Google translation of Palaver’s “Origin of institutions”.

Rene Girard's mimetic theory as cultural theory explains not only the emergence of archaic religions and
the beginning of human civilization, but it also allows to understand the most important political
institutions better. They all can be to Girard zurickgefuhrt the Siindenbock mechanism. The following soil
using the sacral kingship, the death penalty and archaic friend-enemy distinctions are gone after the
gewalttatigen Urspringen of political power, the legal system and the war. All of these political
institutions carry traces of that collective violence itself, which according to Girard is the origin of human
civilization.

The sacral kingship belongs to one of the oldest political institutions of human civilization. Context in
which it is the scapegoat mechanism? Spontaneously, we assume that the kingship shows exactly the
opposite of a scapegoat. The king himself symbolizes the supreme political and religious power, usually,
while the scapegoat as outcast or Slain occupies the lowest rank in the human community. Is there a
larger size than the difference between the king and the ejected victim? This spontaneous assessment
remains to be superficial. This is already in Girard's theory of the origin of archaic religions, which is the
scapegoat for his killing of a god, and thus the supreme Lord of the lynch mob pursuing him. After his
killing of the victim is provided with power those attributes that are normally awarded only one king or a
god. Victims and King are so much less far apart than we assume that spontaneous. How can the
emergence of kingship by the mimetic theory explain?

All institutions arise to Girard the ritual repetition of the scapegoat mechanism. In the rite of the
scapegoat mechanism is deliberately repeated in peace within the community must be built up strong.
The ritual repetition is characterized by that disregard to the actual events that the scapegoat
mechanism is typical in general. As for the lynch mob's own violent actions and the relative innocence of
the victim remains hidden, veiled and the truth rite. In scapegoating the victim is affected by a double
transfer. It is both as absolute evil, that is, as the cause of the crisis, and on the other hand, as absolutely
good, ie, experienced as a peacemaker. These two contradictory in itself moments of religious thinking
can not be imitated in all its double standards, because that would merely re Instability and confusion
come into play, the ultimate goal of the religious thinking - clear order, fixed differences and harmony -
the contrary. For this reason, always one of the two moments of the dual transmission becomes
stronger emphasis than the other in the rites. The transmission torque remains comparatively neglected
initially still recognizable in the background until it finally disappears altogether, and thereby allows the
unfolding of a non-contradictory institution. In different cultures it can come at very different priorities
and developments. In the end, then different, cleansed of its contradictions cultural institutions are
facing, who seem to have nothing to do with each other and seem to be eternally consistent. Girard
deconstructs these "cultural Platonism," which conceives human institutions as existing from all
eternity, shapes, turning them all leads back to the scapegoat mechanism, and by means of a "genetic
model" shows how they have emerged from a single ritual matrix.
In the ritual repetition of the scapegoat mechanism has been chosen for the sacrifice of victims from the
start on that percentage prestige that received the original scapegoat for his role as peacemaker
immediately after killing of his. Means that even in primitive cultures, for example, often observe that
the chosen victims of the most high-privileges were protected against killing of her. Girard refers to two
impressive examples. Thus we find in the Tupinamba, a people in the north-west of Brazil, an
extraordinary management with the victims of their ritual cannibalism. 3 As a victim of enemies who
were brought as prisoners living in the village and there were treatment experienced a very
contradictory. Although reviled and despised to them as the enemy and captured for future victims is to
be expected, but at the same time they also experienced a special devotion was expressed for example
in a particular esteem for her sexual favors. A similar behavior was also among the Aztecs. 4 Up to
sacrifice the sacrifices of the Aztecs experienced a worship as they normally will only gods or kings over
expressed. It all has been taken to fulfill the wishes of future victims. They threw them at the feet and
tried to touch their garments.

Another interesting element in the origin of kingship GrUndungsmord recognize refreshes , shows up in
the Inthronisationsprozedur at the Schiller luk Afrika.12 in the background is a kind of civil war between
two hostile to each other as Doppelganger behaving Reichshalften . About Rapid - derweise belongs to
the camp of the king of the losers . In the moment in which one of the losers of the GnadenstoB be put
soil , this is the king of all the people . Many examples illustrate the fact DAB frequently alternates
instead of the king killed wurden.13 An interesting case of such substitution Frazer reports from the
Buddhist New Year Tibet.14 AnlaBlich the local firm ruled fiir few weeks of so-called " Jalno "
representative fiir the Dalai Lama. But this deputy of King diirfte too much to have gained power,
because in its place was another deputy,

8 E. Canetti , Crowds and Power . Frankfurt am Main 21981 , 461 yEbd.463 . 10Ebd.468 . 11 See R.
Girard, end ( Note 1) 62; JG Frazer Branch ( Note 7) 257; S. Freud , Studies output. 10 band and a
Erganzungsband . Edited by A. Mitscherlich , A. Richards, J. Strachey and I. Grubrich - Simitis . Frankfurt
am Main , 1982, Vol IX , 338 ( " Totem and Taboo" ) . 12 See R. Girard, end ( Note 1) 66f . 13 See R.
Girard, Holy ( Note 1) 446; idem, end ( Note 1) 58; G. Widengren , religion pMnomenologie . Berlin ,
1969, 309f . 14 JG Frazer , branch ( Note 7) 831-835 . See R. Girard, end ( Note 1 ) 58 Revista Portuguesa
de Filosofia , 58 (2002 ) , 359-378

so-called " king of the Year " , who reigned only a few days , killed . Completely rules out rightly Frazer
from this series of Delegates , DAB , the Dalai Lama himself died as originally Siindenbock . In the
modern monarchic and in the modern conceptions of political sovereignty , the element of the victim ,
and thus the connection with the Siindenbockmechanismus seems to be almost entirely lost . The ritual
evolution HeB emerge a seemingly pure idea of political sovereignty . However, we may , in our modern
world and there but still doit traces of Siindenbockmechanismus on concepts of sovereignty or the fate
of politicians recognize . As a first example , the concept of sovereignty in Hobbes's political Philosophic
at the beginning of Neuzeit.15 serves permits for the Griind - ungsmord typical structure of all ganging
up against one shows up in Hobbes , where he describes the emergence of Souverans from the social
contract : "I authorize this person or this gathering of Mens weeks and about wearing them my right to
govern me , on the condition that you ' just ubertragst them your right and all their actions Authorises . "
16 the Souveran rules out with anyone a contract , it remains as the Siindenbock auBerhalb the
numerous Vertragsschliisse . Similar to the Siindenbock as ausges - chlossenem Third , were transferred
to the causation of both the crisis and the new peace , is Hobbes ' Souveran the excluded from the
Vertragsabschliissen third parties to which all power and strength ubergeht.17 Hobbes is sovereignty -
ran just auBerhalb of any law as the Siindenbock is its violation of the social differences auBerhalb every
order. Both are caused by their existence auBerhalb of the law to the source of the same fiir their
communities . The Souveran refresh themselves fiir his people the laws to which he is not subject to the
Siindenbock provides imputed to him by the difference injuries Begriindung For the giiltigen after his
killing of prohibitions . Recalling Heerich Thomas Girard speaks of a deal " under - griindigen
correspondence of Souveran and criminals " in Hobbes.18 Clearly visible is the Siindenbockrolle of
Souverans Hobbes doit , where he speaks of He - extinguish obligation of obedience of his subjects .
According to Hobbes, the obedience obligation applies only as long as it succeeds the Souveran ,
protection For the subjects to gewahren.19 obedience and protection are mutually dependent .
Although Hobbes wanted to go to the creators of this immortal sovereignty ma -tion , but the " many
seeds of a natural mortality," Ministry of Foreign Wars 15 See W. palaver policy ( Note 1 ), 78-83 . 16 T.
Hobbes , Leviathan or staff , form and power of a church and bourgeois state. Edited and introduced by
I. Fetscherplatz . Frankfurt am Main , 1984, 134 (17th chapter ) . See P. Dumouchel , " Hobbes : La
Course a la souveraineté ." In : To Honor Rene Girard . Presented on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday
by colleagues , students , friends . Saratoga , 1986, 153-176 , here 176 T. Heerich , transformation of the
policy approach of Hobbes to Spinoza. The problem of sovereignty . Wiirzburg , 2000, 55 19 T. Hobbes ,
Leviathan (Note 16 ) 171 ( Chapter 21 ) .

SACRED kingship , DEATH PENALTY , KR1EG 365 and inner discord , make the Leviathan BLOB to a "
mortal God " .20 If we compare this limit obedience obligation in Hobbes with very old forms of
resistance law, will be a significant near the Souverans to ursprtinglichen scapegoat noticeable . As with
Hobbes, for example, the Germanic resistance law of reciprocity of protection and obedience - sam.21
Could the rulers no longer perceive the protection , they were killed . In times of crisis such as
MiBernten or Kriegsungluck therefore the sacrifice of the Lord was usual. In the 20th Century , Carl
Schmitt explored the nature of political sovereignty in AnschluB to Thomas Hobbes . Schmitt's answer to
the question of sovereignty is the form of theses and pointedly formulated at the beginning of his
treatise Political Theology : " Souveran is who decides about the state of emergency . " 22 By this
definition , he confessed - Hobbes below - to decisionism . By means of the mimetic theory, this
refreshes decisionism base on giving the Sundenbockmechanismus . Schmitt is also similar to Girard
from the priority of the exception. Girard's analysis of various myths shows that civilization historically
disorder and chaos of order, the law and the standard vorausgehen.23 How Schmitt Girard also takes a
de - cision - the Sundenbockmechanismus - the origin of all human cultures . According to Girard , the
Latin term carries fiir decide " decidere " even more clearly -ing traces of violence itself . Ursprungliche
the meaning of " decidere " - cut someone 's throat - specifies the deeper context of decision / Dezision
and Sundenbockmechanismus offen.24 But not only the core of ur sprungliche decisionism suggests a
rootedness of Schmitt's Souveranitatsverstandnis in Griindungsmord . Even Schmitt's emphasis on the
systematic exception - " the normal proves nothing , the exception proves everything " 25 - touches with
the nature of the Sundenbockmechanismus which to Girard as a "model of exception" the simplest
cultural symbol system

20 Ibid. 171 ( chapter 21 ) , 134 ( Sec 17 ) . See F. Kern , and divine right of resistance imfruhen Middle
Ages . ZurEntwick -ment history derMonarchie . Darmstadt 31962 , 318 ~ C. Schmitt , Political Theology .
Four Chapters on the doctrine of sovereignty . Berlin 5 , 1990, 11 R. Girard, " Disorder and Order in
Mythology" . In : Disorder and Order . Proceedings of the Stanford International Symposium (Sept 14-16
, 1981). Edited by P. Livingston . Saratoga , 1984, 80-97 . See W. palaver , " A Girardian Reading of
Schmitt 's " Political Theology " " . In Telos no. 93 (Fall 1992), 43-68 , here 51-58 , idem, "Order out of
chaos in the Theories of Carl Schmitt and Rene Girard ." In : Synthesis : An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol I,
No . I: chaos in the Humanities ( Spring 1995), 87-106 , 89-100 here . 24 See R. Girard, " To double
business bound" : Essays on Literature, Mimesis , and Anthro - pology . 1978 , 105 Baltimore ; idem, end
( Note 1) 247f ; idem, The scapegoat . From the Fran - zosischen of E. Main Berger rest. Zurich in 1988 ,
166; J. Schickel Gesprdche with Carl Schmitt . Berlin in 1993 , 7 If. 25 C. Schmitt , theology ( Note 22 )

