Carl Schmitt (; German: [ʃmɪt]; 11 July
1888 – 7 April 1985) was a conservative
German jurist and political theorist. Schmitt
wrote extensively about the effective wielding
of political power. His work has been a major
influence on subsequent political theory,
legal theory, continental philosophy and political
theology, and remains both influential and
controversial due to his close association
and juridical-political allegiance with Nazism.
He is known as the "crown jurist of the Third
Reich".Schmitt's work has attracted the attention
of numerous philosophers and political theorists,
including Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt,
Walter Benjamin, Susan Buck-Morss, Jacques
Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, Waldemar Gurian,
Jaime Guzmán, Friedrich Hayek, Chantal Mouffe,
Antonio Negri, Leo Strauss, Adrian Vermeule,
and Slavoj Žižek among others.
== Early years ==
Schmitt was born in Plettenberg, Westphalia,
German Empire. His parents were Roman Catholics
from the German Eifel region who had settled
in Plettenberg. His father was a minor businessman.
He studied law at Berlin, Munich and Strasbourg
and took his graduation and state examinations
in then-German Strasbourg during 1915. His
1910 doctoral thesis was titled Über Schuld
und Schuldarten (On Guilt and Types of Guilt).He
volunteered for the army during 1916. The
same year, he earned his habilitation at Strasbourg
with a thesis under the title Der Wert des
Staates und die Bedeutung des Einzelnen (The
Value of the State and the Significance of
the Individual). He then taught at various
business schools and universities, namely
at the University of Greifswald (1921), the
University of Bonn (1921), the Technische
Universität München (1928), the University
of Cologne (1933), and the University of Berlin
(1933–1945).
During 1916, Schmitt married his first wife,
Pavla Dorotić, a Serbian woman who pretended
to be a countess. They were divorced, though
an appeal to the Catholic Church for an annulment
was rejected. During 1926 he married his second
wife, Duška Todorović (1903–1950), also
Serbian; they had one daughter, named Anima.
Subsequently, Schmitt was excommunicated because
his first marriage had not been annulled by
the Church. His daughter Anima Schmitt de
Otero (1931–1983) was married, from 1957,
to Alfonso Otero Valera (1925–2001), a Spanish
law professor at the University of Santiago
de Compostela and a member of the ruling Spanish
Falange party under the Franco régime. She
translated several works by her father into
Spanish. Letters from Carl Schmitt to his
son-in-law have also been published.
== Beliefs ==
As a young man, Schmitt was "a devoted Catholic
until his break with the church in the mid
twenties." From around the end of the First
World War, he began to describe his Catholicism
as "displaced" and "de-totalised". Consequently,
Gross argues that his work "cannot be reduced
to Roman Catholic theology given a political
turn. Rather, Schmitt should be understood
as carrying an atheistic political-theological
tradition to an extreme." Schmitt met Mircea
Eliade in Berlin during the summer of 1942
and spoke later of Eliade to his friend Ernst
Jünger and of his interest to Eliade's works.
== "Preussen contra Reich" ==
Apart from his academic functions, in 1932,
Schmitt was counsel for the Reich government
in the case "Preussen contra Reich" ("Prussia
v. Reich") in which the Social Democratic
Party of Germany-controlled government of
the state of Prussia disputed its dismissal
by the right-wing Reich government of Franz
von Papen. Papen was motivated to do so because
Prussia, by far the largest state in Germany,
served as a powerful base for the political
left and provided it with institutional power,
particularly in the form of the Prussian police.
Schmitt, Carl Bilfinger and Erwin Jacobi represented
the Reich and one of the counsel for the Prussian
government was Hermann Heller. The court ruled
in October 1932 that the Prussian government
had been suspended unlawfully but that the
Reich had the right to install a commissar.
In German history, the struggle resulting
in the de facto destruction of federalism
in the Weimar republic is known as the "Preußenschlag."
== Nazi period ==
Schmitt remarked on 31 January 1933 that with
Adolf Hitler's appointment, "one can say that
'Hegel died.'" Richard Wolin observes:
it is Hegel qua philosopher of the "bureaucratic
class" or Beamtenstaat that has been definitely
surpassed with Hitler's triumph... this class
of civil servants—which Hegel in the Rechtsphilosophie
deems the "universal class"—represents an
impermissible drag on the sovereignty of executive
authority. For Schmitt... the very essence
of the bureaucratic conduct of business is
reverence for the norm, a standpoint that
could not but exist in great tension with
the doctrines of Carl Schmitt... Hegel had
set an ignominious precedent by according
this putative universal class a position of
preeminence in his political thought, insofar
as the primacy of the bureaucracy tends to
diminish or supplant the prerogative of sovereign
authority.
