Ernst Jünger
Encyclopedia
Ernst Jünger was a German
writer
. In addition to his novel
s and diaries
, he is well known for Storm of Steel
, an account of his experience during World War I
. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement
following World War I. Others dismiss him as a militarist
or reactionary
.
to a middle class family, and grew up in Hannover as the son of a chemical engineer who later became a pharmacist. He attended school from 1901 to 1913, and was a member of the Wandervogel
movement. In 1913, he ran away from home to join the French Foreign Legion
in which he served very briefly in North Africa
. During World War I
he served with distinction in the Imperial German Army
on the Western Front. In the first week of January 1917 he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class
and in September 1918 was awarded Prussia
's highest military decoration of that time, the Pour le Mérite
(informally known as the "Blue Max"). This he received as a Lieutenant at the age of 23.
His war experiences are first described in Storm of Steel (German title: In Stahlgewittern) which was published in 1920 (self-published). This book by which Jünger became suddenly famous has been seen as glorifying war. Jünger served as a lieutenant
in the army of the Weimar Republic
until his demobilisation in 1923. He studied marine biology
, zoology
, botany
, and philosophy
, and became a well-known entomologist. He married Gretha von Jeinsen (1906–1960) in 1925; they had two children, Ernst (1926–1944) and Alexander (1934–1993).
In the 1920s Jünger published articles in several right-wing nationalist
journals, and further novels. As in Storm of Steel, in the book Feuer und Blut (1925, "Fire and Blood"), Jünger glorified war as an internal event. According to Jünger, war elevates the soldier's life, isolated from normal humanity, into a mystical experience. The extremities of modern military techniques tested the capacity of the human senses. He criticized the fragile and unstable democracy
of the Weimar Republic
, stating that he "hated democracy like the plague." Although never a member of the National Socialist
movement around Adolf Hitler
, Jünger never publicly criticized the regime before the war. Jünger however refused a chair offered to him in the Reichstag following the Nazi Party's ascension to power in 1933, and he refused the invitation to head the German Academy of Literature (Die deutsche Akademie der Dichtung). Even though he never endorsed the Nazi Party, and indeed kept them at a careful distance, Jünger's Storm of Steel sold well into the six-figure range by the end of the 1930s. In the essay On Pain, written and published in 1934, Jünger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice.
In 1927 he moved to Berlin
. In 1929 his work The Adventurous Heart (German title: Das abenteuerliche Herz) was published. In Über Nationalismus und Judenfrage (1930, "On Nationalism and the Jewish Question"), Jünger describes Jews as a threat for the unity of Germans
. In 1932 he published The Worker (German title: Der Arbeiter), which called for the creation of a totally mobilized society run by warrior-worker-scholars. Jünger left Berlin
in 1933, his house was searched by the Gestapo
secret police, and from 1938 he was banned by the Nazis from writing. On the Marble Cliffs
(1939, German title: Auf den Marmorklippen) uses metaphor
to describe Jünger's negative perceptions of the situation in Hitler's Germany. He served in World War II
as an army captain
. Assigned to an administrative position in Paris, he socialized with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau
. His early time in France is described in his diary Gärten und Straßen (1942, Gardens and Streets).
Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot
. He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army, and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian
officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. He was only peripherally involved in the events however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in the summer of 1944, rather than execution.
His elder son Ernst Jr., then a Kriegsmarine
cadet
, was imprisoned that year for engaging in "subversive discussions" in his Wilhelmshaven
Naval Academy. Transferred to Penal Unit
999, he was killed near Carrara
in occupied Italy
on November 29.
After the war, Jünger was initially under some suspicion for his nationalist past, and he was banned from publishing in Germany for several years by the British occupying forces for not resisting the Nazi regime enough. His work The Peace (German title: Der Friede), written in 1943 and published abroad in 1947, marked the end of his involvement in politics. Rehabilitated by the 1950s, he went on to be regarded as a towering figure of German literature. German publisher Klett put out a ten-volume Collected Works (Sämtliche Werke) in 1965. The same publishers issued a second edition in 1983, turning Jünger into one of four German authors who lived to see two editions of his Collected Works published; the other three are Goethe, Klopstock, and Wieland. He remained highly controversial, though, in the eyes of the German Marxist Left, both for his past, and his ongoing role as conservative philosopher and icon. Jünger was immensely popular in France, where at one time 48 of his translated books were in print. In 1984, he spoke at the Verdun memorial, alongside with his admirers, French president François Mitterrand
and German chancellor Helmut Kohl
.
