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The new edition of Benjamin's essay 'Goethe's Elective Affinities'
1/8/2026, 7 PM

BookPresentation

With Erdmut Wizisla (welcome), Jan Philipp Reemtsma (lecture), Martin Kölbel, Ursula Marx (book presentation)

  • Location:Pariser Platz
  • ElevatorLimited wheelchair access
  • Date:1/8/2026
  • Time:7 PM
  • Price:EUR 7.50 (Reduced: EUR 5)
  • Languages: German
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Jula Radt-Cohn: Portrait head of Walter Benjamin, 1926
Jula Radt-Cohn: Portrait head of Walter Benjamin, 1926
Photo: Sasha Stone, 1927 © Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture

Walter Benjamin's essay on Goethe's famous novel Elective Affinities (1809) was controversial from the outset. With this essay, he sought not only to ‘illuminate a great work entirely from within itself,’ but also to revolutionise the contemporary image of Goethe and establish a new, religious-metaphysical philosophy of art. Today, it is considered a founding document of cultural studies because of its interdisciplinary approach. The new edition, published as part of the critical complete edition ‘Werke und Nachlaß’ (Works and Legacy), brings together for the first time all surviving, largely unpublished versions, preliminary drafts and sketches. A century after its first publication in 1924/1925 in the ‘Neue Deutsche Beiträge’ edited by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Erdmut Wizisla, Jan Philipp Reemtsma and the editors explore the essay's relevance and ambivalence.

As part of the exhibition ‘Out of the Box – 75 Years of the Archives of the Akademie der Künste’

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