Ernst Jünger
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- "The Europe of today appeared here for the first time on the field of battle"
- Journey through the Valley...
- one darn thing after another
- Books and bullets have their own destinies
- Very good
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Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics)
Ernst Jünger
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0142437905
Release Date: 2004-05-04 |
Book Description
A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict but—more importantly—as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure.
Published shortly after the war's end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmann's brilliant new translation.
Customer Reviews:
"The Europe of today appeared here for the first time on the field of battle".......2007-05-14
Jünger's book Storm of Steel is an exceptionally well written and almost romantic (not in the sense of romance novel but rather a piece which illicits an emotive response much like painting of the 19th century) It is one individual's reaction to life in Europe before, during and after WWI. Many of the statements of the text had several implications. Such as his assertion that "the Europe of today appeared here for the first time on the field of battle?" When read in context with the previous paragraphs the statement seemed to be remarking on the damaging will imposed on the European landscape. He spoke of machinery and how before the use of contemporary weaponry the most harm inflicted was the burning of towns and villages. Now because of new `scientific war' or a war of machines not man, nature was impacted. To burn a village was to bruise culture, but not destroy it. Culture could be rebuilt. To create craters and desert out of a once pristine landscape was to demolish it. The author seems to suggest that the damage inflicted by machine was irreparable. Furthermore, describing the war as scientific or a war of machines removed all traces of humanity. The exile of humanness can also be seen in his remarks that chivalry and basic politeness ("all fine and personal feeling") succumb to machinery. Machinery becomes the all invading. In his text, man becomes machine when he "wore the steel helmet." Steel and flesh, man and machine melt into one. The Europe of today was one of cold technology devoid of humanity and nature. Jünger suggested that man had to adapt to machine not machine to man when he discussed the change of fighting strategy. He ended this excerpt with his assessment that everything that was great about the German race or even Europe as a whole drowned during WWI "in a sea of mud and blood."
Journey through the Valley..........2007-02-13
Storm of Steel is one of those rare birds of literature, the war diary that doesn`t condemn war. Ernst Junger`s diary of his officer years in the Imperial German army during that slaughter that ironically came to be known as the Great War, stands alone among `war books.` Unlike Remarque, Graves or even Hemingway, Junger refuses to beat his reader over the head with an overtly edifying message. Ironically, Junger exposes the repellent nature of war by seeming to embrace its proported `virtue-building` properties.
Those looking for a pacifist tract or probing expose into man as killer, would best look elsewhere. Storm of Steel is one man`s existential journey through the unimaginable maelstorm of 1914--1918. Junger begins his story at the very beginning of that awful conflict when his proud unit---67th Hanoverian Fusiliers---marches across the fields of Champagne to meet the French during the autumn of 1914. Here, Junger`s diary gives the impression of boys off to a rugby match. Junger`s high-spirited warrior-athletes soon learn otherwise. Junger deftly and piercingly chronicles the devolution of the assumed football match` into the Boschian reality that would last for the next four years: trench warfare.
In deceptively simple descriptive sentences, Junger manages to paint a vibrant canvas of the world about him. Each chapter jockeys back and forth between brazen dawn attacks across no-man`s land, midnight reconnaissance forays into enemy trenches and the daily and nightly lot of the soldier`s worst nightmare: the artillery barrage. Most of SOS`s richest passages center around such barrages. Rightly so, as Junger`s diary records what was heard, seen, and felt by the Great War grunt. And constant shelling was the mainstay of trench life.
Shrapnel shells burst overhead spitting out their steely balls of destruction, high-explosive shells churn up the Artois farmland into sometimes geysers, sometimes volcanos. The world around Junger is in a constant state of upheaveal and change. Mother Earth violated by the hour, contorts herself around the bloodied figures who dive from crater to crater in search of momentary respite from fate. Junger seems to view the shells and whizzing bullets as messages from another world. Everybody is sentenced to one, it`s all a matter of when it will hit and what it`ll contain, instant death or a few more minutes, hours, days of life.
