This study is dedicated to the comprehensive explanation of what is probably Walter Benjamin’s most difficult text, the Erkenntniskritische Vorrede (critical foreword) to his Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels (Origin of German Tragic Drama). The thorough analytical commentary exposes the historical and systematic terminological constructions of this text and places them within the context of the discourse on presentation since the 18th century. For the first time Benjamin’s premarxist philosophy and literary theory are seen as an independent contribution to a philosophy of literary representation with potential for problem-solving up to the present day.