The True State

Published in 1921, The True State (Der Wahre Staat) is the magnum opus of distinguished Austrian economist and sociologist Othmar Spann (1878-1950). Following the First World War, Spann was the most sought-after lecturer at the University of Vienna, counting such future personalities as Hayek, Morgenstern and Voegelin among his students. Eschewing an entirely academic existence, he also endeavoured to reshape post-war society. Rejecting both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, he drew on the insights of the 18th and 19th century German Romantics to construct an economic theory called ‘Universalism’ in which the economy could only be viewed in relation to social order, hierarchy, and traditional spiritual principles, a harmonious and ‘universal’ totality (ganzheit) of interactions achieved to its fullest in the high medieval period. In The True State, Spann lays out his grand vision both in economic and sociological terms, seamlessly blending German Idealism with Catholic social values, a critique of Marxist theory and individualist philosophy. His brilliance as an orator and his reimagining of an estates-based culture, inegalitarian but socially conscious, gained him an army of acolytes but also powerful adversaries in the turbulent period between the wars. As one of the last century’s most devastating critics of the contemporary economic and social order, Spann has largely been buried by the academic establishment of today, but his timeless ideas will still hold an appeal for those dissatisfied with modern society. Translated here into English for the first time, and with an extensive introduction from Ellery Edwards detailing the political activities of Spann and his followers, the core message of The True State has perhaps never been more relevant.