CABINET / The Lisbon Earthquake

Between 1927 and 1933, Walter Benjamin wrote and presented some eighty programs on German radio, many designed, like this broadcast, for children. “The Lisbon Earthquake” aired on Berliner Rundfunk on 31 October 1931 and on Südwestdeutsche Rundfunk, Frankfurt, on 6 January 1932. Have you ever had to wait at the pharmacy and noticed how the pharmacist fills a prescription? On a scale with very delicate weights, ounce by ounce, dram by dram, he weighs all the substances and specks that make up the final powder. That is how I feel when I tell you something over the radio. My weights are the minutes; very carefully I must weigh how much of this, how much of that, so the mixture is just right. You’re probably saying, But why? If you want to tell us about the Lisbon earthquake, just start at the beginning. Then go ahead and tell us what happened next. But I don’t think that would be much fun for you. House after house collapses, family after family is killed; the terror of the spreading fire

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