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Othmar Spann and the Quest for a “True State,”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

John Haag
John Haag
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Extract

The Austrian scholar and social theorist Othmar Spann (1878–1950) was a major figure in the “conservative revolution” that fired the imagination of many Central European intellectuals after World War I. Born in the Habsburg monarchy as it was disintegrating under the pressures of nationalism and industrialization, Spann seemed destined for a conventional academic career until war, revolution, and economic collapse destroyed the social and ideological foundations of the old order in 1918. A series of lectures delivered at the University of Vienna soon after the war quickly made Spann a major spokesman for the “war generation”—young men whose roughhewn idealism found few outlets in the grim world of postwar Central Europe.

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Type
The First Austrian Republic
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1976, pp. 227 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1976

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References

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13 Spann's earliest ideological loyalties were to positivism; from philosophy and a type of systems theory (non-mathematical) he was able to create his philosophy of universalism. On this complex and fascinating subject see Rieber, Arnulf, Vom Positivismus zum Universalismus. Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung und Kritik des Ganzheitsbegriffs von Othmar Spann. In Beiiräge zur Geschichte der Sozialwissenschaften. No. 2 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1971)Google Scholar.

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15 Siegfried, , Universalismus und Faschismus, p. 20Google Scholar. The ideology of the Verein für Sozialpolitik is ably discussed in Lennox, Frank H. Jr., “Socialism of the Chair in the 1870's: A Study of the Theory and Practice of Social Reform in Germany” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1972)Google Scholar.

16 Letter to the author from Frau Dr. Use Zuther-Roloff, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, September 29, 1972. Use Roloff, as she was known at the time, helped edit Spann's journal Ständisches Leben in the 1930's.

17 Blackmore, John T., Ernst Mach: His Work, Life, and Influence (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 182–183Google Scholar.

18 Spann, Othmar, Die Irrungen des Marxismus. Eine Darstellung und Prüfung seiner Wirtschaftslehre (2nd rev'd. ed., Graz: Verlag des Steirischen Heimatschutzverbandes, 1929), pp. 23–24Google Scholar.

19 Räber, Hans, Othmar Spanns Philosophie des Universalismus. Darstellung und Kritik (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1937), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

20 Spann, Othmar, “Zur Logik der sozialwissenschaftlichen Begriffsbildung,” in Festgaben für Friedrich Julius Neumann zur siebzigsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages (Tübingen: H. Laupp. 1905), pp. 161–178Google Scholar. Spann, went on to define these terms in greater detail in his Kategorienlehre. In Ergänzungsbande zur Sammlung Herdflamme, Vol. 1 (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1924)Google Scholar.

21 Rieber, , Vom Positivismus zum Universalismus, pp. 85–87Google Scholar.

22 Kosch, Wilhelm, Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon (2nd rev'd. ed., 4 vols., Bern: Francke Verlag, 1949–1958), Vol. III, p. 2,757Google Scholar; Degeners Wer isl's? (10th ed., Berlin: Verlag Hermann Degener, 1935), p. 1,520Google Scholar.

23 This was a typical romantic ideal. Müller rejected the separation of the arts from the other serious concerns of life. See Meinecke, Friedrich, Cosmopolitanism and the National State, translated by Robert B. Kimber (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 97Google Scholar. Spann said much the same thing when he declared that “one should not separate life and art; this is the greatest error of our time!” As quoted in Kadletz, Willi, “Gehört die Kunst dem Volke? Die Tatigkeit des ‘Dopolavoro’ in Italien,” Ständisches Leben, Vol. III, No. 7 (1933), p. 397Google Scholar.

24 Rheinsch, Othmar [pseud, for Othmar Spann] and Rheinsch, Erika, Die Motive aus dem Ring Richard Wagners. Lyrische Nachdichtungen (Vienna: Gerlach & Wiedling, 1906)Google Scholar. At least one other collaborative work of poetry was completed by Spann and his bride, but it was never published. Erika Spann-Rheinsch to Carl Busse, Rosenheim Kaiserbad, May, 1907, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Handschriftenabteilung (Berlin-Dahlem), Nachlaβ Busse.

25 Spann, Othmar, Die Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre auf lehrgeschichtlicher Grundlage (18th rev'd. ed., Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1928), p. vGoogle Scholar; Othmar Spann in a review of Adam Müller, Schriften zur Staatsphilosophie, edited by Rudolf Kohler (Munich: Theatinerverlag, 1924), in Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik, new ser., Vol. IV, No. 4–6 (1924), p. 396.

