In Stahlgewittern Aus dem Tagebuch eines Stoßtruppführers

- By Ernst Jünger
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German soldier and author Ernst JüngerJünger in 1920Born(1895-03-29)29 March 1895Heidelberg, Grand Duchy of Baden, German EmpireDied17 February 1998(1998-02-17) (aged 102)Riedlingen, GermanyGenreDiaries, novelsSubjectWarNotable worksIn StahlgewitternAuf den MarmorklippenNotable awards Iron Cross I. Class (1916) Pour le Mérite (1918) Grand Merit Cross (1959) Schiller Memorial Prize (1974) Goethe Prize (1982) Maximilian Order (1986) Spouse Gretha von Jeinsen ​ ​(m. 1925; died 1960)​ Liselotte Lohrer ​(m. 1962)​ Military careerAllegiance France (1913) German Empire (1914–1918) Weimar Republic (1918–1923) Nazi Germany (1939–1944)Service/branchFrench Foreign LegionPrussian ArmyReichsheerGerman ArmyYears of service1913, 1914–1923, 1939–1944RankHauptmannBattles/warsWorld War IWorld War II Ernst Jünger (German pronunciation: [ɛʁnst ˈjʏŋɐ]; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. The son of a successful businessman and chemist, Jünger rebelled against an affluent upbringing and sought adventure in the Wandervogel German youth movement, before running away to briefly serve in the French Foreign Legion, which was an illegal act in Germany. However, he escaped prosecution due to his father's efforts and was able to enlist in the German Army on the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During an ill-fated offensive in 1918 Jünger was badly wounded and was awarded the Pour le Mérite, a rare decoration for one of his rank. Since new awards of the military class ceased with the end of the Prussian monarchy in November 1918, Jünger, who died in 1998, was the last living recipient of the military class award. [1] He wrote against liberal values, democracy, and the Weimar Republic, but rejected the advances of the Nazis who were rising to power. During World War II Jünger served as an army captain in occupied Paris, but by 1943 he had turned decisively against Nazi totalitarianism, a change manifested in his work "Der Friede" (The Peace). Jünger was dismissed from the army in 1944 after he was indirectly implicated with fellow officers who had plotted to kill Hitler. A few months later, his son died in combat in Italy after having been sentenced to a penal battalion for political reasons.[2] After the war, Jünger was treated with some suspicion as a possible fellow traveller of the Nazis. By the later stages of the Cold War, his unorthodox writings about the impact of materialism in modern society were widely seen as conservative rather than radical nationalist, and his philosophical works came to be highly regarded in mainstream German circles. Jünger ended life as an honoured literary figure, although critics continued to charge him with the glorification of war as a transcendental experience in some of his early works. He was an ardent militarist and one of the most complex and contradictory figures in 20th-century German literature.[2] Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Ernst Jünger was born in Heidelberg as the eldest of six children of the chemical engineer Ernst Georg Jünger (1868–1943) and of Karoline Lampl (1873–1950). Two of his siblings died as infants. His father acquired some wealth in potash mining. He went to school in Hannover from 1901 to 1905, and during 1905 to 1907 to boarding schools in Hanover and Brunswick. He rejoined his family in 1907, in Rehburg, and went to school in Wunstorf with his siblings from 1907 to 1912. During this time, he developed his passion for adventure novels and for entomology. He spent some time as an exchange student in Buironfosse, Saint-Quentin, France, in September 1909. With his younger brother Friedrich Georg Jünger (1898–1977) he joined the Wandervogel movement in 1911. His first poem was published with the Gaublatt für Hannoverland in November 1911.[3] By this time, Jünger had a reputation as a budding bohemian poet.[4] In 1913, Jünger was a student at the Hamelin gymnasium. In November, he travelled to Verdun and enlisted in the French Foreign Legion for a five-year term, but with the intention of getting to North Africa. Stationed in a training camp at Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, he deserted and travelled to Morocco, but was captured and returned to camp. Six weeks later, he was dismissed from the Legion due to the intervention of the German Foreign Office, and escaped prosecution. On the return journey he was told by his father that the cost of representations to the authorities had amounted to a vast sum. Jünger was sent to a boarding school in Hanover, where fellow pupils included future communist leader Werner Scholem (1895–1940).[5] World War I[edit] Jünger during World War I, wearing the House Order of Hohenzollern On 1 August 1914, shortly after the start of World War I, Jünger enlisted as a one year volunteer and joined the 73rd Hannoverian Fusilier Regiment of the 19th Division, and, after training, was transported to the Champagne front in December. He was wounded for the first time in April 1915. While on convalescent leave he took up a position his father arranged for him to become an officer aspirant (Fahnenjunker). Jünger was commissioned a Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant) on 27 November 1915. As platoon leader, he gained a reputation for his combat exploits and initiative in offensive patrolling and reconnaissance. During the Battle of the Somme near the obliterated remains of the village of Guillemont his platoon took up a front line position in a defile that had been shelled until it consisted of little more than a dip strewn with the rotting corpses of predecessors. He wrote: As the storm raged around us, I walked up and down my sector. The men had fixed bayonets. They stood stony and motionless, rifle in hand, on the front edge of the dip, gazing into the field. Now and then, by the light of a flare, I saw steel helmet by steel helmet, blade by glinting blade, and I was overcome by a feeling of invulnerability. We might be crushed, but surely we could not be conquered.[6] The platoon was relieved but Jünger was wounded by shrapnel in the rest area of Combles and hospitalized; his platoon reoccupied the position on the eve of the Battle of Guillemont and was obliterated in a British offensive.[7] He was wounded for the third time in November 1916, and awarded the Iron Cross First Class in January 1917.