Transit Momme Brodersen

Bringing Walls to Speak: Under this motto, Momme Brodersen, an intimate connoisseur of the life and work of Walter Benjamin, has thoroughly explored the history of a house in the upscale Grunewald district that the Benjamin family called home for nearly a quarter of a century. In his book, Brodersen traces the life paths left behind by the former owners, as well as their tenants and visitors: those of the sculptor Harro Magnussen, who once had the building constructed; those of the retiree Emil Benjamin, about whose life and influential work much unknown information is revealed here; those of his children Walter, Georg, and Dora, who spent crucial years of their lives on Delbrückstrasse during difficult and conflict-ridden times; and last but not least, those of Walter Benjamin's ex-wife, journalist and writer Dora Sophie Kellner, and their son Stefan Benjamin. With the rise of the Nazis, the walls became silent witnesses to the fate of the Jewish owners and tenants who had to emigrate or were ultimately murdered in German concentration camps. In 1936, the property was Aryanized. Seven years later, it was reduced to rubble by Allied bombers. All attempts by the last Jewish owner, Dora Sophie Kellner, to receive adequate compensation for the stolen property ended with reparations that did not deserve the name.