SOS covers the range of major Western front offensives, the Somme, Cambrai, the final German offensive of 1918, and ends with the Allied breakthrough of the summer of 1918. And through it all, Lieutenant Junger comes across as a man of daring, courage and noblesse oblige, a leader beloved by his underlings and one alternately ruthless and merciful towards his French and British opponents. Junger rarely reflects for long on his actions. As the sole voice of the book, Junger carries you from page to page as a man of action. Here leading a grenade attack across and through an enemy trench, there regrouping his dazed and decimated platoon after an especially virile bombardment. Moments of emotional or even mental interaction with the chaos that surrounds is minimal. SOS captures the moments in which one either lives or dies, kills or is killed. And Junger is supremely faithful to that experience. Post-experience editorializing is all but absent from SOS.
Yet, it is the lack of such emotional contact with the action that separates SOS from that other grand tome of war, the Iliad. When Achilles weeps over Patroclus` mangled body, we also weep, when Achilles stops his rage-driven chariot with Hector`s body tied to it, we, like Achilles, reflect on the bestial power of our anger. Storms of Steel has few such moments. When a dear friend is gunned down moments after sharing words with each other, Junger`s response appears prosaic. `That news floored me. A friend of mine with noble qualities, with whom I had shared joy, sorrow and danger for years now, who only a few moments ago had called out some pleasantry to me, taken from life by a tiny piece of lead!` Yet, here like everywhere in SOS, Junger painstakingly documents. This isn`t war as Achilles and Hector knew it, face to face with one`s opponent. Here, death came from an invisible shell splinter or the yellow muzzle flash, a mile away. You rarely saw he you killed or who killed you. This conflict was altogether different. A war where the human took a back seat to steel. An eerie premonition hovers over SOS. Killing has now become more efficient and quicker, euphemisms soon to be used in the battlefields and death camps to come. Junger kills with similar detachment. Throwing a grenade into a British dugout, he describes the results as, `rough, but satisfactory.` Occasionally though, Junger also records the human element that can`t help but burst through the storm. His unit the recipient of a direct shell hit, Junger drops an innocuous sentence that rings with understatement. `One baby-faced fellow, who was mocked a few days ago by his comrades, and on exercises had wept under the weight of the big munitions boxes, was now loyally carrying them on our heavy way, having picked them up unasked in the crater. Seeing that did it for me. I threw myself to the ground, and sobbed hysterically...`
After killing a young British soldier, Junger makes an enlightening confession. `He lay there, looking quite relaxed...I often thought back on him; and more with the passing of the years. The state, which relieves us of the responsibility, cannot take away our remorse; and we must exercise it.` Profound words as timely today as then.
Junger sweeps his reader across experiences that most readers will never taste. And in a langauge stripped of all moral posturing, preaching or correcting, Storm at times glances the heavy topics with a beauty approaching the poetic. Junger`s matter of fact and stolid Lower Saxon can surprise us with its unexpected layers. Junger describes his final wounding with such words. `As I fell, I saw the smooth, white pebbles in the muddy road; their arrangement made sense, it was as necessary as that of the stars, and certainly great wisdom was hidden in it.` And then the telling next sentence. `That concerned me, and mattered more than the slaughter that was going on all round me.` Such philosophical detachment from the human and moral swamp that surrounds him, separates Junger from other writers of war.
Reaching the final page, I felt as if I had been privy to something quite special. A peep show into another`s man`s harrowing experience. An experience I hope never to have. While Junger`s cavalier and sportsmanlike attitude to war left a bitter taste in my mouth, his struggle to portray war, warts and all, only strengthened my resolve to avoid and condemn it. Therein lays the grand irony of Storm of Steel; the least overtly moralizing of war texts makes the strongest plea for peace, that imaginary place about which the horribly wounded Junger muses,`Where I was going, there was neither war nor enmity.`
one darn thing after another.......2007-01-21
After following Junger from one battle to another, and one close call to another, it's almost fitting that he lived another eighty years. Junger counts at least 14 wounds by his own reckoning, with a nearly unbelievable number of close calls besides those. Soldiers are killed with alarming frequency all about him. A few times his wounds probably saved Junger's life, as when his platoon was wiped out after he had gone to the rear for treatment. This is all described so matter-of-factly as to be disarming.
