# Corpse-like obedience

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{{Short description|German philosophy idea}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
thumb|right|The term originates in the writings of Ignatius of Loyola.
'''Corpse-like obedience''' ({{Langx|de|Kadavergehorsam}}) refers to an [obedience](/source/Obedience_(human_behavior)) in which the obeying person submits unreservedly to another's will, like a mindless, animated [cadaver](/source/cadaver).

It is also translated as corpse obedience, cadaver obedience, cadaver-like obedience, slavish obedience, unquestioning obedience, absolute obedience or blind obedience.

Some scholars have translated the term as [zombie](/source/zombie)-like obedience.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lih |first=Lars T |date=2003 |title=How a Founding Document Was Found, or One Hundred Years of Lenin's What is to Be Done? |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/28/article/39591 |journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=5–49 |doi=10.1353/kri.2003.0008 |issn=1538-5000|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Jesuit origin==
The term originated with the [Jesuit](/source/Jesuit) work by [Ignatius of Loyola](/source/Ignatius_of_Loyola) from 1553, the "Letter on Obedience".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Pólit |first=Manuel María Espinosa |url=https://archive.org/details/perfectobedience0000manu |title=Perfect Obedience: Commentary on the Letter on Obedience of Saint Ignatius of Loyola |date=1947 |publisher=Newman Bookshop |pages=2 |language=en}}</ref> It has also been dated to 1558.<ref name=":2" /> That text said, in Latin: "{{Lang|la|Et sibi quisque persuadeat, quod qui sub Obedientia vivunt, se ferri ac regi a divina Providentia per Superiores suos sinere debent perinde, ac si cadaver essent}}" which can be translated as "We should be aware that each of those who live in obedience must allow himself to be led and guided by [Divine Providence](/source/Divine_providence) through the [Superior](/source/Superior_(hierarchy)), as if he were a dead body".<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Pieri |first=Veronica De |date=20 June 2023 |title=Wird irgendetwas mit mir geschehen? Psycho(patho)logical perspectives on Hannah Arendt's The Banality of Evil |url=https://dive-in.unibo.it/article/view/17278 |journal=Dive-In |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=7–42 |doi=10.6092/issn.2785-3233/17278 |issn=2785-3233}}</ref><ref name="Miller1978">{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=J.R. |date=September 1978 |title=The Jesuit-Mail Libel Case: An example of nineteenth-century anti-Catholicisml |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000842987800700304 |journal=Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=295–303 |doi=10.1177/000842987800700304 |issn=0008-4298|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Friedrich |first=Markus |title=Ignatius's Governing and Administrating the Society of Jesus |date=1 January 2014 |work=A Companion to Ignatius of Loyola |pages=123–140 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004280601/B9789004280601-s009.xml |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-28060-1}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Clooney |first=Francis Xavier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQbSlZza2q8C&dq=Kadavergehorsam+jesuit&pg=PA124 |title=Jesuit Postmodern: Scholarship, Vocation, and Identity in the 21st Century |date=2006 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1401-8 |pages=124 |language=en}}</ref> 

The concept, described in the Jesuit context as "fabled and misunderstood",<ref>{{Citation |last=Nelles |first=Paul |title=Jesuit Letters |date=12 June 2019 |work=The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits |pages=43–72 |editor-last=Županov |editor-first=Ines G. |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34656/chapter/295288079 |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.013.3 |isbn=978-0-19-063963-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref> has since been criticised by detractors of the Jesuit order as blind obedience.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Healy |first=Roísin |title=The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany |date=1 January 2003 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-0-391-04194-3 |page=159 |language=en |chapter=The Moral Critique: Infiltrators of the Private Sphere |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=om6MiDM8sNQC&dq=Kadavergehorsam+jesuit&pg=PA159}}</ref><ref name="Miller1978"/><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Hopfl |first=Harro M. |date=September 2000 |title=Ordered Passions: Commitment and Hierarchy in the Organizational Ideas of the Jesuit Founders |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1350507600313003 |journal=Management Learning |language=en |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=313–329 |doi=10.1177/1350507600313003 |issn=1350-5076|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bjork |first=J. |date=1 October 2006 |title=Book Review: The War Against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth Century Germany, The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany |url=https://academic.oup.com/gh/article-lookup/doi/10.1177/0266355406070353 |journal=German History |language=en |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=631–634 |doi=10.1177/0266355406070353 |issn=0266-3554|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Jesuit supporters, in turn, refer to it as the "perfect obedience".<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":8"/>

