Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberal International Legal Order Between 1933 and 1945

Leiden Journal of International Law

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 25-76

  Carty, Anthony ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF DERBY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Carl Schmitt; colonial racism; European international law; liberal imperialism; racism in Europe; violence of universal organizations

Indexed keywords

EID: 85010603356     PISSN: 09221565     EISSN: 14789698     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0922156501000036     Document Type: Article

References (185)

1. See G.L. Ulmen, American Imperialism and International Law-Carl Schmitt and the US in World Affairs, 72 Telos 43 (1987). Telos continues to render a service in explaining Schmitt's views on international law in the period considered by this article. See, in particular, 109 Telos 54-109 (1996), for a translation of Chapter II of Schmitt's 1950 publication Nomos der Erde, titled The Land Appropriation (translations by G. Ulmen and K. Walker); C. Schmitt, Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus Publicum Europaeum (1950). See also, in the same issue, the review of another book by Schmitt: H. Quaritsch, Carl Scmitt's Das International-rechtliche Verbrechen des Angriffskrieges unter der Grundsatz “Nullum Crimen Nulla Poena Sine Lege,” 109 Telos (1996).
2. A review of this literature is offered in A. Carty, Critical International Law: Recent Trends in the Theory of International Law, 2 European JIL 66 (1991). In my view this literature comes from within the liberal tradition and lacks any historical sense. See further, A. Carty, Liberalism's Dangerous Supplements: Medieval Ghosts of International Law, 13 Michigan JIL 161 (1991).
3. A very well known contemporary typology of international law in terms of the differing Weltanschauungen is the product of a seminar at the Frankfurt Law Faculty in 1938: see F. Giese & E. Menzel (Eds.), Vom deutschen Völkerrechtsdenken der Gegenwart (German International Law Thinking at Present), at 52-143 (1938).
4. See, e.g., A. Carty, Liberal Economic Rhetoric as an Obstacle to the Democratization of the World Economy, 98 Ethics 742 (1988); and A. Carty, Third World Claims to Economic Self-determination: Economic Rights of Peoples, Theoretical Aspects, in P. de Waart & E. Denters (Eds.), The Right to Development in International Law 43 (1992).
5. M. Schmoeckel, Die Grossraumtheorie (1994).
6. The ‘shadow’ is also a favourite theme of the deconstructive wing of critical legal studies: see, e.g., P. Fitzpatrick, The Abstract and Brief Chronicles of the Time: Supplementary Jurisprudence, in P. Fitzpatrick (Ed.), Dangerous Supplements, at 1 (1991).
7. See the very comprehensive survey of this phenomenon by D.F. Vagts, International Law in the Third Reich, 84 American JIL 661 (1990); see also M. Messerschmidt, Revision, Neue Ordnung, Krieg, Akzente der Völkerrechtswissenschaft in Deutschland 1933-45 (Revision, New Order, War and Trends in the Science of International Law in Germany 1933-1945), Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 61 (1971). Here numerous names of prominent German and Austrian international lawyers appear, such as Menzel, co-author of an already cited work from 1938, Verdross, Berber, Dahm, and Scheuner.
8. All of these possibilities are canvassed thoroughly by M. Stolleis, Recht im Unrecht (1994), 36 at 54-55 (Vorurteile und Werturteile der Rechtshistorischen Forschung zum Nationalsozialismus). Stolleis himself prefers the last option of those mentioned above.
9. His writings on this topic are collected in C. Schmitt, Positionen und Begriffe im Kampf mit Weimar-Genf-Versailles 1923-1939 (Positions and Concepts in the Struggle with Weimar, Genf, Versailles 1923-1939) (1988).
10. In conversation with the author, Günter Maschke has contended that crucial to an understanding of Schmitt is his (Schmitt's) mistaken assumption that Germany had no choice but to sign the Versailles Treaty. The outcome was inevitably a self-hatred, the result of a self-imposed humiliation.
