.

222. Cf. 160and

257.









48

Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

as a medium223ho

reads he ollective

phantasmagorias

f

the

nine-

teenthenturyn order o awaken thistime n a revolutionary,o

longer imply

heological

ense)

rom

he

nightmare

ithin

hedream.

Throughout

he

hirties,

enjamin

orked t

the

Bibliotheque

ationale

on this

ast

venture,

hich

angerouslyelayed

is

departure

rom

aris.

Only

the tudies

n

Baudelaire

chieved

artial

ompletion.hey

mark

anothersecret endez-vous 224

etween wo

untimely

itnesses

the

poete

maudit

who,

bhorringprogress

nd

the

avant-garde,hereby

paradoxicallynaugurates

rue

iterarymodernity,

nd

a still

more

ep-

resentative

asualty

f

progress, amely,

he

refugee, ho,

s

Arendt

willobserven

1943,

mbodies he

vanguard

f he

uture.225

By

1935,

he

xodus f

well-known

ritersrom

ermany

rompted

Leopold

Schwarzschild,

he ditor f

the

most

widely

ead

xile

ournal,

to

write

hat

iterature

as

the

nly

German

reasurehat as

been

afely

ransferred

ut f

the

Third eich

....

It

s the

nly alvaged

ortuneo

remain

ntact:he

whole

fGerman

iterature,

ot

ust

ieces

r

plinters

f

t,

asfound

refuge

eyond

he

ordersf he hird

eich.226

If

thebestof

Germany

ad

gone

nto

xile,

Benjamin

as

nevertheless

rarely

n

agreement

ith

he

iterary

nd

political

ositions

dopted

y

his

fellow-exiles.orhim

here

ould,

or

xample,

e no

question

f

wanting

to

preserve

he

whole

f

German

iteraturentact. ot

merely

as talk

f

preserving

reasureso

match or

he

ngoing

estruction

f

tradition,

ut

it

was

n

many espects

ts

fagade.

What

ifferenceas

there

etween

re-

serving

r

destroying

ulture

f

one

did

so

en bloc?

To

oppose

culture,

or

progress,

o barbarismn

he

name

f,

ay,

he

opular

ront

as to

ignoreheiromplicity.he crisis idnotdatefromhe udden,ersonal

disaster

f

enforced

migration;

he

ourgeois-humanist

eritage

as

ong

since

hattered.he

only

iable

trategy

as,

n

Hegel'sphrase,

to

enter

the

nemy's

trength,

he

ettero

turn is

destruction

gainst

tself.

223.

Cf.

Irving

Wohlfarth,

Walter

enjamin:

e

'medium'de

l'histoire,

tudes

Germaniques

Jan.-Mar.

996):

99-157.

224.

1256;

translation

odified.

225.

Refugees

riven rom

ountry

o

country

epresent

he

vanguard

f

their

eo-ples if hey eep heirdentities.or he irstime ewishistorysnot eparateut ied

up

with

hat f

ll

other ations

TJP55-66)

226.

Cited

n

Grunfeld24.









Irving

Wohlfarth

49

Some

pass

things

own o

posterityy

making

hem

ntouchablend

thus onservinghem. thers asson situationsymakinghem rac-

ticable

ndthus

iquidating

hem. he atter

recalled

destructive.227

It was

not,

herefore,

matter

f

saving

he

heritage y

spiriting

hecrown

jewels

across

the

border,

ut

of

seizing

the

opportunity

fforded

y

the

wholesale destruction

f

so-called

culture o

salvage

certain

pieces

and

splinters

f it.

Only

n

despair

did Karl

Kraus

discover

n

quotation

he

ower

ot o

preserve

ut

o

purify,

o

tear

ut

of

context,

o

destroy:

he

nly ower

n

which

ope

till esides hat

something ight

utlasthis

ge

- becausetwas hewn romt.228

Such

was the

impulse

behind

Berlin

Childhood,

the

Arcades

project,

nd

another f

Benjamin's

most cherished

rojectsduring

his

earlyyears

of

exile

-

the

publication

f

selected

etters

written

y

repre-

sentatives

f

a

better

erman

ast.

Before

going

nto

xile,

Benjamin

had,

under

over

of

anonymity,

anaged

o

publish

hese etters ne

by

one in

the

Frankfurtereitung,

omplete

with

brief

ccompanying

ommentar-

ies.

Like

the

Habilitation nd his

final

border

rossing

on

a

smugglers'

route,

his

project,

oo,

was a contraband

peration

which failed

to

reach

its destination

ntil

ong

after

verything

as

over. Underthe

simple

but

telling

itleDeutsche

Menschen nd

the

editorial

seudonym

etlev

Holz,

a

relatively

omplete,

but

practically

unnoticed,

dition of

the letters

eventually

ame

out

in

Switzerland

further

onfirmation,

f

any

were

still

needed,

of

Benjamin's

earlier laim that

ll

genuine

German-Jewish

dialogue

had

been banished

from

he

public sphere.

Exclusion

and

exile were not

only

the fateof

Benjamin's

little ook

butalso itsunderlyingheme. n an unpublishedntroductione writes

that

his intention

as to

show

the

faceofthat

secret

ermany

hat

ne ikes

o ook

for

owadays

behind hrouds

f

murky og.

For

there

s indeed

secret

ermany.

But ts

ecrecy

s

..

the

work f

noisy,

rutal

orces

hich,

n

refusing

it

public

ccess,

have ondemned

t o

efficacy

f

a secret ind.

hese

are

the

ame

forces hat anished

eorg

orster

rom is

fatherland,

caused

H61derlin

o seekhis ivelihoods

a tutor

n

France,

nd

played

Seume

nto hehands f Hessian

recruiters

ho

despatched

im

to

America. . Forster ndSeumecall [these orces] ytheir ame;

227.

OWS

158.

228.

OWS

287-88;

ranslation

odified.









50

Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

Hblderlin

pposes

o them he ontoursf German

enius,

s in his

most erfectoems. or none fthesemen or their uccessorsn

the

resent

ollection

ever

ought

nhiscreative

ork n

alibiwith

which o evade

he all to action

mplicit

n

his

bourgeois

light.

t

s

precisely

ecause

these etters

make

this

so

clear

that

hey

have

remained

o

unknown.

his

s

true

f

Forster'snd

of

Seume's etters.

And

while

H6lderlin's

ere oubtless

ead,

t

was what

hey

ad o

say

about

Germany

o theGermans hatwent east

understood.here

s

one solace

n all

this:

hese

etters ave

remained

holly

ntouched.

They

were

verlookedtthe

ommemorative

estivities.

ndwhen he

speech-makers

id

occasionally

ucceed

n

falsifying

hesemen's

work y eavinghe mpressionhathey adnothingosay, rratherno

testimony

o leave

us,

a

glance

t their ettersufficeso show

where,

hen s

now,

hat

Germany

tands

which

s

still,

las,

a secret

one.229

Not unlike the Romantic

misappropriation

f

the

symbol,

he

appeal

to

das

geheime

Deutschland

a sectarian

assword

riginally

aunched

by

Stefan

George

-

usurps

a noble

heritage.

he

latter-daymystique

f a

secret

Germany

s,

Benjamin

here

hints,

n

more

or

less tacit

eague

with he

forcesof

the

day;

and

these forces

have

been all

along

the

self-

same ones thatreducethe

truly

ther

Germany

theone with which

Benjamin aligns

himself to

secrecy

f

a

quite

different,

aterialkind.

It is thus not

merely

Judaism hathas

its secretrelations

nd

hidden

tradition.

ermany

oes

too.

And

it s

between hese severalhidden ra-

ditions,

German

and

Jewish,

hat

he

truest, oblest,

most

revolutionary

relationsexist. The

truly

ecret

Germany

has

nothing

foggy

or

occult

about t: t s the clandestine radition

f the

revolutionarynlightenment,

epitomized y

Forster, eume, Biichner,

nd

H0lderlin,

German

menwho

were, ikeBenjamin, educed opovertynddriven nto xile.Anemigre

German

Jew

here

calmly

ntervenes

etween

H6lderlin

nd the Germans

in

order o

prevent

hem

from

misunderstanding

hat he

actually

had to

say

to them bout

their atherland.230

It

is

always

the ame turn

f

phrase,

ne of his

commentaries

egins,

-

Holderlin

o

B~hlendorf:

A

German

will

ndmust

ndeed

emain,

even

f

the

needs

of

heart nd stomach

hould riveme to

Tahiti;

229.

GS

4.2:

945.

230. Whoevermeasureshedepthsf hisphilosophicalhoughtsbout hings er-

man

[das

Deutsche],

writes

enjamin

n

his

commentary

n

a letter f

HOlderlin's,

thereby

lso

measures he

epth

f

the ilence

mposed

n him

oncerning

erman on-

ditions

GS

4.2:

946).









Irving

Wohlfarth

51

Kleist

o

FrederickWilliam

II:

thathe had

more

han

nce

come

closetoconsideringhedea of eeking livingbroad; udwigWol-

fram o

Vamhagen

on

Ense: You

will

surely

ot llow

a

German

writer

funsullied

iteraryeputation

o

fall

destitute;

regorovius

o

Heyse:

These

Germans

ould ntruthllow

one

to starve. ndnow

Biichner

o Gutzkow:

You

should ee what

German

s

capable

of

when

e s

hungry.

t

s a harsh

ight

hat alls rom

uch

etters

n the

long

rocession

fGerman

oets

nd

hinkers

ho,

hackled

o a com-

mon

light,

huffle

ast

he oot

f hatWeimarian

arnassusn which

professors

ave

recently

esumedheir otanicalxcursions.231

This latter ormulation eads even moreominously oday,now thatthe

memory

f

Buchenwald

ooms over Weimar.Like

Benjamin's

definition

of the critic s

a

strategist

n the

struggle

or iterature 232

nd his claim

that he

materialist istorian

egards

t as his taskto brush

history gainst

the

grain 233

ecause there s no document

f culture hat s not also

a

document

f

barbarism, ,234

t sums

up

Benjamin's

entire

program

s a

politico-cultural

ritic.

At

present,

enjamin

oncludes,

he

above-quoted

testimony

s

growing

mmeasurably.235

n

the

Theses,

the

procession

f

German

poets

and

thinkers

shuffling

ast

MountParnassus

ike

so

many

slaves turns nto a triumphal rocession n which the cultural rea-

sures

are exhibited

ike

spoils. 236

The contradictionies

in

the

process

whereby

heculture

f thedefeated s

co-opted

by

the

rulers.

Written

etween 1783 and

1883,

the

etters elected

by Benjamin

span

the

rise and decline

of German

humanism,

pening

nto

an

age

when the

bourgeoisie

an maintain

only

ts

positions,

o

longer

he

spirit

n

which

it had

conquered

hem. 237

hey

hold

up

to

present-day

ermans

ompa-

triots

f a

quite

different

ettle

human

beings

Menschen],

no

more

and

no

less,who,

from

within heir

rovincial

onfines nd

their

rabbed

style,

belonged

to

humanity

t

large.

Nowhere

is

the constellation

evoked

in

the Theses

between n

oppressed

past

and

an

endangered

present

more self-evident

han

n

Deutsche

Menschen.238

231.

GS 4.1: 213.

232. OWS

66;

translationodified.

233. 1259.

234.

1258.

235. GS

4.1:

215.

236. 1258.Cf.GS 3: 285onthe colossal riumphalrocessionf dealGerman ig-

ures

urveyed

y

representative

iterary

istories.

237. GS

4.1: 151.

238.

Cf.

1265.









52 Walter

enjamin


arnassus

The double

xperience

f the

stranger

nd theMarxist xiom

hat

the nly niversaloint fview sthe ne fromelow thepositionf

Marx's

mole r

Benjamin's

unchback,

s

opposed

o

that

f

the

mperial

eagle.

An elective

ffinity

hus

emerges

etween he

German-Jewish

critic,

s the

egitimate

eir

o a

truly

ecret

ermany

f

exiled,

estitute

writers,

nd historical

aterialismased

on

elementary

eeds.

ursuing

Moritz

Goldstein's

vocative

otion f a

German-Jewish

arnassus,

Benjamin

onsiders

he

Weimarian

arnassus

ot from ome

lofty

Olympian

erspective

ut from

he

base of the

mountain. e

thereby

invertshe

panoramicerspectives

f

prevailingiteraryistory

one

n

which he

great

rtist's

eported

onversationsonstitutehe

gently

ising

foothills,

is etters

hemiddle

levation,

nd

hiscreative ork

he

now-

capped

peaks,239

n his

study

f Goethe'snovel Die Wahlverwandt-

schaften

ritten

everal

years

arlier,

enjamin

ad

himself

erformed

such

an

inversion,

eplacing

he

hero-worship

round he

figure

f

Goethe,

otably

he

myth

f life s the

uthor's

reatest

ork f

rt,

y

a

critique

f the

mythical

orces

t work n bothhis ife

ndhis art.The

most dolatrous

monument f this

kind

was,

in

Benjamin's

yes,

Friedrich undolf'sGoethe, ne of a series rectedo suchheroes s

Alexander,

aesar,

nd

Napoleon

y

converted

ew

Gundelfinger)

ho

worshipped

t

the

hrine

f Stefan

eorge.240

ike the

murky

og

ur-

rounding

he

o-called secret

ermany,

undolf's

urgid

rose

cted s

a

smokescreen

rom ehind hich he ult f rt ould

erve,

s

Benjamin

put

t

n

1931,

s

a

bridgehead

n

the civilwar. 241

Empathy

Ein-

fiihlung]

one ofthe evenheads

displayed y

the

hydra

f

cademic

aesthetics242

is,

Benjamin

bserves

n

1940,

mpathy

with

he

vic-

tor. 243

his

phrase,

oo,

has

special

overtones

hen

read

against

he

backgroundfGerman-Jewishssimilation.

239.

The

glacier-like

anon

f

Germanlassicism

s,

Benjamin

oes

on,

unassailable,

but,

y

he ame

oken,

terilend neffectual.ut he ettersf he ame

ge,

whichmark

the snow

ine,

avebeen

pared

his ate.

hey

onstitute

n

unknown

orpus

fclassi-

cal textswhich as not allen

nto

he

insatiable

aws

of cultural

onsumption

GS

4.2:

943).

This s a

good

example

f the

way

n

which

enjamin's

German-Jewish

istance

from

ocial

nd

cultural

rthodoxypens p

new

reas f

iterarynquiry.

