Verzweifelte Feindschaft. Ein Versuch

Based on Däubler’s verses “Der Feind ist unsre eigene Frage als Gestalt. Und er wird uns, wir ihn zum selben Ende hetzen”, the first part of which is occasionally quoted by Carl Schmitt, the article undertakes a deconstructive reading of Schmitt’s reflections on enmity. Contrary to the usual interpretations of Schmitt, the paper argues that the enemy confronts us with the question of our own self in the first place; that is, he does not constitute our self but rather poses a challenge to it. Thrown back on the question of one’s own self, there is a real possibility (not a necessity) of arriving at an extreme form of enmity. This ‘desperate enmity’ negates not only the reality of the enemy but reality as a whole. This deconstructive reading, inspired by Kierkegaard’s analysis of despair, allows for a plausible inclusion of Däubler’s second verse in Schmitt’s reflections on enmity, especially with regard to the threat of nuclear war, which today, in the wake of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, appears to be a real possibility.