Ernst Jünger was one of twentieth-century Germany's most important--and
most controversial--writers. Decorated for bravery in World War I and
the author of the acclaimed western front memoir Storm of Steel, he
frankly depicted war's horrors even as he extolled its glories. As a
Wehrmacht captain during World War II, Jünger faithfully kept a journal
in occupied Paris and continued to write on the eastern front and in
Germany until its defeat--writings that are of major historical and
literary significance.
Jünger's Paris journals document his Francophile excitement, romantic
affairs, and fascination with botany and entomology, alongside mystical
and religious ruminations and trenchant observations on the occupation
and the politics of collaboration. While working as a mail censor, he
led the privileged life of an officer, encountering artists such as
Céline, Cocteau, Braque, and Picasso. His notes from the Caucasus depict
the chaos after Stalingrad and atrocities on the eastern front. Upon
returning to Paris, Jünger observed the French resistance and was close
to the German military conspirators who plotted to assassinate Hitler in
1944. After fleeing France, he reunited with his family as Germany's
capitulation approached. Both participant and commentator, close to the
horrors of history but often distancing himself from them, Jünger turned
his life and experiences into a work of art. These wartime journals
appear here in English for the first time, giving fresh insights into
the quandaries of the twentieth century from the keen pen of a
paradoxical observer.