26 Räber, , Othmar Spanns Philosophie des Universalismus, pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

27 Spann, Othmar, Der wahre Staat. Vorlesungen tiber Abbruch und Neubau der Gesellschaft, gehallen im Sommersemester 1920 an der Universitat Wien (2nd rev'd. ed., Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1923), pp. 102–115Google Scholar. The first edition of Der wahre Staat was published in 1921; third and fourth editions appeared in 1931 and 1938.

28 Spann, Othmar, “Soziologie,” Handwörlerbuch der Staatswissenschaflen (4th rev'd. ed., 9 vols., Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1923–1929), Vol. VII (1926), p. 656Google Scholar.

29 Othmar Spann, “Universalismus,” ibid., Vol. VIII (1928), pp. 454–455.

30 Spann, , Der wahre Staat, pp. 68–70Google Scholar.

31 Métall, Rudolf Aladar, Hans Kelsen. Leben und Werk (Vienna: Deuticke, 1969), pp. 32 and 97Google Scholar.

32 Siegfried, , Universalismus und Faschismus, p. 48Google Scholar.

33 Letter to the author from Hans Neuwirth, Munich, April 22, 1968.

34 This thesis is developed skillfully and in great detail by Carsten, Francis Ludwig in his Revolution in Central Europe, 1918–1919 (London: Temple Smith, 1972)Google Scholar.

35 Spann, Othmar, “Adam Müller und Karl Marx,” Aus deutschen Gauen, Vol. II 1922), p. 178Google Scholar; Spann, , Der wahre Staat, pp. 172–175Google Scholar.

36 Siegfried, , Universalismus und Faschismus, pp. 53–54Google Scholar.

37 Letter to the author from Prof. P. N. Rosenstein-Rodan, Cambridge, Mass., September 28, 1970. To this day, after forty or even fifty years, many of those individuals who personally met Spann have mentioned to this writer the brilliance of his eyes, his animated nature, and the charm and warmth of personality he was able to generate.

38 One writer has called the Vienna of the years after 1918 a “huge city of starving and freezing beggars.” See Braunthal, Julius, The Tragedy of Austria (London: Victor Gollancz, 1948), p. 43Google Scholar.

39 “Die Wiener Universität ohne Heizmaterial,“ Neue Freie Presse (Morgenblatt), February 12, 1922, p. II.

40 Spann, , Der wahre Staat (1921 ed.), pp. 187–190Google Scholar.

41 Ibid., pp. 204–205.

42 Ibid., pp. 46–48.

43 The complete Herdflamme series is listed in Siegfried, , Universalismus und Faschismus, pp. 282–283Google Scholar.

44 By the mid-1920's Spann had become known as the most courageous academic foe of Marxism, liberalism, and democracy, largely on account of the success of Der wahre Staat. See von Below, Georg, “Othmar Spann,” Deutschlands Erneuerung, Vol. VIII, No. 10 (October, 1924), pp. 605–611Google Scholar.

45 Just as his students cheered his lectures, those who disagreed with him shuffled their feet and made other noises as a sign of disapproval. Letter to the author from Prof. Bartholomew Landheer, The Hague, May 3, 1967.

46 Many students of the time were attracted to Spann's ideas because they seemed to reject the narrowness of scientific and professional specialization. Letter to the author from Prof. Erich Maschke, Ziegelhausen bei Heidelberg, May 6, 1971.

47 Letter to the author from Prof. Alfred Verdross, Vienna, April 25, 1968.

48 Spann, Othmar, Tote und lebendige Wissenschaft. Abhandlungen zur Auseinandersetzung mil Individualismus und Marxismus (2nd rev'd. ed., Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1925), p. xivGoogle Scholar.

49 0n rare occasions a woman would be permitted to join the Spann circle. The best known were Helene Lieser in the 1920's and Use Roloff in the 1930's.

50 They formed an influential semi-secret organization known as the Kameradschaftsbund. For an outline of its rise and fall see Haag, John, “‘Knights of the Spirit’: The Kameradschaftsbund,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. VIII, No. 3 (July, 1973), pp. 133–153CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 Haag, John, “Othmar Spann and the Politics of ‘Totality’: Corporatism in Theory and Practice” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rice University, 1969), pp. 103–111Google Scholar; Edmondson, Clifton Earl, “The Heimwehr and Austrian Politics, 1918–1934” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Duke University, 1966), pp. 122–215Google Scholar.

