In Memoriam Otto Kirchheimer

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IN MEMORIAM: OTTO KIRCHHEIMER, 1905-1965Author(s): Erich HulaReviewed work(s):Source: Social Research, Vol. 33, No. 1 (SPRING 1966), pp. 4-7Published by: The New SchoolStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40969801 .

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IN MEMORIAM:OTTO KIRCHHEIMER, 1905-1965

OttoKirchheimer, ho died suddenly n November22, 1965,was a memberof the GraduateFacultyof the New School for

Social Research foronlyfiveyears 1955-1960). But his loss isno less deeplyfeltand mournedby us than by his colleaguesof Columbia University, mong whomhe spent the last yearsof his life. The ties of friendshipwhich connectedhim withthe New School and the impacthe made on our studentbodyoutlasted heperiodofhis official ssociationwithus. The yearsduringwhichhe lived in our midsthad a particular ignificancealso forOtto Kirchheimerhimself. It was during this periodthat the fruitsof decades of

scholarly tudyand work

fullyripenedin his mind and put him in the first ankof the pro-fession fpoliticalscience n thiscountry s well as in Europe.In 1957he published n Social Researchhis essayon The Wan-

ing of Opposition n Parliamentary egimes, which exertedadecisive influence n subsequentdiscussions,here and abroad,on thecharacternd role ofpolitical parties n current uropeanpolitics.And he completed uringtheseyearshis magnum pus,thetreatise n PoliticalJusticepublished n this ountryn 1961

and in a Germantranslationn 1965),whoseoutstanding uali-tieswere immediately ecognizedby both students nd practi-tionersof judicial procedures.

In tryingo surveynd evaluate Kirchheimer'smanycontribu-tions topoliticalscience, ne is impressed y thewidening copeof his interestsnd the growingmastery isplayed n his writ-

ings. One also discovers continuity,ver almostfortyyears,of basic scholarly oncerns, nd realizeshow much theywere at

the same timeconcernsof his compassionatenature,whichhetriedso hard not to reveal eitherin his scientificworkor inhis personalconduct.



IN MEMORIAM 5

In thepreface o Politikund Verfassung, collectionof someof his essayswhichappeared in Germanyn 1964,Kirchheimercharacterizedimselfs a craftsmanfpolitical nalysis.He triedhis hand at such an analysisforthe first ime in his pamphletWeimar . . . und was dann? (1930). The essay,whichforms

thefirsthapter f thecollection, tillmakes nterestingeadingtoday, lthoughthe politicalconstellationwhich it examines snow a

matterof history.For Kirchheimer aised fundamentalissuesofdemocratic olitics,foremostmongthemthe questionof the relationshipbetween political action and the socio-economic tructuresfsociety.He reverted o thisproblemtimeand again,and particularlyn one of his last essays, ConfiningConditions nd Revolutionary reakthroughs.Are political n-stitutionsmainlyepiphenomena,he asks in the posthumouslypublished rticle, r ifnot,towhatextent an newrevolutionaryregimes vercome nd transform

re-existingocietalconditions?

In groping or n answer othese uestions,Kirchheimerhrough-out his life leaned heavilyon Marxistmethods for analyzingpoliticalproblems.But he neverbecame a captiveof Marxistinstruments,nd least of all of a strictly eterministicnterpre-tationof Marxistthought.

Kirchheimer's ritings uringtheAmericanperiodofhis lifeno longerfocused n Germany lone but covered heentire angeof western nd centralEuropean government nd politics,as

theyemergedfromWorld War II. The scope of his investiga-tions broadenednot only geographically ut in otherways aswell. Fromtheanalysis f thenew constitutional rameworkftheEuropeancountries,whichdominatedhiswork n the latter'forties, e moved on in the fiftieso a series of studies n the

newly emergingpatternof political parties throughout on-tinental urope. He described hetrend wayfrom pposition n

grounds fprinciple, epresentedytheclassand denominational

partiesof former imes, to catch-all nter-class arties, andfinally o a system f government y partycartels. He showed



6 SOCIAL RESEARCH

how thisprocesswas consummated irstn post-war ustria,howfarWestGermanparties, oo,have alreadyadvancedalong thesameroad,and theextent o whichFrance and Italyare laggingbehind in the transformationf the democraticpartysystem.No less remarkable han the description f this process s the

judicious weighingof the many factors,political, economic,social,cultural nd technological,hataccountfor t.

While Kirchheimern thegreater art

of hiswritingsppliedhiserudition nd acumen to theanalysis ftransitoryhenomena

of twentieth-centuryolitics,he dealt in his treatise n Political

Justicewithone of the mostenduringand universalproblemsof politics: the employment f the courts of justice for theattainment fpoliticalpurposes,be it the bolstering r the cre-

atingof powerpositions.He drewon manyperiodsof historyand various political systems,ncludingthe presentdemocraticand totalitarian egimes, orthe purposeof illustratingnd ex-

ploringthe chieftypesof political trials,the reasonsfor insti-tutingthem,the waysin which theyoperate,and the role oftheseveralparticipantsn thesetrials.

Kirchheimer edicatedthe treatise to the past,present, ndfuturevictims f political ustice, thus indicatingthathe hadno illusions bout thepossibilityf eradicating rompoliticstheabuse of the judicial processforattainingpoliticalgoals. If heeverheld theMarxistbelief n thefinaltriumph f justice in a

classless ociety,PoliticalJustice neither xpresses orcorrobo-ratessuch belief. It rather eveals thatKirchheimer n his later

yearswas convinced, s was Pascal,of the ineradicableweaknessof justice in the complexity f human affairs.Afterhavingdenigratedpolitical justice he states its benefits n the last

chapter of his book, and pictures the defendant and the

judge in a political trial as involved in a tragicconflict,withthe questionof guilt suspendeduntil the judgmentof history

is delivered. And maynotClio refuse clear-cutnswer,mark-ing thembothas foolswhoseefforts ere neithernecessary or



IN MEMORIAM 7

salutaryforwhomever heywere appointed to serve? In thefinalwords of the book Kirchheimer uggestswe should prayfor bothpotentialbrethrenn error/' nd concludeswithversesfromDies irae,dies ilia, thatstirringequence in the mass for

thedead: God, we beg, be kind to them. The suggestion f

prayerforboth partiesto the political trial has not failed to

perplexreviewersnd readersof PoliticalJustice.But it is no

doubt a lastingtestimonial o one of the mostprominent raitsof Kirchheimers a humanbeing,his magnanimity.Erich Hula

In Memoriam Otto Kirchheimer

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