Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
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Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (; 31 July 1909 – 26 May 1999) was an Austrian political scientist and
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. He opposed the ideas of the French Revolution as well as those of communism and Nazism. Describing himself as a "conservative arch-liberal" or "extreme liberal", Kuehnelt-Leddihn often argued that majority rule in democracies is a threat to individual liberties, and declared himself a monarchist and an enemy of all forms of totalitarianism, although he also supported what he defined as "non-democratic republics," such as Switzerland and the early United States. Kuehnelt-Leddihn cited the U.S. Founding Fathers, Tocqueville,
Burckhardt Burckhardt, or (de) Bourcard in French, is a family of the Basel patriciate, descended from Christoph (Stoffel) Burckhardt (1490–1578), a merchant in cloth and silk originally from Münstertal, Black Forest, who received Basel citizenship i ...
, and Montalembert as the primary influences for his skepticism towards democracy. Described as "A Walking Book of Knowledge", Kuehnelt-Leddihn had an encyclopedic knowledge of the humanities and was a polyglot, able to speak eight languages and read seventeen others. His early books ''The Menace of the Herd'' (1943) and ''Liberty or Equality'' (1952) were influential within the
American conservative movement Conservatism in the United States is a political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservative ...
. An associate of
William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
, his best-known writings appeared in '' National Review'', where he was a columnist for 35 years.


Life

Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was born in Tobelbad,
Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
, Austria-Hungary. At 16, he became the Vienna correspondent of '' The Spectator''. From then on, he wrote for the rest of his life. He studied
civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...
and canon law at the University of Vienna at 18. Then he went to the University of Budapest, from which he received an M.A. in economics and his doctorate in political science. Moving back to Vienna, he took up studies in theology. In 1935, Kuehnelt-Leddihn traveled to England to become a schoolmaster at Beaumont College, a
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
. Subsequently, he moved to the United States, where he taught at Georgetown University (1937–1938),
Saint Peter's College, New Jersey Saint Peter's University is a private Jesuit university in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded as Saint Peter's College in 1872 by the Society of Jesus. The university offers over 60 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 2,600 un ...
(head of the History and Sociology Department, 1938–1943),
Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
(Japanese, 1942–1943), and Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia (1943–1947). In 1931, while in Hungary, Kuehnelt-Leddihn was said to have had a supernatural experience. While discussing deserted graveyards with a friend, the two men saw
Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
appear before them. Kuehnelt-Leddihn recounts this experience as so:
"Slowly, in that moment, to both of us, Satan appeared as Satan appears in primitive books. Naked, reddish, horns, long tongue, trident, and we both exploded laughing. In other words, laughing hysterically. As I later found out, in apparitions of the Devil, this is a natural reaction, that you laugh hysterically."
In a 1939 letter to the editor of '' The New York Times'', Kuehnelt-Leddihn critiqued the design of every American coin then in circulation except for the
Washington quarter The Washington quarter is the present quarter dollar or 25-cent piece issued by the United States Mint. The coin was first struck in 1932; the original version was designed by sculptor John Flanagan. As the United States prepared to celebrate t ...
, which he allowed was "so far the most satisfactory coin" and judged the Mercury dime to be "the most deplorable." After publishing books like ''Jesuiten, Spießer und Bolschewiken'' in 1933 (published in German by Pustet, Salzburg) and ''The Menace of the Herd'' in 1943, in which he criticised the National Socialists as well as the Socialists, he remained in the United States, as he could not return to the Austria that had been incorporated into the Third Reich. After the Second World War, he resettled in
Lans Lans or LANS may refer to: Places * Lans, Tyrol, a municipality in Tyrol, Austria * Lake Lans, a lake near Lans, Tyrol France * Lans, Saône-et-Loire * Lans-en-Vercors, a community near Grenoble in the Vercors * Villard-de-Lans, a community and s ...
, where he lived until his death. He was an avid traveler: he had visited over seventy-five countries (including the Soviet Union in 1930–1931), as well as all fifty states in the United States and Puerto Rico. Kuehnelt-Leddihn wrote for a variety of publications, including '' Chronicles'', ''
Thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, a ...
'', the ''Rothbard-Rockwell Report'', ''
Catholic World ''The Catholic World'' was a periodical founded by Paulist Father Isaac Thomas Hecker in April 1865. It was published by the Paulist Fathers for over a century. According to Paulist Press, Hecker "wanted to create an intellectual journal for a g ...
'', and the Norwegian business magazine ''Farmand''. He also worked with the
Acton Institute The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is an American research and educational institution, or think tank, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, (with an office in Rome) whose stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society ch ...
, which declared him after his death "a great friend and supporter." He was an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. For much of his life, Kuehnelt was also a painter; he illustrated some of his own books. Kuehnelt held friendships with many of the major conservative intellectuals and figures of the 20th century, including
William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
, Russell Kirk, Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg,
Friedrich A. Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...
, Mel Bradford, Ludwig von Mises, Wilhelm Röpke, Ernst Jünger, and Joseph Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict XVI). According to Buckley, Kuehnelt-Leddihn was "the world's most fascinating man." Kuehnelt-Leddihn was married to Countess Christiane Gräfin von Goess, with whom he had three children. At the time of his death in 1999, he was survived by all four of them, as well as seven grandchildren.


