Abstract

So far, it has not been noticed that Walter Benjamin has explicitly rejected Carl Schmitt’s postulate of a state of emergency as early as 1923. In an early draft of the text that was later published under the title Kaiserpanorama in the Einbahnstraße, Benjamin denounces the hope for a state of emergency as an expression of the stupidity and cowardice of the German members of the bourgeoisie who focus so strongly on their egoistic interest in preserving habitual ownerships that they totally ignore the political dangers of Fascism. Benjamin’s reception of Marx, starting in 1927, verifies his own conception of the »state of emergency as the rule« to be dedicated to the protest against oppression and exploitation in capitalism. His postulate to cause the »real state of emergency« then describes a clear counter-position to Schmitt’s reactionary theory of rights.