In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

128 ARRAYS
the League's success: "We cannot solve the problem of the Volkerbund
with calls for depoliticization. A Volkerbund can exist only so long as at
least one major power has a political interest in it, or so long as the
smaller powers united in it become a major power. A depoliticized Volkerbund
would neither be politically interesting nor make any contribution
to world peace" (6f£.). In order for the necessary political conflict
to exist, Schmitt believes, independent states must be defined by the
borders of the territories over which they have jurisdiction. Thus, the
programmatic idea of translating the boundlessness of humanity into a
political reality without clear territorial borders [see Center = Periphery
(Infinitude)] is, according to Schmitt, an immanent danger for the League
of Nations: "Without borders there is no jurisdiction" (5).
Schmitt's analysis implies that international politics has reached an
impasse because those who wish to open and develop this space do not
understand that it can be occupied only by independent territorial states,
whereas those who promote and protect particular national interests and
territorial borders are unwilling to make the necessary distinction between
nations and states. Since among the latter group the concept of
the nation runs counter to the acknowledgment of shared international
goals, the League of Nations comes under increasing attack from various
national movements: "Geneva [has] so many enemies all over the world,
from Chicherin to Mussolini and all the other nationalists. Scornful
laughter from Hell would greet the failure of international democracy"
(8 Uhr-Abendblatt, March 15). This explains why General Erich von
Ludendorff, a veteran of the Great War who castigates Adolf Hitler's
party for the mildness of its anti-Semitism, praises the "people's movement"
for resisting an internationalist conspiracy that he blames on
Jews, the Catholic Church, and the Freemasons: "Disarmament was
meant to be the trump card of their politics, which corresponds completely
to Jewish and Masonic ideology. The people are led into the web
of Jewish politics or, they hope, into the Catholic State of God. Having
already lost, the nations are now rendered spiritually defenseless. The
nationalist movement alone offered serious resistance" (von Ludendorff,
54f£.).
Four days after the adjournment of the League's plenary assembly, the
German president, Paul von Hindenburg, another World War general,
arrives in Cologne to celebrate the withdrawal of French troops from the