Work

His socio-political writings dealt with the origins and the philosophical and cultural currents that formed Nazism. He endeavored to explain the intricacies of monarchist concepts and the systems of Europe, cultural movements such as Hussitism and Protestantism, and the disastrous effects of an American policy derived from antimonarchical feelings and ignorance of European culture and history. Kuehnelt-Leddihn directed some of his most significant critiques towards Wilsonian foreign policy activism. Traces of Wilsonianism could be detected in the foreign policies of
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
; specifically, the assumption that democracy is the ideal political system in any context. Kuehnelt-Leddihn believed that Americans misunderstood much of Central European culture such as the
Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, which Kuehnelt-Leddihn claimed as one of the contributing factors to the rise of Nazism. He also highlighted characteristics of the German society and culture (especially the influences of both Protestant and Catholic mentalities) and attempted to explain the sociological undercurrents of Nazism. Thus, he concludes that sound Catholicism, sound Protestantism, or even, probably, sound popular sovereignty (German-Austrian unification in 1919) all three would have prevented National Socialism although Kuehnelt-Leddihn rather dislikes the latter two. Contrary to the prevailing view that the Nazi Party was a radical right-wing movement with only superficial and minimal leftist elements, Kuehnelt-Leddihn asserted that Nazism (National Socialism) was a strongly
leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
, democratic movement ultimately rooted in the French Revolution that unleashed forces of egalitarianism,
conformity Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often choo ...
,
materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...
and
centralization Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
. He argued that Nazism, fascism, radical-liberalism,
anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
, communism and socialism were essentially democratic movements, based upon inciting the masses to revolution and intent upon destroying the old forms of society. Furthermore, Kuehnelt-Leddihn claimed that all democracy is basically totalitarian and that all democracies eventually degenerate into dictatorships. He said that it was not the case for "republics" (the word, for Kuehnelt-Leddihn, has the meaning of what Aristotle calls πολιτεία), such as Switzerland, or the United States, as it was originally intended in its constitution. However, he considered the United States to have been to a certain extent subject to a silent democratic revolution in the late 1820s. In ''Liberty or Equality'', his masterpiece, Kuehnelt-Leddihn contrasted monarchy with democracy and presented his arguments for the superiority of monarchy: diversity is upheld better in monarchical countries than in democracies. Monarchism is not based on party rule and "fits organically into the ecclesiastic and familistic pattern of Christian society." After insisting that the demand for liberty is about ''how'' to govern and by no means ''by whom'' to govern a given country, he draws arguments for his view that monarchical government is genuinely more liberal in this sense, but democracy naturally advocates for equality, even by enforcement, and thus becomes anti-liberal. As modern life becomes increasingly complicated across many different sociopolitical levels, Kuehnelt-Leddihn submits that the ''Scita'' (the political, economic, technological, scientific, military, geographical, psychological knowledge of the masses and of their representatives) and the ''Scienda'' (the knowledge in these matters that is necessary to reach logical-rational-moral conclusions) are separated by an incessantly and cruelly widening gap and that democratic governments are totally inadequate for such undertakings. In February 1969, Kuehnelt-Leddihn wrote an article arguing against seeking a peace deal to end the Vietnam War. Instead, he argued that the two options proposed, a reunification scheme and the creation of a coalition Vietnamese government, were unacceptable concessions to the Marxist North Vietnam. Kuehnelt-Leddihn urged the US to continue the war until the Marxists were defeated. Kuehnelt-Leddihn also denounced the US Bishops' 1983 pastoral '' The Challenge of Peace''. He wrote that "The Bishops' letter breathes idealism... moral imperialism, the attempt to inject theology into politics, ought to be avoided except in extreme cases, of which abolition and slavery are examples."


