The famous essay on the artwork with its theses on the crisis of the auratic artwork is undoubtedly one of the most widely discussed texts from Walter Benjamin's work. It has lost none of its explosive power to this day and continues to provoke controversial interpretations and debates. The treatise, which was published during the author's lifetime only in a French translation, is now being edited from the estate, including the complete text. This comprises five self-contained versions from the period between autumn 1935 and summer 1936, as well as numerous manuscripts for further work created between 1936 and 1940. Both the first version and other theoretically significant manuscripts are being made accessible for the first time. The commentary section discusses in detail the history of its creation and elucidates the various citations and source references.