Carl Schmitt, Nazi thinker?

Abstract

This article analyzes the presence of Nazism in the work and thought of Carl Schmitt. The author raises the need to rethink and give meaning to this problematic presence. First, he exposes the lines of defense –and self-justification– put forward by Schmitt himself regarding his adherence to Nazism. Subsequently, it analyzes the accusations made against Schmitt by different political actors and intellectual orientations, and the continuities and discontinuities in his thought before and after Nazism: thus issues such as the end of the Weimar Republic, institutionalism, anti-semitism, occasionalism, etc. At the same time, it examines how Schmitt's thought is located in the realm of realism, concreteness and historical, political and legal contingency. He also explores the scope of Schmittian political theology as a constitutive structure of modernity. Finally, the author argues that Schmitt was not a Nazi, but a thinker who wanted to be a Nazi.