[8] In the spring of 1917, he was promoted to Hauptmann, commanding 7th company and stationed at Cambrai. Transferred to Langemarck in July, Jünger's actions against the advancing British included forcing retreating soldiers to join his resistance line at gunpoint. He arranged the evacuation of his brother Friedrich Georg, who had been wounded. In the Battle of Cambrai (1917) Jünger sustained two wounds, by a bullet passing through his helmet at the back of the head, and another by a shell fragment on the forehead. He was awarded the House Order of Hohenzollern. While advancing to take up positions just before Ludendorff's Operation Michael on 19 March 1918, Jünger was forced to call a halt after the guides lost their way, and while bunched together half of his company were lost to a direct hit from artillery. Jünger himself survived, and led the survivors as part of a successful advance but was wounded twice towards the end of the action, being shot in the chest and less seriously across the head. After convalescing, he returned to his regiment in June, sharing a widespread feeling that the tide had now turned against Germany and victory was impossible. On 25 August, he was wounded for the seventh and final time near Favreuil, being shot through the lung while leading his company in an advance that was quickly overwhelmed by a British counter-attack. Becoming aware the position where he was lying wounded was about to fall to advancing British forces, Jünger rose and as he did his lung drained of fluids through the wound in his chest, allowing him to recover enough to escape. He made his way to a machine-gun post that was holding out, where a doctor told him to lie down immediately. Carried to the rear in a tarpaulin, he and the bearers came under fire and the doctor was killed. A soldier who tried to carry Jünger on his shoulders was killed after only making it a few yards, but another soldier was able to do so. Jünger received the Wound Badge 1st Class. While he was treated in a Hannover hospital, on 22 September he received notice of being awarded the Pour le Mérite on the recommendation of division commander Johannes von Busse. Pour le Mérite, the highest military decoration of the German Empire, was awarded some 700 times during the war, but almost exclusively to high-ranking officers (and seventy times to combat pilots). Jünger was one of only eleven infantry company leaders who received the order.[9] Throughout the war, Jünger kept a diary, which became the basis of his 1920 Storm of Steel. He spent his free time reading the works of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Ariosto and Kubin, besides entomological journals he was sent from home. During 1917, he was collecting beetles in the trenches and while on patrol, 149 specimens between 2 January and 27 July, which he listed under the title of Fauna coleopterologica douchyensis ("Coleopterological fauna of the Douchy region").[9] Interwar period[edit] Ernst Jünger in uniform as depicted in the frontispiece of the 3rd edition of In Stahlgewittern (1922) 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. In Germany, an important entomological prize is named after him: the Ernst-Jünger-Preis für Entomologie.[10] His war experiences described in Storm of Steel (German title: In Stahlgewittern), which Jünger self-published in 1920, gradually made him famous. He married Gretha von Jeinsen (1906–60) in 1925. They had two children, Ernst Jr. (1926–44) and Alexander (1934–93). He criticized the fragile and unstable democracy of the Weimar Republic, stating that he "hated democracy like the plague."[11] More explicitly than in Storm of Steel, he portrayed war as a mystical experience that revealed the nature of existence.[12] According to Jünger, the essence of the modern was found in total mobilisation for military effectiveness, which tested the capacity of the human senses.[13] In 1932, he published The Worker (German title: Der Arbeiter), which called for the creation of an activist society run by warrior-worker-scholars.[14] In the essay On Pain,[15] 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. Around this time his writing included the aphorism "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger; and what kills me makes me incredibly strong."[16] Third Reich[edit] As a famous war hero and prominent nationalist critic of the Weimar Republic, the ascendant Nazi Party (NSDAP) courted Jünger as a natural ally, but Jünger rejected such advances. When Jünger moved to Berlin in 1927, he rejected an offer of a seat in the Reichstag for the NSDAP. In 1930, he openly denounced Hitler's suppression of the Rural People's Movement.[17] In the 22 October 1932 edition of Völkischer Beobachter (the official Nazi newspaper), the article "Das endlose dialektische Gespräch" ("the never-ending dialectical debate") attacked Jünger for his rejection of the "blood and soil" doctrine, accusing him of being an "intellectualist" and a liberal.[18] Jünger again refused a seat offered to him in the Reichstag following the Nazi Party's ascension to power in January 1933, and he refused the invitation to head the German Academy of Literature (Die deutsche Akademie der Dichtung).[19] On 14 June 1934, Jünger wrote a "letter of rejection" to the Völkischer Beobachter, in which he requested that none of his writings be published in it.[18] Jünger also refused to speak on Joseph Goebbels's radio. He was one of the few "nationalist" authors whose names were never found on the frequent declarations of loyalty to Hitler. He and his brother Friedrich Georg quit the "Traditionsverein der 73er" (veteran's organization of the Hanoverian regiment they had served during World War I) when its Jewish members were expelled.[18] When Jünger left Berlin in 1933, his house was searched several times by the Gestapo.[20] On the Marble Cliffs (1939, German title: Auf den Marmorklippen), a short novel in the form of a parable, uses metaphor to describe Jünger's negative perceptions of the situation in Hitler's Germany.[21] He served in World War II as an army captain. On the Western Front in 1939, he rescued a wounded soldier and was again awarded the Iron Cross Second Class.[22] Assigned to an administrative position as intelligence officer and mail censor in Paris, he socialized (often at the Georges V hotel or at Maxim's) with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau.[23] He also went to the salons of Marie-Louise Bousquet and Florence Gould. There he met Jean Paulhan, Henry de Montherlant, Marcel Jouhandeau and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.[24] Jünger also met the latter at the German Institute on 7 December 1941. He noted in his Parisian diary (Strahlungen) that Céline on that occasion "spoke of his consternation, his astonishment, at the fact that we soldiers were not shooting, hanging, and exterminating the Jews".[25] He passed on information about upcoming transports "at an acceptable level of risk" which saved Jewish lives. His office was in the Hotel Majestic and he was billeted at the Hotel Raphael.[26] Jünger found his countrymen's discriminatory treatment of French Jews unacceptable. In his Parisian diaries, the writer wrote on 7 June 1942 that he had encountered for the first time the yellow star carried by three little girls who were passing by in the Rue Royale, and that he considered that day as fundamental in his personal history, because he says he was ashamed at that moment of wearing a German officer's uniform.