Fascism and Romanticism

t', t'. ,; I ' I I l .. .lr, ' I ,• I I I : I' L ( i' \. ! t. .., 'I·, t, . ~ ,· ' ! I .~ ~· .' I ~ -. . I I ,, ' , • • •• ·-r t / .. ' · I ' ' . "' ' I' , I .. ~ l'• I :' ,• L \ ,' FASCISM AND ROMANTICISM F. E. D.ESSAUER·SINCE the second half of the nineteenth century the German professor, as a type, lias changed his .character and social function. The division· of labour h~ forced him.·to become a specialist. Increased consciousness of scien tine methods has tended to make him cautious in his conclusions and has removed him from the political stage to.the narrow walls of the lectureroom . · ~ut there have been exceptions, and the unusual scope of their activities has given them a strong influence. · Durin·g the last decades no German teacher of constitutional law has exercised. such a potent spiritual influence beyond his proper sphere as Carl Schmitt. He was ayoung man at the tim_ e of-the First World Vi/ar: After 1919\he published a new book practically every year. Most of them were.·rn\nslated into French, Itaiian, and Spanish. They were not bulky, were brilliantly ~ritten and agree.ably aggressive~ They did away with the · separating line betwee.n law and politics, brouglit law into the dramatic 'process o( history, and had a special appeal for those r:o . w_ hom ( work, and self-control shows nothing of wha-t is usually termed romantic exuberance, felt tl~e secr~r: of the nation directly and did not disGove; it discursively; his "divining understanding" was older tha_ n the search for his mate~ial in the archives of Europe.. Burke, evoking the "great.mysteHous incorporation ofthe human race," afraid of the mind of_man which 11 is too active and restless a principle," basing his aesthetics not on the work of art itself but on the sensations it calls forth, had prepared for the invasion of ·· s~t~ment. Maistre's playful use of the tec~nique of conversation, his de- ' ·.-\ 't~ ·.-.? . ~1··:. ·:~· ~? .· :. : without escape). ·· :the line of division which Schmitt·drew between the great conservatives and the sentimental romantics had a political meaning which· went far beyond the problems of historical understanding. In' the German Empire the ·cons.ervative.groups had ·only a few literary heralds ofreputation. The intellectual world and the leading journals ,;,ere liberal. A conservatiye . renaissance among the educated depended on a spiritual rehabilitation, -arid th~ romantic retinue, being sentimental, inactive, incapable of decision, and , phantastic, was no recommendation for conservative beliefs jn a· Germany which was r~a.listic or at least had the ambition to be so. The shining glory and the persuasive power of the great conservative prophets ;:~.nd historians w~re ·~nly increased b'y distinguishing them from the romanticism ·which smelled of what Americans would call Greenwich Village. . Schmitt's type of ~omantic rn'an. may·be unfair to Navalis and Schlegel, . hut it emerges out of full life. "vVe inet the.Se people before> at the universi- 'ties, among writer.s, in societyj we could tell you to what coffee-house they went and at what hour. Sshmitt's types are part of the great political sc;ene· on which the curtain did not drop in 19 I9 and has not dropped,in 1946. They have been found inside and outside Germany wherever men strive for an escape from the pressure of rational order. They have been more dangerous in Germany than elsewhere for certain historical reasons; this, hcwev~r, is another story. In the'·German politics of the last forty years Schmitt's ;oman tics played a double role. . They reduced the power of resistance which fascism met, and they shaped fascisrp itself to a strong extent. They were leaders in both camps because unheard of rea1ities favoured the phantastic and be~ · I I I'· . ' . · , _ .· . 1·, . ," I : , . "· 2~0 '. ,THE UNIVERS1TY OF. TORONTO QUARTERLY . cause incomprehensible events made people b~lieve. in .irration·at [o"rces; . after things had happened which before had been deemed ·]mpossihle, the impossible could be. expected' again or the..whole c'oncept might appea~ obsolete. Hitler drew 'this conclusion. · . 1· From the point of view o'f the German victims of the Fascist seizure of power, ·the cori...