THE REDISCOVERY OF WEIMAR BY THE DOCTRINE OF THE POLITICAL LAW OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC

The Weimar Republic witnessed four giants in constitutional theory: Carl Schmitt, Rudolf Smend, Hermann Heller and Hans Kelsen. Each of them saw the nexus of state and constitution differently. Their discussion ended with the Nazi's seizure of power. The article analyzes their enduring influence on German constitutional law and theory. At the beginning of the Federal Republic Schmitt and Smend prevailed and developed schools which influenced even the Federal Constitutional Court. 1968 brought a revival of Heller, and today Kelsen is dominating the scene. What accounts for these shifts? Why is in our days Kelsen apparently more attractive than Smend or Schmitt and what does this tell us about the development of German constitutional law? Lepsius' article tries to answer these questions and sheds a light on the major intellectual discussions and there theoretical underpinnings in German constitutional law from the 1950s to the 1990s.