240.

Cf.,

n the

deology

f he

George

ircle,

tefan

reuer,

er

disthetische

unda-

mentalismus

Darmstadt:

issenschaftliche

uchgesellschaft,993);

and,

on

the

Jewish

idolatryfgenius ypifiedyStefanweig'sbiographiesfgreatmen, JP116ff.

241. GS 3:

287.

242.

GS

3:

286.

243.

1258.









Irving

Wohlfarth

53

It

is

from he

ame

position

hat he uthor f

Deutsche

Menschen

considersHOlderlin'symnsoGreece ndGermany.n 1914, whole

generation

ad

euphorically

one

off o

war,

omeof themwith

HO*lder-

lin's

poetry

n

their

napsacks.

ne or two

years

efore,

he

young

en-

jamin

had

been

among

hose

tudents ho

armed

nly

with

George,

Holderlin,

nd

heir wn

youth

had

engaged

nan even

more

dealistic

battle

gainst

he

older

eneration.244

hen

n

the

arly

hirties

erman

professors

ere

gain

to be

seen

botanizing

n

Mount arnassus nd

extracting

dealvisions

fnational

estiny

rom

HOlderlin's

ymns,

en-

jaminrespondedyconsidering

he

atter

n

terms

f

material

commu-

nity

f

suffering 245

etween reek ndGerman olkstumotunrelated

to

the secret elations

e

had

earlier

ostulated

etween

ermans

nd

Jews. he

cult

f

a

privileged

reco-German

onnection

as,

n

effect,

calculated

o

evacuate

he

Greco-Jewish

nd German-Jewish

eritages

from

henational

antheon.

An ark uilt fter

Jewish

model

when he

Fascist

lood

egan

o

rise,' 246

eutscheMenschen

as

ntendedo

save

few

amples

f

genu-

ine

humanity

rom ntediluvian

imes.

he title

would

be

half-echoed

y

Arendt'sostwarMenschenn insterereit Men nDarkTimes], het-

erogeneous

ompany anging

rom

essing

to

Pope

John

XXII,

and

including,mong

thers,

enjamin,

osa

Luxemburg,

nd Brecht.

he

author

f

DeutscheMenschen

would

not,

however,

ave

entirely

ub-

scribed

o

the

mbiguous

eideggerian

ictum

hich

rendtiked

o

cite:

The

light

f

the

public Offentlichkeit]

arkens

verything. 247

ot all

light

arkened;

he

resent

wilight

id;

nd

what t

obscured

as,

mong

other

hings,

hemost

uminous

Benjamin

nd Scholem

might

ven

have aid

illuminated

traditionsf

he

nlightenment.

Suchwas the burden f Benjamin'sphilosophico-politicalesta-

ment,

ritten

n

thedarkest our.

he

first

f

the

Theses

n

the

Philos-

ophy

of

History

roposes

n

allegorical eading

f Maelzel's

Chess-

Player,

Poe's

story

f

a chess utomat

theBaron

Kempelen's

ele-

brated

chachtiirke

presided

ver

by

a Turkish

uppet

who

holds

244.

Cf. OWS

307.

245. If

Germany

ppears

n

H61derlin's

ate

hymns

s

a

province

f

Greece,

hen

not

f

the

lourishing,

deal

Greece,

ut

f

he

esolate,

eal newhose

ommunity

f

uffering

ith

theWesternnd bove ll theGermaneopleVolkstum]onstituteshe ecretf hehistori-

cal transubstantiation

fGreece

owhich

HOlderlin's

ast

hymns

re

devoted

GS

4.1:

171).

246.

Cf.

WBS 02-03.

247. Cited

n

135.









54

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

hookah

in one hand and makes his moves

with

the

other,

ut who is in

fact ecretlymanipulated rom nsidethemachinery yan Italianwith

remarkable

toop

n

the

shoulders. 248n

Benjamin's

allegorical

trans-

lation,

the

Turkish

puppet,

lias

historical

materialism,

an take on

all comers

only

if it

enlists

the services of

theology,

who,

in

the

guise

of a

little

hunchback,

ecretlypulls

the

strings.249

ascism is

clearly

the most

dangerous

of

these

adversaries.

At

the same

time,

the

present

rulers are the

heirs of all

those who ever

conquered

before

them

-

an

immemorial

eries of rulers

who

cumulatively

onstitute

the

enemy. 250

An

improbable heologico-political

lliance is

thus to

prove

a

winning

ombination

gainst

an

enemy

who has not ceased to

be victorious. 251 f each member

f

this

ncongruous

ew

partnership

is

unable

to

dispense

with he services of the

foreign

riend whom he

still tends

to mistake

for his worst

enemy,

he reason is no

doubt

that

neither

f

them

s the force

hat

he once used to be.

Theology

s reduced

to

the

dimensions of a hunchback

dwarf,

historicalmaterialism o a

mechanical,

dozing

puppet.

As

in

Poe's

account,

the

former s con-

cealed

from

ublic

view

by

a

system

f

mirrors

which,

n

Benjamin's

version,producesthe llusion that hetable on whichthe chessboard s

placed

is

transparent

rom ll sides. This

is a

comment

not,

urely,

n

enlightenment

s such

but

on the

degeneration

f

its historical

project

into

system

which

as

Marx

said

of

the

bourgeoisie)

creates

he

world

in its own

image

and

which,

n

so

doing, represses verything

hat s

not

itself.

Secular reason has

thereby

een

reduced to

specular

reason,

enlightenment

o

enlightened

elf-interest.

ut the

totalitarian

ature

f

the

system

s

also its

fragility;252

ts

all-encroaching

ationality

s sub-

ject

to a

dialectic

which,

for

better

nd for

worse,

t

may

not

be able

to

control.The uncanny ittlehunchback s its blindspot.One return f

the

repressed

s

here

pitted

gainst

nother.

The

Theses

are

generally

assumed to have been

Benjamin's

response,

in

1940,

to

another

secret

alliance,

the

Hitler-Stalin

pact

of

1939-40,

which had

thrown he

anti-fascist

front nto shock and

248. The

Complete

Tales and Poems

of Edgar

Allan

Poe

(New

York,

1938)

438.

249.

1255.

250. 1257-58.

251. 1257.

252. On

the

ne

hand,

even he

ead

will

not

e safe romhe

nemy

fhe

prevails;

on the

ther

and,

ll

gestures

f

resistancehave

etroactive

orce

nd

will

onstantly

all

in

question

very

ictory,

ast

nd

present,

f

he

ulers

I

257).









IrvingWohlfarth

55

disarray.253

n

his

returnrom

visit o Moscow

n

1927,

Benjamin

ad

writtenhat,tthe turningointnhistoricalvents hat as announced,

if

not

osited,

y

he

act

f Soviet

Russia',

he

uestion

t ssue

was

not

which

eality

Western

r

Soviet was

better,

ut

nly

which eal-

ity

was

inwardly

onvergent

ith

ruth. 254

o

place

himself

t

the

er-

vice of

the evolution

eant or

enjamin

o

makehismind nd

work

he

site

f correlative

process

f otal ransformation

Prozess

iner

ollko-

mmenen

mwdlzung],

owever

Saturnian

ts

tempo

might

e.255

It

was

the world-historical

xperiment

nfolding

n

Soviet

Russia that

underwroteisown xperimentalenturesnMarxisthinking,otablyhe

radical

rograms

nnounced

n

The

Author

s

Producer

1934)

and

The

Work

f

Art nthe

Age

of

Mechanical

eproduction

1935).During

hese

years,

enjamin

pplied

he

ame

erm

recasting

rocess

Umschmel-

zungsprozess]

to

the

Russian

revolution

nd to

his

own work.256

All

along,

however,

he

metaphysico-historical

uestion

hat

hung

over

hese win

xperiments

ad

been: Which

ruths

inwardly

reparing

itself o

converge

ith he eal? 257

heHitler-Stalin

act epresented

or

Benjamin

he

final,

rrevocable

ivergence

f Soviet

reality

rom

he

communistdea. n thefirsthesis, enjamineems ohavedecided hat

itcould

be

countered

nly

y

no ess

disconcerting

eversal

f

lliances.

Unaided,

he o-called

orces

f

enlightenment,

ourgeois

nd/or

ommu-

nist

were,

n

his

udgment,

learly

o

match

or

ascism,

nd

had

ndeed

253.

Scholem

eports

hat

Benjamin,

n

returning

rom

he

nternment

amp

near

Nevers

t

the nd

of

1939,

nformedfriend

hat

e was

actually

relieved

o be

finished

with

Russia

for

good

now,

for

he

had never

een

comfortable

ith he

relationship

(WBS

221).

This s confirmed

y

Soma

Morgenstern,

o

whomhe read

he Theses

n

1940as ananswer o theHitler-Stalinact.Morgenstern

rites:

News

of the

pact

dealt

him

n

rreparable

low.

He didnot

mmediately

allme. ttook week efore ecame o

talk o

me bout

t...

.

He

had

probably

pent

o

night

hat

eek

without

leeping

ills....

Unlike

most ommunists

..

,he

believed

hat

heCommunist

dea

hadcome

o

grief

nd

would

not

uickly

ecover.

e

repeated

everal

imes

n sadness:

Why

ndeedhould

ur

generation

ave

deservedo

ive o see

the

olution

o

the

most

mportant

roblems

acing

mankind?'

.

.

'Did

you

seriously

elieve

hat

olshevism

ould

redeem

he

world?'

asked.

He didnot nswer.

ut t

emerged

rom he

ourse

f

the onversation

hat his

ct

of

Stalin's

ad

destroyed

is belief

n

historical

aterialism.

assume

hat

lready

hat

week

he conceived

he

lan

f he

Theses

..

which

ignify

othing

essthan

revision

f

historical

aterialism

cited

n

Benjaminiana

96-97).

his

report

as

the ame

ring

f

half-truth

s Gustav

anouch's

eported

onversations

ith afka.

254. OWS177.

255. C

486;

translation

odified.

256.

C

489;

translation

odified.

257.

OWS 177.









56

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewisharnassus

proven

ll too iable o

collaborate

ith

t.

Their olutions

ere

hus

art

oftheproblem. herightolution,f solutionherewas,would ccord-

ingly

have to

be

somewhat

rovidential.

he

Enlightenment,

o Ben-

jamin's

allegory ives

us

to

understand,

eeds he

theologicaleading-

strings

rom

which,

n itsKantian

eyday,

t had

thought

o

emancipate

itself. et

theology

s

today,

s we

know,

mall nd

ugly

ndhasto

keep

out

f

ight. 258

nd t

has been educed

othat

orry

ondition

y

he

o-

called

Enlightenment.

hereby

tfinds

tself

n

much he

ame

position

s

thehidden

radition

f

genuine nlightenment

that

ruly

secret

Ger-

many

o which

enjamin

ad

ppealed

n

Deutsche

Menschen.

What e

hadclaimed here or he

evolutionary

radition

pplies

ere o

theology:

itcannow

xert

new-found

efficacy

f secret

ind. ust s its nvisi-

bility rovides

t

with

decisive

ositional

dvantage,

o its

devastation

perhaps

fferst

new

ease of

ife.

he Turk

an serve

s its lias

as

in

Benjamin's story

Rastelli

tells. . .

where the

Sultan

is

named

Muhammed

li

Bei 259),

nd

Communisms

a

front

rganization.

Thanks o the

delusions f

transparency

hat

modem

eason ntertains

about

tself,

heology

an hide

nside

istorical aterialismnd

act

as

a

deus nmachina. his ngenious eo-Pascalianamble na hidden od

makes or

onsiderable

rony

t

the

xpense

f

the

Enlightenment

but

it

s,

n

every

ense,

rony

rom

ithin.

t

doesnot

uite

mounto

saying,

as

Heidegger

ill,

hat

only

god

can

saveus.

The

mage

f an

automat

uggests

progress

f

thekind

hat,

n

the

ninth

hesis,

enjamin

ikens

oa

world-historicalstormhat

s

blowing

from aradise 26 the storm

hat s

blowing

rom

blivion,

s he

elsewhere

alls it261

and,

n

his

notes

o

the

Theses,

o a

runaway

train;262

he

dialectic f

enlightenment

as,

s

Adomo

nd

Horkheimer

willput t,run waywith tself.263hecorrelativemage fa hookah-

smoking uppet

ven

ntimateshatMarxism as

tself

ecome he

new

opium

f

the

eople,

henew

dogmatic

lumber f

that

eason

whose

sleep engenders

onsters.

gainst

uch

massive

historical

erversions,

Benjamin roposes paradoxical

nversion

f

hisown:

nly

rue

heology

258. 1255.

259.

GS 4.2:

777.

260.

1259.

261. GS 2.2:436.

262.

GS

1.3:

1232.

263. Max

Horkheimernd

TheodorW.

Adorno,

ialectic

of

Enlightenment

New

York:

Continuum,

972).









Irving

Wohlfarth

57

-

theology,

hat

s,

n

ts

ctual,

hrunkenorm can

counteracthe at-

ter-daydolatryfprogressnd he egressionfCommunismnto sub-

stitute

eligion.

Almost

century

fter

Marx

had

conjured

up

the

specter

fthe

oming

evolution,

enjamin

eintroduces

quite

differ-

ent

ghost

rom

he

past

nto

he

pparatus

f historical

aterialism.

he

little unchback

s,

as it

were,

still lder mole han he

evolutionary

one

-

a

mole

withinhe

substructureftheMarxist

pparatus.

By

a

further,

elated

rony,

e

also

bears n

uncanny

esemblance

o

the

bogey-men

nd

scapegoats

howere

being

esignatedy

both

art-

ners

f

theHitler-Stalin

act

on

the

one

side,

he

crooked

ewish

gnomes

whowere

llegedly

ulling

he

trings

ftheworld's

ffairs,

e

they

he elders

f

Zion,

apitalist

ankers

r

Marxist

evolutionaries,

n

the

ther,

he

agitators,

outside

r

inside,

howere

llegedly

nfil-

trating

he

party pparatus

s

part

f

a

Trotskyitelot.

Just s

a

secret

Germany

oes indeed

xist,

utnot heone that

oes

by

that

ame,

o

the

partnership

hat

Benjamin

evisesbetween

heology

nd historical

materialism

ronically

onfirms

he

existence f

a

Jewish-Communist

world

onspiracy.

n

taking

uch

paranoid

aricature

t its

word,

Ben-

jamin'sfirst hesis ronicallyroposespace Nietzsche the ransval-

uation

f ll antisemitic

alues.

