Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner

Kaltenbrunner's major influences included Ernst Topitsch [de]'s neopositivism, Ernst Karl Winter's Catholic conservatism, Ludwig Klages' emphasis on the physicality of humans and Konrad Lorenz' social biology, but also anarchist writers such as Mikhail Bakunin and Hugo Ball. Other recurring references included Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Novalis, Franz von Baader and Vilfredo Pareto. Kaltenbrunner regarded language as something that precedes political practice and sought to develop a conservative canon.^[1]

He argued that conservatism is not a "final, fixed doctrine", but rather something that is "reformulated from era to era" and must exist in dialogue with current scientific debates.^[1] He made anthropology the core aspect of conservatism of his era and argued in favour of a biologically derived "need for order, security and stability".^[1] He described his project as "creative conservatism", in which conservatism must focus on the future rather than the past, and is defined as "prospective, with a view towards its yet-to-be-fulfilled possibilities, as renewal, creativity and rebirth".^[1] He argued that contemporary conservatives had more in common with 20th-century revolutionary movements than with 19th-century conservatives, and defined conservative theory as a "theory of revolutionary conservation".^[1]

He came from a Catholic milieu, and his influences included Catholic writers from whom he adopted an interest in transcendence and mysticism, but Christianity was not central in his political thoughts.^[1]

• Becher, Phillip (2022). "The (Almost) Forgotten Elitist Sources of Right-Wing Populism. Kaltenbrunner, Höcke and the Distaste for the Masses". In Oswald, Michael (ed.). The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. Cham: Springer. pp. 213–224. ISBN 978-3-030-80802-0.