{"id":4418,"date":"2012-06-25T18:21:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T22:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=4418"},"modified":"2022-06-24T21:29:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T01:29:03","slug":"letter-from-evola-to-carl-schmitt-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=4418","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Evola to Carl Schmitt (I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nAmong the 19,000 pieces of correspondence found in Carl Schmitt<\/strong>\u2019s personal library, there were eight letters from Julius Evola over a period of several years. There were none found in the opposite direction. From the letters, it is obvious that Evola was very interested in Schmitt\u2019s book on Donoso Cortes<\/strong>, whom they both regarded quite highly. As a public service, we have made available Donoso\u2019s book, Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism<\/a>. \u00a0Since it is hardly likely that Evola was interested in Donoso\u2019s take on Catholicism, we can assume the other essays are more pertinent. At the very least, they are a counter-balance to the absurd meme floated by the Nouvelle Droite regarding the intellectual source of liberalism. More likely, Evola and Schmitt were impressed by Donoso\u2019s defense of authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

The letters were written in German, using the polite form of \u201cyou\u201d. The translations here derive from an Italian translation of the original. Evola\u2019s first letter to Schmitt follows:\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

15 December 1951<\/p>\n

Dear Professor!<\/p>\n

I owe your address to Dr. Mohler; therefore, I am able to take the initiative\u2014which I gave been thinking about for some time — apr\u00e8s le d\u00e9luge<\/em>. I have often requested news about you: primarily, our common friend, Prince Rohan, has assured me that you have at least physically moved beyond the period of the fall. Subsequently, I learned of your controversial \u201creappearance\u201d and new works. Regarding this, I thank you very much for the booklet \u201cRecht und Raum\u201d, that I received hear in Rome.<\/p>\n

As far as my own person, things have not always gone the best for me: a war wound prevents me from walking and I can remain seated only for a few hours a day. I returned to Italy in 1948, but I\u2019ve had to stay in nursing homes, so that I returned to my former home in Rome only last May. Subsequently a strange thing happened: I was \u2026 arrested. At the margins of so-called \u201cneofascism\u201d (MSI — Movimento Sociale Italiano<\/strong>) groups were formed that committed some foolish acts (bombings). Since my writings were read in those circles with great frequency and my person was rather highly regarded as a \u201cspiritual father\u201d, they wanted to attribute to me the responsibility of a movement of which I knew almost nothing, and they accused me of the alleged defense of \u201cfascist\u201d ideas (\u201capologist for Fascism\u201d). The story ended last month with my complete innocence; the only consequences were free publicity in my favour and a bad impression for the imposing, farsighted state police.<\/p>\n

Apart from this, after my return I took up again unchanged my old activity in the teaching and politico-cultural fields (conservative revolutionary, as Dr. Mohler would say). Nevertheless, the situation here is not very easy and not only because of the Christian-social democracy, but also for the heavy legacy of the so-called \u201csecond Fascism\u201d (republican and \u201csocial\u201d) of the neo-Fascists.<\/p>\n

A short time ago Revolt against the Modern World<\/cite> was published in a new and expanded edition. The same for my works of a spiritual and \u201cesoteric\u201d character that had gone out of print and in the meantime other translations were published in English (The Doctrine of Awakening<\/cite>). It is a way of trifling the time.<\/p>\n

After having briefly told you about me, I would be happy to know something of you and your projects, since I would give great value to remaining in contact with you. I would also have to ask you one thing: could you possibly procure for me a copy of your new writing on Donoso Cortes? I myself, in fact, am interested in this author and intend to deal with him in an essay — Menschen und Trummer<\/cite> — on which I am currently working.<\/p>\n

Well, I offer you my best wishes for the upcoming Holiday.<\/p>\n

I remain with old friendship.<\/p>\n

P.S. Did something happen to your old house in Dahlem?<\/p>\n

I will send you a pamphlet, Orientamenti<\/cite> [Orientations<\/em>], which constituted the principle corpus delicti<\/em> [body of the crime, evidence] of my trial.<\/p>\n

\n

Letter II ⇒<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 December 1951: Among the 19,000 pieces of correspondence found in Carl Schmitt<\/strong>\u2019s personal library, there were eight letters from Julius Evola over a period of several years. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[697,4],"tags":[698],"class_list":["post-4418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondence","category-evola","tag-carl-schmitt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4418"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16296,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4418\/revisions\/16296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}