But

the ecret

lliancebetween

heology

nd historical aterialism

can

apparently

ork

only

under wo

highly

aradoxical

onditions.

Firstly,

ts xistence

may

have obe

kept

ecret romts

unior

artner

that

s,

from

he

more

octrinairend ntolerant

f

he

wo.Forwhile

his-

torical

materialism

s

supposed

o

enlist he ervices

f

theology,

he

hunchback

evertheless

eems o

be

operating

ehind he

puppet's

ack

-

a

new

nd

fanciful

ersion f

Hegel's

cunning

freason.

econdly,

as a crypticassage nBenjamin's 938 ettern Kafka eems osuggest,

the

verydamage

wrought

y

the forces f

secular

nlightenment

ay

have aved

Jewish

heology

rom

tself

y

releasing

ts

aving

owers

nto

the

historical

orld.264

his

would

be

a

quite

different,

ut

perhaps

ot

quite

ncompatible,

ersion

f

redemption namely,

edemption

rom

redemption

from he

ne

that

ietzsche's

arathustra

ad

n

mind.265

In

extremis,

elp

thus

ies,

f

at

all,

in

an

implausible

artnership

between

wo

far-flung

raditions,

ach of

whichhas been driven

nder-

ground ythe nterlockingyranniesf theday

-

Westernapitalism,

264. 1

146.

265.

Cf.

Von der

ErlSsung,

lso

prach

arathustra,

art

.









58

Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

Soviet

Marxism,

nd

National

ocialism.

Theology,

ow

ghost

f

ts

formerelf, homeless lienwithoutn institutionalase, s to take ef-

ugefrom

nd

withinmodem

istorical

eason.

Historical

aterialism,

for ts

part,

s

poised

etween

dea nd

reality,

etweenhedream nd

he

nightmare.

orwhile

hewords

automat nd

apparatus

eem o refer

to

the

bureaucratic

achinery

f

what

will

ater

e

called

real,

xisting

socialism,

he historical

aterialist

nvoked

nthe

Theses

ccupies

he

utopian osition

f

one

who stands

lmost

ntirely

lone amidst

he

divided

actions

fhis

own

amp.

As

in

Benjamin's

arliest

hinking,

ol-

itude

a

solitude

hat

s

ripe

or ts

own

disappearance' 266

nto

per-fect

ommunity 267

standsnfor he

missing

ollective.he idea

the

ommunist

dea

that

enjamin

eeks orescue

romommunist

eality

-

has

become

s

esoteric

n

1940as it hadbeen n

1913.Even n

the

darkest

our,

however,

secret

eliotropism, 268

weak

Messianic

power,

s still aid

to

point

heworld

owards

edemption.

In

hinting

hat

his

ecretMessianic orce s

entirely

rientedowards

its

exoteric

onsummation,

enjamin

arks ack o

the

pocalyptic

train

within

ewish

essianism.269

ut

he ame

narchic

mpulse

lso

prompts

thedream fgoing eyondhepale,offinallyblottingut theology.27?

One

day,

the

self-effacing

ittle unchbackeems

to

be

whispering,

when he

pparatus

s

truly

ransparent,may

wither

way

long

with

he

State.

Who

knows,

may

isappear

nto he abula

asa

of

genuinely

is-

enchanted orld

a

Messianic,

o

onger

essianic,

nlightenment.

ere

and

now,however,

y ob

is

to

nudgemy leeping artner

nto

making

he

nextmove.

wear

heJewishtarwith

ride,

ut

keep

ut

f

ight. 271

This

saving

nterplay

etween wo

landestine

raditions

theologi-

cal and

revolutionary displays

he

hidden

fficacy

f a

secretGer-

many. t also exemplifieshesilent omplicityhat, ccordingo the

266. GS 2.1:

238.

267.

Cf.

C

50.

268.

1256-57.

269.

Cf.

Scholem,

he

Messianic

dea in

Judaism

0ff.

270.

GS 5.1: 588.

271.

Cf

in

this

onnectionRastelli

rzalt

GS

4.2:

777-80),

which

aries

he

ce-

nario

of the

FirstThesis

by

combining

lements

rom Maelzel's

Chess-Player

nd

Baudelaire's

rose oem

Une mort

h6roique.

n

the

First

hesis,

he

uppet

s

presum-

ably

blivious othe

warf's

uiding

resence;

ere he

uggler

eaches

ew

heights

n

the

very aythat e is oblivious o hisdwarf'sbsence. nonecase,theologyomes othe

rescue

f

the

unbeliever;

n the

ther,

elief

enders

ts

object uperfluous.

n

both

ases,

successfulction

epends

n

a

certain

gnorance:

o much

or he

Marxian

unity

f

the-

ory

nd

practice.









Irving

Wohlfarth

59

above-quoted

etter o

Rang,

unites he

best

of

German

nd

Jewish ulture.

ThatJewishheologyhould n 1940 havefoundtscrypticmbodimentn

a

figure

rawn

from

German

olklore,

nd

shouldhave

infiltratedhe sci-

entific ocialism announced

y

anotherGerman

Jew,

who

thereby

ecu-

larized

Jewish

Messianism

almost

out

of

existence272-

all

this

marks

secret endez-vous

etween everal ecret

German-Jewish

elations.

The

German

pring,

Moritz

Goldstein

had written

n his

German-

Jewish

arnassus,

is also our

spring,

ust

as itswinterwas our

winter.

For

nnumerable

enerations,

e,too,

have

xperienced

his

hange

f

seasons.Next othis,whatmeanings there or s in thepalms, he

cedars

nd

he

lives

hat lourish

nder

he

lue

ky

n he ast?

.. Did

we

not

grow

p

withGerman

airy-tales?

id

we not

lay

Red

Riding

Hood

and

Sleeping

eauty

..

?

Is not heGerman

orestlso there or

us?

May

not

we,

oo,

ast ur

yes

n

ts lves

nd

gnomes

.. ?273

Benjamin,

oo,

grewup

withGerman

olklore,

nd retold

leepingBeauty

in

several

new

ways.

But it

was no accident

that,

s a German

Jew,

he

should

have

given pride

of

place

to a less canonic

figure,

whom he

had

firstencountered n Georg Scherer's Deutsches Kinderbuch.274 ike

Grimms'

fairy

ales,

withwhich

Benjamin

associates

him,

the folk

song

about

das bucklichte

Mdnnlein

elongs

to

the

popular

ore rediscovered

by

German

Romanticism;

t was

first ranscribed

y

Clemens Brentano

for Des

Knaben Wunderhorn

1802),

the same

anthology

hat

was to

inspire

ertain

f

Gustav

Mahler's

Lieder.

O

dear

child,

beg

of

you/

ray

for

he ittle

unchback oo

[Liebes

Kindlein,

ch

ich

bitt/

et

ffrs

bucklicht

Mdinnlein

mit].

Benjamin

could

not know

that

t

was

Clemens

Brentano

who

had

appended

this

final

plaintivecouplet.Taming an earlier, narchicversionof the story in

which

the

hunchback,

ar

from

eeking

absolution

n

a child's

prayers,

disappears

nto

the wilds

when the

forces

of the law are

sent to catch

him),

Brentano

had

turned

folk-rhyme

nto a

nursery-rhyme.

n

Ben-

jamin's

writings,

hisRomantic-Christian

ouplet

now

acquires

anarchic

272. Marx ecularized

he dea

fMessianicime

nto hat

f

he lassless

ociety.

nd

thiswas

good hing

GS

1.3:

1231).

When

Morgenstem

sks

him

whether

e ees connec-

tion etween

ommunism

nd

Messianism,

enjaminronically

eplies

hat

ll ofMarxism

and ocialismmay e consideredo bemerelynotherormf Messianic elief. o which

Morgensternejoins

hat

rnest

enan

ad

lready

aid s much

Benjaminiana

97-98).

273.

Der Kunstwart

5.11:292.

274.

Cf.

GS

4.1: 303.









60

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

undertones

f

a

differentind. he

ittle unchbacks

not,

n Goldstein's

phrase,beggingor avors. isplea ach chbitt) ornclusionBet ..

mit) mplicitly

ecomes hat

f

ll

the

xcluded.

n

echoing

he

peechless

complaint

ddressed

n

the

Trauerspiel

ook

by

Nature o

thehumanshat

speak

n

its

place,

t

also recalls

he

question

hat

enjamin

ad raised

with

lorens hristian

ang:

s the

German

ew,

who

has no

legitimate

voice

n

the

most

rucial ffairs

f the

nation,

ntitledo

any ay

at all

[mitreden]?

n this

ense, ature,

he

hunchback,

ndthe

German

ew ll

represent,

n

different

ays,

he

nner

trangers

r Jews f the

Word.

But there

s

also a sense

n

whichBenjamin,oo,

has domesticated

he

stranger

namely, yplacing

im inthe ervice

f '

cause.

So ends he

olksong,

e writes

n

his

essay

n

Kafka.

In

his

depth

Kafka ouches

..

the

ore ffolk radition..

,

theGermans well s the

Jewish. 275

o reclaimVolkstums the

ground

n which

Germans nd

Jews

ouldmeetwas a

boldmove or

n

exiled

German

ew

obe

making

in

1934.

At a time

when he

Nazis,

n

the

name

f

the

Volk,

ere

repar-

ing

to

drive heJews rom erman

oil,

and

Scholem,

n

behalf

f

his

people,

was

reclaiming

afka

for

Judaism,276

enjamin,

orhis

part,

dwelled n theundergroundffinitiesnKafka'swritingsetween er-

man

and Jewish

opular

raditions.

f

foreignanguages,

ultures,

nd

friends

ere

not

ltimately

oreign,

hen

hey

admost

n

common

here

they

ould

be most

diomatically

hemselves.uch

was

the

underlying

premise

f

Benjamin's heory

f

anguage

nd

translation.herein lso

lay

his

answer

o fond llusions f a German-Jewish

ymbiosis,

o

the

nationalist

eparatisms

hat

enied he

eality

f

shared,

utdivided is-

tory,

nd,

bove

ll,

tothe ascist

nemy. itting

ne

prototype

fdistor-

tion 277

gainst

nother

that

s,

against

he

degeneration

f

authentic

Volkstumntothe

volkisch

ntolerance f degeneration Entartung]n

the

name

of

triumphant

edemptive

ealth

Siegheil]

the

stunted

hunchback

merges

n

this ontext

s the

aradoxical

mblem

fa salu-

tary

heilsam]

nteraction

etweenhe

Germannd

he

Jewish

eoples.

Irony

s,

according

o

Kierkegaard,

minute,

nvisible

ersonage

who travels

n

n

exclusive

ncognito

nd returnso

hauntnd

est

spo-

ger]'

this

astword aken

holly

mbiguously),

ot

nlike

hobgoblin

275.

1134.

276. Cf. Scholem's etterf 1 Aug. 1931,which laims hatKafkahas noplace

whatsoever

n the ontinuumf

German

iterature

ndwas

himself

ntirely

lear bout

this

as

you

doubtless

now,

e was a

Zionist

WBS

170).

277. 1 133.









Irving

Wohlfarth

61

or

an

elf

wearing

magic

ap [Tarnkappe]. 278enjamin's

arable

f a

dwarf iddennside chess utomatscalculated obesufficientlyroni-

cal to elude

the

enthusiastic

isunderstanding 279

o

which,

enjamin

feared,

isTheseswould e

exposed. opular

erman,

erman-Christian,

and

German-Jewish

y

turn,

he ittle unchbacks neither

acially,

eli-

giously,

or

deologically

ure.

There

s

perhaps

o

need,

herefore,

o decidewhether e

stands or

theology

n

general

in

an

enlightened

poch

which anishes

verything

that

t

cannot emake

n ts

own

mage)

r,

more

pecifically,

orJewish

theologyin

a fascist ra

which orces venerrant ews

o

assume

heir

common

eritage).

t struehathe

heological

otifscattered

hroughout

theTheses

elongmostly

o the

pocalyptic

train

n

Jewish essianism

that cholem

nce ikened

o

an

anarchic reeze

lowing

hrough

he

dangerously

well-ordered

ouse f orthodoxewish

bservance;2 and

that,

n

commentary

n Brecht's

oem

On theChild hat

id

notWant o

Wash,

enjamin

ikewise

peaks

f

the ittle unchbacks

upsetting

he

well-orderedouse

f

bourgeois

ociety.281y

the ame

oken, owever,

the

hunchback

s

atonce oo

wayward

nd oo nclusive

spirit

o tand

or

an exclusively ewishheology. is plea for nclusion ecallsvarious

Christian

otifs

cattered

hroughout

enjamin's

ritings,otably

hat f

the saints

who

include all

living

reatures

n their

rayers,

ale-

branche's

otion

f attentiveness

s

the natural

rayer

f the

oul, 282

and

Origen's

ereticaloctrine

f

pokatastasis,

the

ntry

f

ll

souls nto

Paradise.283uch

all-inclusiveness

s,

however,

s

far emoved

rom

n

ecumenical

clecticism

s the

Messianic

dea of

a universal

anguage

s

278. Soren

Kierkegaard,

he

Concept

f rony,

rans. ee M.

Capel

Bloomington

andLondon, 965)111, 23,275,265,50.

279. GS

1.3: 1227.

280.

The

Messianic

dea inJudaism

1.

281. GS

2.2: 565.

In accordance

ith

Fourier's

topian

ssumption

hat

he

most

unruly

assions

an

easily

e harnessed

o social

ends,

Benjamin

sks whether

he

dirty

child

oes not mear

imself ith

shes

only

ecause

ociety

as found o

good

use

for

his

passion

or irt.

he same

holds,

enjamin

laims,

or

he

perverse

ittle unchback.

The

First hesis

s

predicated

n

this

ssumption.

he

unruly

unchback

s

placed

in the

service

f' historical

aterialism.

o

longer

daemonic

ounter-force,

e thus

nters he

apparatus

f

social

redemption.

onversely,

ourier's

ocial

utopia,

which

macks

f a

secularized

heodicy,

s no doubt

elated

n

Benjamin's

ind o

the

penly

heological

oc-

trine fapokatastasis.he notionhat very assion an serve ocially seful ndscon-

verges

with

he octrine

hat

ne

nd

ll can

finally

e

saved.

