Year: 1998 Source: Proceedings of The Pavese Society Newsletter, v.9, (1998), p.44-47 SIEC No: 19990193

This document is a study of the life and suicide of Walter Benjamin – German philosopher, essayist and cultural theologist born in 1892 and dead of a morphine overdose at 48. Benjamin witnessed both WW1 and Hitler’s regime which caused the beginning of a fatal life-long depression. The case study focuses on Benjamin’s first verbalized suicidal thoughts and progresses through the various stressors that culminated in his suicide, including marital breakdown and financial disparity.