After the Nazis forced through the passage
of the Enabling Act of 1933, which changed
the Weimar Constitution to allow the "present
government" to rule by decree, bypassing both
the President, Paul von Hindenburg, and the
Reichstag, Alfred Hugenberg, the leader of
the German National People's Party – which
was one of the Nazi's partners in the coalition
government, but was being squeezed out of
existence – hoped to slow down the Nazi
takeover of the country by threatening to
quit his ministry position in the Cabinet.
Hugenberg reasoned that by doing so, the government
would thereby be changed, and the Enabling
Act would no longer apply, as the "present
government" that had been would no longer
exist. It was a legal opinion by Carl Schmitt
which prevented this political maneuver from
succeeding. Schmitt, well known as a constitutional
theorist, declared that "present government"
did not refer to the specific make-up of the
Cabinet when the Act was passed, but to the
"completely different kind of government"
– that is, different from the democracy
of the Weimar Republic – which the Hitler
cabinet had brought into existence.Schmitt
joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933. Within
days, Schmitt was party to the burning of
books by Jewish authors, rejoicing in the
burning of "un-German" and "anti-German" material,
and calling for a much more extensive purge,
to include works by authors influenced by
Jewish ideas. In July he was appointed State
Councillor for Prussia by Hermann Göring
and in November he became the president of
the "Union of National-Socialist Jurists".
He also replaced Hermann Heller as a professor
at the University of Berlin, a position he
would hold until the end of World War II.
He presented his theories as an ideological
foundation of the Nazi dictatorship, and a
justification of the Führer state concerning
legal philosophy, particularly through the
concept of auctoritas.
In June 1934, Schmitt was appointed editor-in-chief
of the Nazi newspaper for lawyers, the Deutsche
Juristen-Zeitung ("German Jurists' Journal").
In July he published in it "The Leader Protects
the Law (Der Führer schützt das Recht)",
a justification of the political murders of
the Night of the Long Knives with the authority
of Hitler as the "highest form of administrative
justice (höchste Form administrativer Justiz)".
Schmitt presented himself as a radical anti-semite
and also was the chairman of a law teachers'
convention in Berlin during October 1936,
where he demanded that German law be cleansed
of the "Jewish spirit (jüdischem Geist)",
going so far as to demand that all publications
by Jewish scientists should henceforth be
marked with a small symbol.
Nevertheless, in December 1936, the Schutzstaffel
(SS) publication Das schwarze Korps accused
Schmitt of being an opportunist, a Hegelian
state thinker, and a Catholic, and called
his anti-semitism a mere pretense, citing
earlier statements in which he criticized
the Nazis' racial theories. After this, Schmitt
resigned from his position as Reichsfachgruppenleiter
(Reich Professional Group Leader), although
he retained his job as a professor in Berlin
and his title "Prussian State Councellor".
Although Schmitt continued to be investigated
into 1937, further reprisals were stopped
by Göring.
== Post–World War II ==
In 1945, Schmitt was captured by American
forces and, after spending more than a year
in an internment camp, he returned to his
home town of Plettenberg and later to the
house of his housekeeper Anni Stand in Plettenberg-Pasel.
Schmitt refused every attempt at de-nazification,
which effectively barred him from academic
jobs. Despite being isolated from the mainstream
of the scholarly and political community,
he continued his studies especially of international
law from the 1950s on, and he frequently received
visitors, both colleagues and younger intellectuals,
until well into his old age. Important among
these visitors were Ernst Jünger, Jacob Taubes
and Alexandre Kojève.
In 1962, Schmitt gave lectures in Francoist
Spain, two of which resulted in the publication,
the next year, of Theory of the Partisan (Telos
Press, 2007), in which he characterized the
Spanish Civil War as a "war of national liberation"
against "international Communism". Schmitt
regarded the partisan as a specific and significant
phenomenon; during the latter half of the
20th century, indicated the emergence of a
new theory of warfare.
Schmitt died on 7 April 1985 and is buried
in Plettenberg.
== Work ==
=== On Dictatorship ===
During 1921, Schmitt became a professor at
the University of Greifswald, where he published
his essay Die Diktatur (on dictatorship),
in which he discussed the foundations of the
newly established Weimar Republic, emphasising
the office of the Reichspräsident. In this
essay, Schmitt compared and contrasted what
he saw as the effective and ineffective elements
of the new constitution of his country. He
saw the office of the president as a comparatively
effective element, because of the power granted
to the president to declare a state of exception
(Ausnahmezustand). This power, which Schmitt
discussed and implicitly praised as dictatorial,
was more in line with the underlying mentality
of executive power than the comparatively
slow and ineffective processes of legislative
power reached through parliamentary discussion
and compromise.
