Wie Ernst Jünger erst das iPhone erfand - How Ernst Jünger invented the iPhone

Wer schon Heliopolis gelesen hat, dem wird dieser Vortrag keine Offenbarung darstellen. Der weißt schon, daß in diesem futuristichen 1949 Roman ein Gerät, das sogenannte Phonophore, das genau wie ein Smartphone funktioniert, als Accessoire jedes Bürger erscheint.

Nachdem der Sprecher Jüngers Vision bestätigt hat, sieht er sich leider dazu gezwungen - vielleicht weil es schliesslich der beliebte böse Ernst Jünger ist - die Lücken in dieser Vision heraus zu erfinden. Davonabgesehen daß jeder Voraussicht von 1948 auf 2010 natürlich nicht gänzlich von kleinen Fehlern geschont bleiben kann, bin ich überzeugt, daß Jüngers Vision einer zentralistischen Monopolisierung und Hierachie des Phonephore Netz, in kurzem das Internet, nicht falsch ist. Die Behauptung, es sei frei, demokratisch und dezentraliziert ist reine Naivität, Ignoranz der Machtgefüge und Konditionierung Mechanismen unserer heutigen Welt. Das Phonophore von Heliopolis bleibt eine bestechende Zeugnis der Einsicht Jüngers in unsere Technik.

(Siehe auch http://www.ernst-juenger.org/2011/02/iphone4-or-iphonophore.html)

Anyone who has read Heliopolis, Jünger´s first futuristic novel, should not be surprised by the title of this blog and the embedded lecture. These readers already know that an apparatus with almost identical functions to today's smart phones appeared in this novel way back in 1949.

All Things are Nothing to Me *

Quoted from Eumeswil, regarding Max Stirner's concept of "Der Einziger":

"Now just what are the cardinal points or the axioms of Stirner's system, if one cares to call it that? There are only two, but they suffice for thorough reflection:

1. That is not My business.
2. Nothing is more important than I."

For any readers able to transcend the usual reaction to this as "shocking egoism", I give you below the whole first chapter of Stirner's Der Einziger und sein Eigentum ("The Ego and its property", sometimes translated as "The Only One and his property"). I believe it contains most of what is essential to understand Jünger´s summary of the Der Einziger, and thereby the psychological basis of the anarch.

For your "thorough reflection" then! I would welcome your reflections ....

"102 Years in the heart of Europe: a portrait of Ernst Jünger"

It is in Swedish, but the interviews with Jünger are in the original German, and they are a significant part of the whole. Enjoy, it is as good as I expected!
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This looks to be a very interesting documentary from Sweden. If anyone knows where this can be seen or purchased, I´d appreciate the tip!!

From the producer´s website:

102 Years in the Heart of Europe - A Portrait of Ernst Jünger
Documentary
Duration 58min.
Director Jesper Wachtmeister / Solaris Filmproduktion
Writer Björn Cederberg
Producer Fredrik Martin
© Fredrik Martin & Co. Filmproduktion 1998

German writer Ernst Jünger was born and lived in what has been the centre of European power, culture, politics and science for virtually the entire 20th century. Jünger fought in the first world war and received Germany’s highest military decoration from Hindenburg in 1918; he discussed politics with Goebbels and Brecht in Berlin in the ‘20s and art with Picasso during the Second World War; he conspired against Hitler and tried LSD in 1950. The news footage in the film becomes a commentary on Jünger’s life and writings, as contradictory and controversial as the history of the century.

Arte TV on the Marbacher Jünger Exhibition

It begins in a rather cliched manner ("Er war ein Mann der Kälte ....") but the real value here is listening to Martin Walser talk in shining words about Ernst Jünger´s value for people today.

Jünger and Hofmann

An interesting snippet of a conversation between Ernst Jünger and Albert Hofmann about their early LSD trips together. The quality improves after the first few seconds.

Psychonaut friends: Ernst Jünger and Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD.

Ernst Jünger's readership - more eclectic than you think!

What this guy understands about Ernst Jünger's thought, I cannot judge - he only reads from one of his books here. But I give him the benefit of the doubt, since he has picked one of Jünger´s last, most metaphysical works, Die Schere (The Scissors, untranslated into English). 

The video also clearly shows that Jünger readers come in all shapes and colors!!

(Apparently Joschka Fischer also read Jünger, from Fischer´s left-wing student days all the way through to the year Jünger won the Goethe Prize. He then even defended Jünger´s right to receive it. I might post this letter sometime.)

Kriegstagebuch 1914 - 1918 - Deutschlandfunk book review

I am generally not very interested in the early Jünger works - whatever others may say, I find the mature works infinitely more useful for my own enlightenment. I also find they can be studied sufficiently well without much background in the early life and thought of Jünger. Life is short, too short to focus on the unessential, which is what these early works are in comparison with the mature masterpieces like Eumeswil and Co.

Nevertheless, when there is time, these immature works do add some interesting depth to the author. I still have to read the recently published Kriegstagerbuch from the trenches of WWI. This review on Deutschlandfunk is a good one, that just might make me buy the book.

If you find some extra time, listen....(auf Deutsch natürlich).

http://www.esnips.com/doc/728fd8b1-13ea-4a19-a1fc-08e7bfd3ddf1/Deutschlandradio-Juenger-Kriegstagebuch-review

ZEIT interview with Ernst Jünger in 1989

The following is my unofficial translation of an interview with Ernst Jünger which appeared in the ZEIT magazine in 1989. The interviewer is André Müller.

I leave it to the reader without comment - in any case, even the most objective translation contains something of the translator.

A friendship developed from my original working contact with Ernst Jünger, who I interviewed for ZEIT on November 8, 1989. We corresponded and he called me at regular intervals, initially to let me know about favorable critiques or newspaper articles, but later also to ask my opinions or share something personal. I visited him five times, twice at his house in Wilflingen and three times at his nephew´s,* where he stayed when he came to Munich for the annual meeting of recipients of the Bavarian Order of Maximilian. According to Jünger, I owed this interview to the second wife of Friedrich Dürrenmatt, the journalist Charlotte Kerr, who had requested a television interview with him. He said she had warned him about me. I was a dangerous chap with whom he should be on guard. He responded to her that he understood that as a compliment and decided to accept my request. After some hesitation, he even agreed to a recording.