Carl Schmitt is one of the most widely read and influential German thinkers of the twentieth century. His fundamental works on friend and enemy, legality and legitimacy, dictatorship, political theology and the concept of the political are read today with great interest by everyone from conservative Catholic theologians to radical political thinkers on the left.
In his private life, however, Schmitt was haunted by the demons of his wild anti-Semitism, his self-destructive and compulsive sexuality and his deep-seated resentment against the complacency of bourgeois life. As a young man from a modest background, full of social envy, he succeeded in making his way to the top of the academic world in Germany, and yet he never felt at home in the academic establishment and among those of high social standing. When the Nazis seized power, Schmitt was susceptible to their ideology. He broke with his Jewish friends, joined the Nazi Party in May 1933 and lent a helping hand to Hitler, thereby becoming deeply entangled with the regime. Schmitt was irrevocably compromised by his role as the 'crown jurist' of the Third Reich. After the war, he led a secluded life in his home town in the Sauerland and became a key background figure in the intellectual scene of postwar Germany.
Reinhard Mehring's outstanding biography is the most comprehensive work available on the life and work of Carl Schmitt. Based on thorough research and using new sources that were previously unavailable, Mehring portrays Schmitt as a Shakespearean figure at the centre of the German catastrophe.
By:
Reinhard Mehring
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 150mm,
Spine: 43mm
Weight: 1.021kg
ISBN: 9780745652252
ISBN 10: 0745652255
Pages: 700
Publication Date: 28 January 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Abbreviations Translator’s Preface A White Raven: The Strange Life of the German State Theorist Carl Schmitt Part One That ‘false and arrogant idea “I am”’ Schmitt’s Rise in the Wilhelminian Era 1. An ‘Obscure Young Man from a Modest Background’ 2. The Law of Practice 3. Apotheosis of the Poet, Rant against Literary Figures: the ‘Untimely Poet’ and the ‘Received Wisdom of the Educated’ 4. On the Eve of the Great War: State, Church and Individual as Points of Reference 5. Düsseldorf: Living in a State of Exception 6. World War and Defeatism: Carl Schmitt in Munich 7. Strasbourg, the State of Siege and a Decision in Favour of Catholicism 8. Political Romanticists 1815/1919 Part 2 Beyond Bourgeois Existence Schmitt’s Life and Work during the Weimar Republic 1. A Permanent Position? The Handelshochschule in Munich 2. A ‘Faithful Gypsy’ in Greifswald 3. Arrival in Bonn? Schmitt’s Turn towards the Catholic Church 4. Schmitt as a Teacher in Bonn 5. From Status Quo to Democratic ‘Myth’ 6. The Yield of the Bonn Years: 7. From ‘Ice Floe to Ice Floe’: Signals in the Berlin Maelstrom 8. Reconstructing the ‘Strong’ State 9. Within the Journalistic Circles of Weimar’s Last Days 10. Carl Schmitt as an Actor During the Rule by Presidential Decree Part Three In The Belly of the Leviathan: Schmitt’s Involvement in National Socialism 1. After 30 January 1933 2. Schmitt’s Resistible Rise to the Position of ‘Crown Jurist’ 3. The ‘Year of Construction’? Beginning and End of the Juridico-Institutional Provision of Meaning 4. Anti-Semitic Provision of Meaning 5. A New Turn with Hobbes? Meaning and Failure of Schmitt’s Commitment to National Socialism 6. The Right to Power? Großraum Order and Empire Formation 7. The Captain held Hostage? Carl Schmitt’s Farewell to the ‘Reich’ 8. Last Writings under National Socialism Part Four ‘One man remains’ Schmitt’s Slow Retreat after 1945 1. Detention and ‘Asylum’ 2. From Benito Cereno to Hamlet: The ‘Comeback’ of the Intellectual? 3. Private Seminars in Plettenberg: Schmitt’s Renewed Influence on Pupils in the Federal Republic 4. The Partisan in Conversation 5. Past Eighty: A Look Back to Old Questions Appendix Afterword Chronology Bibliography Endnotes Acknowledgments
Reinhard Mehring is Professor of Political Science at the Padagogische Hochschule, Heidelberg.
Reviews for Carl Schmitt: A Biography
'Mehring's book is a remarkable achievement: an intellectual biography that illuminates a whole era while taking very seriously the intimate connections between the theory and the restless and obsessive personality of its main character. It is bound to remain a fundamental reference in the vast literature on one of the most decisive chapters in European constitutional history: the Weimar Republic.' Political Studies Review 'By presenting a complete account of Schmitt's life, heretofore absent, Mehring has done a great service. This biography will no doubt be the point of departure for studies of Carl Schmitt and his intellectual legacy for a long time.' Constellations