His diaries from 1939 to 1949 were published under the title Strahlungen (1948, Reflections). In the 1950s and 1960s Jünger travelled extensively. His first wife, Gretha, died in 1960, and in 1962 he married Liselotte Lohrer. He continued writing prodigiously for his entire life, publishing more than 50 books.
Jünger was among the forerunners of magical realism. His vision in The Glass Bees
(1957, German title: Gläserne Bienen), of a future in which an overmechanized world threatens individualism, could be seen as science fiction
. A sensitive poet with training in botany and zoology, as well as a soldier, his works in general are infused with tremendous details of the natural world. His critics claim there is an excess of emotional control and precision in his writing. In 1981 he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca
.
Throughout his whole life he had experimented with drugs
such as ether
, cocaine
, and hashish
; and later in life he used mescaline
and LSD
. These experiments were recorded comprehensively in Annäherungen (1970, Approaches). The novel Besuch auf Godenholm (1952, Visit to Godenholm) is clearly influenced by his early experiments with mescaline
and LSD
. He met several times with LSD inventor Albert Hofmann
and they took LSD together. Hofmann's memoir LSD, My Problem Child describes some of these meetings.
One of his most important literary contributions was the metahistoric figure of the Anarch (sovereign individual)
, which evolved from his earlier conception of the Waldgaenger, or Forest Fleer. The anarch is Jünger's answer to the question of survival of individual freedom in a totalitarian world. It is developed primarily through the character of Martin Venator in his novel Eumeswil
.
Jünger's 100th birthday on March 29, 1995, was met with praise from many quarters, including the socialist
French president François Mitterrand
.
Jünger was a friend of Martin Heidegger
. Jünger was admired by Julius Evola
who published a book called L'Operaio nel pensiero di Ernst Juenger (1960), in which he summarized The Worker.
A year before his death Jünger converted to Catholicism
and began to receive the Sacrament
s.
Ernst Jünger died on February 17, 1998 in Riedlingen
, Upper Swabia
, the last living bearer of the military version of the order of the Pour le Mérite
.
His brother Friedrich Georg Jünger
(1898–1977) was a poet and essayist. His younger son Alexander, a physician, committed suicide in 1993.
Despite the controversy surrounding his life, Jünger said he never regretted anything he wrote, nor would he ever take it back.
Yet he joined Chancellor Helmut Kohl
and President François Mitterrand
of France at a 1984 Franco-German ceremony at Verdun
, France, where he called the ideology of war in Germany before and after World War I "a calamitous mistake".
. Jünger never betrayed sympathy to the political style of "blood and soil
" popular among the Nazis
, but according to some of his critics his conservative literature made Nazism highly attractive. The ontology of war depicted in Storm of Steel
could be interpreted as a model for a new, hierarchically ordered society beyond democracy, beyond the security of bourgeois
society and ennui.
The writer and critic Walter Benjamin
wrote a review/essay of War and Warrior, a collection of essays edited by Jünger. The title of Benjamin´s review, which was published in Die Gesellschaft 1930, is Theorien des Deutschen Faschismus (Theories of German Fascism), and it has been highly influential in its analysis of the relationship between aesthetics and politics.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. In addition to his novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s and diaries
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
, he is well known for Storm of Steel
Storm of Steel
Storm of Steel is the memoir of German officer Ernst Jünger's experiences on the Western Front during the First World War. It was originally printed privately in 1920, making it one of the first personal accounts to be published. The book is a graphic account of trench warfare...
, an account of his experience during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement
Conservative Revolutionary movement
The Conservative Revolutionary movement was a German national conservative movement, prominent in the years following the First World War. The Conservative Revolutionary school of thought advocated a "new" conservatism and nationalism that was specifically German, or Prussian in particular...
following World War I. Others dismiss him as a militarist
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
or reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
.
Life and work
Jünger was born in HeidelbergHeidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
to a middle class family, and grew up in Hannover as the son of a chemical engineer who later became a pharmacist. He attended school from 1901 to 1913, and was a member of the Wandervogel
Wandervogel
Wandervogel is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 onward. The name can be translated as rambling, hiking or wandering bird and the ethos is to shake off the restrictions of society and get back to nature and freedom...
movement. In 1913, he ran away from home to join the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
in which he served very briefly in North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he served with distinction in the Imperial German Army
German Army
The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...
on the Western Front. In the first week of January 1917 he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
and in September 1918 was awarded Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
's highest military decoration of that time, the Pour le Mérite
Pour le Mérite
The Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....
