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Walter Benjamin’s Early Writings
Volume 1 of the Critical Complete Edition Werke und Nachlaß
8 Dec 2026, 8 pm

BookPresentationReadingTalk

Volume 1 of the Critical Complete Edition Werke und Nachlaß (Works and Estate) of Walter Benjamin presents his writings from 1909 to 1921, in which “theoretical” decisions emerge that are of central importance to his subsequent work.

Magazine cover
Cover of the magazine Der Anfang. Zeitschrift der Jugend (The Beginning. A Youth Magazine), Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 1913)
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Walter Benjamin Archive, WBA 1006 © Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur

Volume 1 of the Critical Complete Edition Werke und Nachlaß (Works and Estate) of Walter Benjamin is being presented. To this day, the earliest writings from Benjamin’s time as a leading figure in the radical intellectual youth culture movement remain overshadowed by his later work. This is unjustified, as Benjamin's writings from 1909 to 1921 reveal the first “theoretical” decisions that were of central importance to his subsequent work.

The editors present their volume; Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky shares her first impressions as a reader; Corinna Harfouch reads from the edited texts.

In collaboration with the Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur