29 March 1895, Heidelberg – 17 February 1998, Riedlingen
writer, thinker, one of the main theoreticians of the German conservative revolution
Born in Heidelberg in the family of doctor of philosophy Ernst Georg Jünger. His father, who had a doctorate in chemistry, left his academic career, and the family moved to Schwarzenberg (Saxony), where Jünger Sr. became the owner of a pharmacy. From 1901 to 1913, Ernst Jünger attended a closed school in Hanover. In 1913 he fled home to join the French Foreign Legion. His father used diplomatic channels to get him back. Together with his brother, Friedrich Georg Jünger, he participated in the Vanderfogel movement. The group was known as the voice of disgruntled middle-class youth, and its participation in hiking in Germany was a gesture of protest. Upon his return, Jünger concluded a contract with his father, according to which he was to complete his studies before taking part in the expedition to Kilimanjaro.
In August 1914, he passed exams early, entered the University of Heidelberg and enrolled in the 73rd Hanover regiment. In the spring of 1915 he took part in hostilities, after passing officer courses he commanded a company. He participated in the battles of the Somme. He was first wounded in the battle of Gillemont. During the First World War, Junger was wounded 15 times. Returning to the front in November, he was assigned to divisional intelligence and wounded near Saint-Pierre-Vaast. In January 1917 he was awarded the Iron Cross. In August 1918, the regiment launched an offensive near Cambrai. Despite the encirclement, Jünger managed to avoid captivity, for which in September 1918 he was awarded the Order "Pour le mérite" - the highest military award of then Germany. After the war he served as a lieutenant in the army of the Weimar Republic until demobilization in 1923.
1921–1923 – Officer in the Reichswehr, worked on new infantry training manuals, read Spengler and explored the world of demonology and the unusual possibilities offered by various psychoactive substances. From 1921 to 1925 in Leipzig he studied zoology and listened to philosophy with Kruger. In 1920, his book “In Steel Thunderstorms” appeared, the second book “Fight as an Inner Experience” (published in 1922) describes the war on a larger scale, also writes the novel “The Storm”. In 1925 he retired, in 1926 he left university, in 1927 he moved to Berlin, where he formed contacts with the conservative revolutionary movement. He writes an article for the National Socialist newspaper Völkischer Beobachter entitled Revolution und Idee, in which he preaches revolutionary nationalism and the necessity of dictatorship. He also writes in “Standards”, “Arminiy”, “Aggression”. Collaborates with Friedrich Hilscher, Ernst Nikisch. From August 1926 he married, their first son, Ernst, was born on May 1, 1926, and in 1934 their second son, Alexander, was born, along with creating many political essays for various journals, Junger brought a great element of politics to his books on war. The third edition of Thunderstorms of Steel was carried out in the style of radical nationalism, and in the books Forest 125 (Das Wäldchen 125) and Fire and Blood (Feuer und Blut), the military experience is put in the service of radical revolutionary technical nationalism, meaningful within a totalitarian structure. Der Arbeiter (1932) is the culmination of the totalitarian views of this period of life, but by the same time Jünger begins to become disillusioned with politics.
After the First World War, Ernst Jünger, along with his brother Friedrich George, became interested in the ideas of National Socialism. In particular, he devotes a copy of "Feuer und Blut" to Adolf Hitler, who even scheduled a meeting with him, unexpectedly canceled at the last minute. With Hitler’s rise to power, Jünger began to treat the NSDAP with increasing distance, rejecting proposals for a seat on the NSDAP electoral list and insulting Goebbels, but retaining his views. Opposition to the attempts of the National Socialists to claim their rights to the then famous author of books about the war was expressed in the refusal of Jünger in 1933 from a place in the purged Poetic Academy (Dichterakademie) and, as a consequence, the search of the Gestapo in his house. In spite of Jünger’s free-thinking, he remains untouchable, because Hitler has a complete reverence for him as a hero of the First World War, of which Hitler himself was a participant. He writes a collection of essays “Leafs and Stones” (Blätter und Steine, 1934), where he secretly criticizes the racism of the Nazis, the novel “Afrikanische Spiele” (Afrikanische Spiele, 1936), significantly changes the “Heart of an Adventurer” (Das abenteuerliche Herz, 1938) and finally creates the novel “On Marble Rocks” (Auf den Marmorklippen). This novel by the figure of the Main Forester (Oberförster) is commonly understood as a criticism of the Nazi regime. The book was criticized for aestheticizing violence.