Schmitt was at pains to remove what he saw
as a taboo surrounding the concept of "dictatorship"
and to show that the concept is implicit whenever
power is wielded by means other than the slow
processes of parliamentary politics and the
bureaucracy:
If the constitution of a state is democratic,
then every exceptional negation of democratic
principles, every exercise of state power
independent of the approval of the majority,
can be called dictatorship.
For Schmitt, every government capable of decisive
action must include a dictatorial element
within its constitution. Although the German
concept of Ausnahmezustand is best translated
as "state of emergency", it literally means
"state of exception" which, according to Schmitt,
frees the executive from any legal restraints
to its power that would normally apply. The
use of the term "exceptional" has to be underlined
here: Schmitt defines sovereignty as the power
to decide the instauration of state of exception,
as Giorgio Agamben has noted. According to
Agamben, Schmitt's conceptualization of the
"state of exception" as belonging to the core-concept
of sovereignty was a response to Walter Benjamin's
concept of a "pure" or "revolutionary" violence,
which did not enter into any relationship
whatsoever with right. Through the state of
exception, Schmitt included all types of violence
under right, in the case of the authority
of Hitler leading to the formulation "The
leader defends the law" ("Der Führer schützt
das Recht").Schmitt opposed what he termed
"commissarial dictatorship", or the declaration
of a state of emergency in order to save the
legal order (a temporary suspension of law,
defined itself by moral or legal right): the
state of emergency is limited (even if a posteriori,
by law) to "sovereign dictatorship", in which
law was suspended, as in the classical state
of exception, not to "save the Constitution",
but rather to create another constitution.
This is how he theorized Hitler's continual
suspension of the legal constitutional order
during the Third Reich (the Weimar Republic's
Constitution was never abrogated, emphasized
Giorgio Agamben; rather, it was "suspended"
for four years, first with the 28 February
1933 Reichstag Fire Decree, with the suspension
renewed every four years, implying a continual
state of emergency).
=== Political Theology ===
On Dictatorship was followed by another essay
in 1922, titled "Politische Theologie" (political
theology); in it, Schmitt, who at the time
was working as a professor at the University
of Bonn, gave further substance to his authoritarian
theories, analysing the concept of "free will"
influenced by Christian-Catholic thinkers.
The book begins with Schmitt's famous, or
notorious, definition: "Sovereign is he who
decides on the exception." By "exception",
Schmitt means the appropriate moment for stepping
outside the rule of law in the public interest
(see discussion of On Dictatorship above).
Schmitt proposes this definition to those
offered by contemporary theorists of sovereignty,
particularly Hans Kelsen, whose work is criticized
at several points in the essay.
The book's title derives from Schmitt's assertion
(in chapter 3) that "all significant concepts
of the modern theory of the state are secularized
theological concepts"—in other words, that
political theory addresses the state (and
sovereignty) in much the same manner as theology
does God.
A year later, Schmitt supported the emergence
of totalitarian power structures in his paper
"Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen
Parlamentarismus" (roughly: "The Intellectual-Historical
Situation of Today's Parliamentarianism",
translated as The Crisis of Parliamentary
Democracy by Ellen Kennedy). Schmitt criticized
the institutional practices of liberal politics,
arguing that they are justified by a faith
in rational discussion and openness that is
at odds with actual parliamentary party politics,
in which outcomes are hammered out in smoke-filled
rooms by party leaders. Schmitt also posits
an essential division between the liberal
doctrine of separation of powers and what
he holds to be the nature of democracy itself,
the identity of the rulers and the ruled.
Although many critics of Schmitt today, such
as Stephen Holmes in his The Anatomy of Anti-Liberalism,
take exception to his fundamentally authoritarian
outlook, the idea of incompatibility between
liberalism and democracy is one reason for
the continued interest in his political philosophy.In
chapter 4 of his State of Exception (2005),
Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben argued
that Schmitt's Political Theology ought to
be read as a response to Walter Benjamin's
influential essay "Towards the Critique of
Violence".
