Carl Schmitt

Der Begriff des Politischen

Angesichts der zahlreichen zustimmenden wie ablehnenden Auserungen zu Schmitts Abhandlung »Der Begriff des Politischen« ist es erstaunlich, das die Schrift niemals Gegenstand einer systematischen Interpretation geworden ist, so das die Kritik — so wertvoll ihre Einsichten im einzelnen sein mogen — das Gefuge der Abhandlung noch nicht in den Blick heben konnte1.

Über die drei Arten des rechtswissenschaftlichen Denkens

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The Age of Neutralizations and Depoliticizations(1929)

We in Central Europe live under the eyes of the Russians. For a century their psychological gaze has seen through our great words and institutions. Their vitality is strong enough to seize our knowledge and technology as weapons. Their prowess in rationalism and its opposite, as well as their potential for good and evil in orthodoxy, is overwhelming. They have realized the union of Socialism and Slavism, which already in 1848 Donoso Cortes said would be the decisive event of the next century. This is our situation. We can no longer say anything worthwhile about culture and history without first becoming aware of our own cultural and historical situation.

Ex captivitate salus

I have experienced the tribulations of fate. Victories and defeats, revolutions and restorations. Inflations and deflations, bombings, Defamations, broken regimes and broken pipes, Hunger and cold, internment and solitary confinement. Through it all I have passed, And through me it all has passed. I am acquainted with the abundant varieties of terror, The terror from above and the terror from below, Terror on the land and terror from the air, Terror legal and extra-legal, Brown, red and checkered terror, And worst of all, the terror none dares to name. I am acquainted with them all and know their grip.

The Legal World Revolution

Even the thinking of professional revolutionaries progresses, as evidenced today in legal revolution. According to the German constitutional jurist, Rudolf Smend, who died in 1975, the German people suffer from a “touching need for legality.” Smend came to this conclusion not only as historian of the Supreme Court of the German Reich, but also as observer of the positivistic normativism of his own time. Recently an old and experienced Spanish revolutionary, Santiago Carrillo, put forward the same notion in a book about Eurocommunism and the State. Akhough his “touching need for legality” is politically of a different nature, Carrillo is expressly convinced that die more violent mediods of Lenins and Trotskys illegal revolution of October 1917 are now antiquated, mat they were only justifiable in the instance of an agrarian (peasant) society breaking dirough to a modern (industrial) society.

The Plight of European Jurisprudence

It might seem inappropriate and unscientific for a jurist to speak of European jurisprudence, not only because Europe has torn itself apart in two world wars but also for a formal and apparently even specifically juridical reason, namely the positivism that has dominated our legal life for the past century. Positivistic jurisprudence values only positive norms, understood as existing state law or norms imposed by a superior will. The formal basis of positive law is always only established norms enforced by the state. Given the orientation of this legal positivism to state law, there can be only German, French, Spanish, Swiss and other such law, but no European law and no European jurisprudence.

Appropriation/Distribution/Production: Toward a Proper Formulation of Basic Questions of any Social and Economic Order (1953)

The scholarly treatment of questions of social life is divided into juridical, economic, sociological and other areas of specialization. The need for a comprehensive consideration acknowledging the unity of actual relations is becoming more evident. For this reason, so is the scholarly problem — to find immediately intelligible basic categories which allow a proper formulation of questions common to various disciplines. The present effort to deal with this problem will proceed as follows: to apprehend the original meaning of the word nomos and then to ascertain simple and authentic categories at once basic and inclusive. The examples of their application to doctrines and systems of social science outlined below should serve only as a concise indication of their usefulness.

The Source of the Tragic

What is the source of the tragic? What is the source of that tragic action which gives life to tragedy? Once we recognize in the guilt of the queen and the figure of the avenger two historical intrusions into the drama [of Hamlet], we confront the last and most difficult question: Should historical considerations be included in the discussion of a work of art? The generality of this question is somewhat disconcerting. The first difficulty is purely technical. Owing to an extreme division of labor, academic fields and disciplines have become overly specialized. Literary historians work with different materials and from different approaches than political historians.

Interrogation of Carl Schmitt by Robert Kempner (I)

Kempner. You do not have to testify, Professor Schmitt, if you do not want to, and if you think you are incriminating yourself. But if you do testify, then I would be grateful if you would be absolutely truthful, would neither conceal nor add anything. Is that your wish? Schmitt: Yes, of course. Kempner: And if I come to something you might find self-incriminating, you can simply say you prefer to remain silent. Schmitt: I have already been interrogated by the C.I.C. and in the camp. I would be glad to tell you all I know. However, I would like to know what I am being blamed with.

Three Possibilities for a Christian Conception of History

Today, every attempt at a self-understanding ultimately proves to be a situating oneself by means of the philosophy of history or a utopian self-dislocation. Today, all human beings who plan and attempt to unite the masses behind their plans engage in some form of philosophy of history. They accept the existence of the means of extermination, which modern science provides to every person in power. But the question as to what kind of people these means are to be reasonably applied to is obviously no natural scientific question. For a long time now, it is also no longer a moral…