Film documents
Carl Schmitt. Interviews on radio and television
A significant part of Carl Schmitt’s impact in public and private life was played by his voice, the way he delivered and his intonation. Conversations with journalists from the 1960s and 1970s have been preserved. The Carl Schmitt Society publishes some examples of the interviews here in excerpts.
Can parliamentarism still be saved?
Carl Schmitt in conversation with Rüdiger Altmann and Jens Litten. Excerpts from the TV interview with Norddeutscher Rundfunk on June 19, 1970
Rüdiger Altmann (1922-2000) was a well-known journalist and political advisor. He had attended Schmitt’s lectures in Berlin during the war, and since the 1960s he was closely associated with Chancellor Erhard as an advisor and coined the term ‘formed society’. Jens Litten (1943*) was a prominent representative of the student left and was a member of the federal executive board of the Social Democratic Higher Association (SHB).
The entire interview lasts 44 minutes and 44 seconds. A summary of the conversation by Litten appeared in the weekly newspaper “Deutsche Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt” on June 12, 1970.
Transcript:
“A people can only be identical with itself if it has an enemy in a clear and clear way. Where there are clear distinctions between friend and enemy, as is the case today in the Middle East or the like, the identity is immediately clear. In this case, friend means The most intense group and connection between people and the enemy is called the most intense tension.”
Transcript:
“It’s just interesting that the game came at Hitler in this way from all sides. Legality forced him, so to speak, with regard to these two points, also the enabling law, but as correctly calculated, he had to give himself legal power first have control over the police, etc., then win an election, with the help of these bonuses on the legal possession of power, but a very narrow majority. And now comes the actually even more fantastic thing… then getting a law that changes the constitution… you can really get deep into that .”