Abstract

When Hans Blumenberg’s Die Sorge geht über den Fluß, a first selection of short glossary reflections fromhis »Unerlaubte Fragmente« (»Illicit Fragments«), was published in 1987, it was soon compared to Walter Benjamin’s Denkbilder. But critical voices found the socio-critical potential of Benjamin’s miniatures to be missing. Today, the interventionist character of both authors is more readily recognised. Other readers of Blumenberg’s selection regretted the lack of contextual coherence of the reflections. However, this criticism raises the general question of whether ›small forms‹ do not always end up referring to the larger context in which they stand? If so, how does this come about? To answer this question, this article goes back to a model of these Denkbilder: the tableaux, impressions of the city, published in the 18th and 19th centuries. As it turns out, then, Benjamin and Blumenberg stand in a metaphorical connection with each other in which their respective characteristics and potentials can be better recognised.