 Back to the Walter Benjamin Research
Syndicate Homepage |
Walter Benjamin on Hashish: 
Source Guide
[Updated March 22, 2000]
Compiled by Scott J. Thompson
Index: Walter Benjamin On Hashish and 'Rausch'
[ARC]= The Arcades Project, Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1999, 1073 pages.
[BR]= Briefe (Letters), 2 Bde., hrsg. v. Gershom Scholem & Theodor W. Adorno, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1978, 885 S.
[COR]= The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin 1910-1940, Edited by Gershom Scholem & Theodor W. Adorno, trans. by Manfred R. Jacobson & Evelyn M. Jacobson, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994, 651 pages.
[GS] = Gesammelte Schriften (Collected Writings), Hermann Schweppenhäuser & Rolf Tiedemann (eds.), Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974-1989.
[OH]= On Hashish, Translated by Scott J.Thompson, San Francisco, 1997.
[RE]= Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, trans. Edmund Jephcott, New York, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978.
[SW]= Selected Writings: Vol. I 1913-1926, Edited by Marcus Bullock & Michael W. Jennings, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1996, 520 pages.
[SW2]= Selected Writings: Vol. II 1927-1934, Edited by Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1999, 870 pages.
[UH] = Über Haschisch (On Hashish), hrsg. v. Tillman Rexroth, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1972, 153 S.
[WB/GS]= Walter Benjamin & Gershom Scholem, Briefwechsel (Correspondence), Edited by Gershom Scholem, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1980.
1. "Myslowitz-Braunschweig-Marseille: Die Geschichte eines Haschisch-Rausches" (Myslowitz - Braunschweig - Marseilles: The Story of a Hashish-Rausch) in [GS IV/2:729-737]; [UH:33-44]; [OH:1-11]; part of this novella has been used by WB in "Marseille"in Denkbilder [GS IV/1:359-364]; and in [RE:131-136].
2. "Haschisch in Marseille," [GS IV/1:406-416]; [UH:45-54]; in English: trans. R.Sieburth, Minnesota Review, 1 (Fall 1973), 133-139; [RE:137-145]; [OH:12-21].
3. "Crocknotizen"(Crock Notes),[GS VI:603-607]; [UH:57-61]; [OH:22-26].
4. "Protokolle zu Drogenversuchen,"(Protocols to the Drug Experiments) [GS VI:558-603, 607-618]; [OH:27-105].
5. Das Passagen-Werk (The Arcades Project),GS V/1: [A 13:109]; [G 16,2:267]; [H 2,1:273]; [I 2,6:286]; [I 2a,1:286]; [J 12a,5:324]; [J 20,2:339]; [J35a,3:371]; [J 67a,6:440]; [J79,6:464]; [J 84a,1:474] GS V/2: [S 1,4:676];[Pariser Passagen I: 1020]; [PPI: 1021]; [PPI:1023]; [PPI:1028]; [PPI;1029]; [PPI:1050]; [PPI:1058]. [ARC:
6. "Surrealismus" [GS II/1:295-310]; [RE:177-192].
7. Charles Baudelaire. Ein Lyriker im Zeitalter des Hochkapitalismus, [GS I/2:557]; English trans. E. Jephcott, Charles Baudelaire. A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism, London, 1973, pp. 55,137.
8. "Verstreute Notizen Juni bis Oktober 1928" (Scattered Notes), [GS VI:415-418]: records Dr. E. Joël's reaction to the journal entry of 28.September 1928 that became "Hashish in Marseilles".
9. Letters. An edition of the collected letters is still in progress, though the following two volumes have appeared: Gesammelte Briefe, Vol. I: 1910-1918, eds. C. Gödde & H. Lonitz, Frankfurt a.M.,1995; Vol. 2: 1919-1924, 1996. The Benjamin/ Scholem Briefwechsel 1933-1940 and The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, Chicago, 1994 are the source of the letters mentioned below:
Benjamin to Scholem, 30.Jan.1928 [COR:321-325]
Benjamin to Scholem, 30.Oct. 1928 [COR:342-343]
Benjamin to Scholem,26.July 1932 [COR:395-397]; [WB/GS:21-24].
