ERNST JUENGER
463
Juenger remarks upon his interest in certain species of insects:
I have noticed the paradox of such occupations in the midst of catastrophe,
yet I found this calming- it unveils a fund of stability, of civilizing re–
sources.... One has to possess a salamander-like calmness in these times
if one wants to attain one's ends.
He now attacks the "cold machine of power which pulls men into its
wheels," and remarks: "Late but powerfully I began to realize the
worth of continuity in life." The former nihilist now finds himself
sorting ancient French documents with loving care that nothing be
lost. The German nationalist has become a
conseruateur
of the tra–
dition of the enemy. The cycle has been accomplished.
IV
Our survey of Juenger's published writings would end here, but
another work, still unpublished, deserves notice:
The Peace,
written
in 1943 during the ,last phase of the Nazi terror, when Juenger was
actively in contact with the conservative opposition that eventually
made the ill-fated attempt on Hitler's life on June 20, 1944.
The
Peace,
dedicated to his son, who, after "having suffered in the jails
of tyranny fell on the field of honor," starts with a quotation from
Spinoza's
Ethics:
"The hatred which is completely vanquished by
love merges into love, and love then is stronger than it would have
been
if
hatred had not preceded it." The book circulated in manu–
script among the ranks of the conservative opposition to Hitler; but
even now it cannot be published in Germany, since the Allied Mili–
tary Government has put Juenger on the blacklist. He now lives on
his
farm near Hanover, unable to communicate through the printed
word with the large circle of his readers. Yet,
The Peace
is among
the very few serious discussions of Germany's problems today, and
thousands of typed copies are being read in the Universities, in the
circles of the Catholic and conservative youth organizations, as well
as among socialists and pacifists-also among the remnants of the
Hitler Youth.
The Peace, To the Youth of Europe, To the Youth of the
World,
has no organic connection with Juenger's early work, to which
-except for a few pages of passionate denunciation at the beginning
-it is stylistically inferior. Its content might have come from the pen
of Karl Jaspers or Alfred Weber.
The first part, "The Seed," depicts the spasms and convulsions
since the First World War and especially during the Hitler regime;
a second part, "The Fruit," is an outline of a program to save Ger–
many. Rejecting German nationalism, Juenger now advocates Euro-