=== The Concept of the Political ===
Schmitt changed universities in 1926, when
he became professor of law at the Handelshochschule
in Berlin, and again in 1932, when he accepted
a position in Cologne. It was from lectures
at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in
Berlin that he wrote his most famous paper,
"Der Begriff des Politischen" ("The Concept
of the Political"), in which he developed
his theory of "the political". Distinct from
party politics, "the political" is the essence
of politics. While churches are predominant
in religion or society is predominant in economics,
the state is predominant in politics. Yet
for Schmitt the political was not an autonomous
domain equivalent to the other domains, but
rather the existential basis that would determine
any other domain should it reach the point
of politics (e.g. religion ceases to be merely
theological when it makes a clear distinction
between the "friend" and the "enemy"). The
political is not equal to any other domain,
such as the economic (which distinguishes
between profitable and not profitable), but
instead is the most essential to identity.
Schmitt, in perhaps his best-known formulation,
bases his conceptual realm of state sovereignty
and autonomy upon the distinction between
friend and enemy. This distinction is to be
determined "existentially", which is to say
that the enemy is whoever is "in a specially
intense way, existentially something different
and alien, so that in the extreme case conflicts
with him are possible." Such an enemy need
not even be based on nationality: so long
as the conflict is potentially intense enough
to become a violent one between political
entities, the actual substance of enmity may
be anything.
Although there have been divergent interpretations
concerning this work, there is broad agreement
that "The Concept of the Political" is an
attempt to achieve state unity by defining
the content of politics as opposition to the
"other" (that is to say, an enemy, a stranger.
This applies to any person or entity that
represents a serious threat or conflict to
one's own interests.) Additionally, the prominence
of the state stands as a neutral force dominating
potentially fractious civil society, whose
various antagonisms must not be allowed to
affect politics, lest civil war result.
==== Dialogue with Leo Strauss ====
Schmitt's positive reference for Leo Strauss,
and Schmitt's approval of his work, had been
instrumental in winning Strauss the scholarship
funding that allowed him to leave Germany.
In turn, Strauss's critique and clarifications
of The Concept of the Political led Schmitt
to make significant emendations in its second
edition. Writing to Schmitt during 1932, Strauss
summarized Schmitt's political theology thus:
"[B]ecause man is by nature evil, he therefore
needs dominion. But dominion can be established,
that is, men can be unified only in a unity
against—against other men. Every association
of men is necessarily a separation from other
men ... the political thus understood is not
the constitutive principle of the state, of
order, but a condition of the state." Some
of the letters between Schmitt and Strauss
have been published.
=== Nomos of the Earth ===
The Nomos of the Earth is Schmitt's most historical
and geopolitical work. Published in 1950,
it was also one of his final texts. It describes
the origin of the Eurocentric global order,
which Schmitt dates from the discovery of
the New World, discusses its specific character
and its contribution to civilization, analyses
the reasons for its decline at the end of
the 19th century, and concludes with prospects
for a new world order. It defends European
achievements, not only in creating the first
truly global order of international law, but
also in limiting war to conflicts among sovereign
states, which, in effect, civilized war. In
Schmitt's view, the European sovereign state
was the greatest achievement of Occidental
rationalism; in becoming the principal agency
of secularization, the European state created
the modern age.
Notable in Schmitt's discussion of the European
epoch of world history is the role played
by the New World, which ultimately replaced
the old world as the centre of the Earth and
became the arbiter in European and world politics.
According to Schmitt, the United States' internal
conflicts between economic presence and political
absence, between isolationism and interventionism,
are global problems, which today continue
to hamper the creation of a new world order.
But however critical Schmitt is of American
actions at the end of the 19th century and
after World War I, he considered the United
States to be the only political entity capable
of resolving the crisis of global order.
=== Hamlet or Hecuba ===
Published in 1956, Hamlet or Hecuba: The Intrusion
of the Time into the Play was Schmitt's most
extended piece of literary criticism. In it
Schmitt focuses his attention on Shakespeare's
Hamlet and argues that the significance of
the work hinges on its ability to integrate
history in the form of the taboo of the queen
and the deformation of the figure of the avenger.
Schmitt uses this interpretation to develop
a theory of myth and politics that serves
as a cultural foundation for his concept of
political representation. Beyond literary
criticism or historical analysis, Schmitt's
book also reveals a comprehensive theory of
the relationship between aesthetics and politics
that responds to alternative ideas developed
by Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno.
=== Theory of the Partisan ===
Schmitt's Theory of the Partisan originated
in two lectures delivered during 1962, and
has been seen as a rethinking of The Concept
of the Political. It addressed the transformation
of war in the post-European age, analysing
a specific and significant phenomenon that
ushered in a new theory of war and enmity.