[25] His early time in France is described in his aforementioned diary Strahlungen (Radiations), which includes "Gärten und Straßen" (Gardens and Streets) and "Das erste Pariser Tagebuch" (The First Parisian Diary). He was also given the task of executing a German deserter who had beaten the women sheltering him and been turned in. Jünger considered avoiding the assignment but eventually attended to oversee the execution in, as he claimed in his journal, "the spirit of higher curiosity".[27] Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot. He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army,[28] and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian, officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. On 6 June 1944 Jünger went to Rommel's headquarters at La Roche-Guyon, arriving late at about 9 PM as the bridge at Mantes was down. Present were Rommel's chief-of-staff Hans Speidel, General Wagener, Colonel Linstow, Embassy Counsellor Peter Pfeiffer [de], reporter Major Wilhelm von Schramm [de] and Speidel's brother-in-law Max Horst (Rommel was in Germany). At 9.30 PM they went to Speidel's quarters to discuss "Der Friede" (The Peace), Jünger's 30-page peace proposal (written in 1943), to be given to the Allies after Hitler's demise or removal from power; also proposed is a united Europe. He returned about midnight. The next day at the Paris HQ Jünger was stunned by the news of the Normandy landings.[29][30] Jünger was only peripherally involved in the events, however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in August 1944 rather than execution. He was saved by the chaos of the last months of the war, and by always being "inordinately careful", burning writings on sensitive matters from 1933. One source (Friedrich Hielscher) claimed that Hitler said "Nothing happens to Jünger".[31] His elder son Ernst Jr., then an eighteen-year-old naval (Kriegsmarine) cadet, was imprisoned that year for engaging in "subversive discussions" in his Wilhelmshaven Naval Academy (a capital offence). Transferred to Penal Unit 999 as Frontbewährung after his parents had spoken to the presiding judge Admiral Ernst Scheurlen, he was killed near Carrara in occupied Italy on 29 November 1944 (though Jünger was never sure whether he had been shot by the enemy or by the SS).[32][33] Post-war period[edit] After the war, Jünger was initially under some suspicion for his nationalist past, and he was banned from publishing in Germany for four years by the British occupying forces because he refused to submit to the denazification procedures.[14] His work The Peace (German title: Der Friede), written in 1943 and published abroad in 1948, marked the end of his involvement in politics. When German Communists threatened his safety in 1945, Bertolt Brecht instructed them to "Leave Jünger alone."[34] His public image rehabilitated by the 1950s, he went on to be regarded as a towering figure of West German literature. West German publisher Klett put out a ten-volume collected works (Werke) in 1965, extended to 18 volumes 1978–1983. This made Jünger one of just four German authors to see two subsequent editions of their collected works published during their lifetime, alongside Goethe, Klopstock and Wieland.[35] 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. Ernst Jünger House in Wilflingen Martin Heidegger was heavily influenced by Jünger's The Worker although he did not regard Jünger as a philosopher.[36] Heidegger's interpretation of Jünger's work is compiled in volume 90 of his complete edition, titled "Zu Ernst Jünger".[37] 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 automated machine-driven world threatens individualism, could be seen as a story within the science fiction genre. 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. Throughout his 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 with LSD inventor Albert Hofmann and they took LSD together several times. Hofmann's memoir LSD, My Problem Child describes some of these meetings.[38] Later life[edit] Jünger (left) and his wife Liselotte at a reception of the President of the Bundestag, Philipp Jenninger in 1986 This article is part of a series onConservatism in Germany Ideologies Agrarian Christian democracy Liberal Ordo Ritter School Monarchism Nationalist Neue Rechte Völkisch Paternalistic State Socialism Prussianism Cameralistic Socialist Revolutionary Young Romanticism Right-Hegelianism Historical School Principles Christian values Duty Elitism Aristocracy Meritocracy Gemeinschaft Heimat In Treue fest Kultur Medievalism Monarchism Organicism  Patriotism Prussian virtues Sittlichkeit Social hierarchy Social market economy Sonderweg Subsidiarity Traditional authority Volksgeist Intellectuals von Galen Gehlen von Gerlach Görres Hegel Jünger (Ernst) Jünger (Friedrich) Koselleck Mann (early) Möser Moeller van den Bruck Müller Nolte Novalis von Ranke Rauschning Ritter (Gerhard) Ritter (Joachim) Röpke Rüstow von Savigny Schlegel Schmitt Spaemann Spengler Stahl Stoecker Strauss Tönnies von Treitschke Voegelin Wackenroder Works Addresses to the German Nation (1806) Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820) Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1837) Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man (1918) The Decline of the West (1918, 1922) Prussianism and Socialism (1919) The Concept of the Political (1932) On the Marble Cliffs (1939) Politicians Adenauer von Bismarck Dregger Fehrenbach Filbinger von Gerlach  Goerdeler Hugenberg Jung  Kohl Merkel Merz von Papen Rauschning von Schleicher Stresemann vom Stein von Storch Strauss Weidel von Westarp PartiesActive Alternative for Germany Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christian Social Union in Bavaria Centre Party The Republicans Defunct Bavarian People's Party Conservative Party Free Conservative Party German Conservative Party German National People's Party German People's Party Organisations Forum of German Catholics Gerhard Löwenthal Prize German Burschenschaft Hanns Seidel Foundation Hans Filbinger Foundation Konrad Adenauer Foundation Queen Louise League Studienzentrum Weikersheim Tradition und Leben Media Antaios Bild Cicero Deutsche Rundschau Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Junge Freiheit Kreuzzeitung Süddeutsche Monatshefte Der Türmer Die Welt Related topics Anti-Socialist Laws Bibliothek des Konservatismus Conservatism in Austria Erklärung 2018 Freikorps German Reich German militarism Historikerstreit The Junkers Liberalism in Germany Monarchism in Bavaria after 1918 Pan-Germanism Stahlhelm-Fraktion  Conservatism portal  Germany portalvte One of the most important contributions of Jünger's later literary production is the metahistoric figure of the Anarch, an ideal figure of a sovereign individual, conceived in his novel Eumeswil (1977),[39] which evolved from his earlier conception of the Waldgänger, or "Forest Fleer" by influence of Max Stirner's conception of the Unique (der Einzige).[40][41][42][page needed] In 1981, Jünger was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. Jünger was immensely popular in France, where at one time 48 of his translated books were in print.[43] In 1984, he spoke at the Verdun memorial, alongside his admirers, French president François Mitterrand and the German chancellor, where he called the "ideology of war" in Germany before and after World War I "a calamitous mistake".