(informally known as the "Blue Max"). This he received as a Lieutenant at the age of 23.
His war experiences are first described in Storm of Steel (German title: In Stahlgewittern) which was published in 1920 (self-published). This book by which Jünger became suddenly famous has been seen as glorifying war. Jünger served as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the army of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
until his demobilisation in 1923. He studied marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
, zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and became a well-known entomologist. He married Gretha von Jeinsen (1906–1960) in 1925; they had two children, Ernst (1926–1944) and Alexander (1934–1993).
In the 1920s Jünger published articles in several right-wing nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
journals, and further novels. As in Storm of Steel, in the book Feuer und Blut (1925, "Fire and Blood"), Jünger glorified war as an internal event. According to Jünger, war elevates the soldier's life, isolated from normal humanity, into a mystical experience. The extremities of modern military techniques tested the capacity of the human senses. He criticized the fragile and unstable democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, stating that he "hated democracy like the plague." Although never a member of the National Socialist
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
movement around Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, Jünger never publicly criticized the regime before the war. Jünger however refused a chair offered to him in the Reichstag following the Nazi Party's ascension to power in 1933, and he refused the invitation to head the German Academy of Literature (Die deutsche Akademie der Dichtung). Even though he never endorsed the Nazi Party, and indeed kept them at a careful distance, Jünger's Storm of Steel sold well into the six-figure range by the end of the 1930s. In the essay On Pain, written and published in 1934, Jünger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice.
In 1927 he moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In 1929 his work The Adventurous Heart (German title: Das abenteuerliche Herz) was published. In Über Nationalismus und Judenfrage (1930, "On Nationalism and the Jewish Question"), Jünger describes Jews as a threat for the unity of Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
. In 1932 he published The Worker (German title: Der Arbeiter), which called for the creation of a totally mobilized society run by warrior-worker-scholars. Jünger left Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1933, his house was searched by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
secret police, and from 1938 he was banned by the Nazis from writing. On the Marble Cliffs
On the Marble Cliffs
On the Marble Cliffs is a novella by Ernst Jünger published in 1939 describing the upheaval and ruin of a serene agricultural society...
(1939, German title: Auf den Marmorklippen) uses metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
to describe Jünger's negative perceptions of the situation in Hitler's Germany. He served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as an army captain
Captain (OF-2)
The army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery...
. Assigned to an administrative position in Paris, he socialized with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
. His early time in France is described in his diary Gärten und Straßen (1942, Gardens and Streets).
Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
. He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army, and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. He was only peripherally involved in the events however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in the summer of 1944, rather than execution.
His elder son Ernst Jr., then a Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
cadet
Cadet
A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...
, was imprisoned that year for engaging in "subversive discussions" in his Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...
Naval Academy. Transferred to Penal Unit
Strafbattalion
Strafbattalion were Wehrmacht penal units created from military prisoners during the final years of the Second World War. Soldiers sentenced to these units were poorly-armed and required to undertake dangerous high-casualty missions...
999, he was killed near Carrara
Carrara
Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara , notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence....
in occupied Italy
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
on November 29.
After the war, Jünger was initially under some suspicion for his nationalist past, and he was banned from publishing in Germany for several years by the British occupying forces for not resisting the Nazi regime enough. His work The Peace (German title: Der Friede), written in 1943 and published abroad in 1947, marked the end of his involvement in politics. Rehabilitated by the 1950s, he went on to be regarded as a towering figure of German literature. German publisher Klett put out a ten-volume Collected Works (Sämtliche Werke) in 1965. The same publishers issued a second edition in 1983, turning Jünger into one of four German authors who lived to see two editions of his Collected Works published; the other three are Goethe, Klopstock, and Wieland. He remained highly controversial, though, in the eyes of the German Marxist Left, both for his past, and his ongoing role as conservative philosopher and icon. Jünger was immensely popular in France, where at one time 48 of his translated books were in print. In 1984, he spoke at the Verdun memorial, alongside with his admirers, French president François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
and German chancellor Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
.