52 Letter to the author from Viktor Matejka, Vienna, August 18, 1972; “Arminius und die Hitler-Partei,” Nationahozialistische Monatshefte (Vienna), Vol. IV, No. 7–8 (October-November, 1927), p. 72; Völkischer Beobachter (Bayernausgabe), February 13–14, 1927, ibid. (Reichsausgabe), April 2, 1927; Gottfried Feder, “Othmar Spann, zu seinem 50. Geburtstag,” ibid. (Bayernausgabe), October 3, 1928.

53 Letter to the author from Hofrat Raimund Poukar, Vienna, March 2, 1972. Poukar, a Grossdeutsch ideologist in the 1920's, rejected Spann's corporative ideas as leading to more social conflict grounded in naked class self-interest. See Ardelt, Rudolf Gustav, Zwischen Demokratie und Faschismus. Deutschnationales Gedankengut in ösierreich 1919–1930 (Vienna: Geyer-Edition, 1972), pp. 160–161Google Scholar.

54 “Die Kulturkrise der Gegenwart. Vortrag von Professor Dr. Othmar Spann in München,” Volkischer Beobachter (Bayernausgabe), February 27, 1929; Haag, John, “The Spann Circle and the Jewish Question,” Year Book XVIII of the Leo Baeck Institute (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1973), pp. 102–105Google Scholar.

55 Lebovics, Herman, Social Conservatism and the Middle Classes in Germany, 1914–1933 (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 112–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Spann's Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre appealed to students “cramming” for examinations because it was simply written and well organized; it became the most read academic textbook in German-speaking Europe during the interwar period. See the highly favorable review in Akademische Blätter (Berlin), Vol. XXVI (1911), pp. 162–163. The book became a best seller in the early 1920's. The fifth edition appeared in 1920, and by 1922 an eleventh edition was in print.

57 Letters to the author from Dr. Jakob Baxa, Maria Enzersdorf bei Wien, July 12, 1967, and July 2, 1970.

58 See, for example, the highly laudatory review article on Die Herdflamme series and several other books of the Spann circle by the noted scholar Professorvon Below, Georg in Vierteljahrschrifl für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschkhte, Vol. XIX (1926), pp. 296–298Google Scholar.

59 As did the north German ideologist Stapel, Wilhelm in his review entitled “Othmar Spanns Schrift vom Wesen des Volkstums,” Deutsches Volkstum, Vol. XXV, No. 3 (March, 1923), pp. 119–120Google Scholar.

60 Schneller, , Zwischen Romantik und Faschismus, pp. 133–138Google Scholar; “Der Katholische Akademikerverband. Leitheft des Chefs des Sicherheitshauptamtes des Reichsfiihrers SS, Februar 1938,” in Heinz Boberach (ed.), Berichte des SD und der Gestapo über Kirchen und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1934–1944. In Veroffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeiigeschichie bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern, Ser. A: Quellen, Vol. XII (Mainz: Matthias Grünewald Verlag, 1971), pp. 279–293.

61 Missong, Alfred, “Dem Andenken eines politischen Romantikers. Zum 100. Todestag Adam Heinrich Müllers am 17. Jänner,” Reichsposi, January 17, 1929Google Scholar; “Nationalsozialistischer deutscher Studentenbund. Unser Kampf,” Der österreichische Nalionalsozialisi, Vol. III, No. 6 (February 8, 1929), p. 5Google Scholar.

62 Imendörffer, Benno, “Die Auferstehung der romantischen Staatslehre,” Deutsche Zeil (Vienna), May 4, 1923Google Scholar.

63 Richard Kerschagl in a review of Adam Müller's Die Elemente der Staatskunst (2 vols., Vienna: Wiener Literarische Anstalt, 1922), in Deutschosterreichische Tages- Zeitung, June 18, 1922.

64 ln later years Spann's Nazi foes described the actions of his circle as thoroughly unprincipled and opportunistic—a very unusual charge from disciples of Adolf Hitler. See the secret Sicherheitsdienst report prepared for Hitler entitled “Der Spannkreis. Gefahren und Auswirkungen” (May-June, 1936), in the Archive of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte at Munich, Doc. No. 413/52, pp. 10–12.

65 Spann, Othmar, Haupipunklt der universalistischen Staatsauffassung. In Bücherei des Ständestaates, No. 3 (Vienna: Erneuerungs-Verlag, 1931), p. 26Google Scholar; Heinrich, Walter, Das Ständewesen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Selbstverwaltung der Wirtschaft (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1932), pp. 166–190Google Scholar.