11. See K. Hansen & H. Lietzmann (Eds.), Carl Schmitt und die Liberalismuskritik (1988), esp. G. Maschke, Drei Motive im Anti-Liberalismus Carl Schmitt, at 69-73. Maschke considers Schmitt's foreign affairs and international law writing exclusively from the perspective of his Weimar anti-liberalism, without any reference to his adherence to Nazi ideology. The same is true of his Forward to his recently edited collection of Schmitt writings: See G. Maschke (Ed.), C. Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos, at xiii-xxvii (1995). Maschke confines himself to distinguishing Schmitt from other Nazi writers without directly addressing Schmitt's clear support for the Nazi Regime as such as an effective response to anglo-american universalism.
12. Schmoeckel, Drei Motive im Anti-Liberalismus Carl Schmitt note 7, at 112, drawing upon E. Bristler, Die Völkerrechtslehre des Nationalsozialismus (International law doctrine of National Socialism) (1938).
13. K. Jaspers, Psychologie der Weltanschauungen, at 12 (1919), referring also to an Appendix titled Kants Ideenlehre (Kant's Doctrine of ideas), at 465-486.
14. Id., at 38.
15. Id., at 35-37.
16. Id., at 38.
17. C. Schmitt, Nationalsozialismus und Völkerrecht (1934).
18. Id., at 1.
19. Id. (all translations are the author's).
20. Id., at 7.
21. Id., at 11.
22. Id., at 23-25.
23. Id., at 21.
24. Id., at 25-28.
25. This is a comment on a work generally criticised by the Nazis, namely L. Schecher, Deutsches Aussenstaatsrecht (German External Public Law) (1933); id., at 15.
26. Schmitt is following the official line. See Bristler, Deutsches Aussenstaatsrecht note 14, at 63-71.
27. Schmitt (Nationalsozialismus und Völkerrecht), Schmitt is following the official line. note 20, at 17.
28. Id., at 8.
29. “For us it is now a matter of returning to this pure source of international law thinking recognised by all sound international lawyers in the past […].” Id.
30. Bristler, “For us it is now a matter of returning to this pure source of international law thinking recognised by all sound international lawyers in the past […].” note 14, at 71-108.
31. See, in particular, C. Schmitt, Die siebente Wandlung des Genfer Völkerbund, in Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), “For us it is now a matter of returning to this pure source of international law thinking recognised by all sound international lawyers in the past […].” note 11, at 210-213.
32. C. Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordnung, mit Interventionsverbot für raumfremde Mächte (International law of the Greater Space, with a Prohibition of Intervention for Powers Foreign to the Space), at 7 (1997).
33. See, e.g., C. Schmitt, Legalität und Legitimität (1932), included in C. Schmitt, Verfassungsrechtliche Aufsätze (Constitutional Law Essays) 263 (1958), at 264 et seq.
34. C. Schmitt, Die geistige Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus (The Intellectual Situation of Contemporary Parliamentarianism), at 10 (1923).
35. Schmitt (Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordnung), Die geistige Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus note 36, at 12-13.
36. See the discussion of this seminar and references therein in A. Carty, Interwar German Theories of International Law, 16 Cardozo LR 1235 (1995), esp. at 1245-1251.
37. Schmitt (Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordnung), Interwar German Theories of International Law note 36, at 13, referring to W. Hamel, Das Wesen des Staatsgebiets (The Nature of State Territory) (1933).
38. Id., at 15-16.
39. Id., at 32-34.
40. Id., at 36.
41. Id., at 36-39.
42. C. Schmitt, Les trois types de pensée juridique, at 69 (1995).
43. Id., at 74-75.
44. Id., at 93-94.
45. Id., at 95.
46. Id., at 97.
47. Id., at 97-98.
48. Id., 101-102, 112. See also C. Schmitt, Staat, Bewegung, Volk, Die Dreigliederung der politischen Einheit (State, Movement, People: The Three elements of Political Unity) (1933).