iiberhaupt darstellt.26 Similarly, there is a lottery in Sundenbockmechanis mechanism for selecting a

victim to overcome the general chaos . Who pulled the shorter , muBte FTIR die the community. As an
example of the decisionism Schmitt calls the understanding of the political executive, as the classical
commentaries to the U.S. Constitution , expressed kommt.27 While there is the leg - islative discussion
and consultation in a coarser meeting in the Federalist articles, , soil lie only in one hand by James
Hamilton , one of the authors of this article , the executive. The unit of Dezision is central : " .
EntschluBkraft , activity , secrecy and speed characterize the approach of a single man generally far
HIGHER scale than was the approach of a coarser group " 28 What can be seen at first glance as bloBes
postulate -policy pragmatism turns out on examination to be naherem remaining balance of
Sundenbocklogik . In a democracy soil to Hamilton only one person mogli grows hold the executive
power , so that the people can easily write the error to a responsible person. A " Pluralitat the executive
" make it almost impossible " to determine who really pulled fiir or punished are the MaBnahme a
harmful or noxious competent person for a number of responsibilities" solle.29 The " distrust and the
constant attention of the people" diirfe therefore only " a single object have in mind " .30 these
considerations Hamil -ton's still shines through that ancient political wisdom that tried to save in a crisis
situation by the head of one the whole nation . Traces of Sundenbockmechanismus can be read but in
the modern world not only at certain theoretical concepts and positions , they also show up in the
concrete fate of the holders of political power. Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor , certainly as a Rep
rasentant those archaic forms of sacred kingship la'Bt kurzschliissig not understand , as we called them
as direct Friichte of Sundenbockmechanismus . And yet also still shows the example of the last German
emperor , how forms of sak -lateral kingship until the 20th Century rich in. . Nicolaus Sombart liber
zuruckgegriffen in a study via Wilhelm II on cultural sociological work, the sacral kingship , to better
understand the role and function of this last German Emperor schlands konnen.31 Under the help of the
mimetic

26 R. Girard ( Note 1) 101st See JG Williams, The Bible , Violence , and the Sacred : Liberation from the
Myth -tion of Sanctioned Violence . San Francisco , 1991, 20-25 . See Carl Schmitt , The Crisis of
Parliamentary Democracy . Well - chdruck the second edition published in 1926 . Berlin 61985 , 56f . A.
Hamilton / J. Madison / J. Jay , The Federalist Article Political Theory and Constitutional
sungskommentar the American Griindervdter . With the English and German text of the Constitution of
the United States. Ed , iibersetzt , initiated and annotated by A. Adams and WP Adams. Paderborn ,
1994, 425 ( 70 items ) . 29Ebd.429 . ^ Ebd.431 . 31 N. Sombart Wilhelm II and Mr. scapegoat the middle.
Berlin 1996 , 94-98 .

Sacral kingship , death penalty , war 367 Girard's theory suggests that Sombart Wilhelm II as the fate of
sins - bocks.32 he notes on his korperliche disability, on numerous political scandals during his tenure,
and finally possible to its expulsion into exile after the end of the First world War back . Among the
earliest accusations that this emperor stamped victim belonged to the accusation that he surrounded
himself with dignity homosexual men and thus the future of the empire - the danger : " In this way, the
emperor was very logic of the scapegoat mechanism that actually the worst VerstoGes against the ruling
ge societal morality accused who could be a man in Wilhelmine German country for reproach. " 33
These and other accusations wore long term help DA6 at the end of the First World war most Germans
Wilhelm II FTIR sole blame the defeat of their country had shifted to-be. Wilhelm II is certainly an
extreme example to show DA8 up to the present traces of gewalttatigen origin of political power have
been preserved. Abgeschwachter get much today but again and again the politicians of Western
democracies to tracks . The German journalist Rolf Zun - del describe such experiences on the example
of aging politicians in Germany , who were confronted at the end of her career with experiences that
remind us of the origin of political power : "Just as King Lear experienced DAG it interferes with the new
Verhalt - nisse, so are aging politicians - Adenauer know, Brandt put it - for , Siindenbock from duty ' All
that appears to inhibit the success will be unpacked them then it can happen DAG coalition partners
such as the 1961 election campaign with the . . public appeal slogan contest : the Union , but without
Adenauer Then one is like Willy Brandt in the last years of his Parteifiihrerschaft FTIR many of his
comrades the epitome of a missed approach , the hope of a rotgriine majority And the illusion is
spreading, if only . . the Stindenbock was sold to the problems were solved . " 34 2 The death penalty as
the origin of the legal system on the example of the emergence of sacral kingship , we were able to
follow the ritual unfolding of Griindungsgewalt its increasing focus on the posi-tive transmission. There
is of course also the opposite way of ritual development , in which the negative transfer occurs always
strong in the foreground . Here we have also to do with the unfolding of a signifi - common political
institution. This side of the ritual development ftihrt us to the death penalty , the foundations and the
oldest core of the legal

32 Ibid. 205-228 . 33Ebd.218 . 34 R. Zundel , " The heavy -bye. Suffering from politicians after the
withdrawal of power, Offentlichkeit , apparatus and Wirkungsmoglichkeiten . " In : The Time # 15 (7
April 1989) 45f .

