[lbo-talk] Junger and the Nazis (was, lbo, a den of right-wingers?)

[Dwayne Monroe]

Chris Doss:


I thought Juenger was a Fascist, but anti-Nazi?

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This has always been my understanding.



I was introduced to Junger's work -- in translation -- by a religion Prof during
my undergrad years.  Although his material was obviously off the course's topic,
the Prof. felt that Junger's tight, starkly lovely sentence structures were worth
learning.  I took the lesson to heart and hear an echo of Junger's writing voice,
among others, even when composing letters to friends.


Regarding Nazis and Junger...


The Nazi party courted Junger, based, in large part I believe, upon the success
of "Storm of Steel" which, in earlier versions was a bit more explicitly
nationalistic (in a pre-fascist sense) than later re-workings (Junger tinkered
with that book throughout his long life).  The Nazis were prepared to hail him as
a sterling example of Aryan kultur.

He rejected them flat and reportedly wanted absolutely nothing to do with the
party, it's ideology and methods; whatever his sympathy for and attraction to
fascist ideas in the abstract, the Nazis were too vulgar and too dangerous to
support.  Even so, he did serve in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War; if
I'm remembering correctly, as an officer with occupation forces in Paris.


A complicated fellow and not easily placed within a single category.



.d.