282.

1134.

283. Cf.1103.









62 Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

from

speranto.

n

Benjamin's hinking,

pokatastasis

o

more

xcludes

partisanrioritieshanronyrecludesommitment.

In his final

uise,

he

figure

ho creates

isorder

n

the

bourgeois

household

s entrusted

ith he

ask f

etting

heMarxist

ouse n order.

Unlike is

Kierkegaardian

ounterpart,

owever,

e does

notnow

imply

turnnto

mastered

oment

n

the ervice

f a

higher

eriousness.284

By

a

masterly

ut

isky

troke,

he

unmasterablethers himself

nlisted

as

the

playful

master 285n a

deadly

erious

ame

fchess.

Benjamin's

last card

- his

oker

is

a

theodicy f

the

uncanny,

which

assigns

the

roleofcommunist

rganizer

o none ther han

narchy

n

person.

n

the

end,

nly

trick oulddo the rick.

enjamin

bservedhatKafkabuilt

such

tricks nto

his

stories

n

the

small,

bsurd

hope

that

in

Kafka'swords

inadequate,

ven

hildishmeasures

may

lso

serve

o

rescue ne. 286 he

hunchback'sliases nclude

Mr

Bungle, 287

icht-

enberg's

Your

Majesty orgetfulness, 288

nd Celan's

Majesty

f the

Absurd. 289

It is for hem

nd

their

ind,

heunfinishednd thebun-

glers,

hat heres

hope. 290 y

the

ame

dream

ogic,

he atterre

not

merely

he

objects

ut lso the mbodiments

and

even,

n the

ase

of

thehunchback,he gent ofthis bsurd ope.291t is the ogicof the

hunchback's

mperceptibleraduation

rom mischief-maker

o the

senior

artner

f

saving

lliance.

Who

else,

fter

ll,

could

hope

o

mplement

he

hopeless

ut

necessary

program

hat he

Theses

mplicitly

et or hemselves

to

unite

he

ivided

left,

r,

n

kabbalistic

arlance,

o raise

he

parks

cattered

n

the

break-

ing

of the

vessels?

he

angel

f

history

ould

ike o

put

hese

ieces

together.

he

Theses

lready

et about his ask

by

marshalling

its nd

pieces

of

Marx,

Hegel,

Fourier,

lanqui,

recht,

ietzsche,

raus,Klee,

andScholemtoname nly few)nto singleoherenttrategy,hetero-

geneous

montage

hat olds

ut

he

romise

f common

anguage.

The

hunchback's

natomy

s the

melancholy

llegory

f

a world

hat

284.

Cf.

The

Concept

f

rony

36ff.

285.

1255;

translation

odified.

286.

Cited

n

117-18.

287.

GS

4.1:

303.

288. Cited

n

OWS290.

289.

Celan,

Gesammelte

erke

: 190.

290. 1117.

291.

I

take s

my

tartingoint, enjamin

rites

n

connection

ith

Kafka,

the

small,

onsensical

ope,

s

well

s

the

reaturesorwhom

his

ope

s

ntended,

nd

yet

n

whom

his

bsurdity

s

mirrored

C 453).









IrvingWohlfarth

63

is

out

fjoint.

ut he

llegorical aze, ccording

othe

Trauerspiel

ook,

does notfaithfullyemainmmersednthe ontemplationfthebones;

it

faithlessly

eaps

over oresurrection. 292

o, too,

doesthe ittle unch-

back.

His final rick

s

to

convert

to convertne

type

f

mischiefnto

another.

nterweaving

he

warp

of

forgetting

ith the

woof '

of

remembrance,293

e

alternatelyepresents,

n

Benjamin's hinking,

he

distorting

orces

f obliviousness

nd inattentionhat heMessiahwill

one

day

come o

set

right

nd hehiddenMessianic

nergies

f mindful-

ness

and

presence

f mind

hat

may

vennow save the

day.

But the

alternation

etween hese

pposing

oles

s,

in

Benjamin's ccount,

s

imperceptible

s that etween

orgetting

nd

remembering,

etweenhe

uncanny

nd

the

anny,

s

slight

s the

adjustment

hatwillone

day

nudge

he

displaced

world

ack nto

lace.294

f,

t

the

nd

ofA Berlin

Childhood,

hehunchback's

work,

ike

his

back,

s

-

in

Benjamin's

playful

phrase

-

behind

him, 295

his s

because

the text

textum

means

web '296

has tself een

woven

nd

warped

y

him.

t s in a

similar

ense that

he

hunchback f

the Thesesunderwrites

istorical

materialism.

heology

hus

lays

much he amerole

n thematerialist

apparatuss theunconsciousnFreud'smodel f thepsychicpparatus

-

that f

thefamiliar

tranger

t reason's

ack,

ts

hunch

r cache

of

forgotten

emories nd

family

ecrets.

he

analogy

hat reuddraws

between

he

psychic pparatus

nda

magic

writing-pad 297

as,

n

fact,

an exact

counterpart

n

the

ntricate

onstructionf

Benjamin's

hess

automat.

ach

consists

f

a

partnership

etween wo

distinctut

nterde-

pendent

gencies memory

nd

consciousness

n one

instance,

theology

nd historical

aterialism

nthe ther.

This, hen,

was

the

winning

ombination

hat

enjamin

itted gainst

fascism: hepsychic pparatus ritarge,with heologyn theroleof

remembrance

nd

historical

materialism

n that

f

consciousness,

he

whole

forming

he

little

writing-factory

hat

was,

Benjamin

new,

he

only

means f

production 298

hat

e had t

his

disposal.

But

the

tark act

s that heGerman-Jewish

ulture

epresented,

n

292.

OGT

233;

translation

odified.

293.

1204;

translation

odified.

294.

I

134.

295. GS4.1:304.

296.

1204.

297.

Freud,

Gesammelte

erke

4:

3-8.

298. C 377-78.









64

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewisharnassus

consciously airytale

ashion,

y

Benjamin's

ittle unchbackas

mean-

whilebeendestroyedeyond ecall, ndis today argelyheobjectof

purely

istorical

tudy

nd/oristoricist

empathy.

omeformsf

empa-

thy

with hevictims

re,

moreover,

ot hat ar emoved

rom hat

Ben-

jamin

alled

empathy

ith

hevictor. he

danger

xists f

transforming

the unchbacknto

ghost

f

his

former,

lready hostly

elf

r,

worse

till,

into

mascot r

Gartenzwerg.

The

Voyage

f

the

Mascot : his s

how

Benjamin

ntitled

story

bout

mock-mutinyrganized

nd

contained

frombove.299

et

tbe

hoped

hat more

ecentitle

s

the

more

elevant

commentn the

osterity

f he

unchback

warf:

Specters

f

Marx. 300

From hemid-sixtiesn,Benjamin's

hought

nteredheGermantu-

dent

movement

y

way

of

theFrankfurt

chool,

nd

has

meanwhileeen

incorporated

nto he

nternational

anon.

At a

point

when t s

no

longer

theology

uthistorical

aterialismhats

small nd

ugly

ndhas

to

keep

outof

sight, 301

nterest

n

his

writings

as become

argely

cademic nd

belletristic.

oday

more

han

ver,

owever,

he ittle

unchback

arries

the

ver-growing

ountainf

n unmastered

ast

n

his

back.

His

only

hope

of

surviving

s

more han Souvenirchen302

s

perhaps

o

combine

two ppositeoles: nthe nehand,obecomealbeitnanaltogetherif-

ferent

ense)

what he

dwarf'

epresented

or

Nietzsche,

amely

hat

leaden

spirit

f

gravity

hich

momentarily

ade even

Zarathustra

buckle;303

n the ther

and,

o

remain,

ven

oday,

ven

fter the

un,

andnot

nly

t,

went

own, 304

n absurd

nd

playful

ntidoteo

hat

pirit.

The

hunchback

s

one

overdetermined

mage

rom

enjamin's

ntel-

lectual

estament,

text

which

was,

he

wrote,

reduced

n

more

han ne

sense. 305 he most

elling

ccount f the

Theses s contained

n

their

ownreferenceso

time-lapse

hotography,

he true

mage

fthe

past

that crystallizestcriticalmoments,nd that enormousbridgment

of

n ndividualife

nd

world-historical

equence

hat

s

precipitated

y

imminent

anger.306enjamin

lso

liked

o cite

he

popular

elief hat

dying

man

ees his

whole ife lit

ast

hismind's

ye

ike film-reel.307

299.

GS

4.2:

738-40.

300.

Jacques

errida,

pectres

e Marx

Paris:

ditions

Galilee,

993).

301.

1255.

302.

Celan,

La

Contrescarpe,

esammelte

erke : 282.

303.

Cf.

Nietzsche,

lso

prach

arathustra,

Der

Wanderer.

304. Celan, DerMeridian, esammelte erke: 169.

305.

GS

1.3:

1226.

306.

1 263,

257,264-65,

65.

307. 194.









Irving

Wohlfarth

65

Such

re he

ictures

hat,

ccording

o

Benjamin,

he ittle

unchbackas

of us all.308And such too is thesingle, raumatic,potropaicmage

retained

y

the

overexposedyes

of the

Angel

f

History.

The Last

Snapshot

f

the

Europeanntelligentsia 309

the

ubtitle

f

Benjamin's

essay

n

surrealism

applies

venbetterothe

Theses.

Arendt

as

invoked

enjamin's

are

ift

f

thinking

oetically

daJf

er,

ohne

in

Dichter

u

sein,

dichterisch

achte].310

e

did so from he

base

of

the

German-Jewish

arnassus,

otfrom he

peaks

ofthe

Dich-

ter ndDenker.311

nder

he

ressure

f

danger,

he

ift

f

hinking

oet-

ically

here

cquires

n

extraordinaryegree

f

compression,ombining

(Jewish)

mindfulness

Eingedenken]

ith

Freudian)

condensation

[Verdichtung].

t is the ame

density

hat

mparts

terrible

oetry

o

the

accounts

f some

of the

most

rdinary

urvivors.The

experience

hat

corresponds

o

that

f

Kafka,

he

private

ndividual,

enjamin

rites

n

1938,

will

probably

otbecome vailable

o the

massesuntil

uch

ime

as

they

re

being

one

way

with.,,312

o

belong

o the

avant-garde,

s

Arendt

efined

t

n We

refugees,

eant,

or

mindful

erman ew

n

the ate

hirties,

o

ookforward

y

ooking

ack,

oknow neself

obe

in

the nte-chamberfcollective eath.As a backwardsurnedrophet,

the

materialististorian

f he

Theses,

ike he uthor f

A

Berlin

hild-

hood

AroundNineteen

undred,

ees his time

farmore

learly

n

the

medium

f

he

isappearingast

han

hosewho

'keep p

with he atest

news.313

ot

merely

oesthe

Angel

f

History aze

at

a

world-histori-

cal

spectacle

hat

lready

onfrontedhe

Baroque

llegorist namely,

the

desolate onfusionf

Golgotha '314

andwhich

n

turn ecalls he

confusion

f

he

Tower fBabel

s

interpreted

y

Benjamin

n

1916.315

But these

mages

lso

uncannilynticipate

hose f thedeath

amps.316

Faithfullyivetedothe ontemplationf he ones, ot ven nangel an

308.

GS 4.1: 304.

309.

OWS

225.

310.

150.

311.

It

s more

ifficulto honor he

memory

f thenameless

han

hat

f the

ele-

brated,

ot

xcepting

hat fthe

oets

nd

hinkers

GS

1.3:

1241).

312. 1

146.

313.

GS 1.3: 1237.

314.

OGT

232;

translation

odified.

315. OWS

121.

316. Oneexample:Theconfusionf anguagess a fundamentalomponentfthe

mannerf

iving

inAuschwitz]:

ne s surrounded

y perpetual

abel,

nwhich

very-

one houts rdersnd

hreats

n

anguages

ever

eard

efore,

ndwoe

betide

nyone

ho

fails o

grasp

he

meaning

Primo

evi,

f

This

s

a Man

1979]

44).









66

Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

in 1940

make

the

leap

to

resurrection. efore

the

unnameable,

he

is

reduced onature'smute ament.

How

badly

could

one,

seeing

all

that,

tillwant o survive?

Benjamin

may

not have

wanted

to

badly

enough.

What

he was

prompted

o

say

about

Kafka

can serve

s

his own

epitaph:

To

do

ustice

othe

igure

fKafka

n

ts

purity

nd ts

peculiar

eauty

onemust

ever ose

sight

fone

thing:

t s the

purity

nd

beauty

fa

failure. he

circumstances

f his

ailureremanifold.

ne

s

tempted

to

say:

once

he

was

certain

f

eventual

ailure,

verything

orked ut

along heway s if na dream.317

Epilogue:

The

Exception

and the

Rule

The

question

ou

raise s to

where o

tay uring

hewar s

difficulto

answer

ecause

can

hardly

ount n

external

ircumstances

llowing

me to do what eems

ight

o me at

such

moment,

hen

ne

proba-

bly

cts oo ate

n

any

ase,

but

must

ecessarily

ctwithinhe

pace

of

few

hours.

1935)318

I hardlynow nymorewhereoget nidea ofmeaningfuluffering

and

dying

....

It

hardly

bears

thinking

hat s in

store

forAustrian

Jews ...

Perhaps

e

no

onger

ven

have he

etty

omforthat his-

pers

o

us

that

ou

nd wouldhavebeen

leverern the

ame itua-

tion. or do not elieve

hat.(1938)319

This s not model ife n

every espect,

ut

everything

bout

t s

exemplary.320

Benjamin

committeduicide

at

the

Franco-Spanish

order n

Septem-

ber 1940 aftermaking belatedattempto escape capturebytheNazis.

The circumstances f

his

deathwere as

exemplary

nd

manifold s

every-

thing

lse about his

biography.

With

wo

other

efugees,

e had

managed

to cross

into

Spain

by

a

steep,

unmarked

mountain oute

previously

sed

by

the

Spanish Republican army

under

General

Lister,

nd

before

hem

by generations

f

smugglers.

n

arrival t

Port

Bou,

they

were

informed

by

the

local

police

that heir

ransit isas were

no

longer

valid and

that

they

would be returned

o France the

following

day.

During

the

night,

317. 1 148.

318.

C 487.

319.

C

553;

ranslationodified.

