L’Eckhart politico. Appunti sulla ricezione anarchica del domenicano

Meister Eckhart has long been ignored by studies of the history of political thought. In addition to this, the only attempt to introduce the reflection of the Dominican within those studies focused on the reception of the Dominican made by neo-romantic authors or very close to National Socialism (such as Eugen Diederichs and Alfred Rosenberg). This article intends to propose a less considered line of reception of Eckhart, namely that of anarchist and socialist thinkers of the last century. Among all, this paper will focus on the peculiar figure of Gustav Landauer, a libertarian socialist, Jew and German, who translated some sermons of the Dominican teacher and used them for the elaboration of his political thought. In this regard, the thesis that informs this work relates to the greater affinity that results from Eckhart’s thought and his anarchist reading compared to the neo-Romantic or National Socialist one. This thesis will be demonstrated by firstly providing guidelines on the history of Eckhartian reception in the twentieth century, after which the thought of the Dominican will be briefly presented with a closer look at the main points of the papal condemnation against him. Finally, taking those points into account, the most relevant works of Gustav Landauer will be analyzed to find and highlight the Eckhartian influence. Furthermore, the article aims to show how this influence can be traced back to before 1900, a period usually referred to in the literature, and for this purpose, it will examine a series of writings by Landauer from previous years (Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Individuums).