Benjamin’s philosophy drew on several sources:  aesthetics, Marxist theory, the philosophy of Theodore Adorno and the Frankfurt School, and the influence of Jewish mysticism as encountered through the works of Gershom Scholem. Today, Walter Benjamin is perceived as a seminal critic of twentieth century western intellectual trends, someone who viewed the proletariat as the central force on the historical and cultural stage, understood the significance of the city in modernist perceptions and the new human experience, and dealt intensively in the importance of translation as a cultural act.