320. 1203.









Irving

Wohlfarth

67

Benjamin

wallowed

he

morphine

ablets

e

haddivided

p

withArthur

Koestlern Marseille thecitywhere, fewyearsearlier, e had

recorded

is

experiments

ithhashish.

After

arious

vicissitudes,

he

other

members

f his

group

were

ventually

llowed

o

go

on.

The

eye-

witness

eports

iffer

n certain

oints

f

fact;

stimates

f

the

degree

f

danger

n

which

Benjamin

ound imself

ary

onsiderably;

nd

larger

interpretations

fhisdeath

iverge

ven

more

widely.

annah

rendtnd

Lisa

Fittko,

mong

thers,

int

hat

enjamin's

ompanions

wed

their

survival

o

his

suicide,

ut

t eemsmore

ikely

hat

hey

made t

through

thanks

o

a

combination

f uck

nd

bribery.

talso seems

ikely

hat en-

jamin,

oo,

wouldhave

urvivedfhe hadbeen bletowait tout.But his

may

e a

near-tautologous

tatement:

e saw

no

other

ay

ut,

ndwas

n

any

ase

mentally

nd

physically

tthe

nd

fhis

ether.321

Rene Etiemble

ntitled

two-volume

tudy

f

Rimbaud's

osterity

Le

mythe

e Rimbaud.

ike

Rimbaud,

enjamin,

ho was

an

inveterate

adversary

f

myth,

eserves

betterate.

o

claim

o

knowwhat

we can-

not

know

s

at

best

vain,

t

worst

narcissistic,

peration.

o

invest

Benjamin's

eath

with oo

much

meaning

s also to

risk

oing

oo

much

honor o themeaninglessircumstanceshat rovokedt. Meaningless

is

not,

however,

ynonymous

ith

unintelligible.

o

suspend

ll

attempts

o

understand

enjamin's

eath

s to run he

opposite

isk

f

accepting

he ircumstances

s

so

many

paque,

ccomplished

acts

nd

thereby

f

ssenting

o

another,

ositivist

orm f

myth.

It

s

difficult,

n

retrospect,

ot

o assume hat

omekind

f

ogic

indeed,

whole set

of

interacting

ogics

was at

work

n

the

final

sequence

f

Benjamin's

ife.

uthow

does onethink

ogether

ogic,

on-

tingency,

nd sheer

ad

luck?

Certain

ages

of

Arendt's

ssay

point

he

wayby ntimatinghat here asmethodnBenjamin's ersistentisfor-

tune.

hey

do so

byplacing

enjamin's

ife

nder

he

ign

fthehunch-

back

dwarf

a

figure

hich,

n

ts

condensation

f the

gauche

nd

the

adroit,

he

uncanny

nd

the

anny,

ums he

matter

p

as well

as

any

in-

gle

mage

ould.

But he

iterary

ondensation

f n

enigma,

hile

sug-

gestive

bject

or

meditation,

s

hardly

ts

olution.

rendt's

eferences

o

thehunchback

warf

end oward

autological

nd

superstitious

estate-

ment f

the

nigma

in

other

words,

o

another

ersion

f

myth.

t is

neverthelessignificanthat heshould avedrawn nBenjamin's wn

321.

In

a situation

ithout

xit,

e

wrote

n

his

ast

note,

I

haveno other

hoice

but o end

my

ife

enfinir]

cited

n GS 5.2:

1203).









68 Walter

enjamin

nd

the

German-Jewish

arnassus

work

to

explain

his life. For

it

is

surely

n

his

recorded cts and

state-

ments, nd,above all, in hiswritings,hat he ogicof his lifecan be par-

tially

etraced.

he hunchback warf s

only

one case in

point.

A

striking

number f his sentences an

be

cited as

objective

correlatives f Ben-

jamin's

own

situation.

Just

s,

according

o

Benjamin,

drowning

man

sees

his whole

past

flit

past,

so his own death

brings

back

much

of the

oeuvre

that t

simultaneouslynterrupts

nd

completes.

Already

n 1931

Benjamin

had evoked

the

necessity

f

surviving

culture,

f

need

be. 322But

could he in fact urvive

European

ulture,

he

loss

of his

library,

migration?.

t

was,

he

wrote

to

Scholem

in

1933,

because he was no unwritten

age

thathe could not

easily contemplate

embarking

or

Palestine.323

s for

America,

his

responses

were

reminis-

centof Kafka.

f n

his ast

weeks he

could dream f

beginning

new life

on the

wentiethr thirtieth

torey

f a

skyscraper, 324

e also dreaded he

prospect

of

being

carted

up

and down

the

country

s the last

Euro-

pean. 325

n

1943,

Arendtwould

describe those Jewish

refugees

from

Europe

who,

having

assimilated

n

one

country

fter

nother,

anded

in

America

and

kept smiling

until one

day

they abruptly

ommitted ui-

cide.326Benjamin's economyof hope and hopelessnesswas closer to

Kafka's.

The

latter's

tatementhat there

s

an infinite

mount

f

hope,

but not

for

us,

he

commented,

really

containsKafka's

hope;

it

is the

source

of

his radiant

erenity. 327

According

to

Scholem,

Benjamin

had

over

the

previous

decade

repeatedly

eckonedwith he

possibility

f

taking

is life:

He was convincedhat nother

orld

war

wouldmean

gas

war

nd

bring

with

t the

nd of

all

civilization.huswhat

inally appened

after ecrossedhe panish order as nosuddenmpulsivect but

something

e

had

preparednwardly.328

322. GS

2.1: 219.

323.

Cf.

C417.

324. Cited n

Soma

Morgenstern,

enjaminiana

98.

325. Cited

n

Arendt,

18.

n

an

unpublished

ettero

Scholem

writtenn

17

Oct.

1941,

Arendt ecalls hat

enjamin

anted o earn

nglish

ssentially

n

order o

confirm

hisdislike f

the

anguage.

His

horror

f

America as

ndescribable,

ndhe

s said .. to

have

old

friendshat e

preferred

short

ife nFrance oa

long

ne

n

America.

rendt

also

reports

hat e

subsequently

eemed

more

econciled

o the

dea of

seeking efuge

n

America.

326.

We

Refugees,

JP

7-58.

327. I

148.

328. WBS

24;

translation

odified.









Irving

Wohlfarth

69

Two

years

earlier,

Benjamin

had reconstructed

audelaire's

conception

of suicideas follows:

The resistance

hich

modernitypposes

o a

person's

atural

roduc-

tive out of

proportion

o

his

strength.

t is understandable

hat

he

should

weaken

nd flee nto

eath.

Modernity

as

to

stand

nder

he

sign

of

suicide,

which

ets

ts eal under

heroic

will

that

makes

no

concessionso

opposing

ttitudes.

his

uicide

s not n actof

resigna-

tion,

ut

heroic

assion

Passion].

t s the chievementf

modern-

ism

n the ealm f

he

assions.32

Noting hatBaudelaire's invocation f modem suicide as the assionpar-

ticulierede

la vie moderne

n De l'Heroisme de la

Vie

Modeme

con-

tains few

actual

examples

of such

an

achievement,

enjamin

proceeds

to

cite

nineteenth-century

ccounts

of suicide

among

the

aboring

masses as

the

raw

material for

Baudelaire's

theory

f

modernity;

is

own

eco-

nomic

plight

ometimes

rove

Benjamin

oo to thebrink f suicide.

In

the

ate

thirties,

uicide

took

on

alarming

roportionsmong

Jews.

In

a

postscript

o

a letterwritten

n

1939

Benjamin

writes:

Karl Krausdiedtoo soonafter ll. Listen o this: heViennaGas

Board

has

stopped upplying

as

toJews. he

gas

consumption

f he

Jewish

opulation

esultedn ossesfor

he

gas company,

ince t

was

precisely

he

biggest

sers

who

did

not

pay

their

ills.The Jews

sed

the

as

mainly

or

he

urpose

f

committing

uicide.330

Several

German-speaking

ewish

writers ommitted

uicide

in

these

years:

Walter

Hasenclever

t the

amp

des

Milles,

Carl Einstein

near

Bay-

onne,

Kurt

Tucholsky

n

Sweden,

Ernst Toller

in New

York,

Stefan

Zweig inBrazil,to citeonlya few.To thenamesof thosewho couldnot,

or would

not,

urvive

heend of

theirworld

one must dd those

who,

ike

Jean

Amery,

aul

Celan,

and

Primo

Levi,

who

eventually

uccumb

o

the

after-effects

f survival.

Avalanche,

veux-tu

m

emporter

ans

ta chute?

Not

for

nothing

would

Adomo,

Benjamin's

first

nd

onlydisciple,

hoose

thisverse

of Baudelaire's

as

a

motto orhis

wartime

meditations.331

Each of these suicides

was

an

isolated,

ingular

ct.

Retrospectively,

they

nevertheless

ssume

the

proportions

f

a common

fate

perhaps,

329. CharlesBaudelaire.A Lyric oet n theEra ofHighCapitalism,rans. arry

Zohn

London:

NLB,

1973)

75.

330.

C

609;

translation

odified.

331.

Adorno,

inimaMoralia

Frankfurt/Main:

uhrkamp,

962)

209.









70 Walter

enjamin


arnassus

too,

of a forlorn ommon

gesture gainst

that ate. n 1917

-

three

years

after he oint suicide of his closestfriends, ritzHeinle and Rika Selig-

sohn,

n

response

o theoutbreak

f WorldWar

-

Benjamin

had

written

an

essay

on

Dostoevsky's

diot,

which

reads

ntotheir

ntimely

nd,

and

that

f the

youth

movement,

he

mplosion

f

energies

which

might

ne

day

- in the now time of theRussian Revolution?

erupt

nto

ollec-

tive action.332

hese

deaths

were,

n

other

words,

pregnant

with

apoca-

lyptic,

revolutionary

meaning;

there

was

such

a

thing,

n

Benjamin's

reading,

s a Messianic suicide.

Much

closer

n time

to his own

suicide,

Benjamin

notes

n the Theses that

n

thefirst

vening

f the

July

evo-

lution

clocks

in

towers

were fired

n,

simultaneously

nd

independently,

from everal

places

in Paris. 333

What

imes

were

these

to

adapt

Brecht's

phrase)

that

uicide should

become one of the

only

remaining

ways

of

arresting

ime

nd

of

bringing istory

o

a Messianic standstill? 334

In

1980,

Lisa

Fittko,

he

woman

who

guided Benjamin's group

over

the

mountains nto

Spain,

recalled hecircumstances:

The

Spanish

border

uthorities

ad informedhe

group

hat

hey

would

be

returnedo France.

New

orders,ust

received rom

Madrid:

Nobody

an enter

pain

withoutheFrench xitvisa

....

Had there

been ime or henews o reach heFrench ideofthe

frontier,

ross-

ings

wouldhavebeenhaltedwhile

watching

evelopments.

e were

living

n

the

Age

of New

Directives ;

very

overnmental

ffice

n

every ountry

f

Europe

eemed o

devotefull

ime

o

decreeing,

revoking,nacting

nd then

ifting

rders nd

regulations.

ou

just

had to learn

o

slipthrough

oles,

o

turn,

o

wind

nd

wriggle

our

way

out

fthis

ver-changing

aze,

f

you

wanted o survive.

But

Benjamin

was

not

wriggler

..

...

faut

e

debrouiller: ne has

to cut

hrough

he

og,

work

ne's

way

out

ofthe

general

ollapse

that adbecome

he

nly ossible

way

of life n

France.To

most

t meant

hings

ike

buying

orged

bread

ickets r extra

milk

or hekidsor

obtaining

ome

kind,

ny

kind f

permit;

n other

ords,

o

get omething

hat

idn't

fficially

exist. o some t lso

meant o

get

uch

hings y

collaborating.

or

us,

the

patrides,

twas

primarily

matterf

taying

ut f oncentra-

tion

amps

nd

scaping

rom

he

Gestapo.

332. GS 2.1: 240-41.

333.

1264.

334.

1264-65.









Irving

Wohlfarth

71

But

Benjamin

was

no

ddbrouillard...

In his

remoteness,

hat

ounted as

that

is

manuscript

ndhe were

out

of

reach f

the

Gestapo.

he

crossing

ad

exhausted

im

nd

he

didn't elieve hat e coulddo

t

gain

he

had

old

me o

during

ur

climb.

Here,too,

he had calculated

verything

n

advance;

he

had

enough

morphine

n him otakehis ife everal imes

ver.

Impressed

nd

shaken

by

his

death,

he

Spanish

uthorities

et

his

compan-

ions continue heir

ravel.335

Benjamin

was,

as Fittko

ortrays

im,

n old-world

ntellectualwho

failedto abandonhis Castiliancourt

eremony

ven when the world

was

coming part. 336

e

was not

a

wriggler,

as no

ddbrouillard':

t

sounds

iketherefrain

f

a

latter-day

reek

horus.

His

disciplined

onduct

during

he

ordeal also

reminds

ittko

n

retrospect

f

Benjamin's

claim

in

Agesilaus

Santander hat

nothing

ould

weakentheman's

patience. 337

335.

GS

5.2:

1192-93.

f.,

or

urther

etails,

ise

Fittko,

ein

Weg

iber

ie

Pyrentien

(Munich,

988) speciallyhapter

,

Der lte

Benjamina ;

nd Lise Fittko

u Walter en-

jamins

lucht.

in

nterview

onRichard

einemann,

iir

Walter

enjamin.

okumente,

Essaysund inEntwurf,ds. ngridndKonrad cheuermannFrankfurt/Main:uhrkamp,

1992)

142-57. ittko'sccount

f vents

s

confirmed

y

members

f

Benjamin's

roup

ho

were ed

backto the

frontier,

llowed o

return

ecause f a

violent

torm,

nd

whothen

managed

obribe heir

ay

n.

t

s all the

more

urprising

hat ertain

f hese etails

hould

have

been

put

n

question

n

a

monograph

hat

elies

ssentially

n Fittko's

estimony.

n

Fluchtweg panien Portugal.

Die deutsche

migration

ndder

Exodus aus

Europa

1933-45

(Bonn:

J.

H.

W.

