Synthesizer of Constitutional Theory, 1958–1963 85
broken off in 1933. Both the Abendroth and Schmitt schools were
marginalized, leaving the field dominated by Smend and his students.
Absorbing impulses from the Abendroth and Smend schools
enabled Habermas to reconnect threads of discourse that had been
cut by the Third Reich. Habermas’s early political writings shows
the imprint of the Abendroth school first and foremost, the Smend
school through the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court
and his extensive intellectual network, and lastly the Schmittians.