49. Schmitt (Pensée juridique), Id. note 46, at 110-111.
50. Schmitt (Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordnung), (Pensée juridique) note 36, at 43.
51. Id., at 44-48.
52. Id., at 52-54.
53. Id., at 59.
54. Id., at 60.
55. Id., citing G.A. Walz, Artgleichheit gegen Gleichartigkeit. Die Beiden Grundprobleme des Rechts (Similarity of Type Against Equality of Type: The Two Basic Problems of Law) (1938).
56. Schmitt (Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordnung), Artgleichheit gegen Gleichartigkeit. Die Beiden Grundprobleme des Rechts note 36, at 63-64.
57. Id., at 64-65.
58. Id., at 61 and 63.
59. See again Giese & Menzel (Völkerrechtsdenken der Gegenwart), Id. note 4, at 114-143.
60. Id., at 71.
61. This was a fundamental feature of Nazi geopolitical-historical thinking about international law. See G.A. Walz, Völkerrechtsordnung und Nationalsozialismus, at 8 (1942).
62. Schmitt (Staat, Bewegung, Volk), This was a fundamental feature of Nazi geopolitical-historical thinking about international law. note 52, at 32. None of this is to suggest that Schmitt distances himself from the Volk, as given shape by the Leader, in favour of a fascist Italian style state. The conditions for the latter did not exist any longer in Germany, hence the need for the Nazi Party etc.
63. Id., esp. at 80-81. See also the key study of C. Schmitt, Die Wendung zum diskriminierenden Kriegsbegriff (1988), to be discussed in Section 2.4, infra.
64. Schmitt (Staat, Bewegung, Volk), Id. note 52, at 86.
65. Id., at 88.
66. A basic thesis of Schmoekel's Grossraumtheorie is that Schmitt somehow ascribed to the former theory, for which he was criticised by more orthodox National Socialism theorists. See Schmoekel, Id. note 7.
67. C. Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordung (1941), reproduced in Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), A basic thesis of Schmoekel's Grossraumtheorie is that Schmitt somehow ascribed to the former theory, for which he was criticised by more orthodox National Socialism theorists. note 13, at 295.
68. C. Schmitt, Das internationalrechtliche Verbrechen des Angriffskrieges und der Grundsatz “Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege” (The international crime of a war of attack etc.), edited with notes and Afterword by H. Quaritsch, at 73-74 (1994).
69. A. Könen, Der Fall Carl Schmitt, at 796 (1995); see also Section 3.4, infra.
70. Schmitt (Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordung), Der Fall Carl Schmitt note 73, at 312.
71. Id., at 315.
72. “In our days, 1940, a new Order of Space and Peoples is beginning to arise.” Id., at 310.
73. Id., at 313-314.
74. Id., at 318.
75. Id., at 319.
76. Id., at 314-315.
77. Schmitt (Die Wendung zum diskriminierenden Kriegsbegriff), Id. note 67, at 1.
78. Id., at 2-4.
79. Id., at 10-11.
80. Id., at 12-14.
81. Id., at 16-17.
82. Id., at 19, 21. The same determination to develop and overcome the defects of the League can be seen in the work of Fischer Williams, who makes the most of the English tradition of surmounting legislative defects through resort to effective practice, all in the same direction, to ensure effective collective military action, in the aftermath of the Abyssinia crisis. Coercion and force are not abolished but they are collectivised and denationalised. Realistically, not every state has to act against a violation of the collective statute, of the League, but they are allowed to, and the violator cannot plead that any state has the right to be treated as a neutral in relation to him. Id., at 28-31, 35.
83. Schmitt (Die Wendung zum diskriminierenden Kriegsbegriff), Id. note 67, at 46-49.
84. Id., at 48.
85. Id., at 50-51.
86. Id., at 48-50.
87. Id., at 43, 52.
88. Id., at 53.
89. Id., at 45-46.
90. C. Schmitt, Raum und Grossraum im Völkerrecht, 24 Zeitschrift für Völkerrecht 145 (1940), at 153-154.
91. C. Schmitt, Land und Meer. Eine weltgeschichtliche Betrachtung (Land and Sea: A World-Historical Reflection) 53 (1981).