Dietz,

992),

atrik

on ur

Miihlen

laims hat

enjamin

istookhe um-

mons

o

report

o the

police

o havehis

papers

nspected

or

mminent

rrest

nd

delivery

into

German

ands;

hat

nly

n the

worst

f cases

would

he havebeen ent

ack;

hat o

German

roops

ere

yet

tationedt that

art

f the

French

order;

ndhe thereforeon-

cludes hat

enjamin's

uicidewas

a

pure anic

eaction

ased n

a false

nterpretation

f

his

situation

ypical mong efugees

t

that

ime

nd

place

50-51,92-93).

Thereby

e

implicitlylames hem or ot aving ad n overviewf heirituationhichs, nfact, ot

even o be had

n

hindsight.

hat

ervades

ittko's

ccount

s,

on

the

ontrary,

sense

f

Benjamin's

ccentric

ivility,

is

dignity,

atter-of-factness

nd

extreme

ationality

nder

extreme

ressure. verything

as

carefully

alculated

n

advance:

is

pausing

t

regular

intervals

n account

f n

ailing

eart;

is

quenching

is hirst

t

a

dirty uddle

the

worst

that an

happen

s that die

of

yphus

..

AFTER

crossing

he order.

he

Gestapo

won't

e

able to

get

me,

ndthe

manuscript

ill

be safe

GS

5.2:

1191]);

nd,

hould

ll else

fail,

enoughmorphine

o

killhimselfeveral imes ver.

The

reverse ide

of this

methodical

approach

as,

he lso

suggests, dangerous

ackof ntuition

nd

flexibility;

nd

hecon-

siders

enjamin's

ear f

being aptured

y

the

Gestapo

somewhat

xaggerated.

Inter-

view,

48-49).

n

an

unpublished

ccount f

Benjamin's

astmonths ritteno

Scholem n

17 Oct.1941,Arendtrovides similarlyomplex icturefalternatinganic ndcalm,

helplessness

nd

principle

nder

esperate

onditionsf

nternment

nd

flight.

336. GS 5.2:

1185,

1190.

337.

GS

6:

522.









72 Walter

enjamin


There

s indeed

lmost sense f

dejc'

u bout

he cene

he

describes.

or

onething,herere he tatementsfBenjamin's,ftenbout ther riters,

that

uddenly

pply

with

isconcertingccuracy

o hisown

extremity.

or

another,

he Theses

re not

merely running

ommentary

n what he

author,

ua

materialist

istorian,

s

experiencing

n hisownbehalf

fir

seine

Person]

ut lso

anticipation

fthe last

econd fthe asthour. 338

Above

ll,

Benjaminlways

eems

ohave

nhabitedne

no-man's-land

r

another;

t

s as

ifhe

had

always

een

preparing

imself

or

hefinal ne.

Having

pent

much f

his

matureife

ravitating

owardsborder

reas, 339

taking

secret

aths, 340bserving

he

emergence

f

the

Age

of New

Directives, 341nd

anticipating

heworst, e

finally

rrivedt the

grey

zone

where

ou

have oknow

ow o collaborate

f

you

do notwant

o

go

under;342

nd,

nce

here,

e

did

not

uite

now

ow

o

make t

through.

Or

rather

e

knew

he

heory

f

he

ractice

etter

han he

ractice

tself.343

By

a

terrible

rony,

his

esourceful

dversary

f

all

systems,

ho

believed

in

always eginninggain

from

cratch, as,

f

certain

ccounts

reto

be

believed,

till oo

wedded o

ystem

obe able o

cope

with he ew

ealities.

Was

Benjamin,

hen,

oo

much

of a

German

Jew

a

Yekke,

s

the

Israelisater alled hem tobe abletoescape heGermans?344e this

338.

1265.

339. GS 6:

528

[Grenzraum].

340.

Cf.

GS

2.2: 523

[Pasch-

nd

chleichpfad,aumpfad].

341.

Benjamin

writes

rom erlin n

October,

931:

The economic

rder

f

Ger-

many

as

as firm

footing

s

the

high

eas and

mergency

ecrees ollidewith achother

like he rests

f

waves;

Unemployment

s about

o make

evolutionary

rogramsust

s

obsolete

s economic nd

political rogramslready

re

C

382).

342. In

the

hapter

ntitledThe

Grey

one

n

TheDrowned nd the

aved

New

York:

ummit,

988)

22-5,

Primo

evi describeshemost

xtreme

ersion

f

this lterna-

tive: he ttemptostay uman tAuschwitznawar f llagainstll.

343. He behaved ike

omeonewhoknowswhat

e

s

doing.

He

had nformed

im-

self

precisely

bout

he ituationnd

ll

the

possibilities

ndthen

evised

theory

bout

how o

proceed....

He

was

a

strange

ixture

f

clumsiness

n

practical

ffairs

ndcareful

intellectual

nalysis

n

theoretical atters

Lisa

Fittko u Walter

enjamins

lucht

145).

What

strange

an.A

crystal-clear-mind;

nbending

nner

trength;et,

wooly-

headed

sic]bungler,

he

lsewhere

emarks

GS

5.2:

1189).

344.

This

s,

at all

events,

he

mage

f

Benjamin

hat

merges

rom ans

Sahl's

memoir

Benjamin

m

Lager

Fiir

Walter

enjamin

14-121;

ur

Aktualitdt alter

en-

jamins,

d.

Siegfried

nseld

Frankfurt/Main,

972]

74-86).

n

the ace

f

situationhat

mocked

ll

system, enjamin's

hinking

as,

he

claims,

ystematic

o

the

point

f

ped-

antry,otunlikehe German rder hatwascreatedythe thernmatestthe ntern-

ment

amp;

and his

wonderful

ye

for

etail

urned

n a

tragic nability

o size

up

the

overall ituation.

ahl

uggests

hat

his

tragic

isproportion

etween

hought

nd

ction

not

merely

ll

befitted

Marxist,

ut

inally

ost

Benjamin

is

ife.









IrvingWohlfarth

73

as

it

may,

Hannah Arendt

s

surely ight

o see in the

following

emarks

by JacquesRivibre, ited nBenjamin's essay on Proust, nother pithet

on his

own existence:

Marcel

Proust iedof

the ame

nexperience

hich

ermitted

im o

write is

works. e diedof

gnorance

f

he

world nd

becausehe did

notknow

how o

change

he

onditionsfhis ife

which

ad

begun

o

crush

im;

he

diedbecause

he did notknowhow to

make fire r

open

window.345

And,

to

be

sure,

Benjamin

adds

in

a

telling,

hrowaway

ine,

of his

psychogenetic

sthma.

One

day

earlier,

writes

Arendt,

Benjamin

would

have

got

hrough

ithout

ny

rouble;

ne

day

ater

the

people

n Marseilles ouldhave

known hat or he

ime

eing

t

was

mpossible

o

pass

through

pain.Only

n that

articularay

was

the

atastropheossible.346

Benjamin's

death would

thus

have been

an

uncommon

troke

of

bad

luck occasionedby thevagariesof Spanishborderpolicy. Actually,

Fredric

Grunfeld

oints

ut,

it was

quite

he

reverse;

nly

hefortunateew

managed

o

escape;

deathwas

the rule

rather han he

exception; enjamin

had

been

lucky

o

get

as far

s he did.

n

the

ast

analysis,

he uncommon

stroke fbad

luck

hat

ost

himhis ife

was thefact

hatHitler

ad

become

Fiihrer

f

Germany

nd wielded

he

power

o

sweep

away

all the

previously

ccepted

moral tandards

f

European

ivilization.

Benjamin's

catastrophe

ad thus

een a

long

time

n

the

making

after he warthe Germanswere to refer o theirwhole Hitler

epoch

s

Die

Katastrophe

and

might

ave

happened,

n

one

way

345.

1215.

Hedidnot

now,

ittko

ays

f

Benjamin,

how o

protect

neself

rom

cold

orrain

Lisa

Fittko

u

Benjamins

lucht

42).

346.

I 18.

During

he

night,

rites

rendt,

Benjamin

ook

his

ife,

whereupon

he

border

fficials,

pon

whom his uicide

ad

made

n

mpression,

llowed

is

ompanions

to

proceed

o

Portugal

I

18,

talics

mine).

ittko

orroborates

his

ersion

f

events,

ut

his

companions

o

not.

One

of

hem,

rete

reund,

oncludes:

Thus hemost

ragic

hing

is that

Mr.

Benjamin

ould

inally

avebeen ble omake t

hrough

ith

s. t

wasn't is

death hat aved he ituation,ut omethinglse citednGS 5.2: 1195).Namely,uck

(in

the

form

f

an

unexpected

torm

hich issuaded he

Spanish olice

from

ending

them ack

over

he

mountains)

nd,

s

another

ompanion

tresses,

opious

ribery

GS

5.2:

1196).









74

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

or

another,

n

innumerablether

ays

s

well;

t was not s

though

hiswere n solated ase.347

From

Benjamin's

own

perspective,

owever,

ven this

reinterpretation

f

his

bad luck

still

does

not

go

nearly

ar

nough.

n

search

of a

theory

of

history

romwhichfascism

an be

sighted, 348

he Theses

on the

Phi-

losophy

of

History

date the

catastrophe

from

time immemorial.

Unprecedented

hough

hehorror f Nazism will

prove

o

be,

thecatastro-

phe

is

-

seen from he

angel's disappearing antage-point

part

of a

continuum

f domination hat tretches ack to

(the

Fall

from)

Paradise.

History,n thisperspective,emains natural istory Natur-Geschichte],

the

petrified,

rimeval

andscape 349

f German

Baroque Trauerspiel,

Marx's

prehistory ;

ut it is meanwhile forsaken

y

the

dialectic

of

progress

hat

was,

in

the

Marxist

cheme

of

things,

o

lead

the

way

out.

f

Benjamin

had

from

arly

on been

drawn

o such

dangerous

hinkers

s

Klages,

Sorel,

and

Schmitt,

hiswas

in

part

because

the

reactionary

ase

against

modernity

as

too

strong

o

ignore.

At least since theWorldWar

I,

a

question-mark

ung

over the

attempts

f a

Kant,

Hegel,

and a Marx

to

ground

reason

in

history.

he

vocabulary

f the

enlightenment

ould

neither e

jettisoned

nortaken t facevalue. In the

Theses,

t is accord-

ingly

turned n its head

by

a series of

Brechtian

alienation-effects.

Progress

s

inseparable

rom

egression,

culture rom

arbarism,

nd

the

so-called

exception

s the

rule. 350

Among

the German-Jewish

efugees,

writes

Grunfeld,

eath

was

the

rule rather

han

the

exception.

But

Benjamin's Eighth

Thesis had

pro-

posed

a far

more

radical

nversion

f these

erms:

The

traditionf

the

ppressed

eaches s that he state f

emergency

[Ausnahmezustand]

nwhich e ive s not he

xception

ut he ule.We

must

ttain

o

a

conception

f

history

hat

orresponds

o this

nsight.

Thenwe

shall

learly

ealize

hatt s

our ask o

bring

bout real

tate f

emergency,

nd

this

will

mprove

ur

position

n

the

truggle

gainst

347. Fredric

runfeld,

rophets

Without

onour.

A

Background

o

Freud,

KaJka,

Einstein nd TheirWorld

New

York,

1979),

49.

Grunfeld

oes

on:

Therewere

many

like

him;

hey

iffered

nly

n hat ome f hem

hose

o

draw he

ine omewhatarliern

the

process

hat

urned

uman

eins nto he

uarry

f

a

great

nternational

attu unt.

..

For

people

nthis

ituation,

uicidewas

not n

aberration

ut rational

lternative

o

being

tortured,eportedndmurdered249-50).

348. GS

1.3: 1232.

349. OGT

166;

translation

odified.

350.

1259-60, 58,

259.









Irving

Wohlfarth

75

Fascism.

Not

he east f

the

easons

hy

ascism

as

a

chance

s

that

its dversariesppose t n thename fprogressonsidereds a his-

torical

orm.

he

currentmazement

hat

he

hings

e

are

xperienc-

ing

are

still

possible

n

the

wentieth

entury

s not

philosophical.

Thisamazement

s

not

he

beginning

f

knowledge

unless

t

s

the

knowledge

hat he iew f

history

hich

ives

ise o

t

s

untenable.351

Already

n

his

Trauerspiel

tudy,

Benjamin

had

pointed

to

the

rela-

tion

that btained

n the

egal-theological hinking

f the

Counter-Refor-

mation between

the state of

emergency

Ausnahmezustand:

iterally,

state

of

exception )

nd the

dea of

catastrophe.352

he

sovereign

was

here defined s

hewho has dictatorial

owers

todecide when a stateof

emergency

as

arisen and what action s to be

taken

against

t; and,

as

the

subsequent

areer

of Carl Schmitt

the

atter-day

heorist

f

sover-

eignty

who became

a Nazi

jurist

indicated,

arallels

with he

German

present

were close at hand.

Brushing

he whole notionof

an Ausnahme-

zustand

against

the

grain,Benjamin's Eighth

Thesis redefines t

against

its

past

and

present sage.

A

pervasive

ense of

catastrophe

as

enabled a

new

sovereign

the

Fiihrer

to

impose

a new state

of

emergency.

Like itspredecessors,t s defined nd enforced rom bove. Lived from

below,

however,

he so-called state

f

exception

s an

unexceptional

tate

of affairs.

Here

catastrophe

s

permanent,

bnormality

he

norm,

xcep-

tion

the

rule.

The

only

task

worthy

f

the

name

is

accordingly

o

bring

about

a true

normality,

hitherto

nprecedented

tate

f

exception

the

one that

will

finally

uspend

hemillennial

ule

of

exception,

nd

marks

state

of

emergency nly

for

hosethat ule.

An

alleged

stateof

exception

is

presently

eing

used to

ustify

he

return

f the

sovereign,

f law and

order,

ictatorship

nd terror.

true tate f

exception,

n the

other

and,

would finallybringthereignof law to an anarchicend. If in theFirst

Thesis

theology

had

gone

into

hiding,

here,

n

the

Eighth,

t comes out

into

the

open.

Unashamedly

eschatological

though

such

re-emerging

political

Messianism

is,

it also claims

to have a

thoroughly

ractical

intent.

he

all-pervasive

elief n

progress

s a historical

orm,

enjamin

argues,

weakens

the

struggle

against

fascism;

the

quasi-theological

destruction

f such secular

pieties

cannot

but

improve

the anti-fascist

position.

Therein

ay

the

onlyhope,

the

hope

that

s

perhaps

not for

us,

butthat ould be the ourceof a certain serenity. There was something

351. 1259.

