Not an autobiography in the customary sense, Benjamin's recollection of his childhood in an upper-middle-class Jewish home in Berlin's West End at the turn of the century is translated into English for the first time in book form.

Translator's Foreword "Hope in the Past: On Walter Benjamin" by Peter Szondi Berlin Childhood around 1900: Final Version Loggias * Imperial Panorama * Victory Column * The Telephone * Butterfly Hunt * Tiergarten * Tardy Arrival * Boys' Books * Winter Morning * At the Corner of Steglitzer and Genthiner * Two Enigmas * Market Hall * The Fever * The Otter * Peacock Island and Glienicke * News of a Death * Blumeshof 12 * Winter Evening * Crooked Street * The Sock * The Mummerehlen * Hiding Places * A Ghost * A Christmas Angel * Misfortunes and Crimes * Colors * The Sewing Box * The Moon * Two Brass Bands * The Little Hunchback * The Carousel * Sexual Awakening From the 1932-1934 Version Departure and Return * The Larder * News of a Death * The Mummerehlen * Society * The Reading Box * Monkey Theater * School Library * New Companion of German Youth * The Desk * Cabinets * Beggars and Whores * The Moon Complete Table of Contents, 1932-1934 Version Notes Credits for Illustrations Index Illustrations Walter Benjamin and his brother Georg The Victory Column on Konigsplatz The goldfish pond in the Tiergarten Berlin's Tiergarten in winter Market hall on Magdeburger Platz Interior of a middle-class German home Courtyard on Fischerstrasse in Old Berlin