The Dual State
literary work
The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship (German: Der Doppelstaat) is a German-language and English-language non-fiction book by lawyer and political scientist Ernst Fraenkel.
E. A. Shils was the translator of the English version, which was published by Oxford University Press in 1941. Shils worked with Edith Loewenstein and Klaus Knorr. It was re- translated into German in the 1970s, with the first German-language version published in 1974.
Premise
The book describes how, in the courts of Nazi Germany, people opposed to the government faced a lack of legal protection, while other groups were given legal protections. Fraenkel called the first the "Prerogative State" and the second the "Normative State". He described the entire system as the "Dual State".
Background
Fraenkel took a document, written in German and titled Urdoppelstadt, in which he outlined how the Nazi legal system works, and left Germany with it in 1938. Fraenkel had violated the laws of the Nazi state by writing the work. He finished the work on June 15, 1940.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Dual State” is literary work. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dual, State and literary, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “literary work” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q136505545. VIAF identifies the subject as 214844368. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1974, 1938 and 1940.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Dual State”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Dual State primary sources, The Dual State archive and Dual research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Dual State”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Dual State” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.