His diaries from 1939 to 1949 were published under the title Strahlungen (1948, Reflections). In the 1950s and 1960s Jünger travelled extensively. His first wife, Gretha, died in 1960, and in 1962 he married Liselotte Lohrer. He continued writing prodigiously for his entire life, publishing more than 50 books.
Jünger was among the forerunners of magical realism. His vision in The Glass Bees
The Glass Bees
The Glass Bees is a 1957 science fiction novel written by German author Ernst Jünger. The novel follows two days in the life of Captain Richard, an unemployed ex-cavalryman who feels lost in a world that has become more technologically advanced and impersonal...
(1957, German title: Gläserne Bienen), of a future in which an overmechanized world threatens individualism, could be seen as science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
. A sensitive poet with training in botany and zoology, as well as a soldier, his works in general are infused with tremendous details of the natural world. His critics claim there is an excess of emotional control and precision in his writing. In 1981 he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca
Prix mondial Cino Del Duca
The Prix mondial Cino Del Duca is an international literary award.-Origins and operations:It was established in 1969 in France by Simone Del Duca to continue the work of her husband, publishing magnate Cino Del Duca .Designed to recognize and reward an author whose work constitutes, in a...
.
Throughout his whole life he had experimented with drugs
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
such as ether
Diethyl ether
Diethyl ether, also known as ethyl ether, simply ether, or ethoxyethane, is an organic compound in the ether class with the formula . It is a colorless, highly volatile flammable liquid with a characteristic odor...
, cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, and hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
; and later in life he used mescaline
Mescaline
Mescaline or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class used mainly as an entheogen....
and LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. These experiments were recorded comprehensively in Annäherungen (1970, Approaches). The novel Besuch auf Godenholm (1952, Visit to Godenholm) is clearly influenced by his early experiments with mescaline
Mescaline
Mescaline or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class used mainly as an entheogen....
and LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. He met several times with LSD inventor Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide . He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child...
and they took LSD together. Hofmann's memoir LSD, My Problem Child describes some of these meetings.
One of his most important literary contributions was the metahistoric figure of the Anarch (sovereign individual)
Anarch (sovereign individual)
The Anarch is a metaphysical ideal figure of a sovereign individual, conceived by Ernst Jünger in his novel Eumeswil . Jünger was greatly influenced by individualist anarchist Max Stirner...
, which evolved from his earlier conception of the Waldgaenger, or Forest Fleer. The anarch is Jünger's answer to the question of survival of individual freedom in a totalitarian world. It is developed primarily through the character of Martin Venator in his novel Eumeswil
Eumeswil
Eumeswil is a philosophical postmodern novel by the Goethe Prize winning German author Ernst Jünger . Written in 1977 in the author's mature years, Eumeswil is set in an undatable post-apocalyptic world, somewhere in present-day Morocco....
.
Jünger's 100th birthday on March 29, 1995, was met with praise from many quarters, including the socialist
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
French president François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
.
Jünger was a friend of Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
. Jünger was admired by Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
who published a book called L'Operaio nel pensiero di Ernst Juenger (1960), in which he summarized The Worker.
A year before his death Jünger converted to Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and began to receive the Sacrament
Sacrament
A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...
s.
Ernst Jünger died on February 17, 1998 in Riedlingen
Riedlingen
Riedlingen is a town in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, in the south-west of Germany. It is one of the destinations of the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. There are ca. 10,000 inhabitants.- Geography :...
, Upper Swabia
Upper Swabia
Upper Swabia is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Alb, Lake Constance and the Lech...
, the last living bearer of the military version of the order of the Pour le Mérite
Pour le Mérite
The Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....
.
His brother Friedrich Georg Jünger
Friedrich Georg Jünger
Friedrich Georg Jünger was a German poet, author, and cultural critic essayist. The younger brother of Ernst Jünger, he volunteered for military service in 1916 and was seriously wounded in the Battle of Langemarck...
(1898–1977) was a poet and essayist. His younger son Alexander, a physician, committed suicide in 1993.
Despite the controversy surrounding his life, Jünger said he never regretted anything he wrote, nor would he ever take it back.
Yet he joined Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
and President François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
of France at a 1984 Franco-German ceremony at Verdun
Verdun
Verdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.- History :...
, France, where he called the ideology of war in Germany before and after World War I "a calamitous mistake".
Accusations of Fascism
Some say Jünger was a fascistFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. Jünger never betrayed sympathy to the political style of "blood and soil
Blood and soil
Blood and Soil refers to an ideology that focuses on ethnicity based on two factors, descent and homeland/Heimat...
