Gesetz und Urteil

One of Schmitt's first works published in his early 20's before World War I in 1912. In forward written much later in 1968 Schmitt says this work "is concerned with the judicial decision and its independence from the norm to whose material-legal content it appeals so as to justify itself. Further reflection on the independent significance of the decision as such [...] later led me to the general insight that the domain of law as a whole is structured not merely by norms, but also by decisions and institutions (concrete orders)."

Der Wert des Staates und die Bedeutung des Einzelnen

An early work from Schmitt that served as part of his habilitation. This work has a neo-Kantian bent that he would later critique, especially in Political Theology in his criticisms against Hans Kelsen and positivism more generally. Johannes Türk writes in the Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt : "One of the main theses of The Value of the State and the Significance of the Individual is that the law cannot be derived from any element outside itself, but rather emerges with the irreducible positioning of a norm."

Die Sichtbarkeit der Kirche

In Ulmen's introduction's to his translation he says this essay "present[s] the role of the Church as a worldly institution, or more precisely, a spiritual institution manifest in a mundane 'visible' form." Schmitt wrote this work before the end of his first marriage where he would twice fail to get an annulment and develop a much more complicated relationship to the Catholic Church.

Die Buribunken

A satirical science fiction short story about "buribunkology," where Schmitt satirically critiques the idea that quantity leads to quality. In the story buribunkologists (Hegelians) attempt to describe and document everything. Ironically, alleged Hegelianism would be one of the reasons for Schmitt's fall from grace with the NSDAP.

Politische Romantik

The first major work by Schmitt where he critiques various figures from the German Romantic movement especially Schlegel, Novalis, and Adam Müller. Many themes from his later works on the subject of political theology are formed here, including the way the describes the German Romantics as stemming from theological Occasionalists. In later works Schmitt will also use the description "German" to simply mean the Romantic attitude described in this work.

Die Diktatur

Schmitt describes how dictatorship is built into the modern constitutional order, while describing the ancient juridical origins of dictatorship. A very academic and historical work. This work dictatorship and sovereignty serves as the background to his famous Political Theology .

Politische Theologie

In this work Schmitt coins and develops the idea of "Political Theology" which describes the ways that the structure (not so much the content) of theology influences the development of secular, modern jurisprudence. Scholars have given a wide variety of interpretations of this text. Some argue that Schmitt is advocating for decisionism, while others argue that Schmitt is writing more as a historicist describing the decisionist epoch that we live in.

Römischer Katholizismus und politische Form

This was one of Schmitt's first works translated into English before the slew of post-1945 translations and probably contributed to the notion of Schmitt as a specifically "Catholic thinker" which has been increasingly challenged over time. While sometimes considered a theological work, Schmitt, who always considered himself first and foremost a lawyer or jurist, describes the legal structure that Catholicism offers the secular world. In Ulmen's introduction to his translation he describes the work, in part, as a compliment to Max Weber's view of Protestantism. It is no surprise that Schmitt became friends with Weber during the last years of his life.

Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus

Among many things in this book, Schmitt posits a contradiction between the liberalism and democracy since liberalism has a specific ideological content, yet democracy allows any sort of party, liberal or not, to rise to power. An often overlooked aspect of this work is his nuanced engagement with Marxism and Georges Sorel. The German title translates to "The Spiritual-Historical Situation of Contemporary Parliamentarism."

Die politische Theorie des Mythus

This essay mainly focuses on French syndicalist thinker Georges Sorel (1847-1922) and ideas regarding the political usage of myth. This essay would be included as a chapter in The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy in the same year, although there are some slight changes. I don't speak German so I cannot comment on them authoratively, but using Google Translate on parallel sections they seem to be mostly in grammar and phrasing and not in content.

Die Diktatur des Reichsprasidenten nach Artikel 48 R.V.

Schmitt provides an interpretation of Article 48 of the Weimar constitution which allows the Reich president to take emergency measures under certain circumstances. Schmitt's interpretation offers a maximimalist intepretation of the president's power in these situations.

