1,099 words
Carl Schmitt was born on July 11, 1888 in Plettenberg, Westphalia, Germany — where he died on April 7, 1985, at the age of 96. The son of a Roman Catholic small businessman, Carl Schmitt studied law in Berlin, Munich, and Strasbourg, graduating and taking his state exams in Strasbourg in 1915. In 1916, he earned his habilitation in Strasbourg, qualifying him to be a law professor. He taught at business schools and universities in Munich, Greifswald, Bonn, Berlin, and Cologne.
During the Third Reich, Schmitt joined the NSDAP (on May 1, 1933). He was appointed Prussian State Counselor and President of the Union of National Socialist Jurists. He particularly enjoyed the confidence and patronage of Hermann Göring, but from 1936 on was regarded as ideologically unsound by some within the SS. In 1945, he was arrested and interned for more than a year by American occupiers. Schmitt refused “de-Nazification” and retired to the village of his birth where he continued to write, receive visitors, and quietly maintain his political contacts until the end of his life. Among his many visitors were Ernst Jünger, Alexandre Kojève, Guillaume Faye, and Jean-Louis Feuerbach.
Schmitt is now widely recognized as one of the great anti-liberal political and legal theorists, whose works are valued on the anti-liberal Left as well as on the Right. His books are steadily being translated into English. Available titles include:
- Political Romanticism
(1919, 1925), trans. Guy Oakes (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986).
- Dictatorship: From the Origin of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to Proletarian Class Struggle (1921), trans. Michael Hoelzl and Graham Ward (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014).
- Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty
(1922, 1934), trans. George D. Schwab (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985).
- Roman Catholicism and Political Form
(1923), trans. G. L. Ulmen (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996).
- The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy
(1923, 1926), trans. Ellen Kennedy (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1988).
- The Idea of Representation: A Discussion (1923), trans. E. M. Codd (Washington, D.C.: Plutarch Press, 1988), reprint of The Necessity of Politics: An Essay on the Representative Idea in the Church and Modern Europe (London: Sheed and Ward, 1931).
- The Concept of the Political
(1927, 1932), trans. George D. Schwab (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996; expanded edition 2006, with an Introduction by Tracy B. Strong).
- Constitutional Theory
(1928), trans. Jeffrey Seitzer (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007).
- Four Articles, 1931–1938, trans. Simona Draghici (Washington, D.C.: Plutarch Press, 1999). (See below.)
- Legality and Legitimacy
(1932), trans. Jeffrey Seitzer (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004).
- On the Three Types of Juristic Thought
(1934), trans. Joseph Bendersky (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2004).
- Writings on War
(1937–1945), trans. Timothy Nunan (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011).
- The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol
(1938), trans. George D. Schwab & Erna Hilfstein (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996).
- The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of Jus Publicum Europaeum
(1950), trans. G. L. Ulmen (New York: Telos Press, 2003).
- Land and Sea (1954), trans. Simona Draghici (Washington, D.C.: Plutarch Press, 1997). (See below.)
- Land and Sea: A World-Historical Meditation (1954), trans. Samuel Garrett Zeitlin (New York: Telos Press, 2015).
- Hamlet or Hecuba: The Intrusion of the Time into the Play
(1956), trans. David Pan and Jennifer R. Rust (New York: Telos Press, 2009).
- Theory of the Partisan: Intermediate Commentary on the Concept of the Political
(1963, 1975), trans. G. L. Ulmen (New York: Telos Press, 2007).
- Political Theology II: The Myth of the Closure of any Political Theology
(1970), trans. Michael Hoelzel and Graham Ward (Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, 2008).
- The Tyranny of Values & Other Texts (1979), trans. Samuel Garrett Zeitlin (New York: Telos Press, 2018).
- The Tyranny of Values (1979), trans. Simona Draghici (Washington, D.C.: Plutarch Press, 1996). (See below.)
Schmitt is one of the most significant political theorists for the North American New Right, and one measure of the embryonic state of our movement is that we are just beginning to come to grips with him. Counter-Currents has published a number of works by Schmitt online:
- Land and Sea
- State, Movement, People, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- “Total Enemy, Total State, and Total War,” an essay from Four Articles, 1931–1938
- “The Way to the Total State,” an essay from Four Articles, 1931–1938
- “Further Development of the Total State in Germany,” an essay from Four Articles, 1931–1938
- “Neutrality According to International Law and National Totality,” an essay from Four Articles, 1931–1938
- “The Tyranny of Values, 1959,” from The Tyranny of Values
- “The Tyranny of Values, 1967,” from The Tyranny of Values (in Romanian)
- “Isolationism and Pan-Interventionism.”
- “The Question of Legality.” (1950)
We have also published several studies of Schmitt:
- Guillaume Faye and Robert Steuckers, “The Lesson of Carl Schmitt.”
- John Gordon, “Notes on Liberal Democracy and its Alternative.”
- Nicholas R. Jeelvy, “Schmitt, the Man.”
