The principal contexts relevant to the development of Walter Benjamin's work are not simply historical or intellectual but are frequently a combination of both. Yet, despite this crossing over, the following historical contexts can be distinguished: the First World War, the rise and collapse of the Weimar Republic, and the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933. On the intellectual side, the most significant contexts are provided by the student youth and school reform movements during his school and early university years, the George Circle which was the reigning critical school in Germany during Benjamin's formative critical years, and the context provided by both Bertolt Brecht's Marxism and the Institute for Social Research – or as it is more familiarly known, the Frankfurt School.

The student youth movement and the First World War

The social and political organization of Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century offered little to its youth. Ruled by a Kaiser, Wilhelm II, Germany was a heavily autocratic society defined by the conservative and nationalist ideals of its ruling class. Conformism to these ideals left no room for individual expression nor did it provide any significant political role for the middle class. The German youth movement, a purely middle-class phenomenon that sought to cultivate the natural tendencies of youth, arose from this vacuum.

The beginnings of this movement can be traced to 1901. It was formed in a suburb of Berlin very similar to the ones in which Benjamin spent his childhood.