66 Spann, , Hauptpunkte der universalistischen Staatsauffassung, p. 13Google Scholar.

67 Feder, Gottfried, Das Programm der N. S. D. A. P. und seine weltanschaulichen Grundgedanken (25th-40th ed., Munich: Franz Eher, 1931), p. 17Google Scholar; review of Spann's journal Ständisches Leben in Völkischer Beobachter (Reichsausgabe), March 14, 1931; Beiblatt: Wirtschafts-Beobachter; “Werke aus unserer Parteibuchhandlung!” Völkischer Beobachter (Reichsausgabe), July 30, 1931, Supplement 2; Deutsche Bücher (Berlin: NSDAP, Zeugmeisterei, Zweigstelle Ost, 1931), pp. 13 and 16.

68 Spann first met Hitler in Munich in February, 1929. See “Othmar Spann und Hitler,” Die neue Well (Vienna), March 8, 1929, p. 6Google Scholar. In the early 1930's there were unconfirmed rumors that Spann was secretly tutoring Hitler. See Bracher, Karl Dietrich et al. , Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung. Studien zur Errichtung des totalitären Herrschaftssystems in Deutschland 1933/34 (2nd rev'd. ed., Cologne: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1962), pp. 399–400Google Scholar.

69 Rauschning, Hermann, Gespräche mil Hitler (New York: Europa, 1940), pp. 45–46Google Scholar.

70 Spann told his student, the novelist and political adventurer Ernst von Salomon, that Rosenberg's writings were “rubbish.” See von Salomon, Ernst, Fragebogen (The Questionnaire), translated by FitzGibbon, Constantine (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1955), p. 99Google Scholar. Rosenberg unequivocally condemned universalism as a theocratic, neo-scholastic philosophy unsuited for a genuinely völkisch state. Rosenberg, Alfred, Der Mythos des 20. Jahrhundens. Eine Wertung der seelisch-geistigen Gestaltenkämpfe unserer Zeit (3rd ed., Munich: Hoheneichen, 1932), pp. 325 and 679–681Google Scholar.

71 Winkler, Heinrich August, “Unternehmerverbände zwischen Ständeideologie und Nationalsozialismus,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Vol. XVII, No. 4 (October, 1969), pp. 348–350Google Scholar; Ohlsen, Manfred, “‘Standischer Aufbau’ und Monopole 1933/34,” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Vol. XXII, No. I (1974), pp. 28–46Google Scholar.

72 “Vordringen des ständischen Gedankens,” Die junge Front, Vol. IV, No. 4 (April, 1933), p. 127Google Scholar.

73 Sicherheitsdienst report on “Der Spannkreis,” pp. 16–17.

74 Letter to the author from Max Frauendorfer, Tutzing, Bavaria, September 4, 1967. In 1933 Frauendorfer was director of the Nazi Party's Amt für standisches Aufbau.

75 Roloff, Ilse, “Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf im Lichte der Gesellschaftswissenschaft,” Ständisches Leben, Vol. III, No. 11 (1933), pp. 608–616Google Scholar; Siegfried, , Universalismus und Faschismus, pp. 197–199Google Scholar; Schneller, , Zwischen Romamik und Faschismus, pp. 159–160Google Scholar.

76 Sicherheitsdienst report on “Der Spannkreis,” pp. 16–17 and 38–39; “Der Sieg der Vernunft,” Der Deutsche, January 3, 1935.

77 For Spann's pro-Anschluβ sentiments, see Ständisches Leben, Vol. III, No. 9 (1933), p. 518. Spann called Dollfuß “Tollfuss” (crazy-foot) and ridiculed his corporative constitution of May, 1934, as a “weird carnival joke.” See Sicherheitsdienst report on “Der Spannkreis,” p. 22. Ironically, Dollfuß had attended Spann's lectures and thought highly of his corporative theories. Jagschitz, Gerhard, Der Putsch. Die Nationalsozialisten 1934 in österreich (Graz: Verlag Styria, 1976), pp. 15–16Google Scholar.

78 Gau-Gericht, Gauleitung Steiermark, court report dated Graz, January 20, 1939, Berlin Document Center, Personal File of Othmar Spann, No. D2I81-A670/38.

79 Gok, Carl Gottfried, “Rede auf dem Alldeutschen Verbandstag 1934,” in Jacobsen, Hans Adolf and Jochmann, Werner (eds.), Ausgewählte Dokumenle zur Geschichte des Nalionalsozialismus (2 vols., Bielefeld: Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, 1960), Vol. I, Pt. C, p. 1Google Scholar.