forms . The death penalty MUB are recognized as an important political institution , even if today is
almost incomprehensible to us , because we live in a world in which there is some hope , So that we can
permit the peaceful coexistence of people without this institution. Still fiir Dostoyevsky , it was clear
how much the death penalty is intimately connected with the legal system. In his " fantastic tale " dream
Idcherlichen people he describes DAB also written codes belong to the idea of justice , for their
preservation in turn the guillotine be erected muBte.35 For reaktionare political thinkers such as Joseph
de Maistre , Juan Donoso Cortes and Carl Schmitt was the fundamental political significance of the death
penalty never in question . Fiir it was the death penalty is a necessary means to einzudammen the
internal violence of a society. Pointedly does it show in de Maistre's glorification of the executioner ,
which forms fiir him the central political figure : " All magnitude , all power, all subordination rests on
the executioner : he is the horror , and also the band of all human Zusammenkunfte Take this
incomprehensible staff . from the continuous world , and even takes the place of order the chaos , the
sinking throne, and the company of various overcomes . " 36 Donoso Cortes fought for similar reasons
against the abolition of the death penalty fiir political crime because he befiirchtete , so DAB dignity
abolished any kind of punishment in the long term . As a possible deterrent due to the Abolition he
described to become a " hell " earth " bubble itself from the hard rock of blood " in the werde.37 Even in
view of his own world , he claimed , was DAB " tiberall , which abolished the death penalty " be , " the
society of alien blood sweat pores " habe.38 If we zuruckblicken today on the history of our modern
world , we can recognize DAB Donoso Cortes ' warning was not entirely unjustified. A unique roof- term
writer like Albert Camus, the time of his life decided against the death penalty occurred , 39 showed in
his essay The Man in the Revoke ^ as both the 35 FM Dostoevsky ' dream of a laugher 's People " in : . .
Writings, The Player . Spate novels and short stories from the Russian iibertragen

EK Rahsin Munchen , 1996, 717 - . . . 746, hier741 J. d Maistre evening to St. Petersburg or conversations
u'ber the rule of gb'ttli -ing caution in temporal things with an appendix u'ber the victim. FRENCH from
the translated by M. Lieber . 2 vols Frankfurt 1824-25 , 1 40 here quoted . according to I. Berlin, the
krumtne wood Humanita't . chapter history of ideas. translated from English by R. Kaiser . Frankfurt am
Main , 1992, 153 J. Donoso Cortes , essay u'ber Catholicism , liberalism and socialism and other writings
from 1851 bis , 1853. eds , translated and kommentieit G. Maschke . Weinheim , 1989, 196f . See C.
Schmitt , Donoso Cortes in total european eign interpretation . essay four . Koln , 1950, 110 38 J. Donoso
Cortes , essay (note 37) 194 Cf A . Camus issues currently of German Basic Law Master Reinbek , 1992,
93-139 ( " The guillotine" ) . . B. Sand, "" ... something Starkeres than any law . " Camus and the Death
Penalty " In : . Orientation 64 (2000) 215-219

FRENCH than 369 was also in the Russian revolution at the beginning of the fight against the death
penalty as the surest signs of Unterdrtickung urn , finally ending in a bloodbath that knew no limits in
the application of the death penalty more : " The scaffold appears as the altar of religious injustice. 's
new faith they can not tolerate . Yet the moment arrives where the faith , he is dogmatic, his own altars
prepares and unconditional adoration required. then the scaffolds again appear , and despite the altars ,
of freedom, and the oaths of Veraunft festivals are celebrated in the blood , the trade fairs of the new
faith . " 40 the example of the Revo - FRENCH lutionars and journalist Jean-Paul Marat Camus illustrates
how during the French Revolution , the death penalty all quantitative over borders with the archa -pean
Siindenbocklogik . While Marat defended himself by claiming that " a small number of heads cut off " to
want only "urn a Big number to save ," Camus Marat questioned justification by pointing out DA6 this
sacrifice finally muBte.41 273,000 head still shows my opinion on the U.S. example , the close
connection between political power and the death penalty . There seems to be no coincidence that the
last remaining superpower -policy with its role as world policeman determined to stop the practice of
the death penalty. Is there a connection between the increased willingness to use violence militarischer
and a political culture that still believes , death penalty can not do without ? The death penalty is a BLOB
that is not particularly violent form of punishment that you could easily get rid of in civilized time , but is
actually the archaic foundation of the legal system. The implicit criticism of the death penalty ert thus
always already a request to the entire legal system. While the reaktionaren thinkers suspected this
regard at least , many critics of the more fundamental issues were not conscious of . An exception is
Walter Benjamin , who comes to speak in his important essay " Critique of Violence " on the death
penalty as the gewalttatigen foundation of all law. The critics of the death penalty fiihlten after
Benjamin " perhaps without begriinden it can , yes probably want to ftihlen without it , dab a challenge
to the death penalty is not a StrafmaB , not law, but the law itself in its origin attacks " .42 The fact
completely unverhaltnismaBige , DAB was verhangt in primitive Rechtsverhaltnissen the death penalty
in self - tumsvergehen , Benjamin FTIR confirmed the fundamental importance of this form of
punishment . " My sense is therefore not to punish the breach of the law , but the new law to statuieren
. Because of violence in the Austibung via

40 A. Camus, The Man in the Revoke . Essays. FRENCH transferred from the J. Streller . Reinbek in
Hamburg 1994 96 See W. Sofsky , treatise via the violence. Frankfurt am Main 1996 , 120 41 A. Camus,
man (note 40 ) 104 W. Benjamin , Collected Writings . Edited by R. Tiedemann Schweppe and H. Hauser.
Frankfurt 1991 Bd.Hl