Der Begriff der modernen Demokratie in seinem Verhältnis zum Staatsbegriff

This is a review of jurist Richard Thoma's (1874-1957) book that has the same name but with the subtitle "Prolegomena zu einer Analyse des demokratischen Staates der Gegenwart." Richard Thoma would critique Schmitt's 1921 book Dictatorship which Schmitt responded to and included as the introduction in the second edition (available in Dictatorship's translation).

Die Rheinlande als Objekt internationaler Politik

A speech Schmitt gave in 1925 on the millenial anniversary of the Rhineland. Schmitt talks about various developments in international politics such as "protectorates" as opposed to colonies and how new forms of domination and political control have arisen that don't include annexation. Serves also as a critique of the treaty of Versailles.

Der Status quo und der Friede

Schmitt critiques the post World War I international order as being opposed to peace.

Zu Friedrich Meineckes >Idee der Staatsräson<

A book review of intellectual historian Friedrich Meinecke's (1862-1954) Die Idee der Staatsräson in der neueren Geschichte (1924). Schmitt critique largely centers around the lack of attention to Hobbes' and Pufendorf's question of quis judicabit? - who decides? - in the question of raison d'état.

Das Doppelgesicht des Genfer Völkerbundes

Short critique of the League of Nations as having contradictory, Janus-faced, principles.

Donoso Cortés in Berlin (1849)

A historical account of Donoso Cortés' time in Prussia as a diplomat and how it shaped his political thinking and ultimately led him to endorsing decisionism and dictatorship, two themes that permeate much of Schmitt's pre-1945 writings.

Macchiavelli: Zum 22. Juni 1927

Short newspaper article published on the 400th anniversary of Machiavelli's death. Schmitt gives a brief intellectual history of the reception of Machiavelli.

Verfassungslehre

This systematic presentation of constitutional theory is one of Schmitt's longest work. Although written during the Weimar Republic, the book is not bound to the specific Weimar constiution. In fact in the 1954 preface Schmitt said this work is not in need of an update as liberal constitutionalism still prevails over much of the world. Ellen Kennedy writes in the foreward: "Schmitt offers [...] a system that demonstrates the relationship of law and politics to each other, not just in this one German constitution, but in all constitutional states of the 'liberal rule of law' type."

Der bürgerliche Rechtsstaat

Schmitt offers a critique of the Weimar constitution and brings up the contradiction between democracy and liberalism and the need for democracy to have a homogenous people.

Das Zeitalter der Neutralisierungen und Entpolitisierungen

Originally a lecture that Schmitt gave and later appended to the 1932 edition of The Concept of the Political. This work provides the historical outline Western modernity's attempt to neutralize and depoliticize domains that led to historical conflict (like religion), but that anatagonism always reappears along new lines.

Wesert und Werden des fascistischen Staates

A review of German economist and political scientist Erwin von Beckerath's (1889-1964) book of the same title published in 1927. Schmitt seems to admire Italian Fascism in this review deeming its dominance over economic interests "heroic." He also posits that while Italian Fascism is anti-liberal, it is democratic. I believe this is his most indepth discussion on Italian Fascism.

Der unbekannte Donoso Cortés

Written for the German Catholic magazine Hochland, Schmitt provides a short overview of the Spanish politician and thinker Don Juan Donoso Cortés (1809-1853).

Hugo Preuss: Sein Staatsbegriffund seine Stellung in der deutschen Staatslehre

Hugo Preuss (1860-1925) was the principle drafter of the Weimar constitution. In this essay Schmitt critiques the legal positivists intepretation of the Weimar Constitution as a "neutral state." Rather, as Preuss understood it, it cannot be neutral with regards to its own existence.

Hegel und Marx

This essay expounds upon the relationship between Hegel and Marx's philosophy and how they both agree upon the friend-enemy distinction as "essential to any world-historically great politics."

Die Wendung zum totalen Staat

Describes the ongoing phenomenon of the neutral liberal state transforming into the total state where state and society are identified together, not against each other.

Legalität und Legitimität

Written in the final tumultous years of the Weimar republic where Schmitt questions the liberal notion of rule of law and argues for expanded presidential/executive power.

