To date the relationship between Otto Kirchheimer and Carl Schmitt has invariably been
described as friendly despite their political differences. Kirchheimer has even been
attributed the role of the godfather of today's left-Schmittianism. With reference to
previously unknown archival materials conversations with personal contacts and through a new
reading of the theoretical works of both authors including an analysis of the Nazi vocabulary
used by Schmitt Hubertus Buchstein exposes this view as a politically motivated legend.
Buchstein claims that the best way to characterize their relationship from their first meeting
in Bonn in 1926 up until Kirchheimer's death in 1965 is as enduring enmity - in a political a
theoretical and even a personal sense.
