
State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich
The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier
Carl Schmitt(Author)
Polity Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 12. December 2025
Book
Hardback
144 pages
978-1-5095-6624-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 218 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
308 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-6624-2 (9781509566242)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Carl Schmitt
State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich
The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier
E-Book
11/2025
1st Edition
Wiley
€27.99
Available for download
Persons
Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important and influential political theorists of the twentieth century.
Content
Editor's Note and Acknowledgments
Foreword by Reinhard Mehring
State Composition and Collapse of the Second Empire
Appendix: The Logic of Spiritual Subjection (1934)
Notes
Bibliography
Foreword by Reinhard Mehring
State Composition and Collapse of the Second Empire
Appendix: The Logic of Spiritual Subjection (1934)
Notes
Bibliography