In the Second World War, called up in the rank of captain, Jünger was appointed commander of the infantry company of the XIX regiment. From November 1939 to May 1940, his company was on the Western Wall along the Franco-German border, first in Greffern, then in Iffezheim. Moreover, Jünger’s actions amounted only to detached observation. In 1941, after a period of guard duty with his company in Paris, Junger was transferred to the headquarters of General Otto von Stulpnagel, commander of the German army in France. Jünger worked at the Majestic Hotel and lived at the nearby Rafael Hotel. He was in charge of Operation Sea Lion, censoring letters and tracking the links between the army and the party. In winter, he begins work on the first draft of the book “The World” (Der Friede). After publishing Garten und Strassen in 1942 and quickly translating it into French as Jardins et Routes, Jünger gained many admirers in Paris and became close to the Resistance. He knew many of the participants in Stauffenberg’s plot, and only Hitler’s personal protection saved him from their fate, but he was discharged from the army. On November 19, 1944, his son died, sent to the disciplinary battalion by a military tribunal. In 1945, Jünger’s book “The World” became widely known, he himself remained in Kirchhorst. As commander of the local militia, he insisted that his ragged militia not resist the American offensive.
The Allies after the occupation of Germany imposed a ban on its publication, which was lifted only in 1949 In 1950 he moved to the town of Wilflingen in Lower Swabia. His first works appeared outside Germany: The World in Amsterdam in 1946, Atlantische Fahrt in London for German prisoners of war in 1947, and the travel diaries Aus der Goldenen Muschel in Zurich in 1948. In addition, Junger refused to fill out a questionnaire on denazification, which did not accelerate the lifting of the ban.
In 1949, Jünger’s military diaries were published under the title “Radiation” (Strahlungen) [later remade], and a quasi-fantastic novel “Heliopolis” was also published – in the image of Proconsul it is customary to see the German officers, in the image of Landfogt – the figures of the NSDAP. In addition, the described technical innovations are interesting - the first foresight of GPS and mobile communication (although it was selective and carried out on ultra-long waves). In the 1950s, when he was engaged in essays, his only major work of this period was the novel “glass bees”, dealing with problems of technology, supervision and simulacra. Writing Essay “World State” in the 1970s, Jünger continues to travel extensively and collect awards in literature and culture. The most notable works of this period are 1970: The Convergence: Drugs and Intoxication (Annderungen: Drogen und Rausch), an autobiographical essay summarizing reflections on his various experiences with drugs, from beer parties before World War I to travels into the world of LSD with Albert Hofman. 1977: "Oumeswil" (Eumeswil). The story of another fantastic city, in many ways - the continuation of "Heliopolis". Moreover, it begins to explore the ideas of post-history and re-examines the possibilities of the individual in the struggle for true freedom In the 1980s, Jünger is more prominent as a public figure, which is undoubtedly due to the influence of the CDU in German politics. Debate over the "Jünger case" erupted again in 1982, when the Frankfurt City Council decided to award him the Goethe Prize. In 1984, he took part in a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the two world wars, which was also attended by Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand, who later visited him in Wilflingen in 1985, when he turned 90. In 1990, Die Schere published a collection of aphorisms on the state of the modern/postmodern world. Jünger's other publications are limited to further editions of Siebzig Verweht, with the exception of an essay entitled "The Change of Image" (Gestaltwandel). Jünger’s centenary was celebrated in 1995 with great official hype. He arranged for his papers to be placed in the Archive of German Literature at Marbach am Neckar, where, with the permission of his widow, manuscripts, printed works and original diaries are available for academic research.