Schlußrede vor dem Staatsgerichtshof in Leipzig in dem Prozeß Preußen contra Reich

In 1932 Schmitt represented the Reich in the case surrounding the Prussian political crises wherein the federal government acted to restore order in Prussia using emergency powers. Schmitt defends the Reich's use of emergency powers arguing that they did not violate the Weimar constitution in their actions. This work is a transcript of Schmitt's final statement and includes attempted objections by Prussia's representatives.

Starker Staat und gesunde Wirtschaft

Schmitt gave this speech to a group of western German businessmen (Langnamverein) in late 1932, but it was not published until 1933. Due to the events between 1932 and 1933, I have kept the date as 1932 to better situtate the work chronologically as occuring before Hitler becoming chancelor in January 1933. Schmitt argues that the best way for the state to depoliticize and be able to leave the economic sector of the nation alone is for there to be a strong state akin to Italian Fascism and not the beaucratic and technical state that exists in late Weimar Germany which micromanages all domains of life.

Der Begriff des Politischen

This is Schmitt's most known text, aside from maybe Political Theology, in the Anglosphere. Asides from a few minor works earlier, this was the first major works by Schmitt to appear in English. Here, Carl Schmitt argues that the central notion to "the political" is the distinction between friend and enemy. He published an earlier version in 1927, but the 1932 version underwent substantial content changes.

Der Hüter der Verfassung

In 1929 positivist jurist Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) wrote a piece arguing for a constitutional court (like the US Supreme court) to defend the constitution. Schmitt wrote a series articles eventually culminating in this book attacking Kelsen's notion, instead arguing that the president of the Weimar republic, standing above parlimentary politics, should be the constitution's defender and has the ability to excercise sovereign dictatorship to defend the realm.

Weiterentwicklung des totalen Staates in Deutschland

Schmitt asserts that the state of the late Weimar Republic has extensive technical control, but is not a total state akin to Italian Fascism because it lacks the decisive decision making power due to being ruled by several different opposing parties which offer various "friend-enemy alternatives."

Staat, Bewegung, Volk

Schmitt argues that the unity of the German people is founded on the three-fold structure of state, movement, and people as opposed to the older liberal dichotomy of state and society (or public and private). He also elaborates on the juridical significance of the party, in particular reference to the NSDAP with their recent rise to power.

Nationalsozialistisches Rechtsdenken

Schmitt critiques Roman law, which German lawyers used to have to study intensely as part of their formation, while also attacking Jews for allegedly propagating normativistic and positivistic theories of jurisprudence. He commends the National Socialist movement for ushering in an age of legal "concrete order thinking".

Über die drei Arten des rechtswissenschaftlichen Denkens

Schmitt presents concrete-order institutional thinking, which he claims the Third Reich has instituted, as the proper paradigm for jurisprudence over and against normativism/positivism and decisionism.

Staatsgefüge und Zusammenbruch des zweiten Reiches

Schmitt details the collapse of the Germany's Second Reich through constitutional compromises that prevented Germany from leading a successful war effort, and serves as a guide for the newly formed Third Reich to avoid a similar fate.

Der Führer schützt das Recht

This short essay defends the infamous "Night of the Long Knives" and Adolf Hitler's history use of extraordinary powers to defend the Reich unlike how the Second Reich was unable to act decisively.

Die Verfassung der Freiheit

Schmitt argues and applauds that the NSDAP has overturned the un-German liberal constitutionalism of the past and that the state is now "a tool of the people's strength and unity."

Das Judentum in der Rechtswissenschaft

Speech given by Schmitt in a legal conference sponsored by Reich Minister Hans Frank. Schmitt talks about how to remove Jewish influence from German jurisprudence. One infamous suggestion is to mark each citation from a Jewish scholar as Jewish. This work has become one of the center pieces for the debate on Schmitt's antisemitism.

Die geschichtliche Lage der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft

Schmitt offers a short history of German jurisprudence, including the contemporary Third Reich when he is writing, commending the Third Reich for liberating jurisprudence from positivism.

Der Staat als Mechanismus bei Hobbes und Descartes

Schmitt details how through the writings of Descartes and Hobbes man, and then the state, came to be see, as a mechanism, overturning medieval legal and athropological theories.

Die Wendung zum diskriminierenden Kriegsbegrif

Originally given as a lecture in October 1937 at a conference of the Academy for German Law. Schmitt talks about the state of international law after World War I and the development of wars of discrimination which are considered either just or unjust wars, which Schmitt sharply critiques.

