GERSHOM SCHOLEM AND WALTER BENJAMIN: PRIVATE LIFE AND FRIENDSHIP OF TWO INTELLECTUALS IN THE CONTEXT OF IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE OF THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Abstract

Events and circumstances of private life and friendship of Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin as the representatives of the intellectual generation of the interwar period are analyzed in the paper from the perspective of intellectual history. Relationship of Scholem and Benjamin is considered in the context of influence of ideological struggle and political problems of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany history on it. The sources reflecting the events of private life and friendship of the thinkers are diaries and letters of Scholem and Benjamin preserved at the moment in the personal archives. Along with the finished and unfinished scientific works they are the most important documentary base of the studied issue. In those personal sources philosophical and theological discussions between the thinkers and their opinions about humanitarian issues current at the time are provided. Picturesque assessments of the historical context complete the scenes of intellectual space. The analysis of the documents shows that the political events, economic and social problems influenced deeply the scientific ideas of the thinkers, but made their personal relations even closer