THE JUENGER CASE: A COMMUNICATION
Dear Sirs: Rebounding from an excessive rejection of things
German we are now in danger of forgetting our lessons and falling for
an indiscriminate Germanophilism. The recent discovery of Ernst Juen–
ger provides a case in point. Comparatively unknown outside Germany
until recently, Juenger has suddenly been "discovered" by literary circles
in England and in this country. His only novel,
Auf den Marmorklippen,
has just appeared here in an English translation, heralded as one of the
most significant anti-Nazi products to come out of Germany.
PR has contributed its share to this discovery of Juenger. Mr.
Clair's article (September-October 1947), more critical and penetrating
than others on the subject, invites comment for two reasons: ( 1) Mr.
Clair subscribes to the uniqueness of Juenger. Juenger is described as
having "probed more deeply into the complexities of modern civilization
than any of his contemporaries among European writers"; (2) Mr. Clair
also accepts the notion that Juenger eventually worked his passage home.
His withdrawal from the Nazi regime is interpreted as signifying "a
complete break with everything Juenger had stood for in the past."
Thus his novel
On the Marble Cliffs,
his war diaries, and the post-war
pamphlet
Der Friede
(The Peace) are now recognized not only as docu–
ments of high literary distinction, but also as _significant signposts in
the post-Nazi ideological orientation of the German intelligentsia. By
implication they have a meaning transcending the German scene. This
"discovery," I submit, is uncritical and possibly dangerous.
Whatever one's judgment may be about Juenger's purely literary
abilities, it is clear that the fame of his earlier writings rests on the ideo–
logical message intruding into every part of his work or, more precisely, on
the peculiar, fascinating intermixture of a literature confined to the narrow
scope of "extreme situations" and an ideology distilled from this literary
work. Juenger's fame, in the twenties as now, lies in his being a literary
ideologue.
What then of this ideology; and what about the alleged
change bem:een the different phases of Juenger's work?
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