A Dubious Past: Ernst Jünger and the Politics of Literature after Nazism

337 Pages·1999·8.734 MB·English

by  Elliot Y. Neaman

WEIMAR AND NOW: GERMAN CULTURAL CRITICISM
Martin Jay and Anton Kaes, General Editors
i. Heritage of Our Times, by Ernst Bloch
2. The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890—1990, by Steven E. Aschheim
3. The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, edited by Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, and
Edward Dimendberg
4. Batteries of Life: On the History of Things and Their Perception in Modernity,
by Christoph Asendorf
5. Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution,
by Margaret Cohen
6. Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany,
by Thomas J. Saunders
7. Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, by Richard Wolin
8. The New Typography, by Jan Tschichold, translated by Ruari McLean
9. The Rule of Law under Siege: Selected Essays of Franz L. Neumann and
Otto Kirchheimer, edited by William E. Scheuerman
1 o. The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the
Institute of Social Research, 1923—1950, by Martin Jay
11. Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture,
edited by Katharina von Ankum
12. Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900—1949, edited by
Hans Wysling, translated by Don Reneau
13. Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture,
1910—1935, by Karl Toepfer
14. In the Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between Apocalypse
and Enlightenment, by Anson Rabinbach
15. Walter Benjamin’s Other History: of Stones, Animals, Human Beings,
and Angels, by Beatrice Hanssen
16. Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America from the
193 os to the Present, by Anthony Heilbut
17. Cool Conduct, by Helmut Lethen, translated by Don Reneau
18. In A Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945—1948,
by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, translated by Kelly Barry
19. A Dubious Past: Ernst Jünger and the Politics of Literature after Nazism,
by Elliot Y. Neaman
DUBIOUS
PAST
Ernst Jünger and the
Politics of Literature after Nazism
Elliot Y Neaman
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 1999 by the Regents of the University of California
All illustrations courtesy of the German Literature Archive Marbach
(Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Neaman, Elliot Yale, 1957-
A dubious past : Ernst Jünger and the politics of literature after Nazism / Elliot
Yale Neaman.
p. cm.------(Weimar and now; 19)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-21628-8 (alk. paper).—
1. Jünger, Ernst, 1895-1998. 2. Authors, German—20th century—
Biography. 3. Jünger, Ernst, 1895-1998—Political and social views.
4. Germany—Politics and government—20th century. 5. Criticism—
History—20th century. I. Series.
PT2619.U43Z719 1999
838'.gi2O9—dc2i 98-39210
CIP
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 987654321
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO
z39-4®"1992 (R 1997) (Permanenceof Paper).
In memory of my grandfather
Ben Noah Shlain ( 1902—1984)

When you speak about the world of dreams, into which one reaches
down to capture something dubious, it has to be admitted that
something dubious exists in the author himself That is why one
often has more success describing bad characters than good people.
ERNST JÜNGER IN AN INTERVIEW WITH FRIEDRICH HANSEN-LÔVE

CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS / xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / xiii
Introduction / i
i. Ernst Jünger: A German Life / 23
2. The Jünger Circle: Magnetic Repulsion and Attraction / 6 g
3. The Marble Cliffs: An Allegory of Power and Death / 104
4. The Pen and the Sword: Last Knights of the Majestic / 122
5. The View from Above: Logs from a Sinking Ship / 13g
6. Challenging the Victor’s Optic: Jünger as Oracle
in the Age of Adenauer / 161
7. Right Tum: Jünger Retrieved in the Age of Kohl / 212
Afterword / 268
ABBREVIATIONS / 277
REFERENCES / 279
INDEX / 307