==Modern use==
The term is often associated with [Germany](/source/Germany) (where it is known as {{Lang|de|Kadavergehorsam}}), where it refers to "both obedience and loyalty until death"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Krüger |first=Michael |date=December 1996 |title=Body culture and nation building: the history of gymnastics in germany in the period of its foundation as a nation-state |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523369608713957 |journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=409–417 |doi=10.1080/09523369608713957 |issn=0952-3367|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or simply "absolute obedience"<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ströhle |first1=Andreas |last2=Wrase |first2=Jana |last3=Malach |first3=Henry |last4=Gestrich |first4=Christof |last5=Heinz |first5=Andreas |date=May 2008 |title=Karl Bonhoeffer (1868–1948) |url=https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07061031 |journal=American Journal of Psychiatry |volume=165 |issue=5 |pages=575–576 |doi=10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07061031 |pmid=18450939 |issn=0002-953X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or "blind obedience".<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Barnett |first=Bernard |title=The Holocaust, its aftermath, and the problem of the superego |date=2001 |work=Within Time and Beyond Time |pages=94–107 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429485152-7/holocaust-aftermath-problem-superego-bernard-barnett |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780429485152-7 |isbn=978-0-429-48515-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It has been associated with the discussion of German military and administration of the [Prussian](/source/Prussia)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dwyer |first=Philip G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AGvJAwAAQBAJ&dq=Kadavergehorsam+prussia&pg=PA268 |title=Modern Prussian History: 1830–1947 |date=11 June 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-88700-3 |pages=268 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Forner |first=Sean A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHY3DgAAQBAJ&dq=Kadavergehorsam+prussia&pg=PA126 |title=German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal: Culture and Politics After 1945 |date=23 March 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-62783-3 |pages=126 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pflanze |first=Otto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EET_DwAAQBAJ&dq=Kadavergehorsam+prussia&pg=PA19 |title=Bismarck and the Development of Germany: The Period of Unification, 1815-1871 |date=10 November 2020 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-22157-1 |pages=19 |language=en}}</ref> and [Nazi eras](/source/Nazi_Germany) and their passive adherence to carrying out orders, including those later judged to be [war crimes](/source/war_crimes) (see also [Prussian virtues](/source/Prussian_virtues), [German militarism](/source/German_militarism), {{lang|de|[Befehlsnotstand](/source/Befehlsnotstand)}}, {{lang|de|[Führerprinzip](/source/F%C3%BChrerprinzip)}}, and [superior orders](/source/superior_orders)).<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Visser |first=Max |date=1 August 2008 |title=Learning under conditions of hierarchy and discipline: the case of the German Army, 1939–1940 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11519-008-0031-7 |journal=Learning Inquiry |language=en |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=127–137 |doi=10.1007/s11519-008-0031-7 |issn=1558-2981|hdl=10818/35080 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Toro |first=Alfonso de |date=1 May 2016 |title=Lo indecible, lo irrepresentable: Topografías: terror e intertextualidad El desierto de Carlos Franz / La vida doble de Arturo Fontaine |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ibero-2016-0004/pdf?licenseType=restricted |journal=Iberoromania |language=en |volume=2016 |issue=83 |pages=35–55 |doi=10.1515/ibero-2016-0004 |issn=1865-9039|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Finney |first=Gail |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cN23P-PHTWcC&dq=F%C3%BChrerprinzip+Kadavergehorsam&pg=PA235 |title=Visual Culture in Twentieth-century Germany: Text as Spectacle |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34718-3 |pages=238 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Dinstein |first=Yoram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Dp-6pK4uGIC&dq=%22superior+orders%22+Kadavergehorsam&pg=PR133 |title=The Defence of 'Obedience to Superior Orders' in International Law |date=25 October 2012 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-164983-7 |pages=133 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=McKale |first=Donald M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4IuvfX194C&dq=Kadavergehorsam+nazi&pg=PA47 |title=Hitler's Shadow War: The Holocaust and World War II |date=17 March 2006 |publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing |isbn=978-1-4616-3547-5 |pages=47 |language=en}}</ref>{{excessive citations inline|date=August 2024}} The [Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service](/source/Law_for_the_Restoration_of_the_Professional_Civil_Service) of 1933 has been credited with enforcing this idea in the Nazi German civil administration.<ref name=":4" /> [Adolf Eichmann](/source/Adolf_Eichmann), one of the major organisers of [the Holocaust](/source/the_Holocaust), invoked this concept in his defence during [his post-war trial](/source/Eichmann_trial).<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Larsen |first=Øjvind |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eFM8DwAAQBAJ&dq=Kadavergehorsam+definition&pg=PT95 |title=Administration, Ethics and Democracy |date=1 November 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-76885-6 |pages=95 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Loiacono |first=Fiorenza |title=The Capacity to Empathise as a Basis of Ethics: Educational Implications |date=1 January 2016 |work=Promises, Pedagogy and Pitfalls: Empathy’s Potential for Healing and Harm |pages=99–109 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9781848884281/BP000011.xml |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-1-84888-428-1}}</ref>

