ABSTRACT
From 1930 to 1935, three German authors apply the concept of the ‘total’ to
the sphere of the political in some way. Ernst Ju¨nger speaks of a ‘total
mobilisation’, Carl Schmitt of a ‘total state’ and Erich Ludendorff of
‘total war’. Although application of the concept of totality might be under-
stood as merely a station on the path to the totalitarian, such characterisation
would scarcely do justice to the authors and their work.
