Schiller’s Demetrius Project: Questions of Legitimacy for the Twentieth Century

This essay explores the way in which Schiller problematizes power legitimation in his dramatic fragment Demetrius, and demonstrates how relevant this unfinished text was to early twentieth-century political thinking on legitimacy in Germany. This is not a matter of mere speculation: there is evidence, both direct and indirect, of the influence of Schiller, and in particular of his Demetrius, on three important intellectuals: Ferdinand Toennies, Max Weber, and Carl Schmitt. Rather than discuss the reception of Schiller’s text by legal philosophers, this essay shows, via a close reading of the play, how Schiller’s theater around 1800 reveals the problematic nature of various aspects of power legitimation and how these emerged with particular force during the early twentieth century, when they intersected with the legal and political reflections of the time.