Othmar Spann

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (February 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Othmar Spann (1 October 1878 – 8 July 1950) was a conservative Austrian philosopher, sociologist and economist whose radical anti-liberal and anti-socialist views, based on early 19th century Romantic ideas expressed by Adam Müller et al. and popularized in his books and lecture courses, helped antagonise political factions in Austria during the interwar years.^[1]

Early life[]

Othmar Spann was the son of Josef Spann, a manufacturer and inventor. He grew up in Altmannsdorf, a suburban area of Vienna, Austria. He attended a Bürgerschule (citizen school) and graduated in 1898. Afterwards, he studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, followed by political sciences at the universities of Zürich and Bern. He received his doctorate in political science from the University of Tübingen in 1903.^[1]

From 1904 to 1907, Spann worked for the "Center for Private Welfare Service" in Frankfurt. He was responsible for empirical studies of this population of workers. By the end of 1904 Spann, along with Hermann Beck and Hanns Dorn founded a newspaper called "Critical Pages for the whole Social Sciences".

In 1907, Spann wrote his "Habilitation in Political Economy" for the Hochschule in Brünn. From 1907 to 1909, he was given the position of "Privatdozent" which allowed him to teach and collect fees from students. As early as 1908, Spann began working as the full-time imperial-royal vice-secretary of the statistic central commission in Vienna. He was given the position of creating a new census for Austria between 1909 and 1910.

From 1914 to 1918, during the First World War, Spann was a first lieutenant of the reserve. He was injured during the Battle of Lemberg, (now Lviv in the Ukraine) on 27 August 1914. When he recovered he was first a commander of a company of Russian prisoners and then until later in 1918 he was given a position on the "scientific committee for wartime economy" with the war Ministry in Vienna.^{[citation needed]}

In 1919, Spann was appointed to a position at the University of Vienna, where he taught until 1938.

Spann was popular with students, not only for his lectures which would spill out into the hallways at the University, but also for mid-summer festivals which he would hold in the woods where he would teach that "the ability to intuit essences was nurtured by jumping over the fire..." (Caldwell 2004, 138-9)

Activism[]

Part of a series on
Conservatism
show Variants Cultural Fiscal Green Liberal Libertarian National Paternalistic Pragmatic Progressive Populist Social Traditionalist
show Concepts Civil society Communitarianism Complementarianism Cultural heritage Familism Family values Natural law Natural order Private property Rule of law Solidarity Tradition
show Philosophers Johnson Hume Burke More Maistre Bonald Chateaubriand Coleridge Müller Carlyle Newman Tocqueville Dostoevsky Taine Strauss Oakeshott Kuehnelt-Leddihn Kirk Buckley Scruton Hitchens Peterson
show Politicians Adams Karamzin Canning Metternich Disraeli Bismarck Salisbury Baldwin Maurras Salazar Gaulle Franco Reagan Powell Thatcher Kohl
show Organizations Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Caribbean Democrat Union European People's Party International Democrat Union
show Religious conservatism Christian Catholicism Democracy Fundamentalism Right Hindu Jewish Islamic
show National variants Australia Belgium Belize Brazil Canada Blue Red Social China Colombia Cuba Denmark Finland France Action Française Gaullism Maurassisme Germany Revolutionary State Socialism Greece Guatemala Hong Kong India Hindutva Mexico New Zealand Pakistan Panama Russia Eurasianism Putinism Serbia Spain Carlism Francoism Switzerland South Korea Taiwan Turkey Democracy Erdoğanism United Kingdom Andism One-nation Thatcherism Toryism United States Compassionate Fusionism Movement Neo Paleo Trumpism
show Related topics Ancien Régime Anti-communism Aristocracy Corporatism Counter-revolutionary Elite theory Feudalism Conservative feminism Maternalism Monarchism Nativism Patriarchy Radical right Europe United States Reactionary Neo Right-wing politics New Old Small-c conservative
Conservatism portal  Politics portal
v t

Repeatedly, Spann tried to draw the ruling powers' attention to his authoritarian theory of a corporate state, which he thought should be introduced immediately for the benefit of all. In 1928, he joined the Militant League for German Culture. Around 1930, he also joined the Nazi Party. In 1933 the Austro-Hungarian social philosopher Karl Polanyi wrote that Spann had given Fascism its first comprehensive philosophical system,^[2] and that his idea of anti-individualism^{[n 1]} had become its guiding principle.

Notable students[]

• Oskar Morgenstern
• Friedrich Hayek, winner of the 1974 Nobel prize
• Eric Voegelin

Removal from teaching[]

Although to a large degree in tune with the Zeitgeist, he repeatedly met with disapproval until, in 1938, right after the Anschluss, he was briefly imprisoned by the Nazis and eventually barred from his professorship at the University of Vienna, which he had held since 1919. Living as a recluse till the end of the war, Spann tried to get his university post back in 1945, aged 67. However, he was not allowed to resume his teaching and died in 1950, disappointed and embittered.^{[citation needed]}

Major works[]

• Der wahre Staat (The True State, 1921)
• Kategorienlehre (1924).
• Der Schöpfungsgang des Geistes (1928).
• Gesellschaftsphilosophie (1932).
• Naturphilosophie (1937).
• Religionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage (1947).
• Die Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschafts' Lehre (Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer 1949).

Notes[]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Caldwell, Bruce. Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F.A. Hayek. The University of Chicago Press. 2004
• Giovanni Franchi (a cura di), Othmar Spann. La scienza dell'intero, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma 2012. ISBN 9788861348042
• Sebastian Maaß, Dritter Weg und wahrer Staat. Othmar Spann - Ideengeber der Konservativen Revolution. Regin-Verlag, Kiel, 2010.

External links[]

• Dooyeweerd, Spann, and the Philosophy of Totality
• A Historical Tour of the University of Vienna
• Anthony Carty: "Alfred Verdross and Othmar Spann: German Romantic Nationalism, National Socialism and International Law", European Journal of International Law Vol.6, No.1 (see also nationalism)
• Newspaper clippings about Othmar Spann in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW