Radio Benjamin: Kaspar Hauser

This episode follows Walter Benjamin's unique account of the enigma of Kaspar Hauser. Imagine a strange child rolling up to the edge of a city, without language or history or any trace of having come from anywhere at all. Clearly, the historian of 'origins' found this untamed child a constant source of fascination. Benjamin's tale imagines the mysterious man's life as either a disenfranchised Baden heir, or an imbecile as he presents the evidence of this early 19th Century murder mystery. Benjamin was an eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mysticism, he made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. Walter Benjamin’s radio broadcasts (1929 - 1932) are a selection of children stories written and read by Benjamin during his colossal research project The Arcades Project, an allegorical look into the birth of modernity in 19th Century Paris. Though the series of broadcasts and the Arcades in general are decisively incomplete, the two enterprises echo one another in content, replete with provocative digressions, and unlikely connections (or "secret affinities").

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