Writings


Novels

* ''The Gates of Hell: An Historical Novel of the Present Day''. London: Sheed & Ward, 1933. * ''Night Over the East''. London: Sheed & Ward, 1936. * ''Moscow 1979''. London: Sheed & Ward, 1940 (with Christiane von Kuehnelt-Leddihn).
''Black Banners''
Aldington, Kent: Forty-Five Press & Hand and Flower Press, 1952.


Socio-political works


''The Menace of the Herd''
Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1943 (under the pseudonym of "Francis S. Campell" to protect relatives in wartime Austria).
''Liberty or Equality''
Front Royal, Virginia: Christendom Press, 1952; 1993. * ''The Timeless Christian''. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1969.
''Leftism, From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse''
New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1974. * ''The Intelligent American's Guide to Europe''. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House Publishers, 1979. * ''Leftism Revisited, From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot''. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1990.


Collaborations

* "Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn." In: F.J. Sheed (Ed.), ''Born Catholics''. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1954, pp. 220–238. * "Pollyanna Catholicism." In: Dan Herr & Clem Lane (Ed.), ''Realities''. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1958, pp. 1–12. * "The Age of the Guillotine." In: Stephen Tonsor (Ed.), ''Reflections on the French Revolution: A Hillsdale Symposium''. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1990.


Articles

* “Credo of a Reactionary,” ''The American Mercury'' 57, July 1943. * “An Anti-Nazi Allegory,” ''The American Mercury'' 59, July 1944. * “Recuperating Spain,” ''Modern Age'' 1 (1), March 1957. * “Revolution, Crime, and Sin in the Catholic World,” ''Modern Age'' 2 (2), June 1958. * “The Artist and the Intellectual in Anglo-Saxonry and on the Continent,” ''Modern Age'' 3 (4), December 1959. * "The Thorny Problem of the Vernacular" ''The Catholic World'', December 1962. * "The Roots of Leftism in Christendom," ''The Freeman'' 18 (2), February 1968. * "Latin America in Perspective," ''The Freeman'' 18 (4), April 1968. * "The Woes of the Underdeveloped Nations," ''The Freeman'' 21 (1), January 1971. * "The Western Dilemma: Calvin or Rousseau?," ''Modern Age'' 15 (1), March 1971. * "We and the Third World," ''The Freeman'' 22 (2), February 1972. * "The Years of Godlessness," ''Modern Age'' 16 (1), March 1972. * "Free Enterprise and the Russians," ''The Freeman'' 22 (8), August 1972. * "The Roots of ‘Anticapitalism’," ''The Freeman'' 22 (11), November 1972. * "Portrait of an Evil Man," ''The Freeman'' 23 (9), September 1973.
"Scita Et Scienda: The Dwarfing of Modern Man,"
''Imprimis'', October 1974. * "The Unholy Ikons," ''Modern Age'' 20 (1), March 1976. * "Utopias and Ideologies: Another Chapter in the Conservative Demonology," ''Modern Age'' 21 (3), September 1977. * "Controversy," ''Policy Review'' 15, January 1981.
"The Problems of a Successful American Foreign Policy,"
''Imprimis'' 14 (11), November 1985. * "Democracy’s Road to Tyranny," ''The Freeman'' 38 (5), May 1988.