[44] [45] In France he remains a near idol of the identitarian and Europeanist far-right (in the works of philosopher Alain de Benoist). Although he had been cleared of the accusation of Nazi collaboration since the 1950s, Jünger's national conservatism and his ongoing role as conservative philosopher and icon made him a controversial figure, and Huyssen (1993) argued that nevertheless "his conservative literature made Nazism highly attractive",[46] and that "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".[47] Walter Benjamin wrote "Theories of German Fascism" (1930) as a review of War and Warrior, a collection of essays edited by Jünger.[48] Despite the ongoing political criticism of his work, Jünger said he never regretted anything he wrote, nor would he ever take it back.[43] His younger son Alexander, a physician, committed suicide in 1993.[49] Jünger's 100th birthday on 29 March 1995 was met with praise from many quarters, including the socialist French president François Mitterrand. Death[edit] Jünger came from a mixed Christian Protestant, agnostic family and did not profess any particular denominational belief, but shortly before he died he converted to Roman Catholicism.[50][51][52] A year before his death, Jünger was received into the Catholic Church and began to receive the Sacraments.[53][54] Jünger died on 17 February 1998 in Riedlingen, Upper Swabia, aged 102. He was the last living bearer of the military version of the order Pour le Mérite.[55] Jünger's last home in Wilflingen, Jünger-Haus Wilflingen, is now a museum. Photography[edit] Ernst Jünger's photobooks are visual accompaniments to his writings on technology and modernity. The seven books of photography Jünger published between 1928 and 1934 are representative of the most militaristic and radically right wing period in his writing. Jünger's first photobooks, Die Unvergessenen (The Unforgotten, 1929) and Der Kampf um das Reich (The Battle for the Reich, 1929) are collections of photographs of fallen World War I soldiers and the World War front, many that he took himself. He also contributed six essays on the relationship between war and photography in a photobook of war images called Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges: Fronterlebnisse deutscher Soldaten (The Face of the World War: Front Experiences of German Soldiers, 1930) and edited a volume of photographs dealing with the first world war, Hier spricht der Feind: Kriegserlebnisse unserer Gegner (The Voice of the Enemy: War Experiences of our Adversaries, 1931). Jünger also edited a collection of essays, Krieg und Krieger (War and Warriors, 1930, 1933) and wrote the foreword for a photo anthology of airplanes and flying called Luftfahrt ist Not! (Flying is imperative! [i.e., a necessity], 1928).[56] Decorations and awards[edit] 1916 Iron Cross (1914) II. and I. Class 1917 Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern Knight's Cross with Swords 1918 Wound Badge (1918) in Gold 1918 Pour le Mérite (military class) 1934 The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 1939 Clasp to the Iron Cross Second Class 1956 Bremen Literature Prize (for Am Sarazenentum); Culture Prize of the city of Goslar 1959 Grand Merit Cross 1960 Honorary Citizen of the Municipality Wilflingen; honorary gift of the Cultural Committee of the Federation of German Industry 1965 Honorary Citizen of Rehburg; Immermann Prize of the city of Düsseldorf 1970 Freiherr- vom-Stein- Gold Medal of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation 1973 Literature Prize of the Academy Amriswil (Organizer: Dino Larese; Laudations: Alfred Andersch, François Bondy, Friedrich Georg Jünger) 1974 Schiller Memorial Prize of Baden-Württemberg Jünger, wearing both the Pour le Mérite and the Bavarian Maximilian Order1977 Aigle d'Or the city of Nice, Great Federal Cross of Merit with Star 1979 Médaille de la Paix (Peace Medal) of the city of Verdun 1980 Medal of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg 1981 Prix Europa Littérature the Fondation Internationale pour le Rayonnement des Arts et des Lettres; Prix Mondial Cino the Fondation Simone et del Duca (Paris), Gold Medal of the Humboldt Society 1982 Goethe Prize of Frankfurt 1983 Honorary Citizen of the city of Montpellier; Premio Circeo the Associazione Italo – Germanica Amicizia (Association of Italian–German friendship) 1985 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1986 Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art 1987 Premio di Tevere (awarded by Francesco Cossiga in Rome) 1989 honorary doctorate from the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao 1990 Oberschwäbischer Art Prize 1993 Grand Prize of the Jury of the Venice Biennale 1993 Robert Schuman Prize, Alfred Toepfer Foundation 1995 honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid In 1985, to mark Jünger's 90th birthday, the German state of Baden-Württemberg established Ernst Jünger Prize in Entomology. It is given every three years for outstanding work in the field of entomology. Ernst Jünger was the last living recipient of the military class 'Pour le Mérite'. Bibliography[edit] Collected works[edit] Jünger's works were edited in ten volumes in 1960–1965 by Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart,[57] and again in 18 volumes by Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart in 1978–1983, with four supplement volumes added posthumously, 1999–2003.[58] The Sämtliche Werke edition is now partially out of print (out of print as of December 2015[update]: vols. 6, 7, 10, 15–18), and was re-issued in 2015 in paperback (ISBN 978-3-608-96105-8) and epub (ISBN epub: 978-3-608-10923-8) formats. A selection from the full collected works in five volumes was published in 1995 (4th ed. 2012, ISBN 978-3-608-93235-5). The following is a list of Jünger's original publications in book form (not including journal articles or correspondence). Non-fiction[edit] 1920, In Stahlgewittern (In Storms of Steel) 1922, Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis (War as an Inner Experience) 1924, Das Wäldchen 125 (Copse 125) 1925, Feuer und Blut (Fire and Blood [de]) 1929, Das abenteuerliche Herz. Aufzeichnungen bei Tag und Nacht (The Adventurous Heart: Recordings by Day and Night) 1932, Der Arbeiter. Herrschaft und Gestalt (The Worker: Dominion and Form) 1934, Blätter und Steine (Leaves and Stones) 1938, Das abenteuerliche Herz. Figuren und Capricios (The Adventurous Heart: Figures and Capriccios) 1942, Gärten und Straßen (Gardens and Roads) 1943, Myrdun. Briefe aus Norwegen 1943, Der Friede. Ein Wort an die Jugend Europas und an die Jugend der Welt (The Peace) 1947, Atlantische Fahrt 1947, Sprache und Körperbau 1948, Ein Inselfrühling 1949, Strahlungen 1951, Am Kieselstrand 1951, Über die Linie 1951, Der Waldgang (The Forest Passage) 1953, Der gordische Knoten 1954, Das Sanduhrbuch 1955, Am Sarazenturm 1956, Rivarol 1958, Jahre der Okkupation 1959, An der Zeitmauer 1960, Der Weltstaat 