State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich : The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen Over the Soldier

Carl Schmitt

ISBN 10: 1509566244 / ISBN 13: 9781509566242

Published by Polity Press Feb 2026, 2026

About this Item

Neuware - Newly published for the first time in English translation, Carl Schmitt's 1934 tract, State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich: The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizenover the Soldier, is an important addition to the corpus of Schmitt's work in English. Written and published at the height of Carl Schmitt's entanglement with National Socialism, this work outlines Schmitt's historical and propagandistic accountof the collapse of the Second German Empire and of Germany's defeat in the First World War and sets the stage for his account of what should come next. In this swiftly paced polemical history, Schmitt locates the roots of Germany's defeat in the First World War in constitutional compromises between the Prussian soldier state and the liberal bourgeois citizenry forged in the course of the nineteenth century. These compromises left unresolved the tension between liberal constitutionalism and an executive-led strong state built on military power, preventing the Reich from being able to mobilize German society in order to wage a successful war effort. Schmitt's account of how the Bismarckian Reich was undermined from within serves as a guide, in his view, for how the Nazi regime should avoid a similar fate. A work of crisply riveting and, at times, haunting prose, Schmitt'sState Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich will be a source of persistent historical interest to all students of history, politics, Nazism, political thought and the First and Second World Wars.

Seller Inventory # 9781509566242

Bibliographic Details

• Title: State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich : The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen Over the Soldier
• Publisher: Polity Press Feb 2026
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509566244
• ISBN 13: 9781509566242
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 218W x 139H x 23D millimeters 218 millimeters width by 139 millimeters height by 23 millimeters depth
• Weight: 308 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Newly published for the first time in English translation, Carl Schmitt's 1934 tract, State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich: The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier, is an important addition to the corpus of Schmitt's work in English. Written and published at the height of Carl Schmitt's entanglement with National Socialism, this work outlines Schmitt's historical and propagandistic account of the collapse of the Second German Empire and of Germany's defeat in the First World War and sets the stage for his account of what should come next.

In this swiftly paced polemical history, Schmitt locates the roots of Germany's defeat in the First World War in constitutional compromises between the Prussian soldier state and the liberal bourgeois citizenry forged in the course of the nineteenth century. These compromises left unresolved the tension between liberal constitutionalism and an executive-led strong state built on military power, preventing the Reich from being able to mobilize German society in order to wage a successful war effort. Schmitt's account of how the Bismarckian Reich was undermined from within serves as a guide, in his view, for how the Nazi regime should avoid a similar fate.

A work of crisply riveting and, at times, haunting prose, Schmitt's State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich will be a source of persistent historical interest to all students of history, politics, Nazism, political thought, and the First and Second World Wars.

About the Author

Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important and influential political theorists of the twentieth century.

Samuel Garrett Zeitlin is Lecturer in Modern Intellectual History at University College London.