Otto Kirchheimers Parlamentarismuskritik in der Weimarer Republik : Ein Fall von "Linksschmittianismus"?

Abstract

Resuming a passionate debate initiated by the American political scientist Ellen Kennedy twenty years ago, the article traces intellectual transferences between Weimar's state philosophical arch-enemy Carl Schmitt and his left-wing socialist disciple Otto Kirchheimer. It focuses on the period between 1928, the year Kirchheimer obtained his PhD, and 1933, the year of Hitler's 'seizure of power'. In so doing it makes a contribution not only to the study of Weimar's highly fragmented political culture, but also to a recent focus of research, namely the phenomenon of 'exchange discourses' of right- and left-wing intellectuals. While stressing conspicuous resemblances between Schmitt's and Kirchheimer's anti-parliamentarian critique, the article also points out divergences and discrepancies which became increasingly apparent from 1930 onwards, culminating in a harsh attack launched by Kirchheimer against his former doctoral supervisor on the occasion of Schmitt's juristic legitimization of the socalled 'Preu ss enschlag', von Papen's take-over of power in Prussia on the 20th of July, 1932.