92. Schmitt (Raum und Grossraum im Völkerrecht), Land und Meer. note 100, at 171-172, where he quotes Admiral Raeder declaring his intention to imitate American policy in April 1940.
93. Schmitt presents this historical perspective in Land und Meer as its main thesis. But see, especially, Schmitt (Land und Meer), Schmitt (Raum und Grossraum im Völkerrecht) note 101, 40-46, 52-53; and C. Schmitt, Staatliche Souveränität und freies Meer (State Sovereignty and Open Sea) (1941) included in Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), Schmitt (Raum und Grossraum im Völkerrecht) note 13, at 407-416, concerning the opposition of land and sea in modern international law.
94. Schmitt (Land und Meer), id., at 86-95. The English genius was to realise that the sea was an element requiring “a different approach” to land.
95. Id., at 94. This irritates Schmitt's sense of space, as it leads to a world empire which is scattered all over the Earth, without any system in terms of a geography of land. However, Schmitt appreciates that this does not matter. Land is incidental to the economic and hence political power which the control of the seas gives. He quotes Sir Walter Raleigh: “Who commands the seas, commands the trade of the world, and whoever commands the trade of the world also owns all the treasures of the world and, in fact, the world itself.” Id., at 87.
96. Schmitt (Raum und Grossraum im Völkerrecht), Id. note 100, at 169-170.
97. Id., at 161-164. Schmitt's resistance to an economic ideology is paramount: “[w]here uncontrolled private commerce ends, there ends also the methods of British or anglo-saxon world dominance.” Id., at 164.
98. Id., at 164 et seq.
99. Id., at 146 et seq.
100. Schmitt (Land und Meer), Id. note 103, at 100-102.
101. Schmitt (Land und Meer), Schmitt (Land und Meer) note 103, at 88, regarding the extent of the conflict as waged by a sea-power. See also C. Schmitt, Staatliche Souveränität, reproduced in Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), Schmitt (Land und Meer) note 13, at 419 et seq., for a discussion of the incapacity of England to approach conflicts in terms of the parameters of the state.
102. Schmitt (Land und Meer), Schmitt (Land und Meer) note 103, at 80-85. Schmitt sees Germany as a loser both at land and at sea. It was kept out of the great land-seizures (Landnahme) of the New World, and was itself the subject of land-seizures within Europe, a play-ground for a battle between world-Catholicism and world-Protestantism, in which it could not decide its place. The non-Jesuit catholic Germans and the Lutheran, non-Calvinist Germans were not able to retain a space for themselves. Indeed Lutheranism's small-territory orientation is contemporaneous with the disappearance of German sea-power, the Hanseatic Baltic Sea power.
103. C. Schmitt, Die letzte globale Linie (The Last Global Line) (1943), reproduced in Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), Schmitt (Land und Meer) note 13, at 441-448. In this paper the connection is made with the terms in the last part of Die Wendung zum diskriminierenden Kriegsbegriff, concentrating now exclusively on the sense of moral mission of America.
104. Schmitt (Raum und Grossraum im Völkerrecht), Die letzte globale Linie note 100, at 146 et seq.
105. Id., at 178-179.
106. Id., at 151. See also Schmitt (Land und Meer), Id. note 103, 98-99 and 106-107.
107. Id., for Schmitt's discussion of the law of the air and of the sea in terms of the technical capacity of an airforce to dominate the sea. This seems to set a consistent tone for the perspective that technological power will be used to the full to ensure the triumph of the Weltanschauung of each Reich in its turn.
108. Id., at 179. See also Schmitt (Die letzte globale Linie), Id. note 113, at 447.
109. C. Schmitt, Die Auflösung der europäischen Ordnung im Völkerrecht (The Decomposition of the European Order in International Law) (1940), reproduced in Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), Id. note 13, at 372.
