"In the beginning was not the word, but the script," reveals Carl Schmitt in December 1971 to historian Dieter Groh and journalist Klaus Figge. The four audio tapes of the autobiographical conversation for SWF radio are now being published in full as a book. As a unique document of oral history, they are transcribed verbatim from the spoken word. In the notes, the editors extensively document the passages that the notorious constitutional lawyer quotes or alludes to, thereby transforming his spoken words back into writing. An introduction connects the narrative threads, weighs the statements, and explores the unspoken. A postscript by Dieter Groh places the conversation in the context of the Plettenberg pilgrimages of leftist intellectuals. Carl Schmitt recounts his childhood in the Catholic diaspora. He remembers how, despite...