It contains an implicit theory of the terrorist,
which during the 21st century has resulted
in yet another new theory of war and enmity.
In the lectures, Schmitt directly tackles
the issues surrounding "the problem of the
Partisan" figure: the guerrilla or revolutionary
who "fights irregularly" (p. 3). Both because
of its scope, with extended discussions on
historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte,
Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, as well as
the events marking the beginning of the 20th
century, Schmitt's text has had a resurgence
of popularity. Jacques Derrida, in his Politics
of Friendship remarked:
Despite certain signs of ironic distrust in
the areas of metaphysics and ontology, The
Concept of the Political was, as we have seen,
a philosophical type of essay to 'frame' the
topic of a concept unable to constitute itself
on philosophical ground. But in Theory of
the Partisan, it is in the same areas that
the topic of this concept is both radicalized
and properly uprooted, where Schmitt wished
to regrasp in history the event or node of
events that engaged this uprooting radicalisation,
and it is precisely there that the philosophical
as such intervenes again.
Schmitt concludes Theory of the Partisan with
the statement: "The theory of the partisan
flows into the question of the concept of
the political, into the question of the real
enemy and of a new nomos of the earth." Schmitt's
work on the Partisan has since spurred comparisons
with the post-9/11 'terrorist' in recent scholarship.
== Influence ==
Through Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben,
Andrew Arato, Chantal Mouffe and other writers,
Carl Schmitt has become a common reference
in recent writings of the intellectual left
as well as the right. These discussions concern
not only the interpretation of Schmitt's own
positions, but also matters relevant to contemporary
politics: the idea that laws of the state
cannot strictly limit actions of its sovereign,
the problem of a "state of exception" (later
expanded upon by Agamben).Schmitt's argument
that political concepts are secuarlized theological
concepts has also recently been seen as consequential
for those interested in contemporary political
theology. The German-Jewish philosopher Jacob
Taubes, for example, engaged Schmitt widely
in his study of Saint Paul, The Political
Theology of Paul (Stanford Univ. Press, 2004).
Taubes' understanding of political theology
is, however, very different from Schmitt's,
and emphasizes the political aspect of theological
claims, rather than the religious derivation
of political claims.
Schmitt is described as a "classic of political
thought" by Herfried Münkler, while in the
same article Münkler speaks of his post-war
writings as reflecting an: "embittered, jealous,
occasionally malicious man" ("verbitterten,
eifersüchtigen, gelegentlich bösartigen
Mann"). Schmitt was termed the "Crown Jurist
of the Third Reich" ("Kronjurist des Dritten
Reiches") by Waldemar Gurian.
Timothy D. Snyder has asserted that Schmitt's
work has greatly influenced Eurasianist philosophy
in Russia by revealing a counter to the liberal
order.According to historian Renato Cristi
in the writing of the present Constitution
of Chile Pinochet collaborator Jaime Guzmán
based his work on the pouvoir constituant
concept used by Schmitt as well as drawing
inspiration in the ideas of market society
of Friedrich Hayek. This way Guzmán would
have enabled a framework for an authoritarian
state with a free market system.
=== Neoconservatism ===
Some have argued that neoconservativism has
been influenced by Schmitt. Most notably the
legal opinions offered by Alberto Gonzales,
John Yoo et al. by invoking the unitary executive
theory to justify highly controversial policies
in the war on terror—such as introducing
unlawful combatant status which purportedly
would eliminate protection by the Geneva Conventions,
torture, NSA electronic surveillance program—mimic
his writings. Professor David Luban said in
2011 that "[a] Lexis search reveals five law
review references to Schmitt between 1980
and 1990; 114 between 1990 and 2000; and 420
since 2000, with almost twice as many in the
last five years as the previous five".
== Works ==
=== English translations of Carl Schmitt ===
Note: a complete bibliography of all English
translations of Schmitt's books, articles,
essays, and correspondence is available here.
The Concept of the Political. George D. Schwab,
trans. (University of Chicago Press, 1996;
expanded edition 2007, with an introduction
by Tracy B. Strong). Original publication:
1st edn., Duncker & Humblot (Munich), 1932;
2nd edn., Duncker & Humblot (Berlin), 1963.
(The 1932 text is an elaboration of a 1927
journal article of the same title.)
Constitutional Theory. Jeffrey Seitzer, trans.
(Duke University Press, 2007). Original publication:
1928.
The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. Ellen
Kennedy, trans. (MIT Press, 1988). Original
publication: 1923, 2nd edn. 1926.