" popular among the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, but according to some of his critics his conservative literature made Nazism highly attractive. The ontology of war depicted in Storm of Steel
Storm of Steel
Storm of Steel is the memoir of German officer Ernst Jünger's experiences on the Western Front during the First World War. It was originally printed privately in 1920, making it one of the first personal accounts to be published. The book is a graphic account of trench warfare...
could be interpreted as a model for a new, hierarchically ordered society beyond democracy, beyond the security of bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
society and ennui.
The writer and critic Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
wrote a review/essay of War and Warrior, a collection of essays edited by Jünger. The title of Benjamin´s review, which was published in Die Gesellschaft 1930, is Theorien des Deutschen Faschismus (Theories of German Fascism), and it has been highly influential in its analysis of the relationship between aesthetics and politics.
In fiction
- Ernst Jünger appears as a character in the 1974 French film Black Thursday
- He has a brief and marginal appearance in Jonathan LittellJonathan LittellJonathan Littell is a bilingual writer living in Barcelona. He grew up in France and United States and is a dual citizen of both countries. After acquiring his bachelor degree he worked for a humanitarian organisation for nine years, leaving his job in 2001 in order to concentrate on writing...
's docudramaDocudramaIn film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
Les BienveillantesLes BienveillantesThe Kindly Ones is a historical novel written in French by American-born author Jonathan Littell. The 900-page book became a bestseller in France and was widely discussed in newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books and seminars...
, where oddly he is derided as a Bolshevik by some of the character's associates. - He makes brief appearances in Roberto BolañoRoberto BolañoRoberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist and poet. In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes , and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes...
's Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile), La literatura nazi en América (Nazi literature in America), and 2666. - He appears in Günter GrassGünter GrassGünter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
's Mein Jahrhundert (My Century) in conversation with fellow German author Erich Maria RemarqueErich Maria RemarqueErich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
.
Selected works
- In Stahlgewittern, 19201920 in literatureThe year 1920 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Agatha Christie publishes her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing the long-running character detective, Hercule Poirot....
- Storm of SteelStorm of SteelStorm of Steel is the memoir of German officer Ernst Jünger's experiences on the Western Front during the First World War. It was originally printed privately in 1920, making it one of the first personal accounts to be published. The book is a graphic account of trench warfare...
(ISBN 0865273103) - Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis, 19221922 in literatureThe year 1922 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Under the current U.S. copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1923 with a proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date of the copyright...
- Das Wäldchen 125 - Copse 125: A Chronicle from the Trench Warfare of 1918 (ISBN 0865273790)
- Feuer und Blut, 1925
- Das abenteuerliche Herz, 1929 - The Adventurous Heart
- Die totale Mobilmachung, 1931
- Der Arbeiter, Herrschaft und Gestalt, 1932
- Geheimnisse der Sprache, 1934
- Blätter und Steine, 1934
- Über den Schmerz, 1934 - On Pain (ISBN 9780914386407)
- Afrikanische Spiele, 1936
- Auf den Marmorklippen, 19391939 in literatureThe year 1939 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*December 25 - A Christmas Carol is read before a radio audience for the first time....
- On the Marble CliffsOn the Marble CliffsOn the Marble Cliffs is a novella by Ernst Jünger published in 1939 describing the upheaval and ruin of a serene agricultural society...
(ISBN 0140029850) - Gärten und Straßen - 19421942 in literatureThe year 1942 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*André Gide leaves France to live in Tunis.*Robertson Davies becomes editor of the Peterborough Examiner.*Thomas Mann emigrates to California....
- Myrdun. Briefe aus Norwegen, 19431943 in literatureThe year 1943 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Orwell resigns from the BBC to become literary editor of Tribune.*Isaac Bashevis Singer becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States....
- Der Friede, 19471947 in literatureThe year 1947 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Diary of Anne Frank is published for the first time.*Jack Kerouac makes the journey which he will later chronicle in his book On the Road....
- The Peace - Atlantische Fahrt, 1947
- Sprache und Körperbau, 1947
- Ein Inselfrühling, 1948
- HeliopolisHeliopolis (novel)Heliopolis is an utopistic or dystopian novel by Ernst Jünger published in 1949. In the fictional city of Heliopolis the henchmen of a Proconsul and a Landvogt fight each other. Commander Lucius de Geer belongs to the staff of the Proconsul, but he stands more and more aloof these inner fights....