Totaler Feind, totaler Krieg, totaler Staat

Schmitt begins his "elemental" thinking in discussing the difference between total war of land, sea, and air. He traces modern total war to the British sea warfare.

Völkerrechtliche Neutralität und völkische Totalität

Schmitt speaks about what a "total state" is and goes on to argue that the concept of "neutrality" in international law justifies international civil wars in place of tradition warfare.

Der Leviathan in der Staatslehre des Thomas Hobbes

Schmitt wrote this work right after he was publically attacked by an SS publication and began to keep a low profile in the Third Reich focusing his intellectual work more on international law instead of domestic politics. Schmitt both praises and critiques Hobbes. He praises his juridical decisionism, while critiquing Hobbes' liberality with regards to religion and freedom of conscience. One popular reading of this text is as a covert critique of Nazi Germany.

This work is out of print and I have not been able to find any copy online or any way to buy this book. Moreover, the publisher seems to no longer exist and I cannot find any way to contact the translator. If you have any information about this text please contact me.

This is the brief descripition I can find on Google Books: "Examination of the evolution of international law in the twentieth century with special reference to war and peace."

Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung mit Interventionsverbot für raumfremde Mächt

A lecture originally given in April of 1939, a few months before Germany's invasion of Poland, Schmitt argues that Germany has the right to pursue its own version of the Monroe Doctrine which is a typical example of what he calls a "Großraum" (great space/large space).

Staatsethik und pluralistischer Staat

A critique of the "pluralist" theory of the state that GDH Cole (1889-1959) and Harold Laski (1893-1950) argued for. Schmitt says that "political unity is the highest unity" since the state can prevent the various groups and associations within the state from fighting each other.

Die Raumrevolution

Short essay on the changing of space in light of the ongoing World War.

El Concepto de Imperio en el Derecho Internacional

Schmitt talks about the legal concept of empire and compares and contrasts it to the notion of "large space" (Grossraum). This work may have never been published in German, but just directly translated into Spanish from an unpublished manuscript. I know that this sometimes happened with Schmitt's works that were published in Spain.

Land und Meer

This work is different that the typical scholarly work by Schmitt. It's a series of theses on the topic of land and sea based civilizations full of symbolic anaylsis rather than the typical juridical analysis. Quotations are very loose and there are only two footnotes by Schmitt (only one in the original publication).

Die Formung des französischen Geistes durch den Legisten

A long essay on the intellectual history of French jurisprudence. I have seen several sources cite this as a 1941 essay, however it was originally published in 1942.

Cambio de Estructura del Derecho Internacional

Schmitt wrote this lecture, with assistance, in Spanish. He talks about the concept of Nomos and the global division of the world which would play a large role in his book The Nomos of the Earth he finished writing in 1945, although not published until years later. Almost all the content in this lecture would end up in that book.

Die Lage der Europäischen Rechtswissenschaf

Lecture from December 1944 in honor of Johannes Popitz (1884-1945). Schmitt speaks about the history of modern European jurisprudence and critiques legal positivism throughout.

Das internationalrechtliche Verbrechen des Angriffskriegesund der Grundsatz “Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege”

Legal memorandum for the defense of German Industrialist Freidrich Flick (1883-1972) who was slated to be tried by the International Military Tribunal for "conspiracy to commit aggressive war." Schmitt's argument is that there is no precedent for the crime of "aggressive war," but only for attrocities committed in war. War itself, Schmitt argues, is never a crime.

Essentielle Geschichtsschreibung: Alexis de Tocqueville

Short intellectual history of Alexis de Tocqueville focusing on his philosophy of history.

Ex Captivitate Salus

Schmitt was imprisoned three times by the allies: twice in 1945 and once in 1947. This collection of prison writings was originally published in 1950, but I have marked it as 1947 for a smoother chronology.

Interrogation Reports of Carl Schmitt, Nuremberg, Office of U.S. Chief Counsel for War Crimes, Evidence Division

Transcript of three interrogations of Carl Schmitt while in Allied custody in Nuremberg by Jewish-German emigre Robert Kempner (1889-1993), who served as a proseucting attorney for the Americans. Kempner questions Schmitt about whether or not his writings helped justify Germany's "war of agression." Schmitt denies the charge. Schmitt would be released without being tried.

