Nazi law abolished contract freedom while keeping private property, serving the rulers

Evidence

In a subsequent essay Kirchheimer sought to express the ideological nature of this claim by revealing the underlying character of Nazi law. Of the old pillars of liberal law, private property and liberty of contract, Kirchheimer argued that the former, although still in existence, was “heavily mortgaged to the political machine,’” while the latter had been rendered practically meaningless. In one sense then, Nazi legal doctrine had bridged the old liberal gulf between the private and public realms, but only at the cost of the liquidation of the former. The Nazi claims of a “concrete” policy had been realized in certain areas, such as anti-Semitic legislation and pro-populationist measures (for example, reducing sanctions against illegitimate births and supporting larger families). But in most other areas, such as agriculture, where the ideology of “blood and soil” had been sacrificed to the demands of modernization, this was not the case. In fact, the basic thrust of Nazi law was in the direction of that technological rationality that Horkheimer had emphasized. “Rationality here,” Kirchheimer wrote, “does not mean that there are universally applicable rules the consequences of which could be calculated by those whom they affect. Rationality here means only that the whole apparatus of law and law-enforcing is made exclusively serviceable to those who rule.” — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 499

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Horkheimer’s instrumental reason critique and, distantly, to Weber’s formal vs. substantive rationality distinction drawn elsewhere in the Frankfurt School tradition. — connects to: Pollock argued the Nazis had destroyed private property’s essential features — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 488; Nazi rule affirmed capitalism rather than superseding it — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 510; Nazi rule replaced legal orders with the Fuehrer’s will as supreme law. (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Kirchheimer redefines ‘rationality’ under Nazism as pure serviceability to rulers, not universal calculable rules — a key critical-theory sense of the term.

Broader Connections

• Nazi rule affirmed capitalism rather than superseding it #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 510
• Command economy and monopoly capitalism coexisted under Nazi rule #expands (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 510
• Nazi rule replaced legal orders with the Fuehrer’s will as supreme law. #qualifies (0.75)