Death in exile
In 1940, while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich, Benjamin took his own life in Portbou on the French–Spanish border. He was 48.
Literature · Music
Walter Benjamin
German philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist known for his writings on art, literature, history, and translation.
Walter Benjamin was a German philosopher, writer, cultural critic, and media theorist whose thought combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western Marxism, and post-Kantianism. He wrote on literature, aesthetics, translation, and the philosophy of history, and translated works by Baudelaire and Proust. His writings achieved global recognition after his death. He is commemorated at Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery.
Worth knowing
Art in the age of reproduction
Benjamin’s 1935 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is among his best-known works.
Was Benjamin a philosopher?
Gershom Scholem described Benjamin as a philosopher, while Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno contended that he was not.
Commemorated at Dorotheenstadt Cemetery
Walter Benjamin is commemorated at Berlin’s Dorotheenstadt Cemetery.
Addresses you can still visit
Every place in this city with a documented tie to this person.
Burial place
Dorotheenstadt Cemetery
Walter Benjamin is commemorated at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery.
Follow the story on foot
These addresses are scattered across the city. Our routes and quests put them in an order that works.