110. Schmitt (Die geistige Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus), Die Auflösung der europäischen Ordnung im Völkerrecht note 38, at 38 et seq.
111. Schmitt (Legalität und Legitimität), Schmitt (Die geistige Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus) note 37, at 312 et seq.
112. C. Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Formen des modernen Imperialismus, in Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), Schmitt (Legalität und Legitimität) note 11, at 162, where Schmitt begins by trying to undo the ideological impact of the argument that one can set the economic against the political. See also Ulmen, Schmitt (Legalität und Legitimität) note 1, at 58 et seq.; Maschke (Drei Motive im Anti-Liberalismus), Schmitt (Legalität und Legitimität) note 13, at 71.
113. Schmitt (Nomos der Erde), Völkerrechtliche Formen des modernen Imperialismus note 1, at 112 et seq.
114. Id., at 115.
115. Schmitt (Legalität und Legitimität), Id. note 37, at 343.
116. Schmitt (Nomos der Erde), Schmitt (Legalität und Legitimität) note 1, at 200 et seq.
117. Id., at 192-194.
118. Id., at 206-207.
119. Id., at 206.
120. Id., at 201, 218-219.
121. Id., at 212.
122. Even a historical work such as Schmoeckel's aroused considerable reservations, as a chosen topic, in the Faculty of Law in Munich where it was written. I was a visiting Alexander von Humbolt Fellow in Munich at the time the work was completed in 1993.
123. C. Leadbeater, What is the Big Idea? The Observer (4th August 1996).
124. Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), What is the Big Idea? The Observer note 13, at 347, for comments of the Editor.
125. Schmoeckel, (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos) note 7, at 139-140.
126. G.A. Craig, The German Foreign Office from Neurath to Ribbentrop, in G.A. Craig & F.Gilbert (Eds.), The Diplomats 1919-1939 (1994), at 406, 420.
127. Maschke (Schmitt: Staat, Grossraum, Nomos), The German Foreign Office from Neurath to Ribbentrop note 13, at 348. Maschke refers to Schmitt's article Grossraum gegen Universalismus: Der völkerrechtliche Kampf um die Monroe Doktrin, published ten days after Hitler's speech, and reproduced in Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), The German Foreign Office from Neurath to Ribbentrop note 11, esp. at 302. Maschke attributes influence on the actual writing of the speech to have come from the international lawyer Fritz Berber who was the close legal assistant to Ribbentrop. Id., at 347.
128. J.W. Bendersky, Carl Schmitt at Nuremberg, 72 Telos 91 (1987), at 97, including a transcript of the interrogation.
129. Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), Carl Schmitt at Nuremberg note 11, at 302.
130. Bendersky, Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe) note 138, at 93.
131. Schmitt (Das internationalrechtliche Verbrechen des Angriffkrieges), Bendersky note 75. See also E. Freiherr von Medem (Ed.), C. Schmitt: Glossarium Aufzeichnungen der Jahre 1947-1951 (Carl Schmitt: Diary Notes 1947-1951), at 120-121 (1991), diary entry of 3 April 1948, where he reaffirms this opinion given in August 1945 in a letter to Wilhelm Grewe. Throughout these diaries Schmitt repeatedly holds to the view that a “war of attack” is not illegal in international law.
132. See, e.g., J.C. Fest, Hitler, at 827 (1996).
133. Schmitt (Glossarium), Hitler note 141, at 164, where he says that Hitler's final political goal was an Anschluss with the British Empire, entrance to this well regarded Firm, and thus participation in the British agony and euthanasia. These diary notes, published after Schmitt's death, show no remorse for his own participation in National Socialism, but they do appear to show bitterness that Hitler did not appreciate where the true enemy lay. For instance, he says that Germany fought two wars, a non-discriminatory one against the West and a discriminatory one against the East; id., at 117. For Schmitt the latter type of war contradicted his system of international law. It had to mean turning inter-state war into colonial and civil war; id., at 29. So it is consistent that he describes Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union as foolish. It could blow up the whole world; id., at 15. He remains unrepentant against the United States. The so-called World War II began not on 1st September 1939 but with the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929; id., at 103.
