Benjamin’s institute stipend fell below subsistence, forcing reliance on private patrons

Evidence

When Benjamin became a freelance associate of the ZfS, he received a monthly sum of 500 francsbelow the minimum on which it was possible to survive. It did not free him from the need for support from various other sources: his former wife; Adorno; Adorno’s aunt and a friend of the Wiesengrund family; Gretel Karplus, a mutual friend of his and Adorno’s who at that time was still a shareholder in a Berlin leather factory; and Bertolt Brecht. Benjamin’s hopes rested on being paid enough by the Institute to be able to have a decent living and to complete his Passagen project. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 776

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader institutional-history thread of how the Frankfurt School’s intellectual work depended on private patronage and personal networks rather than salaries. — connects to: Horkheimer moved to secure his own funding as the Institute’s endowment shrank. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1086

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer moved to secure his own funding as the Institute’s endowment shrank. #contradicts (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1086