, 1949 - Strahlungen, 1949
- Über die Linie, 1950
- Der Waldgang, 1951
- Besuch auf Godenholm, 1952
- Der Gordische Knoten, 1953
- Das Sanduhrbuch, 1954
- Am Sarazenenturm, 1955
- Rivarol, 1956
- Serpentara, 1957
- Gläserne Bienen, 1957 - The Glass BeesThe Glass BeesThe Glass Bees is a 1957 science fiction novel written by German author Ernst Jünger. The novel follows two days in the life of Captain Richard, an unemployed ex-cavalryman who feels lost in a world that has become more technologically advanced and impersonal...
(ISBN 0374521735) - San Pietro, 1957
- Jahre der Okkupation, 1958
- An der Zeitmauer, 1959
- Sgraffiti, 1960
- Der Weltstaat, 1960
- Ein Vormittag in Antibes, 1960
- Das spanische Mondhorn, 1963
- Sturm, 1963
- Geheimnisse der Sprache, 1963
- Typus, Name, Gestalt, 1963
- Werke, 1961-1965 (10 vols.)
- Grenzgänge, 1966
- Subtile Jagden, 1967
- Im Granit, 1967
- Federbälle, 1969
- Annäherungen: Drogen und Rausch, 1970
- Ad hoc, 1970
- Lettern und Ideogramme, 1970
- Sinn und Bedeutung, 1971
- Die Zwille, 1973
- Zahlen und Götter; Philemon und Baukis, 1974
- Eumeswil, 1977 - EumeswilEumeswilEumeswil is a philosophical postmodern novel by the Goethe Prize winning German author Ernst Jünger . Written in 1977 in the author's mature years, Eumeswil is set in an undatable post-apocalyptic world, somewhere in present-day Morocco....
(ISBN 0941419975) - Sämtliche Werke, 1979 ff (18 vols.)
- Paul Léautaud in Memoriam, 1980
- Siebzig Verweht, 1980–81
- Flugträume, 1983
- Aladins Problem, 1983 - Aladdin's Problem (ISBN 070430208X)
- Author und Autorschaft, 1984
- Eine gefährliche Begegnung, 1985 - A Dangerous Encounter (ISBN 0941419371)
- Zwei Mal Halley, 1987
- Die Schere, 1990
Books about Jünger
- The Violent Eye: Ernst Jünger's Visions and Revisions on the European Right by Marcus P. Bullock (Wayne State UniversityWayne State UniversityWayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
Press, 1992, ISBN 0814323340) - The Details of Time: Conversations With Ernst Jünger by Julien Hervier (Marsilio Pub, 1995, ISBN 0941419959)
- Ernst Jünger and Germany: Into the Abyss, 1914-1945 by Thomas Nevin (Duke University PressDuke University PressDuke University Press is an academic publisher of books and journals, and a unit of Duke University. It publishes approximately 120 books annually and more than 40 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections...
, 1996, ISBN 0822318792) - A Dubious Past: Ernst Jünger and the Politics of Literature After Nazism by Elliot Y. Neaman. (University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, 1999. ISBN 0520216288) - Ernst Jünger A Writer Of Our Time by J. P. SternJ. P. SternJoseph Peter Stern, in full: Joseph Peter Maria Stern , was an authority on German literature. He was Professor at University College London from 1972 to 1986....
in the "Studies In Modern European Literature And Thought" Series (Bowes & Bowes, CambridgeCambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, 1953) - Ernst Jünger and the Nature of Political Commitment by R. Woods (StuttgartStuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, 1982) - Ernst Jünger by Gerhard Loose. (ISBN 0805724796)
- The Devil's Captain: Ernst Jünger in Nazi Paris, 1941-1944 by Allan Mitchell. Berghahn Books May 2011
External links
- Comprehensive blog discussing Jünger, including his figure of the Anarch
- Associazione Eumeswil Florence - study of Ernst Jünger´s works
- Ernst Jünger's Museum in Wilflingen
- Ernst Jünger in Cyberspace IV
- Biographical sketch, bibliography
- At 102 Ernst Jünger
- Ernst Jünger Commemorative Stamp
- Ernst Jünger at Find-A-Grave
- Collection of articles dealing with Ernst Jünger's works
- The WWI Diary of Ernst Jünger