Cassirers politische Philosophie : zwischen allgemeiner Kulturtheorie und Totalitarismus Debatte The work presents the main lines of the 20th century totalitarism debate in Western and Eastern Europe in order to clarify specific features of Cassirers discussion of the totalitarianism. The author focusses on Cassirers philosophy of culture and political philosophy in relation to the above mentioned debates. It resolves which gain Cassirers cultural anthropological based interpretation of totalitarian rule yields from todays perspective