A Historiographical Examination on Ernst Junger's Ideas Essay

A Historiographical Examination on Ernst Junger's Ideas - Essay Example During and after the war, he wrote and edited many books and right-wing journals. These included Storm of Steel (1920), Die totale Mobilmachung-1930 (The Total Mobilization), Der Arbeiter-1932 (The Worker), On Marble Cliffs-1947, On Pain, Der Vormarsch amongst others. Through his real life and writing, he has influenced German literature and modern studies of WWII. The backbone of his writings, ideas and ideologies are greatly influenced by his military career and experiences in WWII. His writings give a peek into his thoughts and ideologies, and these have been reviewed by many writers and critics who in the end judge him variously as a militarist, a nationalist, or as a fascist. And others say he is among the greatest writers of modern Germany and a personification of the conservative revolutionary movement. Nevin asserts that Junger is one of the most controversial 21st Century writers in Europe with a remarkable writing career spanning five periods of the history of modern Germany1. In his book, Ernest Junger and Germany: Into the Abyss, Nevin avers that Ernst Junger was ‘politically incorrect writer par- excellence’. He treats him not as the ‘national institution’ the public and press viewed him, but as a contradictory figure whose actions include his parable attacking despotism in 1939 and refusing to join the Nazi party when he was assumed to be a fascist. These confirm Junger’s contradictory and controversial nature2. Though a brilliant writer, Ernst Junger is dismissed as militarist and nationalist, a trait clearly witnessed in his Die totale Mobilmachung-1930 (The Total Mobilization) and Der Arbeiter-1932 (The Worker). In the two books, Junger paints a dictatorial state coordinated along military lines embodied by the star worker3.