The scientific biography of the young political scientist Carl J. Friedrich and the reconstruction of his theory of totalitarianism come together in this volume to offer a completely new perspective on the traditions of German political science. The classical theory of totalitarianism is not a product of opposition to National Socialism or the Cold War; it has its roots in the political science debate surrounding the dictatorship of the Weimar Reich President. The German political scientist Carl J. Friedrich, as a professor of government in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s, sought a justification for such transitional dictatorships. Rooted in the social sciences of Heidelberg around Alfred Weber and initially uncritically aligned with Carl Schmitt, Friedrich develops a contemporary theory for that era.