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.
December 20, 2010
December 19, 2010
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.
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| 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.)
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).
December 18, 2010
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.
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.
November 15, 2010
Kulturstaatsminister Bernd Neumann anlässlich der Eröffnung „Ernst Jünger – Arbeiter am Abgrund“
In seiner Rede im Deutschen Literaturarchiv Marbach ging Staatsminister Bernd Neumann auf das Leben und Schaffen von Ernst Jünger ein. Ebenso wies er auf die besondere Bedeutung von Archiven hin und sprach das Thema Digitalisierung
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| Ernst Jünger notebook |
- Es gilt das gesprochene Wort. -
Anrede,
gerne übermittele ich die Grüße der Bundesregierung zur Eröffnung der großen Ernst-Jünger-Ausstellung hier im "Pantheon der deutschen Literatur". Ein nicht nur langes, sondern auch besonders reiches Leben stellt sich dar: Ernst Jünger, der zeitlebens in erdgeschichtlichen und kosmischen Dimensionen dachte, sah es als ein Zeichen des Himmels und als ein Menetekel zugleich an, dass er zweimal – 1910 und 1986 – den berühmten Halleyschen Kometen an der Erde vorüberziehen sah. Durch die Aufnahme in die berühmte französische "Bibliotèque de la Pleiade" wurde er selbst gleichsam zu den Sternen erhoben.
October 14, 2010
Jüngers Kriegstagebücher - a higher perspective
The press has recently been been full of discussion about the publication of Ernst Jünger's War Diaries (Kriegstagebücher), his original notes from the trenches of WWI. Above all this has provided new opportunities for the usual misuse of his works by left-wing opponents and right-wing "friends", respectively expressing their knee-jerk critique and misguided hero worship.
The disproportion of this attention is apparent when one remembers that it is directed at a single teenage work of an author who lived to 102, wrote dozens of far more interesting and profound works, and was awarded Germany's highest literary prize.
(One wonders if these respected critics, Feuilleton editors and academics are in fact incapable in their 50's or 60's of anything more challenging than analyzing to death Jünger´s teenage works? The reflection of a difference in intellectual level of development? Would they know where to begin with later works like Eumeswil or An der Zeitmauer, works that have not been classified once and for all times in the public mind by these "authorities"? I challenge these venerable gentlemen to "explain" Eumeswil and the anarch to their readers with their tired old politicized cliches!)
October 13, 2010
Ernst Jünger Conferences in Florence
In a site devoted to Ernst Jünger, it is unforgivable that I have never mentioned the remarkable work of the Association Eumeswil in Florence, Italy. As one of the only groups world-wide that regularly organizes conferences and other events on Ernst Jünger, they deserve front-page treatment here. This oversight will be redressed in the future, as I have nothing but respect for their efforts there!
They gain plenty of extra points in my eyes, since they are clearly oriented towards Ernst Jünger´s mature works - as the name already indicates.
For October, this Jünger conference (in Italian) is announced on their website:
Saturday October 23, 17h
Istituto dei Padri Scolopi – Scuole Pie Fiorentine, Sala Verde – via Cavour 94, Firenze
Ernst Jünger's Orient: a bridge beyond modernity.
Speaker: Sandro Gorgone, professor of philosophy, University of MessinaThe Orient in dialogue between Ernst and Friedrich Georg Jünger
Speaker: Professor Giuliana Gregorio, History of Philosophy, University of Messina.In the city of the Renaissance, let us hope their work leads to a rebirth of interest in Ernst Jünger!
September 11, 2010
A new color! "Global grey"
I'm going to stray from direct reference to Ernst Jünger here, though it will be in the train of his thinking regarding global "levelization" or flattening of culture.
I was in the United Nations building here last week, since I can do duty-free shopping there. Indeed, I have no other reason to go, since the place basically depresses me everytime I visit.
Why? Because it becomes apparent there in microcosm how globalization ultimately leads not to a fascinating colorful tapestry of cultures but to a uniform "global grey".
If one imagines taking all the world´s flags and composing a mosaic of them, on a sphere like this unknown graphic artist has done, a cheerful and stimulating impression results. According to color theory, if one spun this globe very fast, assuming all the colors of the rainbow were present in the various flags, a pure white would result. This is additive color mixing - the frequencies of the colors are added to each to produce full-spectrum visible light, which is white.
September 8, 2010
INTERNATIONAL COVERS OF ERNST JÜNGER BOOKS
Here's a colourful mosaic of all the Jünger books (and a few good books on Jünger) that I´ve managed to collect over the years - presented here mainly for fun, but also to reinforce the international importance of Ernst Jünger. May it grow year by year as the world begins to discover the insights of this author!
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