The crisis of liberal democracy—who will save us from Carl Schmitt?
Panel Discussion as Part of the Paradoxes of Democracy Series (in German)
There is hardly any disagreement anymore that liberal democracies are in crisis. Why democracies fail, whether they abolish themselves, and whether this necessarily leads to fascism are pressing questions.
The panel will examine the historical continuity of anti-liberalism and hostility to constitutionalism, particularly the lasting influence of constitutional lawyer Carl Schmitt. For his “political theology” and National Socialist legal doctrine, thinking in terms of friend-foe schemata was just as central as ideas of the end times and states of emergency. These ideas are currently most politically influential in the United States, where they have found their way into government policy through right-wing libertarians such as J.D. Vance and tech billionaire Peter Thiel.
Thu 05 Mar 2026, 7pm
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
Our guests will discuss how this influence is also evident in Europe’s illiberal democracies and the increasingly authoritarian policies in Germany. A century ago, the legal scholar Hans Kelsen, who is considered the founder of modern constitutional law, provided a historical counterpoint to Schmitt. He also dealt with the “paradoxes of democracy” from a Jewish perspective — hence the title of our series. The panel will not only focus on Schmitt’s political impact; our guests will also present counter-proposals from the fields of democratic theory and law.
In discussion:
- Raphael Gross; President of the German Historical Museum Foundation Berlin, author of the book Carl Schmitt und die Juden. Eine deutsche Rechtslehre (Carl Schmitt and the Jews. A German Legal Doctrine)
- Anna-Bettina Kaiser; constitutional law expert at Humboldt University in Berlin, author of the monograph Ausnahmeverfassungsrecht (Exceptional Constitutional Law)
- Jan-Werner Müller; political scientist at Princeton University, author of Ein gefährlicher Geist. Carl Schmitts Wirkung in Europa sowie Furcht und Freiheit. Für einen anderen Liberalismus (A Dangerous Mind: Carl Schmitt in Post-War European Thought and Fear and Freedom: For a Different Liberalism)
Moderator: Mariam Lau (DIE ZEIT)
