Carl Schmitt

Who was Carl Schmitt?

Carl Schmitt was a German philosopher, jurist, and political theorist. Schmitt is a major figure in 20th century legal and political theory, writing extensively on the effective wielding of political power. His work has been a major influence on subsequent political theory, legal theory, continental philosophy, and political theology in the 20th century and beyond.

Schmitt's work has attracted the attention of numerous philosophers and political theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss, Jürgen Habermas, Friedrich Hayek, Jacques Derrida, Hannah Arendt, Susan Buck-Morss, Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri, and Slavoj Žižek, among many others. Much of his work remains both influential and controversial today in light of his association with Nazism, for which he is known as the "crown jurist of the Third Reich".