Kracauer trained as an architect before turning to philosophy and journalism

Evidence

Siegfried Kracauer was born in 1889, the son of a Jewish businessman in Frankfurt, and from his earliest childhood onward suffered from a noticeable speech impediment. After his father’s early death, he had grown up with his uncle, who was a professor at the Frankfurt Philanthropin (Philanthropic School) and historian of the Frankfurt Jews. Preparing to build a career and earn his living, he studied architecture as his main subject, and only took philosophy and sociology as minor subjects. He had not been in a position to take the advice of Georg Simmel and devote himself to philosophy completely. When he gave up his architectural practice in 1921 and joined the editorial staff of the literary supplement of the Frankfurter Zeitung, it was a compromise which he accepted gladly, allowing him as it did a professional involvement with philosophical and sociological topics. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 266 (#expands, via linked claim)

It was thanks to Siegfried Kracauer that Adorno became familiar with the most important ideas of his time on the philosophy of history and on the analysis of the contemporary period. Siegfried Kracauer was born in 1889, the son of a Jewish businessman in Frankfurt, and from his earliest childhood onward suffered from a noticeable speech impediment. After his father’s early death, he had grown up with his uncle, who was a professor at the Frankfurt Philanthropin (Philanthropic School) and historian of the Frankfurt Jews. Preparing to build a career and earn his living, he studied architecture as his main subject, and only took philosophy and sociology as minor subjects. He had not been in a position to take the advice of Georg Simmel and devote himself to philosophy completely. When he gave up his architectural practice in 1921 and joined the editorial staff of the literary supplement of the Frankfurter Zeitung, it was a compromise which he accepted gladly, allowing him as it did a professional involvement with philosophical and sociological topics. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 266 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Kracauer became a journalist as a compromise after architecture training blocked full philosophy — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 266; Kracauer began as an architect, taking philosophy and sociology only as minors. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 266

Broader Connections

• Kracauer began as an architect, taking philosophy and sociology only as minors. #expands (0.88) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 266
• Kracauer became a journalist as a compromise after architecture training blocked full philosophy #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 266