IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 505
Held at: Wiener Library
Title: Schmitt, Carl (1888-1985): File of the SS High Command Security Service Main Office (microfilm)
Date(s): 1936
Level of description: collection
Extent: 260 frames
Name of creator(s): Reichsführung SS SD Hauptamt (SS High Command Security Service Main Office)
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The SS (Schutzstaffel) was founded in 1925 with the object of protecting the Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler. By 1936, under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, the SS had assumed responsiblity for all police and security matters throughout the Third Reich. The Reichsführung SS SD Hauptamt (SS High Command Security Service Main Office) was the internal security branch of the SS.
Carl Schmitt, the controversial and influential political and legal theorist, was born on 11 July 1888 in Plettenberg, Westfalen. He was professor for jurisprudence in Greifswald, 1921; Bonn, 1922-1923; Berlin (Handelshochschule), 1926; Köln, 1933; and again in Berlin, during the Nazi era when he achieved the exalted position of 'Crown Jurist'. During his career as a successful academic and teacher, he became recognised as a fierce critic of the Weimar constitution, which he accused of having weakened the state and of relying on liberalism, which, in his view, was incapable of solving the problems of a modern mass democracy. His loyalty to the Nazi cause had long been suspected by elements within the SS Security Service and his anti- semitism was regarded as opportunistic. As a result of a critical article in the SS periodical Der Schwarze KorpsSchmitt was investigated by the Security Service and subsequently lost most of his prominent offices, and retreated from his position as a leading Nazi jurist, although he retained his post as a professor in Berlin thanks to Göring. He never again dealt with domestic or party politics, but turned his attention to the study of international relations, and soon passed into obscurity. After the war he continued to publish but never held office. He remained a controversial figure, having never been formally charged with complicity with the Nazi regime, nor ever exonerated. He died on 7 April 1985.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Microfilm of a dossier produced by the Sicherheitsdienst der Reichsführung SS, 1936-1937, the result of an extensive investigation into Carl Schmitt, constitutional theorist of the Weimar Republic and 'Crown Jurist' of the Nazi era. It contains correspondence and reports from former colleagues of Schmitt and others, denouncing his alleged anti-Nazi, pro-Jewish background. Also included is correspondence between the editor of Das Schwarze Korps, and officials within the RFSS SD, in which an anonymous article first appeared (c1936), questioning Schmitt's Nazi credentials.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: German
System of arrangement:
Broadly chronological
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Physical characteristics:
Microfilm
Finding aids:
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Jewish Central Information Office
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Wiener Collection, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany
Publication note:
Raphael Gross Carl Schmitt und die Juden: eine deutsche Rechtslehre (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 2000).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Howard Falksohn
Date(s) of descriptions: October 2007