life and death delivers on more than in any other law enforcement the right itself " 43 Benjamin's
critique of violence aimed at the foundations of the law by not only the" " considered , but also the"
law-preserving violence legislative power " in his analysis involves . Similar to Benjamin and Sigmund
Freud, the origin of the law has spoken in a collective act of violence . According to Freud, the law
originally the violence of a community that has the force of individual entgegentritt.44 AnschluB in
Freud's theory of culture is Charles leather Bruno the death penalty to the practice of human sacrifice
recov - leads , while the offender as a Siindenbock charakterisiert.45 leather exemplary reference to
Oedipus , which he interprets as a Siindenbock , already comes Girard's theory of mimetic very nahe.46
Sundenbockcharakter the leather is for the weightiest argument against the death penalty : " In
principle and its innermost essence, it is the demand for foreign capital punishment not to blame, but to
own Schuldgefiihle , the FTIR a Siindenbock is searched. Is this by chance even guilty - so much the
better . He is innocent - not bad . His role as a debt transformer For the Community justifies it . " 47
Wolfgang Sofsky has highlighted based on a similar leather context of death and human sacrifice : " The
relationship of the death penalty with the ancient practice of human sacrifice is untibersehbar . A state
is restored , which is falling apart , the most precious gift that refreshes think : a person's life . The dead
schiitzt the society by turns creates more misery and injustice done in the world . The scaffold is the
altar of society. In him the Suhneopfer is represented brought the high art of all gods , the society itself "
48 All these different notes can be condensed by the mimetic theory by shows that the death penalty in
Sundenbockmechanismus has its origin . According to Girard springs the death penalty as was the whole
essence of the criminal Griindungsmord.49 to Abstiitzung this thesis point to the FRENCH historian Louis
Gernet , who investigated the origin of the death penalty among the Greeks. Fiir Gernet presents itself in
two forms of the death penalty , which has no direct relationship to each other seem to have . the first
form of the death penalty is purely religioser kind you used " as a means of eliminating a loading
spotting ... it shows up as cleansing liberation of the group in which the responsibility for the newly shed
blood sometimes abschwacht and finally disappears ( at least in the case of stoning may be the case ) .
Next is

43Ebd . 44 See S. Freud , Study Edition ( Note 11) Bd DC, 225 ( " The discomfort in the culture "); ( " ?
WarumKrieg " ) 276f . 45 K. as leather , death penalty. Origin , history , sacrifice. Munchen , 1980, 63-65 .
46Ebd.74f . 47Ebd.3Ol . 48 W. Sofsky , Tract (Note 40 ) 124 4y See R. Girard, Holy ( Note 1) 438-441 ; G.
Bailie , Violence Unveiled : Humanity at the Crossroads . New York , 1995, 78-85 .

the gewalttatige VerstoBung that VerstoBung in the death of a member unwiirdigen and cursed
accompanied by the idea of devotio . On one hand, the killing of appears indeed as a pious act : one
need only recall the provisions of the ancient law, is found to be involved ausdriicklich , dab the murder
of an outlaw the purity does not diminish , or to those provision of Germanic law, from such a murder a
duty does . . . On the other hand, fulfills the executed man in such a case a really religious function : it is
an analogy here to the priest - kings , which are also executed , this analogy is in the name of the
criminal well documented as homo sacer in Rome or pharmakos in Greece. " 50 According to Girard
recognize this text refreshes the connection between the death penalty and Slindenbockmechanismus
so clear that it needs no further comment . A form of religious significance of execution with their
AusschluBlogik Close to the Griindungsmordes is also reported by Plato in the banishment of the bones
of getoteten Gotteslasterern from the Stadt.51 the second erwahnte of Gernet of execution is marked
by a minimum of forms and has nothing to do with the Religiosen . This is the apagoge , fast and
populares form of lynching , the Inflagranti offenses punished and is always immediately gutgeheiBen of
the community. , in most cases it is the victims of this execution kind to strangers whose PUBLIC killing
of does not constitute a direct threat FTIR internal cohesion of the Community. this second execution
form is to Girard the Sundenbockmechanismus even closer than the . first If it is the first of execution
already a regulated through the ritual killing of so is this second form - as a lynching - . directly related to
the Sundenbockmechanismus by the spontaneous lynching was gradually systematized and legalized ,
the gradual upper transition occurred of this second of execution to ritually regulated form of the death
penalty - . . both execution modes are thus actually connected to each other and show that the legal
punishment is rooted in Griindungsmechanismus as in the case of the kingship , as it is also the example
of the death penalty both elements of the find duplicate transmission of Sundenbockmechanismus . ,
the executed victims are as guilty criminals undoubtedly Reprasentanten the negative transfer of the
Sundenbockmechanismus . , but also the elements of the positive transfer can be identified by signs of
Vere - currency , which are met with even criminals. In very completed schwachter form have been
preserved traces of this worship up to the present time . Consider, for example, to the french ritual of
the death penalty , which the condemned man a cigarette and a rum Glaschen allowed ,

52 or 50 at the L. Gernet , anthropology de la Grece antique . Paris , 1968, and references therein.
according to R. Girard, Holy ( Aim 1) 439 51 See Plato, Laws 854-855 . 52 See R. Girard, end ( Note 1 ) 59

practice of the last meal that the convicted may, in their desire to - assemble itself . In the old folk
culture , there are many clues that show how criminals by the execution of Holy wurden.53 your
remnants , but also things that have come with them Beriihrung were like holy relics venerated (
GliedmaBen , blood, the " arms - Sunder - shirt ", wood splinters or nails from the Gal -tions and the
snare of the Gehangten ) .54 In England in the 17th Century, for example, the Beriihrung with the hand
of a fresh Gehangten as cure for gout eingesetzt.55 An interesting example is the cult of the Sicilian santi
de - collati , the holy decapitated , the wurden.56 venerated as the patron gods caused the death
penalty those executed those sacralization , the Girard generally retentive fiir the
Siindenbockmechanismus . The fact DA8 did not occur in cases of murder or suicide this sacralization ,
additionally emphasizes the connection between the death penalty and Sundenbockmechanismus . The
example of the death penalty also refreshes the difficult path of Christianity to wriggle out of the world
of religious faiths , well nachzeich -tions . If in the Gospels a endgtiltige detection of Siindenbockmecha
mechanism is given , the miiBte also affect the attitude of Christians have had to over the
Siindenbockmechanismus rooted in the death penalty. Actually takes place in just the first few centuries
, a critical attitude towards the death penalty. Tertullian , Lactantius , Origen, Minucius Felix and the
Canon of Hippolytus spoke out against the death penalty. With the beginning of the state church and
the building of a "Christian" culture but always sat sakrifizielle a strong reading of the Gospel through
that allowed no prin - zipiellen resistance to the death penalty more . She became a fixed part of the
Christian culture. Even in the 20th century, the Catholic Church bekampfte their Abschaffung.57 In
recent decades, this attitude has changed fundamentally. The Catholic Church speaks always clearer
against this form of punishment from. The increasing distance to the political power it ermoglichte you
today, always strong pointed rebuke to the Fragwiirdigkeit of death.