The second interrogation of Schmitt by Robert Kempner hitherto unknown. Schmitt defends himself from Kempner's line of questioning that he was invovled in justifying Germany's "war of agression."

Donoso Cortés in gesamteuropäischer Interpretation

Donoso Cortés is situated in the 19th century alongside other intellectual figures with the German defeat in World War II as the backdrop.

Amnestie—Urform des Rechts

A short opinion piece written after the second world war that was originally published anonymously and then later under a pseudonym. Schmitt argues that World War II was a "civil war" and not a typical war. Civil wars, he argues, typically include amnesty to the losing side by the victors. Implicitly, Schmitt is asserting that amnesty should be granted to the vanquished of World War II.

La Justificacion de la ocupacion de un Nuevo Mundo (Francisco de Vitoria)

Schmitt outlines the Spanish Scholastic Francisco de Vitoria's (c. 1483-1546) justification of the conquest of the New World through the notion of "discovery."

Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus Publicum Europaeum

This is Schmitt's most comprehensive work on international law primarily written in the final years of the Third Reich, but not published until 1950. He spends time talking about the root of law and the concept of nomos as the basis for international law, before delving into a historical account of international law from the middle ages to the end of World War I. He presents a very pessimistic picture that wars of mass destruction are bound to continue unless we once again find the nomos of the Earth.

Das Problem der Legalität

A post-war essay reflection, both sociological and juridical, on the notion of "legality," and state beaucracy with emphasis on how it operated in Hitler's regime.

Drei Möglichkeiten eines christlichen Geschichtsbildes

Also published as "Drei Stufen historischer Sinngebung." A review of philosopher Karl Löwith's (1897-1973) book Meaning in History. Schmitt applauds the book, and argues that a philosophy of history is only possible with Christianity or under a secularized form of Christianity (e.g.: the Enlightenment, Marxism)

Dreihundert Jahre Leviathan: Zum 5. April 1951

Originally published anonymously on the four hundred anniversary of the publication of Hobbes' Leviathan. In this short article, Schmitt defends Hobbes arguing that he was more so describing reality than prescribing a political system.

Vorwort

This is a foreward that Schmitt wrote for the German translation, translated Schmitt's daughter Anima Schmitt (1931-1983), of the Shakespearian scholar Lilian Winstanley's (1875-1960) book Hamlet and the Scottish Succession (called Hamlet, Sohn der Maria Stuart in German). A few years later in 1956 Carl Schmitt would have a foray into literary criticism and write a book on Hamlet called Hamlet or Hecuba.

Die Einheit der Welt

An essay on the question of "the organization of human power which is to plan, direct and dominate the whole Earth and all mankind," and the Cold War tension between East and West. Both sides, he notes, are motivated by universal and progressive philosophies of history, but he also asserts that this is just a stop on the way to multiplicity.

Nehmen/Teilen/Weiden

Schmitt outlines the three aspects of Nomos: appropriation, distribution, and production and how it relates to contemporary Cold War geopolitics and ideologies.

Gespräch über die Macht und den Zugang zum Machthaber

A scripted dialouge, originally acted out on German radio, between Carl Schmitt and "Y," a youth about the advent of industrialized warfare and weapons of mass destruction.

La Tensión Planetaria entre el Oriente y Occidente y la Oposición entre Tierra y Mar

This essay in German was called "Die geschichtliche Struktur des heutigen Welt-Gegensatzes von Ost und West" however when it was translated into Spanish it was significantly reworked under Schmitt's supervision. These translations are directly from the Spanish. For instance, the essay was originally about the work of Ernst Jünger, but all references to Jünger have been removed. In this essay Schmitt posits the Cold War as the age-old tension between land and sea-based powers.

Die weltgeschichtliche Struktur des heutigen Weltgegensatzes von Ost und West

This entry refers to the German language original of the article. Elsewhere there is an entry to the authorized Spanish translation which differs substantially in content. This article is a commentary on Ernst Jünger's work entitled "Der Gordische Knoten" where he speaks of the interaction between East and West. Likewise Schmitt talks about Cold War relations between East and West. The Spanish version removes references to Jünger.

