Apr 27, 2025
Thesis II introduces one of the document's main theological concepts: Erlösung, which is correcdy translated here as redemption. Benjamin first situates this in the sphere of the individual: his personal happiness implies the redemption of his own past, the fulfilment of what could have been, but was not.
According to the variant of this thesis in The Arcades Project, this happiness (Glück) implies reparation for the despair and desolation (Trostlosigkeit, Verlassenheit) of the past. The redemption of the past is nothing other than this fulfilment and this reparation according to the image of happiness held by each individual and generation.
Fire Alarm: Reading Walter Benjamin's 'On the Concept of History' Michael Lowy