How did the relationship between the politically very disparate theorists Carl Schmitt and Otto Kirchheim shape their political thinking? Hubertus Buchstein investigates the personal, political, and theoretical dimensions between the infamous legal theorist Schmitt and his former student Kirchheimer, who became a member of the Frankfurt School in exile. The various links between them illuminate crucial moments in the recent history of political ideas and legal theory in German and European contemporary history as well as transatlantic intellectual history. Furthermore, it touches upon the role of German exiles in the American academic system, anti-Semitism, as well as German-Jewish relations in the 20th century.