Four Articles, 1931–1938. Simona Draghici,
trans. (Plutarch Press, 1999). Originally
published as part of Positionen und Begriffe
im Kampf mit Weimar – Genf – Versailles,
1923–1939 (1940).
Hamlet Or Hecuba: The Intrusion of the Time
Into the Play. David Pan and Jennifer R. Rust,
trans. (Telos Press, 2009). Originally published
1956.
The Idea of Representation: A Discussion.
E. M. Codd, trans. (Plutarch Press, 1988),
reprint of The Necessity of Politics (1931).
Original publication: 1923.
Land and Sea. Simona Draghici, trans. (Plutarch
Press, 1997). Original publication: 1954.
Legality and Legitimacy. Jeffrey Seitzer,
trans. (Duke University Press, 2004). Original
publication: 1932.
The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas
Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political
Symbol. George D. Schwab & Erna Hilfstein,
trans. (Greenwood Press, 1996). Original publication:
1938.
The Nomos of the Earth in the International
Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum. G.L. Ulmen,
trans. (Telos Press, 2003). Original publication:
1950.
On the Three Types of Juristic Thought. Joseph
Bendersky, trans. (Praegar, 2004). Original
publication: 1934.
Political Romanticism. Guy Oakes, trans. (MIT
Press, 1986). Original publication: 1919,
2nd edn. 1925.
Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept
of Sovereignty. George D. Schwab, trans. (MIT
Press, 1985 / University of Chicago Press;
University of Chicago edition, 2004 with an
Introduction by Tracy B. Strong. Original
publication: 1922, 2nd edn. 1934.
Roman Catholicism and Political Form. G. L.
Ulmen, trans. (Greenwood Press, 1996). Original
publication: 1923.
State, Movement, People (includes The Question
of Legality). Simona Draghici, trans. (Plutarch
Press, 2001). Original publication: Staat,
Bewegung, Volk (1933); Das Problem der Legalität
(1950).
Theory of the Partisan. G. L. Ulmen, trans.
(Telos Press, 2007). Original publication:
1963; 2nd ed. 1975.
The Tyranny of Values. Simona Draghici, trans.
(Plutarch Press, 1996). Original publication:
1979.
War/Non-War: A Dilemma. Simona Draghici, trans.
(Plutarch Press, 2004). Original publication:
1937.Works in German
Über Schuld und Schuldarten. Eine terminologische
Untersuchung, 1910.
Gesetz und Urteil. Eine Untersuchung zum Problem
der Rechtspraxis, 1912.
Schattenrisse (veröffentlicht unter dem Pseudonym
‚Johannes Negelinus, mox Doctor‘, in Zusammenarbeit
mit Dr. Fritz Eisler), 1913.
Der Wert des Staates und die Bedeutung des
Einzelnen, 1914.
Theodor Däublers ‚Nordlicht‘: Drei Studien
über die Elemente, den Geist und die Aktualität
des Werkes, 1916.
Die Buribunken, in: Summa 1/1917/18, 89 ff.
Politische Romantik, 1919.
Die Diktatur. Von den Anfängen des modernen
Souveränitätsgedankens bis zum proletarischen
Klassenkampf, 1921.
Politische Theologie. Vier Kapitel zur Lehre
von der Souveränität, 1922.
Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen
Parlamentarismus, 1923.
Römischer Katholizismus und politische Form,
1923.
Die Rheinlande als Objekt internationaler
Politik, 1925.
Die Kernfrage des Völkerbundes, 1926.
Der Begriff des Politischen, in: Archiv für
Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik vol.
58, no. 1, 1927, 1–33.
Volksentscheid und Volksbegehren. Ein Beitrag
zur Auslegung der Weimarer Verfassung und
zur Lehre von der unmittelbaren Demokratie,
1927.
Verfassungslehre, 1928.
Hugo Preuß. Sein Staatsbegriff und seine
Stellung in der dt. Rechtslehre, 1930.
Der Völkerbund und das politische Problem
der Friedenssicherung, 1930, 2. erw. Aufl.
1934.
Der Hüter der Verfassung, 1931.
Der Begriff des Politischen, 1932 (elaboration
of the 1927 essay).
Legalität und Legitimität, 1932.
Starker Staat und gesunde Wirtschaft, 1933
Staat, Bewegung, Volk. Die Dreigliederung
der politischen Einheit, 1933.
Das Reichsstatthaltergesetz, 1933.
Der Führer schützt das Recht, 1934.
Staatsgefüge und Zusammenbruch des Zweiten
Reiches. Der Sieg des Bürgers über den Soldaten,
1934.
