Radio Benjamin: Witch Trials

Witchcraft was at one time an epidemic in Europe. The Inquisition brought together many things to propagate the power of the Roman Catholic Church: the branding of evil, the hysteria of consensus, the momentum and binding power of fear. This is one of the many stories in this series that feels like it was written today. German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin, as always, less interested in entering the past, ushers history into our present. He also reminds us of the hollow validity of confession under torture and unpacks that great book of black magic, The Witches Hammer. 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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