1963, Typus, Name, Gestalt 1966, Grenzgänge. Essays. Reden. Träume 1967, Subtile Jagden 1969, Sgraffiti 1970, Ad hoc 1970, Annäherungen. Drogen und Rausch 1974, Zahlen und Götter. Philemon und Baucis. Zwei Essays 1980, Siebzig verweht I 1981, Siebzig verweht II 1983, Maxima – Minima, Adnoten zum 'Arbeiter' 1984, Autor und Autorschaft 1987, Zwei Mal Halley 1990, Die Schere 1993, Prognosen 1993, Siebzig verweht III 1995, Siebzig verweht IV 1997, Siebzig verweht V Novels[edit] 1939, Auf den Marmorklippen (On the Marble Cliffs) 1949, Heliopolis. Rückblick auf eine Stadt (Heliopolis) 1957, Gläserne Bienen (The Glass Bees) 1973, Die Zwille 1977, Eumeswil 1985, Eine gefährliche Begegnung (A Dangerous Encounter) Short stories[edit] 1923, Sturm 1936, Akfrikanische Spiele (African Diversions) 1952, Die Eberjagd 1952, Besuch auf Godenholm (Visit to Godenholm) 1983, Aladins Problem (Aladdin's Problem) Correspondence[edit] Klett-Cotta edited Jünger's correspondence with Rudolf Schlichter, Carl Schmitt, Gerhard Nebel, Friedrich Hielscher, Gottfried Benn, Stefan Andres and Martin Heidegger in seven separate volumes during 1997–2008. Ernst Jünger, Rudolf Schlichter: Briefe 1935–1955, ed. Dirk Heißerer. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-608-93682-3. Ernst Jünger, Carl Schmitt: Briefe 1930–1983, ed. Helmuth Kiesel. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-608-93452-9. Ernst Jünger, Gerhard Nebel: Briefe 1938–1974, eds. Ulrich Fröschle and Michael Neumann. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-93626-2. Ernst Jünger, Friedrich Hielscher: Briefe 1927–1985, eds. Ina Schmidt and Stefan Breuer. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-608-93617-3. Gottfried Benn, Ernst Jünger: Briefwechsel 1949–1956, ed. Holger Hof. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-608-93619-X. Ernst Jünger, Stefan Andres: Briefe 1937–1970, ed. Günther Nicolin. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-93664-3. Ernst Jünger, Martin Heidegger: Briefwechsel 1949–1975. eds. Simone Maier, Günter Figal. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, 2008, ISBN 978-3-608-93641-4. Alfred Baeumler und Ernst Jünger: Mit einem Anhang der überlieferten Korrespondenz und weiterem Material. eds. Ulrich Fröschle und Thomas Kuzias. Thelem Universitätsverlag, Dresden 2008, ISBN 978-3-939888-01-7. Ernst Jünger – Albert Renger-Patzsch. Briefwechsel 1943–1966 und weitere Dokumente. eds. Matthias Schöning, Bernd Stiegler, Ann and Jürgen Wilde. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn/München 2010, ISBN 978-3-7705-4872-9. Ernst Jünger, Dolf Sternberger: Briefwechsel 1941–1942 und 1973–1980. eds. Detlev Schöttker and Anja S. Hübner. In: Sinn und Form, 4/2011, S. 448–473[59] Luise Rinser und Ernst Jünger Briefwechsel 1939 – 1944, mit einem einleitenden Essay von Benedikt Maria Trappen Aufgang Verlag, Augsburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-945732-10-6 English translations[edit] Four of his World War II diaries have been translated and published in English as: A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals 1941–1945: First Paris Journal, Notes from the Caucasus, Second Paris Journal, Kirchhorst Diaries. Jünger, Ernst (2019). A German Officer in Occupied Paris: the war journals, 1941-1945. Translated by Thomas S. Hansen; Abby J. Hansen. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231127400. The bulk of Jünger's publications remains untranslated, but some of his major novels have appeared in English translation. In Stahlgewittern: Basil Creighton, The Storm of Steel. From the Diary of a German Storm-Troop Officer on the Western Front. London: Chatto & Windus (1929). Das Wäldchen 125: Basil Creighton, Copse 125: A Chronicle from the Trench Warfare of 1918. London: Chatto & Windus (1930). Auf den Marmorklippen: Stuart Hood, On the Marble Cliffs. London: John Lehmann (1947). Der Friede: Stuart Hood, The Peace. Hinsdale, IL: Henry Regnery Company (1948). Afrikanische Spiele, Stuart Hood, African Diversions. London: John Lehmann (1954). Gläserne Bienen: Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Mayer, The Glass Bees. New York: Noonday Press (1960). Annäherungen. Drogen Und Rausch: 'Drugs and Ecstasy' in: Myths and Symbols. Studies in Honor of Mircea Eliade, eds. Joseph M. Kitagawa and Charles H. Long. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press (1969), pp. 327–42. Aladdins Problem: Joachim Neugroschel, Aladdin's Problem. New York: Marsilio (1992). Eumeswil: Joachim Neugroschel, Eumeswil. New York: Marsilio (1993). Eine gefährliche Begegnung: Hilary Barr, A Dangerous Encounter. New York: Marsilio (1993). Über den Schmerz: David C. Durst, On Pain. New York: Telos Press Publishing (2008). Das abenteuerliche Herz. Figuren und Capricios: Thomas Friese, The Adventurous Heart: Figures and Capriccios. Candor, NY: Telos Press Publishing (2012). Der Waldgang: Thomas Friese, The Forest Passage. Candor, NY: Telos Press Publishing (2013). Besuch auf Godenholm: Annabel Moynihan, Visit to Godenholm. Stockholm: Edda Publishing (2015). Sturm: Alexis P. Walker, Sturm. Candor, NY: Telos Press Publishing (2015). Der Arbeiter. Herrschaft und Gestalt; Bogdan Costea and Laurence Paul Hemming, The Worker. Dominion and Form. Northwestern University Press (2017) In Stahlgewittern: K.J. Elliott, In Storms of Steel. (2022). Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis: K.J. Elliott, War as an Inner Experience. (2022). Das Wäldchen 125: K.J. Elliott, Copse 125. (2022). Feuer und Blut: K.J. Elliott, Fire and Blood [de]. (2022). Filmography[edit] La Guerre d'un seul homme (One Man's War) (1981). Film directed by Edgardo Cozarinsky juxtaposing excerpts from Jünger's World War II diaries during his years in Paris with French propaganda films of the same period. 102 Years in the Heart of Europe: A Portrait of Ernst Jünger (102 år i hjärtat av Europa) (1998), Swedish documentary film by Jesper Wachtmeister and Björn Cederberg[60] References[edit] ^ Gaudi, Robert (2017). African Kaiser: General Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-425-28371-4. ^ a b "Ernst Jünger". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 February 2022. ^ Heimo Schwilk, Klett-Cotta, Ernst Jünger – Ein Jahrhundertleben, 2014, chapter 3. Heimo Schwilk (ed.), Ernst Jünger: Leben und Werk in Bildern und Texten, Klett-Cotta, 2010, p. 24. ^ Heimo Schwilk (ed.), Ernst Jünger: Leben und Werk in Bildern und Texten, Klett-Cotta, 2010, p. 27. ^ Hoffrogge, Ralf (2017). A Jewish Communist in Weimar Germany: the life of Werner Scholem (1895-1940). Historical materialism book series. Leiden Boston: Brill. pp. 6, 36. ISBN 978-90-04-30952-4. ^ Storm of Steel translated by Michael Hoffman, Penguin p. 99 ^ original casualty report, published 4 October 1916, p. 15,280. ^ Jünger 2004, p. 119. ^ a b Helmuth Kiesel, Ernst Jünger: Die Biographie, Siedler Verlag, 2009. ^ de:Ernst-Jünger-Preis für Entomologie ^ Hoffmann 2004, p. vii. ^ Garland & Garland 1997a, p. 437. ^ Bullock 1992, p. 549. ^ a b Hoffmann 2004, p. x. ^ On pain (translation), Telos press ^ Michael Hoffman's Introduction to Storm of Steel ^ Peter Longerich: Jünger, Ernst, Schriftsteller. In: Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon zur Weimarer Republik. C. H. Beck, München 1988, 164f. ^ a b c Barr, Hilary Barr (24 June 1993). "An Exchange on Ernst Jünger". New York Review of Books. Retrieved 8 July 2013. ^ Hoffmann 2004, p. viii. ^ Stéphane François (24 August 2009). "Qu'est ce que la Révolution Conservatrice ?". Fragments sur les Temps Présents (in French). Retrieved 23 July 2019. Le domicile d'Ernst Jünger fut fouillé plusieurs fois par la Gestapo. ^ Ross, Alex (26 June 2023). "Ernst Jünger's Narratives of Complicity". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 24 March 2024. ^ Andrea Benedetti, Lutz Hagestedt, Totalität als Faszination: Systematisierung des Heterogenen im Werk Ernst Jüngers, Walter De Gruyter 2018, p. 341 ^ "The Devil's Captain: Ernst Jünger in Nazi Paris, 1941-1944". ^ Gnoli, Antonio; Volpi, Franco (1997). I prossimi titani. Conversazioni con Ernst Jünger [The Coming Titans. Conversations with Ernst Jünger] (in Italian). Milano: Adelphi. pp. 93–94. ISBN 88-459-1325-2. The Coming Titans. Ernst Jünger. ^ a b Jünger, Ernst (2019). A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231548380. Chapter I, First Parisian Journal. ^ Jünger 2019, pp. xv, xvi, xvii, xxi. ^ Berndt Engelmann (1986). In Hitler's Germany. Pantheon Books. p. 239. ISBN 9780394524498; citing Gerhard Heller, Un Allemand à Paris. ^ Neaman 1999, p. 122-23. ^ Jünger 2019, p. 328. ^ Margaritis, Peter (2019). Countdown to D-Day: The German perspective. Oxford, UK & PA, USA: Casemate. p. 534. ISBN 978-1-61200-769-4. ^ Jünger 2019, p. xiii,xxi,xxii. ^ Schöning, Matthias (2014). Ernst Jünger-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung. Stuttgart: Verlag J.B. Meztler. p. 292. ^ Jünger 2019, pp. xxiii, 379. ^ Buruma, Ian. "The Anarch at Twilight". New York Review of Books. Retrieved 8 May 2013. ^ Hoffmann 2004, p. xi. ^ Heidegger, Martin (2009). Günter Figal (ed.). The Heidegger Reader. Indiana University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-253-35371-9. ^ "Heidegger, Martin: Zu Ernst Jünger". www.klostermann.de (in German). Retrieved 14 December 2020. ^ "LSD, My Problem Child · Radiance from Ernst Junger". www.psychedelic-library.org. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2015. ^ Macklin, Graham D. (September 2005). "Co-opting the counter culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction". Patterns of Prejudice (.pdf). 39 (3): 301–326. doi:10.1080/00313220500198292. S2CID 144248307. ^ Warrior, Waldgänger, Anarch: An essay on Ernst Jünger's concept of the sovereign individual Archived 9 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine by Abdalbarr Braun, accessed 22 December 2007. ^ Ernst Jünger – Anarch An exposition of the figure of the Anarch through citations from Juenger's Eumeswil. ^ Laska, Bernd A (1997), 'Katechon' und 'Anarch'. Carl Schmitts und Ernst Jüngers Reaktionen auf Max Stirner (in German), Nürnberg: LSR-Verlag ^ a b Hoffmann 2004, p. xii. ^ Hoffmann 2004, p. xiv. ^ Binder, David (18 February 1998), "Ernst Jünger, Contradictory German Author Who Wrote About War, Is Dead at 102", The New York Times ^ Huyssen 1993, p. 5. ^ Huyssen 1993, p. 8. ^ Benjamin, Walter. "Theorien des deutschen Faschismus" (in German). Project-Gutenberg-DE. Retrieved 30 March 2017. English translation: Benjamin, Walter (1979). "Theories of German Fascism: On the Collection of Essays War and Warrior, Edited by Ernst Jünger". New German Critique (17). Translated by Jerolf Wikoff: 120–128. doi:10.2307/488013. JSTOR 488013. ^ Binder, David (18 February 1998). "Ernst Junger, Contradictory German Author Who Wrote About War, Is Dead at 102". New York Times. Retrieved 25 March 2024. ^ Nevin 1996, p. 218. ^ [Mitchell, Alan]], The Devil's Captain, Ernst Jünger in Nazi Paris, 1941-1944, Berghahn Books, 2011, p. 33. ^ Standing Against Tyranny, First Things. A year before the end of his long life (1895–1998), the German author Ernst Jünger converted to Catholicism, a late change on a tumultuous path of searching and adventures that were far from exclusively spiritual. Born into a Protestant family, he attended conventional boarding schools, but at the age of eighteen ran away to France to join the Foreign Legion. ^ Laska, Bernd A. "Ernst Jünger - Anarch und Katholik - ein verspäteter Epilog zu meinem Buch "Katechon" und "Anarch"." Ernst Jünger – Anarch und Katholik. February 16, 2006. Accessed December 20, 2016. http://www.lsr-projekt.de/juenger.html. ^ "Ernst Jünger's Vision of War". 6 July 2013. ^ Tucker, Spencer, and Priscilla Mary. Roberts, eds. World War I: A Student Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. 2006. p. 988. ISBN 9781851098798. ^ Gil, Isabel Capeloa. 2010. "The Visuality of Catastrophe in Ernst Jünger's Der gefährliche Augenblick and Die veränderte Welt". KulturPoetik. 10 (1): 62–84. ^ Jünger, Ernst (1961–65), Werke (in German) (10 vols.) ^ Jünger, Ernst (1979), Sämtliche Werke (in German) (18 vols.) ^ dazu: Detlef Schöttker: „Gefährlich leben!“ Zum Briefwechsel zwischen Ernst Jünger und Dolf Sternberger. In: Sinn und Form, 4/2011, S. 437–447. ^ "102 år i hjärtat av Europa (1998)". Swedish Film Database. Swedish Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013. Barnouw, Dagmar (1988), Weimar Intellectuals and the Threat of Modernity, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Biro, Matthew (1994), "The new man as cyborg: Figures of technology in Weimar visual culture", New German Critique, 62 (62): 71–110, doi:10.2307/488510, JSTOR 488510. Bullock, Marcus P (1992), The Violent Eye: Ernst Jünger's Visions and Revisions on the European Right, Wayne State University Press, ISBN 0-8143-2334-0. Bullock, Marcus. "Ernst Jünger." (2000), Encyclopedia of German Literature, Volume 2 J – Z, ed. Matthias Konzett, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. Garland, Mary; Garland, Henry (1997a), "Ernst Jünger", in Garland, Mary (ed.), Companion to German Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Garland, Mary; Garland, Henry (1997b), "In Stahlgewittern", in Garland, Mary (ed.), Companion to German Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hervier, Julien (1995), The Details of Time: Conversations With Ernst Jünger, Marsilio, ISBN 0-941419-95-9. Hoffmann, Michael (2004), Introduction in Jünger, Ernst (4 May 2004). Storm of Steel. London: Penguin. Herf, Jeffrey (1984), Reactionary Modernism (Chapter Four), New York: Cambridge University Press. Huyssen, Andreas (Spring–Summer 1993), "Fortifying the Heart—Totally: Ernst Jünger's Armored Texts", New German Critique, 59 (59): 3–23, doi:10.2307/488219, JSTOR 488219. Loose, Gerhard (1974), Ernst Jünger, Twayne Publishers, ISBN 0-80572479-6. Mitchell, Allan (May 2011), The Devil's Captain: Ernst Jünger in Nazi Paris, 1941–1944, Berghahn Books. Neaman, Elliot Y (1999), A Dubious Past: Ernst Jünger and the Politics of Literature After Nazism, University of California, Berkeley, ISBN 0-520-21628-8. Nevin, Thomas (1996), Ernst Jünger and Germany: Into the Abyss, 