352.

OGT65.









76

Walter

enjamin

nd the

German-Jewish

arnassus

dignified

oth

n his

calm and

his

attitude,

wrote an

eye-witness

who

hadobservedhimsittingo one side intheStadedes Colombes.

He didn't it t

all nto hese

urroundings.

herest f

us,

mostly

uch

younger,

ere

beginning

o

get

worried.Whatdid

they

want

f

us?

Why

rewe here? or

how

ong?

And

here at his

man,

s if

none f

it

oncerned

im.353

Lisa

Fittko

eports

hat

Benjamin

nsisted

n

lugging

withhim a

large

black

briefcasewhichcontained

manuscript

hatwas more

mportant

o

him than

his own life.354

When,

decades

later,

he

heard from

cholem

that

he

manuscript

ad

been

lost,

he reflected:

Hannah

Arendt as writtenbout

he little unchback

hose hreat

Benjamin

elt

hroughout

ife nd

against

whom

he

took ll

precau-

tions.

Benjamin's

system

f

provisionsgainst ossible anger

..

invariablyisregarded

he

real

danger,

he

says.

But t seems o

me

now

that

he real

danger

was not

disregardedy

Walter

enjamin

during

hat

ight

n

Port-Bou;

t

was

ust

hat

is

real

danger,

is

real-

ity

ifferedrom urs.

He

must

avemet

gain

he ittle unchback

n

Port-Bou.. hisvery wn, heBenjamin unchback,ndhe had to

come

o terms ith

im.355

While

corroborating

rendt's

depiction

of

Benjamin

as a consummate

bungler,

ittko

s

secure

enough

n her

own

reality

o be

able

to

ack-

owledge

his.

Eight

years

before,

Benjamin

had,

for

his

part,

already

returned

he

compliment.

n

The DestructiveCharacter he

had

por-

trayed

foreign

riend ll the more

admirable

or

iving

life

entirely

beyondBenjamin's

own inner

means. Hans Hansen to

Benjamin's

Tonio

Kriger, the destructive haracter s Brechtian eality-principlend a

wish-fulfillmentll

in

one. As an

unceremonious

man of

action

who

sees

nothing

ermanent,

e is

ready

at

all times o

recognize

hat

verything

353.

Max

Aron,

iir

Walter

enjamin

15.

Compare

rendt'sccount f his

behav-

ior

at

the

Stade des

Colombes: .

..

he was

pretty esperate.

And,

of

course,

not without

reason.He

immediatelyegan

o

practice

certain

orm

f

asceticism,

ave

up smoking,

gave

away

all

his

chocolate,

efused o wash or even

to

move

unpublished

etter o

Scholem,

7

Oct.

1941).

Cf. the

discussion

etween ittko's usband nd

Benjamin

t

another

amp

bout he

merits

f

giving

p smoking

n

such

situation:

I

can

bear he

conditions

n

the

amp,

enjamin

laimed,

only

f am

forced o

focus ll

my

ntellec-

tualpowers na single iolent ffort.iving psmokingostsmethis ffort,ndthus

helps

me out

(cited

n

Fittko,

Mein

Weg

iber

die

Pyren

135).

354. GS

5.2: 1191-93.

355. GS 5.2:

1193-94.









Irving

Wohlfarth

77

can

go

wrong.

Where

others

ncounter alls

or

mountains,

e

always

seesa way hroughhe ubble.356e is, nshort,heverymbodiment

of

the

presence

f

mind 357hat

enjamin

o much dmired

ndnow o

desperately

eeded.

It

might

ork ne

way,

bserves ittko f

the itu-

ation

hat onfronted

efugees

n

1940,

or else

quite

nother;

t all

events,

way

out

of

the

ituation

ad

somehow

o

be

found.

pontaneousdjustment

o

situation

asnot

[Benjamin's]ay.358

Thiswas,however,reciselyheway fhis destructiveharacter. e, f

anyone,

as theman

who

would

have

made thisbusiness o survive

empty-handed,

f

needbe. To

this

nd,

e has

put

he sual

philosophy

f

life

nd,

y

he ame

oken,

he

uestion

f uicide

ehind

im:

Thedestructive

haracter

ives

rom

he

feelin,

not hat

ife s worth

living,

ut hat

uicide

s notworthhe rouble.

Young

nd

cheerful,

e knows

only

ne

activity:

learing

way

nd

effacing

he races. 360ut

the ld

Benjamin,

s Fittko

alls

him,

was

intent,

ike o

many

ther

mortally

hreatenedewsnthose

ears,

n

pre-

serving

is last

traces,361

nd could

not travel

ight,

ven

across

the

mountains.

nd

he

vehemently

efended

he dea

of

suicide.362

The

Destructive

haracter

hus eadsn

retrospect

ike

precise ounterpoint

to

Benjamin's

ife nd

memory

f he uture.

Good

God,

Fittko xclaims

n

response

o those

who

nowadays

question

er bout

he ontents

f

Benjamin'smanuscript,

356. OWS158-59.

357.

Cf.

GS 1.3: 1234.

358.

Interview it isa

Fittko 48.

359.

OWS 159.

360.

OWS

157.

361.

Cf.,

on theneed

o

preserve

races

n

the

faceof

extermination,

achel

Ertel,

Dans

la

Langue

de

Personne.

odsie

iddish

e

l

Aneantissement

Paris, 993).

362.

In

January1940]

one

of

his

young

riends

rom he

amp

.. committed

ui-

cide.

The

reasons

were

ssentially

f

private

rder.

his

matter

normously

reoccupied

[Benjamin],

nd

n ll conversationse sided

with his

oy

nd

his

decision

with

ruly as-

sionate ehemence.

.

[In

June]

e heard

f

the

irst

uicides

f nternees

n

flight

rom

theGermans. ndBenjaminegan or he irstime ospeak omerepeatedlybout ui-

cide.That

here

emained,

fter

ll,

this

way

out.To

my

very igorous

bjection

hat ne

always

has time

or

hat,

e

nvariably

eplied

hat ne

can

never

now

hat

ndthat

ne

should

n

no

accounteave

t

oo ate

unpublished

etter

o

Scholem,

7

Oct.

1941).









78

Walter

enjamin

nd

the German-Jewish

arnassus

I

had

my

ands ull

teering

y

ittle

roup phill;

hilosophy

ould

ave

towait ill he ownhillide f hemountainasreached.Whatmattered

nowwas

to ave few

eople

romhe

Nazis;

nd

here waswith his

this komischer

auz,

e

dr6le

e

type

this

urious

ccentric.

ld

Benjamin:

nder

o

circumstances,

ould

he

part

with is

ballast,

hat

black

ag;

we would

ave o

drag

hemonstercross

he

mountains.363

As

it

turned

ut,

Fittko's

sense

of

humor

nd

priorities

allied

perfectly

with hose

of the

manuscript

hat

he

was

helping

o save.

For

the

contents

of the

black

bag

were

almost

certainly

he

Theses, 364

which,

n

terms

reminiscentf Brechtian crude

hinking,

all the

class

struggle

a

fight

or

he rude

ndmaterial

hings

ithout

hich o

refinednd

spiritual

hings

ould xist.

..

They

manifesthemselves

n

this

trug-

gle

as

courage,

umor,

unning

ndfortitude.365

The

mutual

ecognition

y

these wo

passeurs

ftheir

espective

ealities

material

rescue

Rettung]

nd

spiritualredemption Erlhsung]

is

thus

what

Benjamin'smanuscript

as all

about.

Dragging

hemonster

cross he

mountains

as,

n

this

ense,

heir

oint

ontributiono the

lass

struggle.

Benjaminmusthaveknown hathe was delayinghisattemptoescape

from France

dangerously

ate.

He

had hurried

lowly,

observing

to

Adorno

as

late as

January

938 that

here

were still

positions

n

Europe

to

defend. 366

lready

n

1931,

he had describedhis

position

s that f a

shipwreck

who climbs

to

the

peak

of

the

crumbling

mast,

fromwhich he

has a chance

of

sending

ut an S.O.S.367 It was the

position

of

a witness

who

chose,

rather

han

happened,

o

be there.At

the

riskof

making

oo

much sense

of his

suicide,

and

only

to the extent

hat

Benjamin

did have

some

choice

in

the

matter,

ne

may conjecture

hathe died

because

he

didn'twantto be an

exception

o the

rule;

and that herein is deathwas

indeed

exceptional.

Primo

Levi,

who survived

Auschwitz,

escribes he

shame of

being

such an

exception:

363.

GS 5.2:

1189-90.

364.

Cf.

Rolf

Tiedemann's

rgumentsgainst

cholem's

ssumption

hat heblack

bag

contained new

manuscript

n

the

Arcades

roject

GS

5.2:

1203-05).

365. 1256-57.

366.

Cited n

Adorno,

Interimsbescheid,

esammelte

chriften,

ol. 20.1

(Frank-

furt:

uhrkamp,

986)

186.

367. C

378.









Irving

Wohlfarth

79

The

worsturvived that

s,

he

ittest;

he est

lldied.

..

we,

he

ur-

vivors,re otherue itnesses.....We re hose ho y heirrevari-

cations

r bilitiesr

good

uck idnot ouch

ottom.hosewho id

o

... have

ot

eturned

o ell

bout

t

rhave eturned

ute,

ut

hey

re

the

Muslims,'

he

ubmerged,

he

omplete

itnesses

...

They

re he

rule,

e

re he

xception....

hen

he estructionas

erminated,

he

work

ccomplished

asnot old

y

nyone,

ust

s

no-onever eturned

to

ecountis wn eath...

We

peak

n

heir

tead,

y

roxy.368

Thetrue

witness oesnot

urvive,

ccording

o

Levi,

nd

he

urvivors no

truewitness.

ow,

hen,

an one

testify?

ow

does

one

fathom

he

epths

withoutrowning?Wardingff espair ith nehand,whileotting ith

theotherwhat

he sees

among

he

uins,

ead

n

his

own ifetime

nd the

real

urvivor :369

afka's

elf-description,

hich

uggests

desperate

ut

possible

nswer,

s echoed

y

Adorno's emarkhat

enjamin

poke

as a

dead man

a certainack of

mmediacy

nd

corporealityaving

een

the

terrible

rice

he

paid

for

nsights

ot therwisevailable o the

iv-

ing.370

t

s not

necessarily

o

make

myth

f

Benjamin's

ife nddeath o

say

that

e risked is

ife

or is

testimony

rthat e ived o the ast

by

certaindea

ofJewish essianism.ike

the

Messiah

who

s

always

om-

ing,

he

revolutionary

sun continued

rising

n the

ky

of

history 371

even s

(in

Celan's

words)

the

un,

ndnot

nly

t

was

going

own.

The

privileged

itnesses,

rimo evi

writes,

ad

the

dvantage

f a

better

bservatory,

f

only

because

t

was

higher p.

But t was to a

greater

r

lesser

degree

alsified

y

the

privilege

tself. 372

nder ess

extreme

ircumstances

han

evi's,

Benjamin's roject

f

writing

istory

from

elow

was an

attempt

o

put comparableporia

o

the est.

ike

Levi,

he knew

hat

here

ould

be no

representing

he

nderprivileged

by

proxy, o speakingin theirtead. Andyet hatwas, nevitablynd

legitimately,

he

ask hat

e set

himself.

o turn ne's class

privilege

nd

cultural

apital gainst

hemselves as

not,

he

uthor f

The Author

s

Producer

new,

obecome ne

with

he

nderprivileged.

ut

his id

not

entitle

he

ntellectual

ho

poke

ntheir

ame

otake

place

beside

hem

- that

of

benefactor,

n

deological

atron

an

mpossible

lace. 373

368.

Levi,

TheDrowned

nd

the aved63-64.

369.

Kafka,

agebiicher

910-23

92;

cited

n

1

19.

370. UberWalterenjaminFrankfurt/Main:uhrkamp,968)13.

371.

1257.

372.

Levi,

TheDrowned

nd

the aved6-7.

373.

R

228.









80

Walter

enjamin


His taskwas

to

hold

anotherno

less untenable

lace

for while

that f

themissing ollective. t was an increasinglyolitary,erie,almostpost-

humous

position,

ut t was at east

not

patronizing

ne.

The historical

materialist,

s conceived

by

the

Theses,

writes

n

his

own

name,

on

his own behalf.374

lacing

his own

person

on the ine

was

perhaps

Benjamin's way

of

earning

he

right

o

speak by

proxy.

I

am

picking

flowers,

e

once

observed,

at the

edge

of

a

minimal

xistence

[am

Rande

des

Existenzminimums].

n

the

etter

n

Kafka

writtenn

1938,

Benjamin

ikewise

speaks

of the

marvelous

margin

Spielraum]

hat

he

catastrophe

ill not

grant

s. 375 t

s

the

pace

of

a

temporaryeprieve,

Spielraum

within

he

Trauerspiel,

he

calm before he

storm,

he

eye

of

the torm.

An

experience quivalent

o

that

f Kafka,

the

private

ndivid-

ual

will

probably

otbecome

accessible

to the

masses,

Benjamingoes

on,

until

uch timeas

they

re

being

done

away

with.

But Kafka

was,

by

his own

account,

precisely

not a

private

ndividual.

Dead in

one's

own

lifetime,

e was an individual

by

thename of

Franz

Kafka). 376

t

is

as

if,

n

order

o

see

comment

est,

t were

necessary

o be

rid

of one's

self-preserving

elf,

to be an

eyewitness

lmost as

anonymous

s the

unseeingmasses;as if, owritefiireinePerson,onehadto be a non-per-

son,

a

trans-individualmedium

whose

person

as

Benjamin

had

writ-

ten

n

1917

of

Dostoyevsky's

diot)

retreats

ehind

his

life; 377

s

if

all

tracesof

personality

ad

to be

effaced

f

one

were

to

be

written

y

the

world.

In

his

penultimate

etter o

Adorno

written n

1940,

Benjamin

writes f a loneliness

hat,

far

rom

eing

he ite f he

human

eing's

ndividual

ullness,

ould

very

well be the ite

of

his

historically

etermined

mptiness,

f

his

personas misfortuneMissgeschick].

