Book premiere 'Then we were expected on earth'

‚Then we were expected on earth'
Walter Benjamin Laboratory
by Ulrike Gies

Introduction: Inge Buck
Reading as part of the Bremen book premieres
Series of events organized by the Bremen City Library & of the
Bremer Literaturkontors
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Ulrike Gie's literary essay focuses on Walter
Benjamin's life and theory apart. 1892
born in Berlin, committed suicide in 1942
Attempt to escape to the USA on the French-Spanish side
Benjamin is one of those who died at the border
most important European philosophers of the 20th century.
But with “Then we were expected on earth” we are not dealing with a classic one
Biography that is chronologically based on Benjamin's life stages or publications
processed. Rather, the text can be described as a multi-perspective narrative
associatively searches for Benjamin.
The subtitle of the literary essay already indicates what it is about: The Laboratory
Walter Benjamin chooses and dares an experimental approach to Benjamin's work and life,
not without being informative and sometimes quite analytical. This leaves us with
Narrator's voice takes part in her personal reading of Benjamin and moves along
conceptual categories that reflect central aspects of Benjamin's life and thought,
like love, language, death, history. The text creates a kind of unilinear map
Benjamin follows through various stages of his work, love and life in Europe
The cultural, intellectual and personal environment of the philosopher is also taken into account
takes.