Vom Umgang mit Carl Schmitt

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985), the pre-eminent jurist on the presidential system in the Weimar Republic and on National Socialism, is today regarded as a global player and master thinker, in the same way as Hegel, Weber or Foucault are, and is therefore the subject of intensive debate all over the world. Moreover, since his death and the cataloguing of his estate, which opened up access to a multitude of primary sources, his image has also changed considerably. Reinhard Mehring has written several books on Schmitt and critically observed the development of the debate surrounding him for thirty years. In this book, Mehring provides profound insight into the rapid dynamism, change and historicity of research on Schmitt using selected reviews, articles and the transcripts of meetings. In doing so, he identifies a trend in research which stretches from the dogmatic analysis of Schmitt’s writings to the editorial indexing of private sources, such as letters and diaries, and finally the recording of this political player’s historical biography.