Here

too,

two

opposite ypes

f

impossibility

ere to

be

distinguished.

world

of difference

ay

between

he

attitude

truck

y

a

Stefan

George

and

that

f

the

ateBaudelaire. he one exhibits

is

tattoo,

he

ther

s branded.378

In

other

words,

Baudelaire's modern uicide can

be read

n

a

posture

r

the

ines of a

face. t

is

a

way

of

ife,

raison

d'etre,

lifelong

esign.

t

intervenes

ong

before hefinal

ct,

which

may

or

may

nottake

place.

374.

1264.

375. I 146.

376.

1

146.

377.

GS 2.1:

239.

378.

C

633.









IrvingWohlfarth

81

In the

end,

Fittko

writes,

enjamin

musthave

again

met

his

little

hunchback.henheittleenjaminirstncounteredim, e mmediately

associated

imwithwhat

his

mother sed to

say

whenhe

had fallen r

broken

omething: ngeschickt

iisst

griissen

Mr.

Bungle

sends

his

regards].379

he connection

s

one between wo

unpersons.

omething

largely

mpersonal

s

being

personified,omething

argely

nternals

being

xternalized,

omething

ifficulto rticulates

being layfullyep-

resented

yway

ofan

allegorical

igure

hat

s

only figure

f

speech.

t

is,

as

Kafka nd

Benjamin

ut

t,

nothing ;

ut

hat

othing

ill

disap-

pear, ccording

o

Benjamin's

Kafka

essay

and

the

Trauerspieltudy,

only

with he

oming

ftheMessiah nd the

esurrection.380

he word

ungeschickt

urther

eepens

he

paradox.

Anotherubstantivized

djec-

tive,

s

Benjamin's

motherses

t,

nd therein

ot

unlike

as Unheimli-

che,

der

Fremde,

as

Es,

etc.,

this word can

also mean

(un)sent.

(Un)geschickt,

(un)sent,

un)skilled],

sich)

chicken

to

be

appropriate,

to

send],

Missgeschick

misfortune],

chicksal nd

Geschick

fate]

reall

etymologically

elated.

s

it,

hen,

n unmoved

over

r

n

unsent

ender,

theology,

rthe

nconscious,

hat ends

his/its

egards?

Benjamin, e earlierlaimed,mplicitlynterpretshehunchbackn

terms f a

theology

f

the

ncanny.

ust

s,

at

the

nd

of

the

Trauerspiel

study, llegory

s itself

allegorized,

nd

ts

nothingness egated

n an

allegory

f

resurrection,,3so,

in

the

First

Thesis,

he

hunchback

s

converted,

s

if

by

a

skilful

onjuring-trick,

rom

myth

o

theology.

clear-cut,

ut

negotiable,

ivision

s

thereby

aintainedetween

heology

and

myth.

Where

Heidegger

nvokes n

inescapable

eschick,

enjamin

plays

n the

aving ope

of

the

ungeschickt.

ut

we

arehere

n

the

grey,

crooked

ealm

f

he

un)canny,

nd

he

uestion

emains

hetherhe

it-

tlehunchback aynot n unpredictableoker, wildcardthat annot

quite

be

subsumed nder

ither ate

or

onto-theo-teleology.

nd

this

could

n

turn

ave

bearing

n

Benjamin's

wn nd.

Arendt

ees

n

he

unchback

he mblem

f

Benjamin's

hole

ll-fatedxist-

ence a

lifewhich hedescribess

having

een

aught

nan inextricable

netwoven

f

merit,

reat ifts,

lumsinessndmisfortune

Missgeschick]. 382

She even

venturesne

step

urther,

ortraying

enjamin

s

someone

who

had n

uncanny

nack or

eing

n

the

wrong lace

t the

wrong

ime:

379. GS 4.1: 303.

380.

Cf.

Kafka,

riefe

38;

1

134;

OGT

232-33.

381. OGT

232-33.

382.

17.









82

Walter

enjamin

nd

the German-Jewish

arnassus

With

precision

uggesting

sleepwalker

is clumsiness

nvariably

guided im o the ery enter fa misfortune,rwhereveromething

ofthe ort

might

urk.?83

Does this

statement

ormulate

compelling nsight,

r

make an all-too-

fateful

myth

f

Benjamin's

life,

or both at once? The

problem

hat

uch

statements aise

was once addressed

y Benjamin

n

the

following

erms:

A

manwhodies

tthe

ge

of

hirty-five,

oritz

eimann

nce

aid,

is at

every

oint

fhis ife man

whodies

at the

ge

of

thirty-five.

Nothing

s

more

ubious

han his entence

but

for he

ole reason

thathe ense swrong. he truthhatwas ntendedere sthat man

who died

at

thirty-five

ill

appear

o

remembrancet

every

oint

f

his

ife s a

man

whodiesat the

ge

of

thirty-five.

n

other

ords,

he

statementhatmakesno sensefor eal

ife

becomes

ndisputable

or

rememberedife.384

As it

stands,

Heimann's sentence

s

fraught

ith

what

Benjamin

calls

myth

nd Sartre

will term essentialism.

lightly

eadjusted,

owever,

it

contains

wo

far-reaching

ruths.

irstly,

ur

fate

oes

not,

s fortune-tell-

ers would haveus believe,hangoverus likethe swordofDamocles. But,

secondly,

eathdoes indeed eal a man's fate.

Getting

his

nsight ight

s,

according

o

Benjamin, question

f

choosing

he

right

ense.

This

means,

in

the

first

nstance,

hoosing

he

present.

ach

present

resents

s

with

constantly

enewed hoice.385 ut t also

anticipates

he

Last

Judgment.386

Without

orfeiting

ny

of

ts

open-endedness,

t

s

thereby

nvestedwith n

irrevocable

responsibility.

n

choosing

the

present,

we

also choose the

future

erfect:

ne

day

t

willhave

beenthis

way.

But

this

udgment

as not

yet

ome

into

ffect;

t

s

still

n its

way. Only

from he nd

can

the

tory

f

a man's lifebe told.Onlythen s thetextdelivered, s itwere, othepub-

lisher.

Only

n

retrospect

ill

ts uthor e the

man he will

have been: Mal-

larme's Tel

qu

en

lui-meme

nfin

'Eternite

e

change.

At

that

moment,

but not a

moment

efore,

e

becomes for

us the

man who was to die so

untimely

death.Death

retroactivelymparts

quasi-mythical inality

o

whatwas

till

hen,

t least

potentially,

free

xistence.

In

this

and

only

his)

perspective,

t

s

possible

o

see in

Benjamin

man

who

was to

die

at

forty-eight,

nd

even,

perhaps,

o

see

a

more r ess fateful

383. 17.

384.

1

100;

translation

odified.

385. Cf.C

300.

386. Cf. GS 1.3: 1245.









IrvingWohlfarth

83

pattern

n

his

bungling.

What,

hen,

might

ave

been

the

guiding

ogic

behind

suchunerringlumsiness?HeretooBenjamin'sown workadumbratesn

answer,

ne that iffers

rom

Arendt's

s

subtly

s

it

does from

Heimann's

above-quoted

tatement.

he

pattern

n

question

may

be

relatedto the

strange

ogic

that inks

Benjamin's

various

ccounts f the

ittle

unchback.

It

is an

uncanny

ogic

of

shifting

ontraries

that f

a

double

agent

who

plays

good

turns

s

well as

bad

and

complicates

hedifferenceetween

he

two.

n one

guise,

he

displaces

he

fallen

world;

n

another,

e

helps

tfall

back into

place.

Mr.

Bungle

s

two-faced,

nasmuch s it s

he who

makes

us

bungle.

Our clumsiness

s theobtuse

ideof his

canny

moves.

t

s,

more-

over,

the

cunning

ombinationf the dwarfs

cunning

nd the

puppet's

obtuseness

of

him/it

nd us

-

that

s

supposed

o winall the

time. 387

By placing

Benjamin's

life under he

sign

of the

hunchback,

Arendt

may

thus

have been

suggesting

more

han he

intended,

nd

thereby

rick-

ing

her

own account

of

it nto

place.

But the difference

s

indeed

a subtle

one

inasmuch

s she too

sees both

faces

of

the

coin,

the

strange nterplay

of

opposites,

he

blessing

n

thecurse.

Butthepoint fthematters that e knew ullwellofthemysterious

interplay,

he

point

at which

weakness

nd

genius

oincide,

which

he so

masterfully

iagnosed

n

Proust.

or

he was

of

course lso

speaking

bout

imself

hen,

n

complete

greement,

e

quoted

what

Jacques

ivio

had

said about

roust...

Like

Proust,

e was

wholly

incapable

f

changing

his life's

conditions

ven

when

they

were

about

o crush

im.

..

But

ike

Proust,

e

had

every

eason

o

bless

the urse ..

388

Was

not,

n

that

ase,

his

unerring

nstinct

or

being

n

the

wrong

place

at

thewrong ime lso a wayofbeing ntheright lace at theright ime?

But

did

it not

still

remain

he

wrong

place?

If

one trusts

enjamin's

theology

of the

uncanny

over

Arendt's

more

commonsensical,

ut also

somewhat

superstitious,

ersion

of

his ill-fated

ife,

does

one not

risk

theologizing

is

Missgeschick

ut of existence?

s not he

ittle unchback

387.

In Zur

Psychopathologie

es

Alltagslebens,

hich onstitutes

n

anthology

f

the ittle

unchback's

xploits,

reud escribes

n

apparently

uite

different

nterplay

f

skill

nd clumsiness.

e

and

a

girl

whohad

caught

is

fancy

oth

umpup

at the ame

time o

fetch chair

or

er

lderly

ncle,

nd

he

somehow

nds

up

embracing

er

from

behind.No-one seemstohave noticed owskilfullygeschickt]e hadexploitedhis

clumsy ungeschickt]

ovement.he

unconscious,

e

might

ay,

s to

winall the ime.

But his

s

hardly

safe asis

for

theodicy.

388. 17.









84

Walter

enjamin


arnassus

too unreliable

ndunmasterable

force o be convertednd

pressed

nto

service? antheologyake ver he ole f he nconscious?

In

the

Theses,

he ittle unchback

as

turnednto

providential

igure

whose

nvisible and

uides

he ortunesf

historical aterialism.ike-

wise,

in A Berlin Childhood Around

Nineteen

Hundred it

guides

the

author's

en.

Proust's ork

was,

ccording

o

Benjamin,nything

ut con-

structed,

ut

twas neverthelesss deliberate

planvoll]

s the ines

n

our

hand;

nd whilehis doctors

roved

owerless

n the face of their

patient's

sthma,e,

for is

part,

very

eliberately

planvoll]

laced

t

nhis

service. '389

his s

also,

we

recall,xactly hat,

n

the

Theses,

historical

materialismsadvisedodo withts ittleunchback.t sto take

heology

into ts

service.' 390

ndvice

ersa,

ince

t s

theology

hat

ulls

he

trings.

The

question

s

only

o what xtenthis an be done.

How does

one

take

n

hand

he ines

n

one's

hand,

the

wrinklesnd creases n our

faces ?391

ow does one

put

to

work,

ow does one

get

behind,

what

works

pon

s

from ehind ur ack?392

n

Proust's

ase,

here

as,

Ben-

jamin

writes,

n

obscure

nterrelationetween is

art nd

his

asthma,

n

intimate

symbiosis

etween his

articularreativity

nd this

articular

malady, whichonlya physiologicaltylistics ould fathom.393n

Kafka's

ase,

where llness das Tier

likewise

ntervened,

enjamin

points

o

a

similarly

ysteriousconomy

n

which inal

ailure

igures

ot

merely

s a

certainty

ut

s a

surety

a

precondition

or ll the nterven-

ing

successes.

On

this

basis,

everything

orks ut meanwhileas

in

a

dream. 394uch

s the omnambulistic

ertainty

hichArendtikewise

attributeso

Benjamin.395

er

account

f the

lumsinesshat

nvariably

guided

him

owards

the

very

enter

f

misfortune

recisely

choes

his

own haracterization

f

Proust's

place :

The

utstanding

iterary

chievementf ur ime

s

assignedplace

n

theheart

f

he

mpossible,

t the enter and lso

at

the

oint

f

389. 1215.

390. 1255.

391. Cf.1213-14.

392.

This

s,

according

o

Kafka,

what ancho

Panza did with

his

demon,

on

Quixote cited

n

139).

393.

1216.

394.

1

148.

395. Georges ataille ndMaurice lanchot ill ikewise espondoSartre'sxis-

tentialistndictmentf Baudelaire

much

s

Benjamin

esponded

o

Renue's

psychoana-

lytical

tudy

chec de

Baudelaire)

y

nterpreting

he

lleged

failure f

his

ife

s the

obverse ideofhis

poetic

uccess.









IrvingWohlfarth

85

indifference

of

ll

dangers

...

The

mage

f

Proust

s

the

highest

physiognomicxpression hich heirresistiblyrowingdiscrepancy

betweeniterature

nd ifewas ableto assume.

This

is,

mutatis

mutandis,

n

uncannily

ccurate

description

f

the

mpos-

sible

position

hat

Benjaminoccupied throughout

is

life;

and

it

s

in this

sense

thathis senselessdeath

makes

sense.

But does death

really

eal

thefate f

a

life

or a

manuscript?

oes not

a seal

ask to be broken

and the

fatefulittle

hunchback

o be

included

in

our

prayers?

life,

s

we remember

t,

s

sealed

by

ts

end;

but,

ccord-

ingtoBenjamin, emembrances also theretroactiveowerto complete

the

ncomplete

happiness]

nd undo the

completed suffering]. 397

his

statement

as too

theological

forhis

interlocutor,orkheimer,

ho

was

too

convinced

hat

the

murdered

eally

have

been

murdered o be

capa-

ble

of

being persuaded

that

past injustice

an

be undone. To this Ben-

jamin

replied

that

remembrance

marks n

experience

which

forbids s

from

onceivinghistory

n

fundamentally

theological

erms,

owever it-

tle

we

may

attempt

o write

t n

directly heological

nes. 398

Such

is the

paradox

of

the

hidden,

hrunken

ut

active

hunchback.

Ourcoming, writesBenjamin ntheTheses,

was

expected

n

earth.

ike

every eneration

hat

receded

s,

we

havebeenendowed

with weakMessianic

ower

o which he

past

has a claim.399

It

is

in this

spirit

hattheir

uthor,

having

got

them to the other

side,

entrusted

hem o

an uncertain

osterity.

Documents

Wohlfarth, I. Walter Benjamin and the German-Jewish Parnassus