The term has also been used in the context of other [totalitarian](/source/Totalitarianism) regimes, such as [communist state](/source/communist_state)s and parties.<ref name=":6">{{Citation |last1=Mazurkiewicz |first1=Piotr |title=Introduction: Why Totalitarianism? |date=13 October 2021 |work=Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age |pages=1–9 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004465053/BP000001.xml |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-46505-3 |last2=Gierycz |first2=Michał |last3=Wielecki |first3=Krzysztof |last4=Sulkowski |first4=Mariusz |last5=Zarzecki |first5=Marcin}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Mazurkiewicz |first1=Piotr |title=Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age: A Report on Young People's Attitudes to Totalitarianism |date=29 June 2023 |work=Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age |url=https://brill.com/display/title/60300 |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-46505-3 |last2=Gierycz |first2=Michal |last3=Wielecki |first3=Krzysztof |last4=Sulkowski |first4=Mariusz |last5=Zarzecki |first5=Marcin}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Pundeff |first=Marin |date=1986 |title=Dimitrov at Leipzig: Was There a Deal? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2499057 |journal=Slavic Review |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=545–549 |doi=10.2307/2499057 |jstor=2499057 |issn=0037-6779|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Häberlen |first=Joachim C. |date=February 2013 |title=Between Class War on All Fronts and Anti-Political Autonomy: The Contested Place of Politics in the Working-Class Movements of Leipzig and Lyon during the Inter-War Years |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/contemporary-european-history/article/abs/between-class-war-on-all-fronts-and-antipolitical-autonomy-the-contested-place-of-politics-in-the-workingclass-movements-of-leipzig-and-lyon-during-the-interwar-years/F066B7F9CDE3A4327D4A22144E6C3F0E |journal=Contemporary European History |language=en |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=33–63 |doi=10.1017/S0960777312000471 |issn=0960-7773|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0024-EA6A-F |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dallin |first=Alexander |date=May 1958 |title=The Soviet Stake in Eastern Europe |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271625831700118 |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |language=en |volume=317 |issue=1 |pages=138–145 |doi=10.1177/000271625831700118 |issn=0002-7162|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Citation |last=Lih |first=Lars T. |title=After the Second Congress |date=1 January 2006 |work=Lenin Rediscovered |pages=489–553 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789047417873/BP000011.xml |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-474-1787-3}}</ref>{{excessive citations inline|date=August 2024}} The concept has been described as promoted by works such as ''[The Communist Manifesto](/source/The_Communist_Manifesto)'' or {{lang|de|[Mein Kampf](/source/Mein_Kampf)}}.<ref name=":6" />

The concept has also been mentioned in the context of extreme interpretation of [military discipline](/source/military_discipline).<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Plowman |first=Andrew |date=2007 |title="Staatsbürger in Uniform"? Looking back at the Bundeswehr in Jochen Missfeldt's Gespiegelter Himmel and Sven Regener's Neue Vahr Süd |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/217099 |journal=Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=163–175 |doi=10.1353/smr.2007.0036 |issn=1911-026X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [Desk murderer](/source/Desk_murderer)
* [NPC (meme)](/source/NPC_(meme))
* [Nuremberg defense](/source/Nuremberg_defense)
* ''[Respondeat superior](/source/Respondeat_superior)''

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

Category:Political philosophy
Category:Conformity
Category:German words and phrases
Category:Criminal defenses
Category:Political terminology in Germany
Category:Government of Nazi Germany
Category:Corpses
Category:16th-century neologisms
Category:Historiography of Nazi Germany

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Corpse-like obedience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse-like_obedience) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpse-like_obedience?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.