''Fidelity Magazine'', October 1989.
“The Four Liberalisms,”
''Religion & Liberty'' 2 (4), July/August 1992.
“Economics in the Catholic World,”
''Religion & Liberty'' 4 (4), July/August 1994.
“Christianity, the Foundation and Conservator of Freedom,”
''Religion & Liberty'' 7 (6), November – December 1997.
“Liberalism in America,”
''The Intercollegiate Review'' 33 (1), Fall 1997. * "Hebrews and Christians," ''The Rothbard-Rockwell Report'' 9 (4), April 1998. * "Monarchy and War," ''The Journal of Libertarian Studies'' 15 (1), December 2000.
“The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises,”
''Studies in Classical Liberalism'', n.d.


Sayings

* "'Welfare State' is a misnomer, for ''every'' state must care for the common good." * "For the average person, all problems date to World War II; for the more informed, to World War I; for the genuine historian, to the French Revolution." * "Liberty and equality are in essence contradictory." * "There is little doubt that the American Congress or the French Chambers have a power over their nations which would rouse the envy of a Louis XIV or a George III, were they alive today. Not only prohibition, but also the income tax declaration, selective service, obligatory schooling, the fingerprinting of blameless citizens, premarital blood tests—none of these totalitarian measures would even the royal absolutism of the seventeenth century have dared to introduce." * "I am for the word ''Rightist''. Right is right and left is wrong, you see, and in all languages 'right' has a positive meaning and 'left' a negative one. In Italian, typically, ''la sinistra'' is 'the left' and ''il sinistro'' is 'the mishap' or 'the calamity.' Japanese describes evil as ''hidar-imae'', 'the thing in front of the left.' And in the Bible, it says in
Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes (; hbo, קֹהֶלֶת, Qōheleṯ, grc, Ἐκκλησιαστής, Ekklēsiastēs) is one of the Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly use ...
, which the Hebrews call ''Koheleth'', that “the heart of the wise man beats on his right side and the heart of the fool on his left.'


See also

* Hermann Rauschning * Family as a model for the state * Monarchism


Notes and references


Further reading

* Nash, George H. (2006). ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945''. ISI Books * Frohnen, Bruce; Jeremy Beer & Jeffrey O. Nelson (2006). ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia''. ISI Books * Bernhard Valentinitsch,Max-Erwin von Scheubner-Richter(1885-1923) - Zeuge des Genozids an den Armeniern und früher,enger Mitarbeiter Hitlers.Diplomarbeit.Graz 2012. (also digitalised at Harvard University Library,with many reflexions about books by Kuehnelt-Leddihn and similar ways of thinking in the work of his friend John Lukacs) * Bernhard Valentinitsch, Graham Greenes Roman 'The Human Factor'(1978) und Otto Premingers gleichnamige Verfilmung (1979).In: JIPSS(=Journal for Intelligence,Propaganda and Security Studies),Nr.14.(the first publication in which letters between Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and Graham Greene were used and quite possibly also the first publication in which the unpublished memoirs by Kuehnelt-Leddihn were with allowance of his family used)


External links


Intellectual Conservative's Review of ''Leftism Revisited''




by his grandson.

* ttp://orawww.uibk.ac.at/apex/uprod/f?p=20090202:2:1241491285675680::NO::P2_ID,P2_TYP_ID:389 Info page at ''Lexikon Literatur'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Erik von 1909 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Austrian philosophers Austrian anti-communists Austrian monarchists Austrian classical liberals Austrian conservative liberals Austrian libertarians Catholic philosophers Conservative liberalism Conservatism in Austria Historians of fascism Historians of Nazism National Review people Austrian knights Austrian Roman Catholics Georgetown University faculty Fordham University faculty Saint Peter's University faculty University of Vienna alumni People from Graz-Umgebung District Austrian literary critics 20th-century Austrian historians Emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss Anti-Masonry Member of the Mont Pelerin Society