53 Cf. K. as leather, death penalty (Note 45). 266F. 54 Cf. M. Herzog, "theory of religion and theology
Rene Girard." In: Kerygma and Dogma 38 (1992) 105-137, here 123 * See K. Thomas, Religion and the
Decline of Magic. Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth century England.
Harmondsworth 51985, 242 'Cf. M. Herzog, "Executed criminals as an object of veneration. Concerning
the context of Rene Girard." In: Spirit undLeben 65 (1992) 367-386. 57 Cf. J. Ude, "Thou shalt not dead!"
Eds. H. Kobinger. Dornbirn 1948.

The third Sundenbockmechanismus as the origin of the war and political friend-enemy-conditions to
political economy seem to belong almost inevitably wars and mutual hostility between groups, nations
or states blocking. In the history of human civilization we flew again on documents that understand the
hostility as an essential element of the political. Even in the Greek and Roman antiquity, there is a
wealth of examples fiir this view. The clearest text dafiir offers Aeschylus' tragedy The Eumenides, in the
community, the friendship within the Greek polis by the einmutige foe is made possible outwards: "joys
mog changing you swap, / Einmiitig loving heart, / And hate a sense! "is the a short form mel FTIR the
friend-enemy distinction, the bildet.58 the constitutive core of the Greek polis, the features in the
tragedy of Aeschylus becomes visible friend -Feind-structuring of the political and the political
philosophies of Plato and Aristoteles.59 the emphasis on the friend-enemy-differentiability clothes is
not only fiir ancient thought typical, also Ostliche philosophies are coined by him. As example of this can
be referred to the now often fiir his peaceful attitude acclaimed Taoism of Lao-tse. To the ideal of a
world of many from each of independent small states also belongs the praise of enmity: "No calamity
gross as to be without an enemy." 60 Where the enmity lacking, people wiirden the ability to mercy, to
MaBigkeit and Zurtickstehen in the competition verlieren.61 Even modern Europe was coined quite
significantly from friend-foe distinctions, if we nevertheless to the Spannungsverhaltnisse and wars
between nation-states ken. In the 20th century showed up in the Cold War a very effective form of
political enmity, whose hegende function after its end and thus made the spread and intensification of
Biirgerkriegen was clearly identify nbar. Fiir the time of the classic nation-state through the Cold War,
the friend-enemy distinction has been highlighted as a central feature of politics most clearly by Carl
Schmitt. In his Begriffdes Political, there is a now-now classic formula fiir the friendship -Feind
distinction: "The specific political distinction to which can be zuriickfiihren the political actions and
motives, is the lower

58 Aeschylus, Translated by tragedies. O. Werner with an introduction and explanations by B.

Zimmermann Munchen 1990, Eumenides 984-986 See C. Meier, the emergence of the political with the
Greeks Frankfurt am Main 31995, 207-214,..... W. palaver, the mythical sources of the Political Carl
Schmitt's friend-enemy theory Stuttgart 1998, 36f 59 Plato, Stoat 469B-471c,..... Aristotle, Politics
1252b, 1327b See R. Koselleck, "For the historically-political semantics of asymmetric counter-concepts"
, in:. DERS .: past to future semantics historical times, Frankfurt am Main 31995, 21 1-259, here 219f 60
Lao-Tse:... Tao Te Ching the Sacred Book of the Way and of Virtue translation, Einleituns and
Anmerkunsen of G. Debon, Stuttgart 1979, 98 (Chap. 69, § 166). 61Vgl.ebd.96 (Kap.67, §162).

decision of friend and foe. "62 With regard to Schmitt's Nazi past of the Cold War era whose
understanding of politics was just while often ignored or taboo. However Just take a look at all non-roof-
term thinkers such as Georg Simmel and Sigmund Freud throw, to see DAB Schmitt's emphasis on the
friend-enemy distinction at the beginning of the 20th century is no exception. He meets with this
formula dimensions of politics that also for Simmel and Freud as unquestionable facts were. Simmel
believed a recognize general sociological rule can, after all social unity presupposes a hostility outwards:
"It is a fact of the groBten sociological importance, one of the few that apply almost without exception
of group formation of any kind: that the joint opposition a third party under all circumstances
zusammenschlie- Bend acts, with a lot of larger security acts as the common friendly relationship with a
third party. "63 Freud's observation of enmity is a similar close relationship between love inside and
hostility outwards firmly. "The advantage of a smaller cultural group, dab it allows the engine a way out
of the Befeindung the AuBenstehenden is not geringzuschatzen., It is always possible, involves a higher
amount of people in love to bind to each other, if only other fiir ubrigbleiben the AuBerung of
aggression. "64 After the end of the Cold War there was Big hopes, that the political division of the
world into East and West for the last forms of friend-foe -Unterscheidung've heard that will now
superseded by a endgiiltigen overcoming the political enmity . The end of the Cold War, but did not
bring peace, but led to a world of Burgerkriege.65 In this new world situation, the American political
scientist Samuel Huntington believed to be able to make up in a "clash of civilizations" fundamental
friend-foe conditions. His understanding of political identity riickte again the already known by Schmitt
her friend-foe discrimination ability at the center of political attention: "We know who we are when we
know who we are and who we are." 66 Not later than the terrorist Anschlage September 11, 2001
Huntington considerations so very geriickt the center of political attention, DAB even the UN Secretary
General and Nobel Peace prize winner Kofi Annan in his response to the terrorist Anschlage
Huntington's thesis to half said yes, by he also common enemies to one essential characteristic each
total C. Schmitt, the Beg riff of the political. Llarien text from 1932 with a preface and three corona.
Reprint of the edition published in 1963. Berlin 1987, 26 G. Simmel, sociology. Tibet studies the forms of
socialization. Eds. O. Rammstedt. Frankfurt am Main in 1992, 683f. 64 S. Freud, Study Edition (note. 1 1)
Vol. IX, 242f ("The discomfort in the culture"). See. HM Enzensberger, prospects tothe Biirgerkrieg.
Frankfurt am Main 1993 SP Huntington, The Kampfder cultures. The Clash of Civilizations. The Remaking
of World Order in the 21st century. From the American H. Fliessbach. Mtinchen, Vienna 1996.21.

