Walter Benjamin - Radio Benjamin

“Auf der Spur alter Briefe” [On the Trail of Old Letters]

Talk

See the related material in GS, 4.2, 942–4. Translated in SW, 2, 555–8.

76.

1/21/1932

Frankfurt

Länder-Querschnitt III: “Frankreich in seiner Kunst” [Countries in Profile III: France in Its Art]

Talk

Lost or missing.

77.

2/3/1932

Frankfurt

“Canton Theater Fire”

Youth radio

In this volume.

78.

2/4/1932

Berlin

“The Railway Disaster at the Firth of Tay”

Youth radio

In this volume.

79.

2/16/1932

Berlin

What the Germans Were Reading While Their Classical Authors Were Writing

Radio play

In this volume.

80.

3/10/1932

Frankfurt

Much Ado About Kasper

Radio play for children

In this volume.

81.

3/23/1932

Berlin

“The Mississippi Flood of 1927”

Youth radio

In this volume.

82.

3/30/1932

Frankfurt

“The Railway Disaster at the Firth of Tay”

Youth radio

In this volume.

83.

5/16/1932

Frankfurt

The Cold Heart

(with Ernst Schoen)

Radio play for children

In this volume.

84.

7/6/1932

Frankfurt

“Denksport” [Mental Exercise]

Youth radio

See “A Crazy Mixed-Up Day: Thirty Brainteasers” in this volume.

85.

9/9/1932

Cologne

Much Ado About Kasper

Radio play for children

In this volume.

86.

1/19/1933

Frankfurt

“Von Seeräubern und Piraten” [On Pirates and Privateers]

Youth radio

Lost or missing.

87.

1/29/1933

Frankfurt

“Aus einer unveröffentlichten Skizzensammlung

Berliner Kindheit um 1900

” [From an unpublished collection of sketches,

Berlin Childhood around 1900

]

Reading

Lost or missing. See the related material, translated as

Berlin Childhood Around 1900

, in SW, 3, 345–413.

1Information on this broadcast was provided by Thomas Küpper, coeditor (with Anja Nowak) of Benjamin’s radio writings in the new critical edition, Werke und Nachlaß (Berlin: Suhrkamp, forthcoming). The announcement of the broadcast was discovered by Mr. Gregor Ackermann, who found in the newspaper Frankfurter Nachrichten, vol. 208, no. 230 (August 20, 1929), a listing indicating that “Walter Benjamin would read the works of Robert Walser on Frankfurt radio the same day” (email from Thomas Küpper, February 8, 2013). Unfortunately, no surviving text for this broadcast has been found.

2Based on comments made by Benjamin in both “Borsig” and “The Rental Barracks,” Schiller-Lerg speculates that Benjamin’s broadcast for March 29, 1930 was on the subject of “Baugeschichte Berlins unter Friedrich Wilhelm I” [The Building History of Berlin under Frederick William I] ( Walter Benjamin und der Rundfunk, 141–3, 530).

3Schiller-Lerg suggests that “The Rental Barracks” was most likely broadcast on this date ( Walter Benjamin und der Rundfunk, 112, 142, 532).

4There is some debate on the title and subject-matter of this broadcast, as well as that of the subsequent broadcast on January 17, 1931. Schiller-Lerg lists “Vom Leben der Autos” as the title for the broadcast on September 20, 1930, and “Das Leben des Antos” for the broadcast on January 17, 1931. Her discussion of the broadcast makes a compelling case for a focus on “Autos,” or cars ( Walter Benjamin und der Rundfunk, 169). The editors of the GS, however, dispute the spelling of “Autos” and insist that the title ought to be “Das Leben des Antos” (GS, 2.3, 1442).

5Schiller-Lerg suggests “Postage Stamp Swindles” as a possible candidate for this broadcast ( Walter Benjamin und der Rundfunk , 165).

Table 2 : Broadcasts whose precise dates are not known

These titles should be read in conjunction with the dates listed in Table 1, where the exact title or content, as indicated in brackets, has not been determined.

Date

Station

Title

Category

Reference

1.

[probably Nov. or Dec. 1929]

Berlin

“Berlin Dialect”

Youth radio

In this volume.

2.

[probably end of 1929 or beginning of 1930]

Berlin

“Street Trade and Markets in Old and New Berlin”

Youth radio

In this volume.

3.

[probably 1929/1930]

Berlin

“Fontane’s

Wanderings Trough the Mark Brandenburg

”

Youth radio

In this volume.

4.

[probably spring or summer, 1930]

Berlin

“The Rental Barracks”

Youth radio

In this volume.

5.

[probably the second half of 1930]

Berlin

“Postage Stamp Swindles”

Youth radio

In this volume.

6.

[probably 7/6/1932]

Frankfurt

“A Crazy Mixed-Up Day: Thirty Brainteasers”

Youth radio

In this volume.

Table 3 : Broadcasts that were planned, started, or completed, but never delivered on air, or broadcasts for which there is no further information

Status

Title

Category

Reference

1.

Completed, but never broadcast

Lichtenberg: A Cross-Section

Radio play

In this volume.

2.

Started

“Leben, Meinung und Taten des Hieronymus Jobs

von Kortum” [Kortum’s

Life, Opinions, and Deeds of Hieronymus Jobs

]

Youth radio

Lost or missing.

3.

Planned

[Radio play on Spiritism]

Radio play

No known text was ever produced.

4.

Planned

Hörmodell III: “Kannst Du mir bis Donnerstag aushefen?” [Listening model III: Can You Help Me Out Until Thursday?]

Listening model

Lost or missing.

5, 6, 7.

Possibly broadcast with Wolf Zucker

[Listening models IV–VI]

Listening models

Lost or missing.

Jonathan Lutes is a translator living in Berlin.

Lisa Harries Schumann lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, and is, among other things, a translator of texts whose subjects range from penguins to Heidegger and Brecht.

Diana K. Reese is the author of Reproducing Enlightenment: Paradoxes in the Life of the Body Politic (Walter de Gruyter, 2009). She has taught German Literature at Cornell and Harvard Universities. She currently lives in New York City and translates for Artforum.

Lecia Rosenthal is the author of Mourning Modernism: Literature, Catastrophe, and the Politics of Consolation (Fordham University Press, 2011). She has taught at Columbia and Tufts Universities. She lives in Los Angeles.

Abraham a Santa Clara

Adorno, Theodor, itr.1, itr.2, itr.3

Agrippa von Nettesheim

Amanullah Khan

Arnheim, Rudolf, itr.1n4, itr.2

Basedow, Johann Bernhard

Basse, Wilfried

Baudouin, Philippe

Becker, Rudolf Zacharias

Behne, Adolf

Benjamin, Walter

number of radio broadcasts

radio archive, history of

radio past and versions of major works

radio work and financial concerns

radio voice, no known recordings of

radio works, history of publication of

radio works, lost or missing broadcasts, itr.1–itr.2, app1.1

works

The Arcades Project , itr.1n33, itr.2

Aufklärung fur Kinder

“Aus einer