Junger is a very impressive young man, clearly highly intelligent, mature, well educated, brave, loyal, and with good leadership skills among fellow infantry. He knocks off literary references and English and French dialog as if they were a natural occurrence. He even hobnobs effectively with the natives.
The tremendous waste of human talent in the western front, in actions that in reality accomplish little but move lines back and forth, is the most depressing theme that runs through the journal. Junger is relatively upbeat most of the time, which is perhaps why the book has a reputation for being too militaristic. No doubt Junger had a taste for action and itched for many of the battles. I never felt he was a bloodthirsty fanatic, eager to die, although he was ready and willing to do so. He mourns the loss of individuals regularly and has no hate for his worthy foes.
The narrative's strength is the description of life on the western front among the trenches. I had little idea how much emphasis there was on artillery in the battles and in hassling the enemy between fights. One of the best chapters is "Daily Life in the Trenches", which is a break from the campaigns with a discussion of how the trenches were organized, how the soldiers lived, and the logistics. The trenches were effectively small villages with whatever amenities could be collected. Such a contrast to the western action in WW II with the early blitzkrieg and the action after D-Day where troops swept along.
What's missing is any perspective of what was going on in the big picture, either with the military strategy or the political scene. The participation of the Americans and the end of the war, for example, go unremarked. For a person of Junger's intellect, obviously he excluded those thoughts and supporting information deliberately. Perhaps he only wanted to show the low-level war through one person's life and stick to that microcosm, and he did that very well. I wanted to know more of what he thought about beyond the immediate circumstances. For me, the tight focus kept the book from being five stars.
The translation by Hofman reads superbly. The English is poetic at times, with impressive use of colorful terminology and slang. Of course, some of that is due to the literary skills and wit of Junger. Even so, the creativity required to come up with many of the words and phrases repeatedly surprised me.
Books and bullets have their own destinies.......2006-10-10
My first impression upon completion of this classic World War I memoir is one of amazement. I am amazed that Mr. Junger-or anyone in those trenches-survived the hellish onslaught of trench warfare. In gruesome yet elegant detail, the author recounts his experiences as a front-line German soldier in his battles against the French and English. As the book proceeds, it seems that virtually everyone around Junger is killed or critically wounded. He is wounded himself on a regular basis, and between the constant sniping and merciless artillery bombardments, it is a wonder that anyone survived. There is no discussion of politics or even the reasons behind the war. It is simply the story of a front-line soldier doing his duty. Junger writes about his experiences in war as an almost mystical event that at times transcends the physical senses and becomes almost spiritual. I personally found this fascinating. And while the details of the book are often gruesome, the author's writing is downright exquisite. So whatever you think of him, Mr. Junger certainly had a way with words, and this memoir is a masterpiece that deserves the title of "Classic."
Ernst Junger is somewhat of a controversial figure. His apparent glorification of war and his right-wing political views have led many to view him as a precursor to Naziism. And while the Nazi's certainly admired him, most accounts show that he did not return the favor. He did indeed go on to serve as an officer in the Wehrmacht under Hitler, but this was out of loyalty to his country, rather than loyalty to the Fuehrer. In fact, he seems to have indirectly opposed the Nazi's, as witnessed by such writings as `On the Marble Cliffs.' All in all, Ernst Junger was a fascinating man, and 'Storm of Steel' is a literary masterpiece that deserves its place in history.
Very good.......2006-06-02
I enjoyed this book very much. In some reviews people comment that the book was hard to get for many years because it glorifies war. I didn't find that it glorified war. What I got was an incredible respect for any of the WW1 soldiers fighting in the trenches & Ernst Junger in particular. He wasn't just a regular trench soldier - many, many times he risked his life in daring raids on the enemy lines.