1914–1945, Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-1879-2. Stern, JP (1953), Ernst Jünger, A Writer of Our Time, Studies in Modern European Literature and Thought, Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes. Strathausen, Carsten (2000), "The Return of the Gaze: Stereoscopic Vision in Jünger and Benjamin", New German Critique, 80 (80): 125–148, doi:10.2307/488636, JSTOR 488636. Woods, R (1982), Ernst Jünger and the Nature of Political Commitment, Stuttgart{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). Hervier, Julien, Ernst Jünger: dans les tempêtes du siècle, Fayard, Paris, 2014 External links[edit] Ernst Jünger at Wikipedia's sister projects Media from CommonsQuotations from WikiquoteTexts from WikisourceTextbooks from Wikibooks Library resources about Ernst Jünger Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries By Ernst Jünger Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Ernst und Friedrich Jünger Gesellschaft Jünger-Haus Wilflingen Works by or about Ernst Jünger at Internet Archive Petri Liukkonen. "Ernst Jünger". Books and Writers. vteErnst JüngerAutobiographyand essays Storm of Steel (1920) The Worker: Dominion and Form (1932) "The Peace" (1945) An der Zeitmauer (1959) Fiction Sturm (1923) On the Marble Cliffs (1939) Heliopolis (1949) Visit to Godenholm (1952) The Glass Bees (1957) Eumeswil (1977) Aladdin's Problem (1983) A Dangerous Encounter (1985) Works about One Man's War (1982 documentary) 102 Years in the Heart of Europe (1998 documentary) Miscellaneous Antaios Jünger-Haus Wilflingen vteGerman-language literatureRelated articles German language History of Germany History of Austria History of Switzerland History of Liechtenstein Old High German literature Middle High German literature Early New High German literature Sturm und Drang Weimar Classicism Romanticism Literary realism Weimar culture Exilliteratur Austrian literature Swiss literature German studies Related categories Austrian writers German writers Liechtenstein writers Swiss writers in German Reformation era literature Medieval Minnesang Courtly romance Der von Kürenberg Dietmar von Aist Reinmar von Hagenau Hartmann von Aue Walther von der Vogelweide Wolfram von Eschenbach Albrecht von Johansdorf Heinrich von Morungen Gottfried von Strassburg Dietrich von Bern Nibelungenlied Early modern Simon Dach Paul Fleming Hans Folz Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen Andreas Gryphius Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau Johann Michael Moscherosch Martin Opitz Hans Sachs Angelus Silesius Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick Georg Wickram 18th century Barthold Heinrich Brockes Christian Gellert Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Christoph Gottsched Johann Christian Günther Friedrich Hölderlin Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) Jean Paul Friedrich Schiller Johann Gottfried Schnabel Christoph Martin Wieland 19th century Bettina von Arnim Achim von Arnim Clemens Brentano Georg Büchner Adelbert von Chamisso Annette von Droste-Hülshoff Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Joseph von Eichendorff Theodor Fontane Gustav Freytag Jeremias Gotthelf Franz Grillparzer Jacob Grimm Wilhelm Grimm Gerhart Hauptmann Christian Friedrich Hebbel Johann Peter Hebel Heinrich Heine Georg Herwegh Paul Heyse E. 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Vorwort.
Noch wuchtet der Schatten des Ungeheuren über uns. Der gewaltigste der Kriege ist uns noch zu nahe, als daß wir ihn ganz überblicken, geschweige denn seinen Geist sichtbar auskristallisieren können. Eins hebt sich indes immer klarer aus der Flut der Erscheinungen: Die überragende Bedeutung der Materie. Der Krieg gipfelte in der Materialschlacht; Maschinen, Eisen und Sprengstoff waren seine Faktoren. Selbst der Mensch wurde als Material gewertet. Die Verbände wurden wieder und wieder an den Brennpunkten der Front zur Schlacke zerglüht, zurückgezogen und einem schematischen Gesundungsprozeß unterworfen. „Die Division ist reif für den Großkampf."
Das Bild des Krieges war nüchtern, grau und rot seine Farben; das Schlachtfeld eine Wüste den Irrsinns, in der sich das Leben kümmerlich unter Tage fristete. Nachts wälzten sich müde Kolonnen auf zermahlenen Straßen dem brandigen Horizont entgegen. „Licht aus!" Ruinen und Kreuze säumten den Weg. Kein Lied erscholl, nur leise Kommandoworte und Flüche unterbrachen das Knirschen der Riemen, das Klappern von Gewehr und Schanzzeug. Verschwommene Schatten tauchten aus den Rändern zerstampfter Dörfer in endlose Laufgräben.
Nicht wie früher umrauschte Regimentsmusik ins Gefecht ziehende Kompagnien. Das wäre Hohn gewesen. Keine Fahnen schwammen wie einst im Pulverdampf über zerhackten Karrees, das Morgenrot leuchtete keinem fröhlichen Reitertage, nicht ritterlichem Fechten und Sterben. Selten umwand der Lorbeer die Stirn des Würdigen.
Und doch hat auch dieser Krieg seine Männer und seine Romantik gehabt! Helden, wenn das Wort nicht wohlfeil geworden wäre. Draufgänger, unbekannte, eherne Gesellen, denen es nicht vergönnt war, vor aller Augen sich an der eigenen Kühnheit zu berauschen. Einsam standen sie im Gewitter der Schlacht, wenn der Tod als roter Ritter mit Flammenhufen durch wallende Nebel galoppierte. Ihr Horizont war der Rand eines Trichters, ihre Stütze das Gefühl der Pflicht, der Ehre und des inneren Wertes. Sie waren Überwinder der Furcht; selten ward ihnen die Erlösung, dem Feinde in die Augen blicken zu können, nachdem alles Schreckliche sich zum letzten Gipfel getürmt und ihnen die Welt in blutrote Schleier gehüllt hatte. Dann ragten sie empor zu brutaler Größe, geschmeidige Tiger der Gräben, Meister des Sprengstoffs. Dann wüteten ihre Urtriebe mit kompliziertesten Mitteln der Vernichtung.
Doch auch wenn die Mühle des Krieges ruhiger lief, waren sie bewundernswert. Ihre Tage verbrachten sie in den Eingeweiden der Erde, vom Schimmel umwest, gefoltert vom ewigen Uhrwerk fallender Tropfen. Wenn die Sonne hinter gezackten Schattenrissen von Ruinen versankt, entklirrten sie dem Pesthauch schwarzer Höhlen, nahmen ihre Wühlarbeit wieder auf oder standen, eiserne Pfeiler, nächtelang hinter den Wällen der Gräben und starrten in das kalte Silber zischender Leuchtkugeln. Oder sie schlichen als Jäger über klickenden Draht in die Öde des Niemandslandes. Oft zerrissen jähe Blitze das Dunkel, Schüsse knallten und ein Schrei verwehte ins Unbekannte. So arbeiteten und kämpften sie, schlecht verpflegt und bekleidet, als geduldige, eisenbeladene Tagelöhner des Todes.
Manchmal kamen sie zurück, standen verträumt auf den Asphaltmeeren der Städte und schauten ungläubig auf das Leben, das strudelnd in seinen gewohnten Bahnen floß. Dann stürzten sie sich hinein, um keine Minute der kurzen Tage ungenützt verfließen zu lassen, tranken und küßten. Mit der ihnen Lebensform gewordenen Rücksichtslosigkeit schwangen sie in tollen Nächten den Becher, bis ihnen die Welt versank. Da ließ man die gefallenen Freunde leben und schierte sich den Teufel um den nächsten Tag. Und dann ging es wieder auf den gewohnten Straßen der Brandung zu.