Über die drei Arten des rechtswissenschaftlichen
Denkens, 1934.
Der Leviathan in der Staatslehre des Thomas
Hobbes, 1938.
Die Wendung zum diskriminierenden Kriegsbegriff,
1938.
Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung und Interventionsverbot
für raumfremde Mächte. Ein Beitrag zum Reichsbegriff
im Völkerrecht, 1939.
Positionen und Begriffe im Kampf mit Weimar
– Genf – Versailles 1923–1939, 1940
(Aufsatzsammlung).
Land und Meer. Eine weltgeschichtliche Betrachtung,
1942.
Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus
Publicum Europaeum, 1950.
Donoso Cortes in gesamteuropäischer Interpretation,
1950.
Ex captivitate salus. Erinnerungen der Zeit
1945/47, 1950.
Die Lage der europäischen Rechtswissenschaft,
1950.
Das Gespräch über die Macht und den Zugang
zum Machthaber, 1954.
Hamlet oder Hekuba. Der Einbruch der Zeit
in das Spiel, 1956.
Verfassungsrechtliche Aufsätze aus den Jahren
1924–1954, 1958 (Aufsatzsammlung).
Theorie des Partisanen. Zwischenbemerkung
zum Begriff des Politischen, 1963.
Politische Theologie II. Die Legende von der
Erledigung jeder Politischen Theologie, 1970.
Glossarium. Aufzeichnungen der Jahre 1947–1951,
hrsg.v. Eberhard Freiherr von Medem, 1991
(posthum).
Das internationale Verbrechen des Angriffskrieges,
hrsg.v. Helmut Quaritsch, 1993 (posthum).
Staat – Großraum – Nomos, hrsg. von Günter
Maschke, 1995 (posthum).
Frieden oder Pazifismus?, hrsg. von Günter
Maschke, 2005 (posthum).
Carl Schmitt: Tagebücher, hrsg. von Ernst
Hüsmert, 2003 ff. (posthum).
== See also ==
Streitbare Demokratie
German nationalism
== References ==
Informational notes
Citations
== Further reading ==
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power
and Bare Life (1998).
Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception (2005).
Giacomo Maria Arrigo, Islamist Terrorism in
Carl Schmitt's Reading, In Circolo 4 (2017).
Jeffrey Andrew Barash, Politiques de l'histoire.
L'historicisme comme promesse et comme mythe
(2004)
Gopal Balakrishnan, The Enemy: An Intellectual
Portrait of Carl Schmitt (2000). Reviewed
here.
Amine Benabdallah, Une réception de Carl
Schmitt dans l'extrême-gauche: La théologie
politique de Giorgio Agamben (2007). [2].
Alain de Benoist, Carl Schmitt Today: Terrorism,
'Just' War, and the State of Emergency (2013)
Eckard Bolsinger, The Autonomy of the Political:
Carl Schmitt's and Lenin's Political Realism
(2001)
Renato Cristi, Carl Schmitt and Authoritarian
Liberalism (1998)
Mariano Croce, Andrea Salvatore, The Legal
Theory of Carl Schmitt (Abingdon: Routledge,
2012) ISBN 978-0-415-68349-4.
Jacques Derrida, "Force of Law: The 'Mystical
Foundation of Authority'", in Acts of Religion
(2002).
Jacques Derrida, Politics of Friendship (1997).
Carlo Galli, "Hamlet: Representation and the
Concrete" (translated from Italian by Adam
Sitze and Amanda Minervini) in Points of Departure:
Political Theology on the Scenes of Early
Modernity, Ed. Julia Reinhard Lupton And Graham
Hammill, University of Chicago Press, 2011
Paul Gottfried, Carl Schmitt: Politics and
Theory (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990) ISBN
0-313-27209-3
Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, Empire (2000).
Julia Hell, "Katechon: Carl Schmitt’s Imperial
Theology and the Ruins of the Future", The
Germanic Review 84:4 (2009): 283–326.
Herrero, Montserrat. 2015. The political discourse
of Carl Schmitt. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
William Hooker, Carl Schmitt's International
Thought: Order and Orientation (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2009) ISBN 978-0-521-11542-1
Michael Marder, "Groundless Existence: The
Political Ontology of Carl Schmitt" (London
& New York: Continuum, 2010).
Reinhard Mehring: Carl Schmitt – 
Aufstieg und Fall. Eine Biographie. München:
Verlag C.H. Beck, 2009. ISBN 978-3-406-59224-9.