Also in reading this it makes you realize that a WW1 soldier in the trenches had a very short life expectancy, daily you would expect to lose comrades & if you lasted out the year on the front lines that would be something of a miracle. When you read this book you realize how close Ernst Junger came to death over & over again and still managed to survive the duration of the war.
I also learned that enemy gunners were very dangerous but it was artillery (friend & foe) that put an end to most of the soldiers lives. Good book.
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On the Marble Cliffs
Ernst Juenger
Manufacturer: New Directions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GEA870 |
Average customer rating:
- Interesting Prophecy
- Good- Not Essential Jünger
- No Pie in the Sky
- Top Ten ? Definitely in the Top 100 for the 20th Century
- A little surprise in store
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The Glass Bees
Ernst Juenger , and Louise Bogan
Manufacturer: Noonday Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0374521735 |
Book Description
In The Glass Bees the celebrated German writer Ernst Jünger presents a disconcerting vision of the future. Zapparoni, a brilliant businessman, has turned his advanced understanding of technology and his strategic command of the information and entertainment industries into a discrete form of global domination. But Zapparoni is worried that the scientists he depends on might sell his secrets. He needs a chief of security, and Richard, a veteran and war hero, is ready for the job. However, when he arrives at the beautiful country compound that is Zapparoni's headquarters, he finds himself subjected to an unexpected ordeal. Soon he is led to question his past, his character, and even his senses....
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Prophecy.......2005-09-17
Ernst Junger died at the age of 102 in 1997. However interest in The Glass Bees (originally published in 1957) is more a credit to the book's prescience than its extraordinarily long-lived author. In the novel, the head of a multinational animation studio develops a new variety of movies using lifelike automatons indistinguishable from real actors. The glass bees of the title are his newest gizmos, as small as bees yet outperforming what they mimic, recreating and specializing themselves until their evolution races past their creators' control. More a meditation than a novel, this work airs the views of its narrator, a former cavalry officer obsessed with the ravages of modernity, specifically the way it makes our lives easier and more unpleasant. More ease, the old soldier says, has made us more prone to complain instead of less. While it's impossible to outline all the ideas in the officer's heady ruminations, they have a common theme: he was better off when his work was real.
Good- Not Essential Jünger.......2005-05-11
As a devoted reader of Ernst Jünger, I was slightly disappointed when I finished this book (key word: slightly). Of course, the prose is fantastic as always, and the story interesting, although I would say that compared to some of Jünger's early work, like "The Storm of Steel", "Das Abenteuerliche Herz" (The Adventurous Heart), and "Der Arbeiter" (The Worker), "The Glass Bees" falls short. For one, although in the latter stages the story sends chills down one's spine, the first 3/4 of the book are rather... well... boring. Please do not take me for one of those readers who enjoys Jünger's "war books" but disregards the rest, because I have actually always enjoyed his philosophical work (Der Arbeiter) more than his "war books" (The Storm of Steel). But I found that a great portion of this book is rather long-winded, and Jünger has a tendency to go off on a tangent about something which is relatively meaningless, or develop plotlines and characters which seem pointless in the end. At any rate, "The Glass Bees" is certainly a good read, and for anyone very interested in Jünger, highly recommended- but for those less devoted, I would say that this is non-essential Jünger, and should be read only after completing the rest of Jünger's vast opus.
No Pie in the Sky.......2005-04-05
Ernst Jünger wrote what he thought in a time when free thinking led to imprisonment. But how could the Nazi's lock up one of their greatest and most decorated war heroes?
The Glass Bees is short and to the point. Not a happy ending, but how could anyone who survived the horrors of two world wars write one?
Jünger anticipates the age of the computer generated films. Actors are replaced by simulacra that perform within artificially natural scenery.
For a fresh view point, read this book and be pleasantly surprised.
Top Ten ? Definitely in the Top 100 for the 20th Century.......2004-04-14
How do you even begin to do justice to a novel like this? I would imagine that this could very well be a polarizing novel. (Keep in mind my personal philosophy is largely derived from Rene Guenon, et al.) However, I don't think anyone could doubt the quality of the prose itself.
