Carl Schmitt: A Biography

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 discipline of law in Germany through his exceptional intellectual prowess. And yet he never felt at home in the academic establishment and among those of high social standing. In his works, Schmitt unmasked the liberal Rechtsstaat as a constitutional façade and reflected on the legitimacy of dictatorship. 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. But by 1936 he had already lost his influential position. 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.

Mehring, Reinhard

History

Polity

About the Author\nReinhard Mehring is Professor of Political Science at the Pädagogische Hochschule, Heidelberg.\nCarl 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.

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Wenige Autoren wurden in den letzten Jahren so intensiv und extensiv diskutiert wie Carl Schmitt. Man rekonstruierte das Werk detailliert in seinen Brüchen und Kontinuitäten und ordnete es in den historischen Kontext der Zeit ein. Schmitt wurde als Akteur entdeckt. Der vorliegende kooperative Kommentar will zur theoretischen Auseinandersetzung zurückführen, indem er dessen Schlüsselschrift ""Der Begriff des Politischen"" in ihrer internen Kohärenz und Systematik prüft und ihre Reichweite auslotet.

Carl Schmitt: Der Begriff des Politischen: Ein kooperativer Kommentar (German Edition)

Professionals & Academics

De Gruyter Akademie Forschung

English summary: Since the publication of the "black notebooks", a new international debate has been raging about Heidegger's Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitism. In the interest of contemporary philosophical culture, Reinhard Mehring puts the discussion into historical perspective and focuses on the politics behind Heidegger's literary estate. He analyses the emergence and eccentric style of Heidegger's writings and develops Heidegger's rationale of a post-metaphysical hermeneutic of the philosopher's universitarian "being-there". He also investigates intellectual constellations and influences while further analysis is made of Heiddeger's role in National Socialism, of the Gesamtausgabe and the establishment of Heideggerianism as his work's telos. Following the example of Nietzsche, Heidegger shifted his "big politics" from the academic setting to the politics of his literary estate in order to found a "different thinking" with the "breeding and disciplining" of the Heideggerian as "future human" and "Ubermensch". German description: Seit dem Erscheinen der Schwarzen Hefte tobt eine neue internationale Debatte um Heideggers Nationalsozialismus und Antisemitismus. Reinhard Mehring verweist diese Debatte in wirkungsgeschichtlicher Perspektive und im Interesse der heutigen philosophischen Kultur auf den Aspekt der Nachlasspolitik. Er analysiert die Genese und die exzentrische Form von Heideggers Werk, indem er eine leitende These zu seiner postmetaphysischen Hermeneutik des universitaren Daseins und akademischen Auftritts entwickelt und intellektuelle Konstellationen, Pragungen und Wirkungen erortert. Ausserdem analysiert er Heideggers Stellung im Nationalsozialismus sowie die Gesamtausgabe und den Betrieb des Heideggerianismus als Telos des Werkes. In der Nietzsche-Nachfolge stellte Heidegger seine "grosse Politik" von Hochschulpolitik auf Nachlasspolitik um und verlegte sich auf die Stiftung eines "anderen Denkens" und die "Zucht und Zuchtung" des Heideggerianers als "kunftigen Mensch" und "Ubermensch".

Heideggers Grosse Politik: Die Semantische Revolution Der Gesamtausgabe (German Edition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Mohr Siebeck

Carl Schmitt - Aufstieg und Fall (German Edition)

Beck'sche CH Verlagsbuchhandlung Oscar Beck

Dass Die Luft Die Erde Frisst: Neue Studien Zu Carl Schmitt (German Edition)

Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft Mbh & Co

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Books by Mehring, Reinhard