- Greg Johnson, “Reflections on Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political.” (Translations: Estonian, French, Polish, Spanish)
- Greg Johnson, “The Political Soldier: Carl Schmitt’s Theory of the Partisan.” (Czech translation here)
- Greg Johnson,” Mircea Eliade, Carl Schmitt, and René Guénon.”
- Greg Johnson, “Notes on Schmitt’s Crisis & Ours.”
- Greg Johnson, “Carl Schmitt on the Tyranny of Values.” (in Spanish)
- Greg Johnson, “Schmitt, Sovereignty, and the Deep State.” (Translations: Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish)
- Titus Livius, “Carl Schmitt and American Jurisprudence.”
- Michael O’Meara, “Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political.”
The following essays make substantial reference to Schmitt:
- Chad Crowley, “Racial Realities.”
- Chad Crowley, “White Awakening.”
- Ricardo Duchesne, “Carl Schmitt is Right: Liberal Nations Have Open Borders Because They Have No Concept of the Political.”
- Ricardo Duchesne, “The Masculine Preconditions of Individualism, the Indo-Europeans, and the Modern Hegelian Concept of Collective Freedom.”
- Julius Evola, “Historiography of the Right.”
- Stephen Paul Foster, “Can’t We All Just Get Along? Hobbes Says, ‘No.’“
- Nicholas R. Jeelvy, “When They Fight, They Fight.”
- Greg Johnson, “Leo Strauss, the Conservative Revolution, and National Socialism,” Part 1, Part 2
- Greg Johnson, “Lessing’s Ideal Conservative Freemasonry.” (Translations: French, Spanish)
- Greg Johnson, “Mark Sedgwick’s Key Thinkers of the Radical Right.”
- Greg Johnson, “‘Should War Be Criminalized?’“
- Greg Johnson, “Superheroes, Sovereignty, and the Deep State.” (Czech translation here)
- Greg Johnson, “What Populism Isn’t.”
- John Law, “Thoughts on the European New Right,” Part 1, Part 2
- James J. O’Meara, “The Geopolitics of Jason Jorjani.”
- J. J. Przybylski, “Only a God Can Save Us Now: Butchering Cultured Meat.”
- Edouard Rix, “Geopolitics of Leviathan,” Part 1
- Kathryn S., “The Bard Across Three Reichs: Germany, Shakespeare, and Andreas Höfele’s No Hamlets, Part II.”
- Robert Steuckers, “The Era of Pyropolitics is Coming.” (Romanian translation here)
- Lucian Tudor, “The German Conservative Revolution and its Legacy.” (Czech translation here)
Schmitt is also the subject of conversation in some of our podcasts:
- Counter-Currents Radio no. 280, “Carl Schmitt’s The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy,” with Greg Johnson and Nicholas R. Jeelvy
- Greg Johnson and Frodi Midjord on Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political
- Counter-Currents Radio no. 417, “Greg Johnson on Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political.”
Schmitt is also frequently tagged in essays where he is referenced in passing.
Remembering%20Carl%20Schmitt%0A%28July%2011%2C%201888%E2%80%93April%207%2C%201985%29%0A
Share
Enjoyed this article?
Be the first to leave a tip in the jar!
* * *
Counter-Currents has extended special privileges to those who donate at least $10/month or $120/year.
- Donors will have immediate access to all Counter-Currents posts. Everyone else will find that one post a day, five posts a week will be behind a “paywall” and will be available to the general public after 30 days. Naturally, we do not grant permission to other websites to repost paywall content before 30 days have passed.
- Paywall member comments will appear immediately instead of waiting in a moderation queue. (People who abuse this privilege will lose it.)
- Paywall members have the option of editing their comments.
- Paywall members get an Badge badge on their comments.
- Paywall members can “like” comments.
- Paywall members can “commission” a yearly article from Counter-Currents. Just send a question that you’d like to have discussed to [email protected]. (Obviously, the topics must be suitable to Counter-Currents and its broader project, as well as the interests and expertise of our writers.)
To get full access to all content behind the paywall, please visit our redesigned Paywall page.
4 comments
Carl Schmitt war ein grosser Mann und seine Bücher und Artikel sind heute nicht weniger aktuell, als in der Zeit wann sie geschrieben worden sind.
Carl Schmitt was a great man, and his books and articles are now not less actuel than they were when he has written them.
“Lessons of Schmidt” by Faye & Steuckers is definitely worth the read. Treasure to be had in the C-C archives.
The Counter-Currents archive is impressive and rarely disappoints.
Carl Schmitt’s Gespräch über die Macht und den Zugang zum Machthaber is very interesting short book, originally radio lesson, of middle 50’s. I do not know if it was translated into the English, but there were two Russian translations, one professional, published as a book, and one amateurish Internet publication, but also not bad.
Comments are closed.
If you have a Subscriber access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.
Note on comments privacy & moderation
Your email is never published nor shared.
Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.