Benjamin’s 1925 Frankfurt Habilitation failed as incomprehensible to Cornelius and Horkheimer

Evidence

In the summer of 1927 Adorno completed an extended study on The Concept of the Unconscious in the Transcendental Theory of Mind, with which he intended to take his Habilitation with Cornelius. He based himself once again, without reservations, on Cornelius’s transcendental philosophy. This was from strategic considerations, which he had every reason to take into account. He had met Walter Benjamin in 1923 through Kracauer, and they later met frequently during Benjamin’s visits to Frankfurt. In 1925 Benjamin had failed in an attempt to take his Habilitation in Frankfurt with his Origin of German Tragic Drama. Cornelius, who examined Benjamin’s dissertation in his capacity as an art scholar, had written to the author for assistance, asking whether he could explain the art-historical aspects of the work. In the end, even Cornelius, who was well disposed towards it, and Horkheimer, his assistant, both described the work as incomprehensible. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 327

Categorization

• XREF: This is the concrete institutional origin of the famous Adorno-Benjamin asymmetry, highly relevant to later Frankfurt School history of Adorno championing Benjamin as Horkheimer resisted.