A Reflection on Mystical Anarchism in the
Works of Gustav Landauer and Eric Voegelin
Franziska Hoppen
University of Kent, UK
While German anarchist philosopher Gustav Landauer and
American political scientist Eric Voegelin have each inspired sig-
nificant scholarly comment, these two figures have not yet been
brought into contact with one another. This paper seeks to draw
attention to the similarities in their work, exploring Landauer’s and
Voegelin’s mystical anarchism, the foundation of their critique of
politics, and visions of what they describe as a true, anti-political
community. According to both thinkers, the cornerstone for com-
munity is the essential unity between an individual’s direct, unme-
diated experience of being, and its knowledge of being, forming its
most primary reality. Politics, they state, only becomes necessary
when this unity is separated, functioning to maintain the separation
by foreclosing experience and externalising knowledge. Thus, pol-
itics creates a substitutional, second reality and a particularist so-
ciety, which encompasses a people’s new self-interpretation. While
the two thinkers have identified this substitutional reality in need of
constant self-defence as the basis for 20th-century totalitarian poli-
tics, they also argue that primary reality can at all times be remem-
bered. Through a process which Landauer refers to as “separation”
and Voegelin as “anamnesis”, the individual may re-access primor-
dial reality, radiating its knowledge into, and thereby transforming,
second reality.This paper is a personal reflection on anarchism from a mystical
perspective, guided by the works of German anarchist philoso-
pher Gustav Landauer (1870–1919) and American political sci-
entist Eric Voegelin (1901–1985), focussing specifically on their
How to cite this book chapter:
Hoppen, F. 2017. A Reflection on Mystical Anarchism in the Works of Gustav
Landauer and Eric Voegelin. In: Christoyannopoulos, A. and Adams, M. S.
(eds.) Essays in Anarchism and Religion: Volume 1. Pp. 198–237. Stockholm:
Stockholm University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/bak.f. License:
CC-BY