Bücher der Reihe Carl-Schmitt-Vorlesungen

Behemoth and Leviathan. Rebellion and governmental order, state of civil war and sovereign statesperson. Since Thomas Hobbes' publication of »Leviathan«, political theory has not been able to detach itself from these two biblical monsters whose images capture the modern political spirit. Horst Bredekamp's history of the »Prefiguration of the Modern State« and its mutations marks the onset of more recent interpretations (Thomas Hobbes. Der Leviathan. Das Urbild des modernen Staates und seine Gegenbilder, 1651-2001. Berlin 1999, 2006). Yet Leviathan can only be understood against the foil of its doppelgänger, the land animal Behemoth, which is - following Carl Schmitt - the political symbol of the natural state's revolutionary anarchic force. Its visual history is no less convoluted. In his recent study, Horst Bredekamp pursues the two beasts' political history by focusing on the Jobian monster's historical metamorphosis. Concurrently, it is the first volume of the »Carl Schmitt Lectures« series, publishing the annual lectures of the Carl Schmitt Society in Berlin.

Revolutionen kommen unerwartet. Sie unterbrechen den Lebensfluß, bringen Unvorhergesehenes in die Welt. Nicht Ungleichheit und Ungerechtigkeit sind der Grund, auf dem sich Revolutionen vollziehen, sondern der Zerfall der Autorität und das Unvermögen der Herrschenden, sich an der Macht zu halten. Im Ausnahmezustand setzen sich stets die Entschlossenen durch, die Machtfragen durch Entscheidungen beantworten. Am Ende muß aber auch der Revolutionär absichern, was er sich erkämpft hat. Davon handelt dieses Buch: Vom Ort und der Zeit der Machtnahme und der Machtsicherung.

»Gretha Jünger and the Thing Itself. A Portrait with Carl Schmitt«: Gretha Jünger influenced the relationship between Carl Schmitt and Ernst Jünger. Before 1945, the tensions in this triad shaped Schmitt's relationship to the NS regime. In the post-war era, their conflicts revealed deeper ideological splits. These changed the triadic relationship, since Gretha Jünger, with her view of the world was closer to Carl Schmitt than her husband. Nonetheless Carl Schmitt broke off contact with her in 1953, which is discussed in dazzling detail here for the first time.