Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger (March 29, 1895 - February 17, 1998) was born in Heidelberg and grew up in Hannover as the son of a pharmacist. Jünger went to school between the years of 1901 and 1913 and was member of the "Wandervogel[?]"-movement. He ran away from home to join the French Foreign Legion where he served in North Africa. During World War I he served at western front. This war-time is described in Storm of Steel (German: In Stahlgewittern) which was published in 1920. He served as an officer in the army of the Weimar Republic. He studied zoology and philosophy and became a well-known entomologist. He married Greta von Jeinsen in 1925; they had two children.

In the 1920s Jünger published articles in several right-wing journals. In Storm of Steel Jünger glorifies war as an internal event. He criticizes the democracy of the Weimar Republic, but he didn't actively support the fascist movement around Hitler. Jünger refuses the offer to head the Nazi Writer's Union. In 1927 he moved to Berlin. He is a soldier as well as a sensitive poet with extraordinary knowledge about plants, nature and insects. The Adventurous Heart (German: Das abenteuerliche Herz) (1929). In 1932 he published The Workers (German: Der Arbeiter). In Über Nationalismus und Judenfrage (1930) Jünger describes "the jews" as a threat for the Germans. Jünger left Berlin in 1933, his house was searched by the secret-police Gestapo, and from 1938 he was forbidden to write. On the Marble Cliffs (German: Auf den Marmorklippen) describes in metaphorical way the situation in Germany during Hitler-Fascism. He served in World War II as an army captain. The time in France is described in his diary Gärten und Straßen 1942. Jünger was involved in the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot - not directly but as a figure of intellectual inspiration.

After the war his books were forbidden for a few years. Jüngers The Peace (German: Der Friede), written in 1943 and published in 1947, marked the end of his involvement in politics. Jünger refused to appear at a "Denazification"-tribunal. His diaries from 1939 to 1949 were published under the title Strahlungen (1948). In the 1950s and 1960s Jünger travelled extensively. His first wife, Gretha, died in 1960, and in 1962 he married Liselotte Lohrer.

Ernst Jünger has been among the forerunners of "Magic Realism". Jünger's future-visions of an overmechanized world threatens individualism described in The Glass Bees (German: Gläserne Bienen) (1957) could be seen as "Science Fiction".

Throughout his whole life he has experimented with drugs as: ether, cocaine, and hashish; thirty years later he used mescaline and LSD. This experiments were recorded comprehensively in Annäherungen (1970). The novel Besuch auf Goldenholm (1952) is clearly influenced by his early experiments with mescaline and LSD.

His 100th birthday on March 29, 1995 was met with praises from various individuals and fans, including François Mitterrand.

Jünger was a close friend of Martin Heidegger. Ernst Jünger died on February 17, 1998 in Wilflingen[?], Swabia.

Selected works:

• IN STAHLGEWITTERN, 1920 - The Storm of Steel
• DER KAMPF ALS INNERES ERLEBNIS, 1922
• FEUER UND BLUT, 1925
• DAS ABENTEUERLICHEHERZ, 1929 - The Adventurous Heart
• DIE TOTALE MOBILMACHUNG, 1931
• DER ARBEITER, HERRSCHAFT UND GESTALT, 1932 - The Workers
• GEHEIMNISSE DER SPRACHE, 1934
• BLÄTER UND STEINE, 1934
• AFRIKANISCHE SPIELE, 1936
• AUF DEN MARMORKLIPPEN, 1939 - On the Marble Cliffs
• MYRDUN. BRIEFE AUS NORWEGEN, 1943
• DER FRIEDE, 1947 - The Peace
• ATLANTISCHE FAHRT, 1947
• SPRACHE UND KÖRPERBAU, 1947
• EIN INSELFRÜHLING, 1948
• HELIOPOLIS, 1949
• STRAHLUNGEN, 1949
• ÜBER DIE LINIE, 1950
• DER WALDGANG, 1951
• BESUCH AUF GODENHOLM, 1952
• DER GORDISCHE KNOTE, 1953
• DAS SANDUHRBUCH, 1954
• AM SARAZENENTURM, 1955
• RIVAROL, 1956
• SERPENTARA, 1957
• GLÄSERNE BIENEN, 1957 - The Glass Bees
• SAN PIETRO, 1957
• JAHRE DER OCCUPATION, 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
• TYPHUS, 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 UN BAUCHIS, 1974
• EUMESWIL, 1977
• SÄMTLICHE WERKE, 1979 ff (18 vols.)
• PAUL LÉAUTAUD IN MEMORIAM, 1980
• SIEBZIG VERWEHT, 1980-81
• FLUGTRÄUME, 1983
• ALADINS PROBLEM, 1983 - Aladdin's Problem
• AUTOR UND AUTORSCHAFT, 1984
• EINE GEFÄRLICHE BEGEGNUNG, 1985
• ZWEI MAL HALLEY, 1987
• DIE SCHERE, 1990

External links and references

• http://www.juenger.org