Heinrich Meier: The 
Lesson of Carl Schmitt: Four Chapters on the
Distinction between Political Theology and
Political Philosophy. University of Chicago
Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-226-51886-2.
Jens Meierhenrich and Oliver Simons, eds.
The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt. Oxford
University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0-199-91693-1
Chantal Mouffe (ed.), The Challenge of Carl
Schmitt (1999).
Ingo Müller (Deborah Lucas Schneider trans.)
(1991). Hitler's Justice: The Courts of the
Third Reich (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press) ISBN 0-674-40419-X
Ojakangas Mika, A Philosophy of Concrete Life:
Carl Schmitt and the political thought of
late modernity (2nd ed Peter Lang, 2006),
ISBN 3-03910-963-4
Gabriella Slomp, Carl Schmitt and the Politics
of Hostility, Violence and Terror (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) ISBN 978-0-230-00251-7
Nicolaus Sombart, Die deutschen Männer und
ihre Feinde: Carl Schmitt, ein deutsches Schicksal
zwischen Männerbund und Matriarchatsmythos,
Munich: Hanser, 1991. ISBN 3-446-15881-2 (2nd
ed Fischer TB, Frankfurt, 1997, ISBN 3-596-11341-5).
Telos 72, Carl Schmitt: Enemy or Foe? New
York: Telos Press, Summer 1987.
Telos 109, Carl Schmitt Now. New York: Telos
Press, Fall 1996.
Telos 125, Carl Schmitt and Donoso Cortés.
New York: Telos Press, Fall 2002.
Telos 132, Special Edition on Carl Schmitt.
New York: Telos Press, Fall 2005.
Telos 142, Culture and Politics in Carl Schmitt
New York: Telos Press, Spring 2008.
Telos 147, Carl Schmitt and the Event. New
York: Telos Press, Summer 2009.
Telos 153, Special Issue on Carl Schmitt's
Hamlet or Hecuba. New York: Telos Press, Winter
2010.
Ola Tunander, The Dual State and the Sovereign:
A Schmittian Approach to Western Politics,
Challenge Second Annual Report to the European
Commission 2006 (7.3.3 Work package 3 – Deliverable
No. 32), Challenge, Brussels
Johannes, Türk. “The Intrusion: Carl Schmitt’s
Non-Mimetic Logic of Art.” Telos 142 (2008):
73-89.
Ignaz Zangerle, "Zur Situation der Kirche",
Der Brenner 14 (1933/34): 52 ff.
"Indagini su Epimeteo tra Ivan Illich, Konrad
Weiss e Carl Schmitt" (PDF) (in Italian).
Il Covile. 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
=== Historiography ===
Caldwell, Peter C. "Controversies over Carl
Schmitt: a review of recent literature." Journal
of Modern History (2005), 77#2 pp 357-387.
== External links ==
Vinx, Lars. "Carl Schmitt". In Zalta, Edward
N. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Carl Schmitt in the German National Library
catalogue
The Return of Carl Schmitt by Scott Horton
Balkinization 7 November 2005 –discusses
the continuing influence of Schmitt's legal
theories in modern American politics
Focus on the International Theory of Carl
Schmitt in the Leiden Journal of International
Law (LJIL). Contributions by Louiza Odysseos
and Fabio Petito, Robert Howse, Jörg Friedrichs,
Christoph Burchard and Thalin Zarmanian.
The Germanic Review, a journal of German critical
studies, has published numerous special issues
and articles about Carl Schmitt.
Telos, a journal of politics and critical
theory, has published numerous articles both
by and about Carl Schmitt, including special
sections on Schmitt in issues 72 (Summer 1987),
109 (Fall 1996), 125 (Fall 2002), 132 (Fall
2005), 142 (Spring 2008), 147 (Summer 2009),
and 153 (Winter 2010). Telos Press Publishing
has also published English translations of
Schmitt's The Nomos of the Earth (2003), Theory
of the Partisan (2007), and Hamlet or Hecuba
(2009).
"World Orders: Confronting Carl Schmitt's
The Nomos of the Earth." A special issue of
SAQ: South Atlantic Quarterly, volume 104,
number 2. William Rasch, special issue editor.
"The Nazi Jurist" in Claremont Review of Books,
Summer 2015.
"A Fascist Philosopher Helps Us Understand
Contemporary Politics" by Alan Wolfe. Chronicle
of Higher Education, April 2, 2004
"Carl Schmitt and Nuremberg" by Joseph W.
Bendersky, Telos Press, July 19, 2007.
"Carl Schmitt: Works"
