2 - Carl Schmitt: political theology and the concept of the political

Summary

One calls to me from Seir: “Watchman, is the night almost gone? Watchman, is the night almost gone?”

The Watchman said: “Even if the morning cometh, it still remains night. If you wish to inquire, then come again and inquire.” (Isaiah 21:11–12)

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was perhaps the leading jurist during the Weimar Republic (1919–33). Born the son of a Catholic Westphalian businessman, he was educated as a lawyer and legal theorist at several universities, taking his habilitation eventually in Strasbourg (then part of Germany) in 1915. He taught at several German universities, becoming a professor of law at the University of Köln in 1932 and in Berlin in 1933. It is worth noting here that being professor in the German academic system (the title precedes that of doctor) also meant being a (very) high-ranking civil servant and, as such, subject to the regulations governing the behavior of civil servants. Although Schmitt's work was in legal theory and the theory of sovereignty, it was shaped by the concerns raised by the conflicts and difficulties of the Weimar Republic.