Ernst Jünger
From Kaiserreich
Revision as of 23:57, 19 August 2008
|
Ernst Jünger (born on March, 29 1895 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German officer, writer and colonial administrator. One of the most read authors in today's Germany, launching the fashion of the Weltkrieg diaries with his personnal account, In Stahlgewittern (Storm of Steel), published in 1923. Serving in the German Colonial Army as colonel, he is the current Chief of General Staff of the Colonial Army of the Freistaat Mittelafrika.
Contents |
Biography
Early life
Jünger was born in Heidelberg, the eldest of five children and grew up in Hannover as the son of a pharmacist. He went to school between the years of 1901 and 1913 and was member of the Wandervogel youth movement. He ran away from home to join the French Foreign Legion where he served in North Africa. Volunteer in the beggining of the Weltkrieg 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 of 1918 was awarded the German Empire's highest military decoration of that time, the Pour le Mérite (informally known as the "Blue Max"). Received as a Lieutenant at the age of 23, he was one of the youngest soldiers ever to be given this award. After the collapse of France, he later fought in Russia until the end of the war, and renewed his engagement to the German Army in 1923.
Writing career
Jünger's own war experiences were described in the book In Stahlgewittern, published in 1923 while he was interrogating over his future in the military. The book made an impressive effect in German literature, making a positive and deep account of the Weltkrieg, much appropriate to the patriotic and nationalist minds that prevailed after German victory (and long before Erich Paul Remark's Dürchbruch). Often accused by German socialists of advocating violence and authoritarianism in his writings, Jünger was acclaimed by much of German ruling classes, including the Kaiser Wilhelm II who claimed that In Stahlgewittern was among his favorite books. Studying marine biology, zoology, botany, philosophy and entomology, Officer Jünger, due to his tenure as member of the Army, was forced to decline offers from right-wing nationalist journals to write articles in them. He continued to publish many books as his military career continued: along with Remark, he contributed to deeply influence post-Weltkrieg culture, inaugurating the fashion of the "Weltkrieg Diaries", good as bad autobiographies from war veterans, the last of them being Adolf Hitler's Unser Kampf, and affirming himself as the head of the reactionnary fringe in German literature.
Colonial soldier
Having expressed terrible critics against Judaism, democracy and Syndicalism, Jünger was widely seen as a right-wing writer, maybe as a convinced Pan-Germanist, his books being used as propaganda as politicians such as Ernst Röhm: however, his book Auf den Marmorklippen (On the Marble Cliffs), published in 1931, appeared as a hard condemnation of National-Populism and a description of its awful effects over Germany. After having received many threats from Pan-Germanists, the German Army then decided to dispatch Jünger in Mittelafrika, as he always wanted to get back after his youth experience in North Africa. In the Colonial Army, he quickly arose as Chief of Staff and an excellent land commander, being praised by his troops, settlers as Natives. Although he had been seen as a possible Staathalter in 1934, Jünger welcomed Hermann Göring then he arrived to take his functions of Governor-General. Many politicians then pointed that an adventurer and a reactionnary as Jünger would certainly join Göring in his megalomaniac delirium: instead, Jünger never ceased to express his loyalty to the Kaiser and mainland Germany. He is now seen as one of the few caretakers in the Colonial Army who could avoid that Göring takes too much power on his own.
Family
Jünger married Gretha von Jeinsen (born 1906) in 1925; they had two children, Ernst (born 1916) and Alexander (born 1934).
Works
- In Stahlgewittern (Storm of Steel, 1923) - Jünger's personnal account of the Weltkrieg, glorifying war without rejecting or extenuating war atrocities.
- Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis (Fight as an internal experience, 1924) - Continuation of Jünger's thoughts about war, pacifism and courage.
- Feuer und Blut (Fire and Blood, 1925) - Description of the war as a deep internal event which help Man to elevate his life, going from normal humanity to a mystical experience.
- Der Arbeiter, Herrschaft und Gestalt (The Worker: Dominion and Gestalt, 1927) - Jünger's political essay, advocating totally mobilized society run by warrior-worker-scholars to counter the Syndicalist threat.
- Über Demokratie (On Democracy, 1929) - On a personnal essay on pre-Weltkrieg France and Great Britain, Jünger expresses his hate of democracy and points them as responsible of the collapse of these two countries into leftist dictatorships.
- Auf den Marmorklippen (On the Marble Cliffs, 1931) - Novel showing the fall of a serene agricultural society, could be the parable to a possible Germany overruned by National-Populism.
- Afrikanische Spiele (African Games, scheduled for 1937) - Jünger's personal experiences in the French Foreign Legion in Africa and in his colonial duty in Mittelafrika.