company arose and distanced himself tiflkation only by their unique religioser or national identity: "At a
time like this the world is defined not only by the, wofiir it occurs, but also against whom and for what it
is know mtissen have the courage to be expected that there are not only common goals but also
common enemies ... the world needs to realize that there are fiir all societies common enemies, but
they -., the United Nations - and the international community. must equally understand that these
enemies do not and never defined by affiliation to a religion or national origin can be defined. "67
belong wars and friend-foe conditions necessarily be on the political nature of man or even they
themselves as cultural construct products de-and zuruckfiihren on the Sundenbockmechanismus?
Girard's mimetic's theory contradicts alien attempts to consider friend or foe conditions as natural
hazards handed forms of a clash of cultures. "The war takes place ursprlinglich... Between neighboring
groups, between people of race, language, cultural practices do not differ from each according to at all
today. DrauBen between the enemy and the friend is inside no real difference, and can be seen hardly
could explain why Instinktsmonta- conditions the difference in behavior. "68 the violence is by Girard
always an internal problem of a group that leads only via the detour of Sundenbockmechanismus to
friend and foe ratios between groups, the internal to channel violence outwards. From the perspective
of mimetic's theory of war and political friend-enemy-conditions from the Sundenbockmechanismus
emerge. In order to be able to understand just ratios that origin of the institution of war and of friend-
foe comparison, we mtissen us to the religious rites are concentrated, in which conscious of the
spontaneous and unbewuBte event of Sundenbockmecha- mechanism for Kraftigung of peace once
gained and is then monitored. The Sundenbockmechanismus causes Dab a grundsatzliche difference
between the group on the one hand and the - originally also the group angehorenden - scapegoat is on
the other. The Stindenbock the group is doing "alienated" in a unbewuBte way. As a Fully Tobener while
Vergottlichter his ursprtingliche affiliation is no longer visible to the group. He's a stranger than God. The
ritual violence, which is nothing else than the imitation of controlled Siindenbockgeschehens, this
strangeness of Sundenbocks always takes as its starting point already unquestioned education.
Consisted of Sundenbockmechanismus in the channeling of total

67 KA Annan, "Uniting against terrorism". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (. 22723 September 2001).
68 R. Girard, end (Note 1.) 87 See L. Mumford, The City in History:. Its Origins, its Transformations, and
its Prospects. New York, 1989, 24f, 4 If; R. Aron, Peace and War. A theory of the world of states. From
the FRENCH S. of Massenbach. With a foreword to the new edition of R. Lowenthal. Frankfurt am Main,
1986, 424-427.

wait from the inside outwards, so the ritual violence is marked by her lying ahead and already
constituted distinction between inside and Auben from the beginning. Political friend-enemy war
conditions and are therefore not eternal institutions but ask - based on the ritual repetition of
Sundenbockmechanismus - already another form of Gewalteindammung is the example of the Canadian
Tsimshian Indians Girard reflects the originally sprtingliche function-religious ritual. wars or political
friend-enemy supply haltnisse: "the ritual violence is always less than the immanent violence
ursprungliche by being mythical-ritual, the violence moves outwards, and this shift has even sacrificial
character. hides the place the Ursprungalm resembled violence and schiitzt so the elementary group, in
their absolute shoved peace prevail MUB, before this violence and prior knowledge of this violence....
between the two groups so they agree to it, never to agree to agree better within each group to be able
It is already the principle of every war against, auBere enemies. ':., the for the cohesion of the group
potentially fateful aggressive tendencies directed, seen from the inside to the outside "69 Aeschylus'
tragedy the Eumenides is particularly well suited to the transition-reprasentieren from
Siindenbockmechanismus political hostility to illus- lichen.70 the revenge ends Furies is the first
collective violence of Siindenbockmechanismus. Just as the lynch mob pursues his Siindenbock, so they
hunt their prey Orestes: "No, not Apollo can you not Athenas power / not expose against DAB you in
godforsakenness / Verkommst, to the delight of nowhere find in the heart space, / Of blood completely
empty , FRAB the demons, Schatte only! / If you give no answer? FEEDING well of you even my word? /
you, gemastet me and ordained as a sacrificial animal, / Will live meal to me, not slaughtered on the
altar! "71 the goddess Athene causes the pacification of vengeance goddesses by iiberredet to the
Furies, in the future only as a blessing goddesses - as Eumenides - to be the city subservient. This
pacification of the Furies significant but not tet, That the violence is fiir always iiberwunden, but
represents only a shift of power from the inside outwards. Behind the conversion of vengeance
goddesses in blessing God inside is the overcoming of the Civil War in the city by the collective violence
against common enemies auBere, as the chorus of the Eumenides brings expressed therein, where he
utters the above erwahnte friend-foe formula: "the sattgen can not be hurt, never roar Biirgerkrieg /
This town, this is my desire / never. suppose, drunken with the dunkelen blood of burgers, / In the anger
of revenge changing murder bloodlust / on the ground here in town! / joys mog partly replace you, / On
miitig loving heart, / and hate a sense! / This is it, what a lot of suffering