134. Bendersky, Schmitt (Glossarium) note 138, at 115.
135. Könen, Bendersky note 76, at 753. Könen reports that Schmitt shared Göring's opera box in February 1943.
136. “You collaborated in the preparation of wars of aggression and therewith were party to criminal offences at decisive points.” Bendersky, Könen note 138, at 128-129.
137. Bendersky, “You collaborated in the preparation of wars of aggression and therewith were party to criminal offences at decisive points.” note 138, at 117 (Testimony-A Propos the Question of the Position of Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery: Observations from the Standpoint of Constitutional law).
138. Könen, Bendersky note 76, at 786. The association would not be random, if one takes into account Ribbentrop's preference for accommodation with the Soviet Union.
139. Bendersky, Könen note 138, at 120.
140. Id., at 122.
141. Of course his view sits uncomfortably with such a text as C. Schmitt, Der Führer schützt das Recht (The Führer Defends the Law) (1934), included in Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), Id. note 11, at 199, which is a defence of the murder of Röhm and his followers. See B. Rüthers, Carl Schmitt im Dritten Reich, at 53 (1989). It can easily be argued, however, that Schmitt was simply disappointed with the choice he made to support Hitler. In 1950 he went on to write a study of the Spanish authoritarian mid-19th century figure, Donoso Cortes in C. Schmitt, Gesamteuropäischer Interpretation. Vier Aufsätze (1950). In the Glossarium there is the ironical comment that Hitler owed his success to the mythical figure of the unknown soldier which came out of World War I, a democratic symbol; see Schmitt (Glossarium), Id. note 141, at 267.
142. Rüthers, Der Führer schützt das Recht note 152, at 85.
143. Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), Rüthers note 11, at 200.
144. Schmitt (Staat, Bewegung, Volk), Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe) note 52, at 32 et seq.
145. Fest, Schmitt (Staat, Bewegung, Volk) note 142, at 22.
146. Id., at 1029.
147. C. Schmitt, Politische Theologie. Vier Kapitel zur Lehre von der Souveränität, at 19 (1934).
148. Id., at 42.
149. C. Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (Translation, Introduction, and Notes by G. Schwab, with Comments on Schmitt's Essay by Leo Strauss), at 49 (1976).
150. G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (Translation with notes by T.M. Knox) (1967), at para. 337-340. See M. Kaufmann, Recht ohne Regel? Die philosophischen Prinzipien in Carl Schmitt's Staats und Rechtslehre 59-60 (1988), where this parallel is highlighted. See also J. Rückert, Der Rechtsbegriff der Deutschen Rechtsgeschichte in der NS-Zeit: der Sieg des ‘Lebens und des konkreten Ordnungsdenken,’ seine Vorgeschichte und seine Nachwirkungen, in J. Rückert & D. Willoweit (Eds.), Die Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte in der NS-Zeit (The Concept of Legal History in the National Socialism Period) (1995), at 177 and 186-187, citing also Kaufmann's work, but claiming that it considers too much the philosophical and not legal context. For the history of international law, in particular the concepts of Volk, Staat, and War, the argument here is that the tradition of philosophical idealism is crucial both for Schmitt and for Hitler.
151. Kaufmann, Philosophy of Right note 161, 61-62 and 71-73, mentioning also the literature on how far Schmitt simply dabbled with cloak and dagger political melodrama.
152. The use of the concept of civil war to describe Nazi/Fascist-Soviet antagonism is a major controversial theme of the so-called ‘Historiker-Streit’ in Germany in the 1980s, particularly between Ernst Nolte and Jürgen Habermas. The attempt to equate the two opposing ideologies as engaged in a civil war was thought by some as an apology for the Nazis. See E.R. Piper (Ed.), Historiker-Streit (1987).
153. Schmitt (Die geistige Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus), Historiker-Streit note 38, at 56; cited in shorter form in Kaufmann, Historiker-Streit note 161, at 95.
