The Institute raised Benjamin’s stipend to 1000 francs per month in 1935

Evidence

A talk which Pollock had with Benjamin in the spring of 1935 during a trip to Europe put things in motion. Benjamin started to draft an outline of the Passagen-Werk. The Institute increased its payments to 1000 francs per month, provisionally at first, and later on a permanent basis. However, when Adorno met Pollock during his visit to Europe, Adorno warned him that Benjamin’s book would be too overloaded with metaphysics to fit in with the Institute’s plan of workjust as Adorno’s own book on Kierkegaard had been. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 782

Categorization

• QUESTION: The adorno/Pollock tension over Benjamin’s metaphysical overload is a thread worth tracing further in the Institute’s funding decisions.