Der neue Nomos der Erde

Schmitt outlines three posibilities for what the new nomos of the Earth, after the old Eurocentric nomos had been throughly destroyed by the end of World War I, might look like. He posits three theories familiar to international relations scholars: unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity based on great spaces.

Hamlet oder Hekuba

This work stemmed from a rare public post-war 1955 lecture Schmitt gave in Düsseldorf. It also includes an appendix wherein he engages with Walter Benjamin's (1892-1940) theory of tragedy. In the afterword in Pan and Rust's translation, Pan argues that this work is Schmitt's attempt to show the aesthetic side of his political theories.

Was habe ich getan?

Schmitt reflects on his book Hamlet or Hecuba published two years prior. He contrasts his treatment of Shakespeare as going against the typical Marxist textual interpretation of the time. Interestingly, this piece was first published in a Flemish nationalist publication with a Flemish introduction.

Gespräch über den Neuen Raum

A scripted dialouge between three interlocutors: a historian, a scientist, and a North American named "MacFuture." Schmitt elaborates on themes of land-based powers versus sea-based power.

Glossarium: Aufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1947 bis 1958

The Glossarium is a private notebook that Schmitt kept from 1947 to 1958. It was published posthumously in 1991. The notebook was probably intended for eventual publication because unlike his diaries and other personal papers he did not write in his usual shorthand. The publication of this notebook reignited debates on Schmitt's antisemitism, which was typically brushed off as opportunism for his career in the Third Reich, since he continued to write about Jews in private after the war at one point describing them as the "true enemies."

This work has not been translated completely into English, but several non-academic sources has translated various excerpts which I will include.

Nomos—Nahme—Name

A philological excursion on the Greek term Nomos and its contemporary juridical implications

Die Tyrannei der Werte

This entry refers to the original 1959 version that Schmitt privately circulated, see this entry for the much expanded version that was published in 1967. In this text Schmitt critiques the use of "values" in jurisprudence especially the way jurists in West Germany employed it.

Europa, España, y Carl Schmitt

An interview from March of 1962 in Spain with Ignacio María Sanuy in the Falangist newspaper Arriba.

Die Ordnung der Welt nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg

Written in the Cold War, this text (originally a lecture) describes how both the Soviets and the West weaponize industrial development in neutral countries for their own ends despite their adherence to ideological anti-colonialism.

Dem wahren Johann Jakob Rousseau: Zum 28. Juni 1962

Written for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Johann Jakob Rousseau, known in the anglosphere as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in this short article Schmitt presents Rousseau as a prefiguring the Cold War figure of the "partisan" who fights against "artificial civilization."

Theorie des Partisanen

Schmitt speaks about the juridical status of the partisan and recent developments of partisan warfare in the 20th century.

Clausewitz als politischer Denker

Book review of collected works of Clausewitz.

Die Tyrannei der Werte

This entry refers to the expanded 1967 version that was published, see this entry for the shorter version that was privately circulated in 1959. In this text Schmitt critiques the use of "values" in jurisprudence especially the way jurists in West Germany employed it.

Gespräch über den Partisanen

A dialouge between the Maoist Joachim Schickel (1924-2002) and Carl Schmitt on the topic of Schmitt's notion of the partisan.

Von der TV-Demokratie

In one of his last works, Schmitt provides a brief reflection on the opening statement of The Concept of the Political "The concept of the state presupposes the concept of the political." He then speaks about the danger of humanity who refuses to acknowledge enemies, but wields powerful technology.

Politische Theologie II

This book responds to Schmitt's one-time friend Erik Peterson who wrote, as a Vatican theologian, a critique against the notion of political theology (and hence Schmitt who coined the term) arguing that it is not proper for Christians to engage in. Schmitt's response comes decades after Peterson published his work. This is Schmitt's last book.

Die legale Weltrevolution

Schmitt wrote his last book, Political Theology II in 1970 and this is his last article written at the age of 90/91. In this piece he talks about super-legality and the growing juridical usage of various notions progress as the basis for constitutionalism in the second half of the 20th century.