154. Kaufmann, Schmitt (Die geistige Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus) note 161, at 96.
155. Id., at 97-99.
156. Id., at 226-231, 235-236.
157. Id., at 316.
158. Id., at 324, 326.
159. Kaufmann, Id. note 161, at 359-360.
160. Kaufmann, Id. note 161, at 367. See also Schmitt (Positionen und Begriffe), Id. note 11, at 311-312.
161. Fest, Id. note 142, at 17-23.
162. Id., at 297, with a quotation from a speech.
163. Id., at 298-300.
164. In the Glossarium Schmitt takes up the theme of nihilism to explain himself in relation to Hitler. What happened after 1918? From the darkness of a social, moral and intellectual nothingness, came a totally empty individual who sucked himself full with the words and affects of the educated Germany of the time. His spirit was an animal earnestness in handling affects and formulae. In return these educated Germans, till then confined to purely imagined affects and formulae, were surprised and happy to be taken seriously. There was now a person taking the matter seriously (Ernstmacher) an executioner of till then pure ideas. In particular Schmitt writes of “[t]he pure man of action (Täter), the pure function of the action, the work without belief.” See Schmitt (Glossarium), Id. note 141, at 149, diary entry of 15 May 1948.
165. Fest, the Glossarium Schmitt takes up the theme of nihilism to explain himself in relation to Hitler. note 142, 306-310, 517-520 and 527.
166. Fest, the Glossarium Schmitt takes up the theme of nihilism to explain himself in relation to Hitler. note 142, at 742-848.
167. The now standard account of this is Könen, the Glossarium Schmitt takes up the theme of nihilism to explain himself in relation to Hitler. note 142 note 76, at 631 et seq.
168. Schmoeckel, The now standard account of this is Könen note 7, at 133-136.
169. Id., at 143-144.
170. See, among recent publications, M. Rössler & S. Schleiermacher (Ed.), Der General Plan Ost. Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs und Vernichtungspolitik (The General Plan for the East: Main Lines of National Socialist Planning and Extermination Policy) (1993); see also B. Wasser, Himmlers Raumplanung im Osten. Der General Plan Ost in Polen 1940-1944 (1993).
171. C. Zentner (Ed.), Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, Eine kommentierte Auswahl (1992), at 120-176 and attached footnote documentation.
172. Schmoeckel, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf note 7, at 152-240 (Part C).
173. Könen, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf note 7 note 76, at 796-801.
174. Id., at 801-804. All of this can be found in Schmoekel's analysis but it is broken up into individual conceptual sections, so, for instance one finds what Höhn has to say about the concept of intervention put alongside the comments of another Nazi international lawyer, Gustav Adolf Walz, a friend of Schmitt: see Schmoekel, Id. note 7, at 229-230, for a very sharp analysis of almost theological abstruseness. In this case Schmitt's vanity should have been immensely satisfied at having provoked so much debate. Maybe it was!
175. Id., at 801-804.
176. Id., at 818-819.
177. See, e.g., F. Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study of the Rise of the German Ideology (1961), at 183 et seq., on Möller van den Bruck and the Third Reich.
178. Könen, The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study of the Rise of the German Ideology note 76, at 832-833.
179. Id., at 834.
180. Id., at 836-837.
181. Id., at 837
182. Schmoeckel, Id. note 7, at 91-95.
183. R. Faber, Abendland. Ein politischer Kampfbegriff (The West: A Concept for Political Struggle) (1979), at 202 et seq. Schmitt's concept is German imperialist and involved the subjection of non-Reich peoples, with the continuous possibility of intervention. Schmitt's project was for a German supremacy, with England excluded from Europe. The American defeat of Germany meant, precisely, a restoration of the 1918-1919 liberal democratic domestic and international constitution which the counter-revolution of 1933-34 was intended to defeat.
184. Id., at 209.
185. H. Rauschning, Die Revolution des Nihilismus 169-170 (1938).