Das war der deutsche Infanterist im Kriege. Gleichviel wofür er kämpfte, sein Kampf war übermenschlich. Die Söhne waren über ihr Volk hinausgewachsen. Mit bitterem Lächeln lasen sie das triviale Zeitungsgewäsch, die ausgelaugten Worte von Helden und Heldentod. Sie wollten nicht diesen Dank, sie wollten Verständnis. Kein Dank kann groß genug sein. Ein Bild: der höchste Alpengipfel, ausgehauen zu einem Gesicht unter wuchtendem Stahlhelm, das still und ernst über die Lande schaut, den deutschen Rhein hinunter aufs freie Meer. - Einst wird kommen der Tag . . .
Der Zweck dieses Buches ist, dem Leser sachlich zu schildern, was ein Infanterist als Schütze und Führer während des großen Krieges inmitten eines berühmten Regimentes[1] erlebt, und was er sich dabei gedacht hat. Es ist entstanden aus dem in Form gebrachten Inhalt meiner Kriegstagebücher. Ich habe mich bemüht, meine Impressionen möglichst unmittelbar zu Papier zu bringen, weil ich merkte, wie rasch sich die Eindrücke verwischen und wie sie schon nach wenigen Tagen eine andere Färbung annehmen. Es erforderte Energie, diesen Stapel von Notizbüchern zu füllen, in den kurzen Pausen des Geschehens, nach dem Tagewerk der Front, beim trüben Licht einer Kerze, auf den Treppen schmaler Stollenhälse, in zeltverhangenem Trichter oder feuchten Kellern von Ruinen; indes es hat sich gelohnt. Ich habe mir die Frische der Erlebnisse gewahrt. Der Mensch neigt zur Idealisierung des Geleisteten, zur Vertuschung des Häßlichen, Kleinlichen und Alltäglichen. Unmerklich stempelt er sich zum „Helden".
Ich bin kein Kriegsberichterstatter, ich lege keine Helden-Kollektion vor. Ich will nicht beschreiben, wie es hätte sein können, sondern wie es war. Iliacos muros peccatur intra et extra. Der Grad der Sachlichkeit eines solchen Buches ist der Maßstab seines inneren Wertes. Der Krieg setzt sich wie alle menschlichen Handlungen aus Gut und Böse zusammen. Nur treten hier, wo sich die Kraft von Völkern aufs Höchste steigert, die Gegensätze noch greller hervor als sonst. Neben gipfelnden Werten gähnen dunkelste Abgründe. Da, wo ein Mensch die beinah göttliche Stufe der Vollkommenheit erreicht, die selbstlose Hingabe an ein Ideal bis zum Opfertode, findet sich ein anderer, der dem kaum Erkalteten gierig die Taschen durchwühlt. Von großen Worten Berauschte brechen im Moment der Gefahr elend zusammen. Männer, deren Gesinnung wie ein Fels schien, stellen sich in entscheidender Stunde „auf den Boden der Tatsachen", ohne den Degen zu ziehen, der sonst so schallend gerasselt. Andere durchschwelgen die Nächte, in denen fernes Rot am Himmel glutet und leises Dröhnen mahnend an die Fenster schlägt.
Das muß gesagt werden. Um so glänzender hebt sich aus diesem dunkeln Hintergrunde der wahre Mann, der unscheinbare, echte, vom Geist getriebene Krieger, der seine Pflicht tat, am letzten Tage wie am ersten. Was war dagegen der Rausch von 1914? Eine Massensuggestion! Und doch, wie viele habe ich kennengelernt, die unter dem grauen Tuch ein Herz von Gold und einen Willen von Stahl bargen, eine Auslese der Tüchtigsten, die sich dem Tode in die Arme warf - mit stets gleichbleibender Freudigkeit. Ob ihr gefallen seid auf freiem Felde, das arme, von Blut und Schmutz entstellte Gesicht dem Feinde zu, überrascht in dunklen Höhlen oder versunken im Schlamm endloser Ebenen, einsame, kreuzlose Schläfer; das ist mir Evangelium: Ihr seid nicht umsonst gefallen. Wenn auch vielleicht das Ziel ein anderes, größeres ist, als ihr erträumtet. Der Krieg ist der Vater aller Dinge. Kameraden, euer Wert ist unvergänglich, Euer Denkmal tief in den Herzen eurer Brüder, die mit Euch standen, vom flammenden Ringe umschlossen. Legten wir nicht weiße Bänder auf eure Wunden und sahen in eure brechenden Augen, als euch der Vorhang der Ewigkeit hochrauschte?
Möge dies Buch dazu beitragen, eine Ahnung zu geben von dem, was ihr geleistet. Wir haben viel, vielleicht alles, auch die Ehre verloren. Eins bleibt uns: die ehrenvolle Erinnerung an euch, an die herrlichste Armee, die je die Waffen trug und an den gewaltigsten Kampf, der je gefochten wurde. Sie hochzuhalten inmitten dieser Zeit weichlichen Gewinsels, der moralischen Verkümmerung und des Renegatentums ist stolzeste Pflicht eines jeden, der nicht nur mit Gewehr und Handgranate, sondern auch mit lebendigem Herzen für Deutschlands Größe kämpfte.
Das Stammregiment des Füsilier-Regiments Nr. 73, das vormals Königlich Hannoversche Garderegiment, verteidigte von 1779 bis 1783 fast vier Jahre lang unter General Elliot Gibraltar siegreich gegen die Spanier und Franzosen. Zur Erinnerung an diese ruhmvolle Waffentat trägt unser Regiment am Ärmel des Waffenrocks ein blaues Band mit der Aufschrift „Gibraltar". Dasselbe Zeichen wird jetzt von der 5. Kompagnie des Reichswehr-Regiments Nr. 16 (Hannover) weitergetragen.
Vorwort zur 2. Auflage.
Schneller als gedacht, wurde eine zweite Auflage Bedürfnis. Aus Zuschriften und Gesprächen ersah ich, daß der Zweck des Buches erreicht, der Geist der Leute am Feind getroffen war. Wer sollte ihn auch besser treffen als einer, der vier Jahre lang in allen Löchern und Höhlen der Westfront in ihrem Kreise hockte?
Dies Interesse für das Geschehen einer Zeit, die uns zu Boden hagelte, ist von Bedeutung. Das Volk im ganzen hat nicht den Willen, das zu verleugnen, wofür Unzählige fielen. Der Krieg ist eine Sache, an der alle beteiligt sind. Sind zur Stunde noch die Nerven erschüttert vom Grauenhaften seiner äußeren Gestaltung, so wird er späteren Generationen vielleicht erscheinen wie manche Kreuzigungsbilder alter Meister: Als großer Gedanke, der Nacht und Blut überstrahlt. Dann wird man wohl auch mit Rührung an uns zurückdenken, an uns und die Hoffnungen und Gefühle, die unsere Brust durchzuckten, als wir im Dunkel durch brüllende Wüsten irrten.

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Rating: B Words in the Passage: 1572 Unique Words: 820 Sentences: 94
Noun: 1387 Conjunction: 51 Adverb: 26 Interjection: 0
Adjective: 12 Pronoun: 5 Verb: 75 Preposition: 55
Letter Count: 8,325 Sentiment: Positive Tone: Neutral Difficult Words: 801
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