Benjamin to Adorno, 23. Feb.1939 [COR:596-600]
Benjamin to Gretel Adorno: undated, reproduced in "Editorische Notiz" [GS VI:820-821]; [UH:148]; [OH:107].
Benjamin to M.Horkheimer, 7.Feb.1938 (unpublished), mentioned in Schweppenhäuser's intro. to [UH:10, 29]; in English trans. L. Spencer, S. Jost & G. Smith in On Walter Benjamin, Cambridge,Mass.,1991. pp. 35&50.
10. [GS VII/1:437-476]: Verzeichnis der gelesenen Schriften [Catalogue of writings read]. This list of titles represents books read from cover to cover from 1916-1940.The first 461 titles have been lost, but titles 462-1712 have been preserved. In addition to Baudelaire's Paradies artificiels, Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, and Ludwig Klages's Vom kosmogonischen Eros, the following titles can be found on this reading list:
[p.441/#563]: Delphi Fabrice, L'opium`a Paris (Paris, 1917).
[443/623]: Claude Farrère. Fumée d'opium (Paris, 1911).
[460/1085]: Louis Lewin, Phantastica (Berlin, 1927).
[464/1183]: Théo Varlet, Aux paradis du hachich (Paris, 1930).
C. Indirectly Related Writings
1. Book Review: Aus unbekannten Schriften. Festgabe für Martin Buber zum 50. Geburtstag."[GS III:105-107]. In WB's Letter to Scholem (30.1.1928), Dr. Ernst Joël's contribution to the Festschrift, "Eine Anamnese" is discussed. WB then divulges his acceptance of Joël's invitation to take part in hashish experiments.
2. Book Review: "Carl Albrecht Bernouli, Johann Jacob Bachofen und das Natursymbol." [GS III:43-45]; in English, trans. R. Livingstone in [SW:426-427]. The review discusses Ludwig Klages and the Urbilder (images) which are said to be seen in states of ecstasy (see Klages' Vom kosmogonischen Eros) ---ideas which resurface in remarks in Crocknotizen.
3. Book Review: "Nietzsche und das Archiv seiner Schwester" [GS III:323-326]. The subject matter of this review will resurface during WB's mescaline experiment in Paris under Fritz Fränkel's supervision, 22. May 1934. See Protocol X of [GS VI:607-616,824]; [UH:129-141]; [OH:90-103].
4. Berliner Chronik [GS VI:465-519, 797-807] in English, trans. E.Jephcott, [RE:3-60]. WB's recollections of Ernst Joël make this piece particularly interesting, for there are intimations of the hashish experiments. The editors' commentary [798-799] calls attention to the poem, "O braungebackne Siegessäule/ mit Winterzucker aus den Kindertagen" which opens the related work Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert [GS IV/1:235-304 & VII/1:385-432]. As the editors point out, this poem comes from the "Drogenversuchen." See [GS VI:618]; [UH:142]; in English, [OH:105].
5. Letter to Max Rychner (7.March 1931) [COR:371-373]. Although the letter says nothing about hashish or rausch, it is extremely important, since it was written earlier the same day that WB was in a hashish experiment under his cousin Egon Wissing's supervision [GS VI:592-596]; [UH:114-119]; in English, [OH:73-79]. In this letter, WB mentions his most recent piece of writing, the essay on "Karl Kraus". It can be argued that the word play of this hashish experiment, one rhyme in particular, expresses the linguistic philosophy in both the Karl Kraus essay and his earlier "On Language asSuch and On the Language of Man".
6. "Schemata zu psychophysischen Problem," [GS VI:78-87]; in English [SW:393-401]. A more indepth discussion of the writings of Ludwig Klages, who as a member of the "Cosmic-circle" in Munich's Schwabing district, influenced Stefan George, Hofmannsthal, Otto Gross, D.H. Lawrence, Theodor Lessing,Benjamin, and many others. Benjamin's interest in graphology was deeply influenced by Klages. Klages' anti-semitism and association with völkisch movments estranged WB from his philosophy, but it can be seen, nonetheless, in Benjamin's writings even at a late date. The influence of Bachofen in Klages's writing, particularly the fascination with the Eleusinian Mysteries, and ecstatic states, is in certain aspects a foreshadowing of the later theories of R.Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann and Carl Ruck (See their Road to Eleusis, New York, 1978).