“Reconstructing Conservatism”: The Place of Christianity in the Work of Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner

The article explores the complex reconstruction of the views of Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner — one of the most influential conservative essaywriters and theorists in post-war West Germany — on the political significance of Christianity for his project of ‘reconstructing conservatism’. This project, initiated in the 1970s, continues to influence German right-wing and conservative circles today. The author highlights the ambivalence in Kaltenbrunner’s attitude toward Christianity as a foundation for conservative political theory after the Second World War. The social, political and intellectual shifts of the first half of the XX century, including new trends in philosophy and theology, compelled the Catholic conservative to seek more rational and empirically grounded justifications for a conservative political stance. At the same time, Kaltenbrunner opposed the politicization and instrumentalization of Christianity by the left, which had become widespread in various forms. His reliance on anthropological argumentation aligns his ideas with classical XIX century conservative thought. However, the impossibility of invoking otherworldly justifications of the conservative position in the modern world led him to turn to secular philosophical anthropology, whose arguments Kaltenbrunner actively employed for polemical purposes. This anthropological framework later became pivotal for many German right-wing and conservative intellectuals, while religious argumentation completely lost its relevance. The present research is part of a series of publications examining the history as well as philosophical and political foundations of German post-war conservatism and the German New Right