As stated, very little actually happens. Actually, the "action" herein is probably a mere tenth or so of the length, but don't be fooled - Junger will string you along for a few pages, and then hit you with a philosophical passage that begs reading and re-reading. This is a science fiction novel by technical definition, although there is little actual emphasis on the technology; it is presented more as an allegory for the modern age.
The plot is very simple. Captain Richard, an aging war veteran, is given a job interview by the "great Zapparoni" (who is sort of mixture between Walt Disney and Rupert Murdoch). Richard, despite having no short amount of noblisse oblige (nurtured in an earlier, more noble era) nevertheless has cultivated an identity based on failure, largely resulting from being out of step with the current age. He is a man caught between two worlds - he cannot bear to destroy himself even in lieu of the pointlessness of modern existence, yet is unwilling to sacrifice himself to the new technological gods, who demand little more than technical efficiency and blind obedience at the expense of human perfection.
When I was reading this novel, I was reminded of Spengler's introduction to _The Decline of the West_, in which he differentiated between "men of action" and "men of contemplation". Men of action, Spengler said, are the logical result of the particular era they live in (sadly, the figures of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush probably exemplify our own era.) Richard, on the other hand, is a man of contemplation, if perhaps not a great one. He paradoxically realizes that he is trapped in circumstances beyond his control while the "men of action" - who can do little but mirror the values of the modern age - do not stop even for a second to consider anything at all.
Richard knows that Zapparoni, who has built an empire based upon animatronic robots, is little more than the logical product of his age. Richard must come to terms with Zapparoni - who is less a figure than a representation of the modern industrial age. It is a world where "efficiency" and predictable order take precedence over any mere human interest, and "progress" is little more than the continual play of technological novelty.
Richard realizes that no reads Herodotus any more; he pontificates on the nature of the man who is infinitely adaptible. In a telling scene, a former horseman and comrade-in-arms is now a petty bureaucrat in the public transportation system of his city, and elicits little more than disdain for their old days in the army.
I won't give the conclusion away, but the end result isn't a happy one - and it will doubtlessly not sit well with those of us who simply "do what we have to do to get by" in lieu of overwhelming feelings of powerlessness and anomie that characterize the modern age (even as Americans possess the highest standard of living of any people in the history of planet.) This novel poses many questions: to what degree do we limit the possibility of human perfection by striving for technical perfection? Is it possible for the person inherently out of touch with the values of the modern age to find meaning in existence? And most importantly: do human values have any place in the modern era at all?
In the end, I believe Junger has created perhaps the most succinct testimony to modern spiritual death yet written.
A little surprise in store.......2002-09-11
When I imagined this book as I movie, I thought it would be like a futuristic movie set in the 1950's, with everything the same, the cars and clothes and hair, except for a few overdeveloped gadgets, a little bit like Minority Report. The gadgets are not attempts to master nature but very close imitations of nature, the Glass Bees of the title. They are unheimlich, to use a German word that I don't think Junger ever uses. The Zapparoni character reminded me more of Larry Ellison than Bill Gates, because Gates has a big house with lots of gadgets but Ellison transplanted an entire Japanese house and garden to America. Zapparoni shares the same Japanese perfectionism and fascination with miniatures. Junger also has some thoughts--very little happens in the book, which is almost a short story--on the connection between the perfection of technological means and dismemberment. Well worth reading.
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Aladins Problem.
Ernst Jünger
Manufacturer: Klett-Cotta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 3608953477 |
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Siebzig verweht, Bd.3
Ernst Jünger
Manufacturer: Klett-Cotta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 3608931945 |
Authors:
- Jünger, Ernst
- Justice, Donald
- Juvenal
- Jackson, Helen Hunt
- Jackson, Shirley
- Jacob, Max
- Jacobs, Jane
- Jacobs, W. W.
- Jacoby, Kate
- Jacques, Brian
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