69 R. Girard, Holy (Note 1.) 365 / u R. Girard, Job (Aim 1) 185-193;. W. palaver, sources (. note 58) 38-45
71 Aeschylus, Eumenides (NB. 58) 299-305. Cf. R. Girard, Job (Notes. 1) 187

people heals "72 The goddess Athena concretized this deportation of internal violence outwards, when
they speak of war at the gates of the city, the ablosen the Civil War soil". Drum do not throw in my
country areas hi- no / Bloody dispute whetstones, damaged quietly the Gemut / the youth, DA8 they
weinlos drunk, crashing into anger / still do, tease them, taps equal, the heart, / When my burgers at
home here the god of strife, / the Brtider a tribe successive rushes! / Vorm gates only soil wars raging
developed easily; / There is lofty seeking fame gewaltge greed her field! / But the same court Gefliigel
was the struggle denied! "73 Where the goddess Athena the pacified Eumenides describes her
zuklinftige role as a blessing Bring gutters, there is bock mechanism, a clear allusion to the political
hostility underlying Sunden-. A direct connected to the Sundenbockgeschehen forces is the Eumenides
namely in the future nor the eradication of internal enemies, while Athena is itself - as Reprasentantin a
new form of politics - all at war with the enemies auBeren focused: "godless but jate more from strong!
/ Wtinsch I but after the good flora ztichters Art / The right Gediehnen unverkummert noble impact. /
All this you is whether. Yet I will, awakens War God call / Glorious competition, ruhn and rest not until
you / As a city of victory in man people honor my city! "74 show the Eumenides of Aeschylus, as is clear
from the internal violence hostile and warlike conditions between collectives form in order to be able to
derive the violence outwards. in the background the Sundenbockmechanismus which forms the
ursprtingliche form of collective violence against a third party is. Numerous ethnological material is
Girard's theory of the origin of war and political enmity in Sundenbockmechanismus. example, he refers
to the ritual cannibalism of the Brazilian Tupinambas.75 between the trunks of Tupinambas there was a
"permanent state of war" who provided each tribe with the NECESSARY victims who benotigten these to
internal violence reduction. a very similar function have the "Flower wars" of the Aztecs fulfilled, which
were aligned as in the first line on the extraction of prisoners for ritual sacrifice. Victims were fiir this
culture so important Dab in the case of missing real conflicts artificial Blu-men-wars were waged to
victims kommen.76 An interesting example fiir the understanding of the function of ritual
gewalteindammenden

72 Aeschylus, Eumenides (NB. 58) 978-987. 73 Ibid. 858-866. 74 Ibid. 910-915. 75 Cf. R. Girard, Holy
(Note. 1) 402-412. 76 See. G. Bataille, "The ostracized part". In: Selected Writings, The abolition of & the
economy.. From the FRENCH of T. Konig, H. and G. Abosch Bergfleth. Munchen 32001, 33-234, here 78;
L. Mumford, City (Note 68.) 41; A. Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1987, 72; M. v. Creveld, The Transformation of War. New York, 1991, 140, 150f; R.
Calasso, The Fall of Kasch. From the Italian by J. Schulte. Frankfurt am Main in 1997, the 164th

violence is also found in Muslim tribal societies that have no central Autoritat, but held together by
segmentation werden.77 segmentation means DA6 each small group over an opposing group is
compared. The auBere pressure ausgeiibt mainly in the form of vendetta between the groups generated
internal cohesion and peace. On a higher level, each warring small groups against each coarser and
similar segmented group are again united. The peace is established in this segmentary societies by
prevailing on alien levels friend -Feind-ratio and refreshes itself well illustrated by the following Arab
proverb: "I against my brothers, my brothers and I against our cousins, my brothers, cousins and I
against the world. "78 the rivalry and Gewalttatigkeit begins on the smallest elementary level and is
overcome by a derived outwards enmity respectively. Girard Zuriickweisung the thesis DAB wars and
political friend-enemy supply are haltnisse eternal institutions opens up important ethical perspectives
fiir the future. It undermines all the theories, the (xenophobic) explain hostility and war to the political
nature of man. The origin of these institutions in Stindenbockmechanismus shows namely, that all the
forms of interpersonal violence and hostility in the most elementary human relationships arise. Even at
this level so MUB a way out of the enmity be found. The Sermon of the Bible has this way to peace.
Reconciliation and love of enemies must begin in the elementary relations of people, not necessarily
having to rely on the institution of war to the channeling of violence. Even the anger or the evil word
against his own brother, paving the way for the ultimate hell of war leads (cf.. Mt 5, 2 If). While Girard in
accordance with the biblical perspective political structures and institutions zuruckfuhrt on the
elementary human coexistence, Schmitt says the Sermon every political relevance from, because he
sees the biblical call to love our enemies BLOB as a private matter other that untiberwindbaren
apparently unrelated to political enmity between human groups stehe.79

77 Cf. E. Gellner, life in Islam. Religion as a social order. From the English translated u of p. U. Enderwitz.
Stuttgart, 1985, 62-67. / bEbd. 111 See R. Girard, Resurrection from the Underground:. Feodor
Dostoevsky. Translated and foreword by J. G. Williams. New York 1997, 59, 139f; . DERS, end (Note 1.)
140, 204, 270; C. Schmitt, term (n. 62) 29f.