Walter Benjamin (Germany, 1892 - Spain, 1940) studied philosophy in Freiburg / Br., Berlin, Munich and Bern. He lived in Berlin as an independent writer until he emigrated to France. Fleeing from the Nazis he committed suicide in 1940 in Portbou, convinced of the failure of his attempt to flee to the United States. His thought includes elements of German Idealism, Romanticism, historical materialism and Jewish mysticism. Influential in aesthetic theory and Western Marxism, his thinking is also associated with the Frankfurt School.