80 lt was for political, rather than ideological, considerations that Hitler gave his satraps considerable autonomy in running their little empires. See the stimulating essay on this phenomenon by Koehl, Robert, “Feudal Aspects of National Socialism,” American Political Science Review, Vol. LIV, No. 4 (December, 1960), pp. 921–933CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 Letter to the author from Prof. Albert Lauterbach, Santiago, Chile, January 19, 1970.

82 The arrest, detention, interrogation, and release of Spann, his son Raphael, and his star student Walter Heinrich are documented in great detail in the letters and documents preserved in the Bundesarchiv (Koblenz), Akten der Neuen Reichskanzlei, File R43 11/399.

83 In July, 1956, the Gesellschaft für Ganzheitsforschung was founded in Vienna. Largely staffed by students of Spann, this organization aimed to disseminate Spann's intellectual legacy in Austria and Germany. See Schneller, , Zwischen Romantik und Faschismus, pp. 36–38Google Scholar.

84 By 1950, when a Festschrift in honor of Spann entitled Die Ganzheit in Philosophie und Wissenschaft. Othmar Spann zum 70. Geburtstag (Vienna: W. Braumtiller, 1950) was published under the editorship of Walter Heinrich, the Spann circle had been effectively reconstituted. By 1950 some Austrian conservatives were beginning openly to praise at least some of Spann's ideas. See, for example, the Kleine Zeitung (Graz) of December 21, 1949, which characterized Spann as “without doubt the most significant contemporary Austrian philosopher.”

85 See Kolnai, Aurel, The War against the West (New York: Viking, 1938)Google Scholar; and Sontheimer, Kurt, Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik. Die polilischen Ideen des deutschen Nationalismus zwischen 1918 und 1933 (Munich: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1962)Google Scholar. The standard scholarly study is still von Klemperer, Klemens, Germany's New Conservatism. Its History and Dilemma in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1957)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 Spann, Der wahre Siaat (3rd rev'd. ed., 1931), p. 73.

87 Brunschwig, Henri, Enlightenment and Romanticism in Eighteenth-Century Prussia, translated by Jellinek, Frank (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1974), pp. ix and passimGoogle Scholar.

88 “Reaktionärer Utopismus. (Eine Kritik von Othmar Spanns Der wahre Staat),” Arbeiter-Zeitung (Mittagsblatt), February 20, 1922, pp. 1–2. Friedrich Hertz was probably the author of this hard-hitting socialist critique of Spann's theories. Letter to the author from Prof. Julius Braunthal, Teddington, Middlesex (U. K.), May 16, 1971.

89 Up to the time of his death Spann could not believe that his ideas had been anything other than beneficial in the intellectual and political life of the years 1918–1938. Letter to the author from Prof. Klemens von Klemperer, Northampton, Mass., May 10, 1967.

90 Letter to the author from Dr. Bruno Brehm, Alt-Aussee, Steiermark, December 11, 1970.

91 Dorpalen, Andreas, Heinrich von Treitschke (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1957), p. 302Google Scholar.

92 Dahrendorf, Ralf, Society and Democracy in Germany (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1969), pp. 188–203Google Scholar. The uniquely Austrian aspects of these yearnings are outlined in Burghardt, Anton, “Catholic Social Thought in Austria,” Social Research, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 (Summer, 1967), pp. 369–382Google Scholar.

93 Stonequist, Everett V., The Marginal Man: A Study in Personality and Culture Conflict (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1937), pp. xv–xvii and 74–76Google Scholar. Stonequist's definition of a marginal man as one whom “fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two, not merely different, but antagonistic cultures” is a clear description of Spann's desperate situation and of his attempts to bridge the gap in his theory between the old, vanished feudal world and the power-state of the new industrial society.

94 Burckhardt had foreseen the dilemmas of reconciling spirit and power in an age of mass passions, noting that the intellectual contradictions of the emerging twentieth century could only culminate in a “kingdom of illusions.” See The Letters of Jacob Burckhardt, edited and translated by Alexander Dru (New York: Pantheon Books, 1955), p. 170.

95 A few weeks before the Anschluß, Spann confided to Rudolf Hoyos, a close friend of Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, that even at that late date Austria could still avoid being conquered by the Third Reich by being “spiritually prepared to such an extent that Hitler will lose the desire to swallow us up.” Copy of the letter from Rudolf Hoyos, Vienna, February 28, 1938, to Kurt von Schuschnigg, enclosed in a letter from Reinhard Heydrich, Berlin, June 1, 1938, to Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring, International Military Tribunal Nuremberg, Office of U. S. Chief of Counsel, in the Archive of the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte at Munich, unpublished document No. 3580-PS.