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

Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism #19

by Elliot Y. Neaman

A Dubious Past examines from a new perspective the legacy of Ernst Jünger (1895-1998), one of the most fascinating figures in twentieth-century German intellectual life. From the time he burst onto the literary scene with The Storms of Steel in the early 1920s until he reached Olympian age in a reunited Germany, Jünger's writings on a vast range of topics generated scores of controversies. In old age he became a cultural celebrity whose long life mirrored the tragic twists and turns of Germany's most difficult century.

Elliot Neaman's study reflects an impressive investigation of published and unpublished material, including letters, interviews, and other media. Through his analysis of Jünger's work and its reception over the years, he addresses central questions of German intellectual life, such as the postwar radical conservative interpretation of the Holocaust, divided memory, German identity, left and right critiques of civilization, and the political allegiances of the German and European political right. A Dubious Past reconceptualizes intellectual fascism as a sophisticated critique of liberal humanism and Marxism, one that should be seen as coherent and―for a surprising number of contemporary intellectuals―all too attractive.

Genres: History

329 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 1999

About the author

Elliot Neaman (born 1957) is a professor of history at the University of San Francisco, where he began teaching in 1993. He won the USF Distinguished Research Award in 1999.

Reviews

[Dan Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dubious past in question here is the one consciously disavowed. Jünger is controversial because of his refusal to display a virtue license above his desk while continuing to write. Further, Neaman casts Jünger's cat and mouse games with authors and critics as evidence of shady deception, when it is merely what everyone does when looking for allies in the project of self promotion which must concern someone making a living in the liberal arts. People are the raw material of the social economy, as any tenured professor would tell you, and those who are 'free range' intellectuals must tend to their own associations. This was especially true of Jünger who maintained his crystalline perspective without moralizing. Mores being the vernacular of professionally insular groups and political parties, the taint of enforced association would have ruined his art. He is particularly valuable today to those who resist the intemperance of the social networks.

[George Siehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Dubious Past is a serious, scholarly work, so significant effort is required on the part of the reader. It is a study of how the literature of German intellectual-warrior Ernst Junger fits into the history of ideas, particularly in post- WWII Germany. Junger was a highly decorated combat officer during WWI. He later served as a censor in occupied Paris during WWII. His novel recounting combat in the First World War, Storm of Steel, is highly regarded, as are some of his later novels, such as The Marble Cliffs. (I enjoyed The Glass Bees, a prescient look at technology.) He is a controversial figure in that his conservative views in non-fiction writing have been labeled by leftist critics as a guide to formulating the policies of Hitler's Third Reich. He wrote, and often acted, in a cool, detached manner, although his powers of observation and analysis assured him of an appreciative audience.

Author Neaman strives to present a balanced assessment of Junger and his writing. He is largely successful in this effort. He points out that Junger was not a member of the Nazi party, did not allow the party newspaper to reprint his writings, and that The Marble Cliffs reads as an anti-Nazi novel. Further, Neaman writes that Junger was neither a racist nor an anti-Semite. He was anti-democratic and a believer in tradition-based, authoritarian governance. Neaman also details Junger's strong concern with the destruction of nature by increased use of technology. He was a
serious student of entomology, having seven species of beetles bearing his name.

Neaman calls Junger on his early resort to relativism in discussing German war crimes. Junger pointed out the extensive murders conducted by the Soviets, and held the occupation of Germany by the Four Powers to be equivalent to German occupations across Europe.

The history of ideas is a complex field of study. It incorporates here politics, philosophy, and literary criticism among other subjects. Within these parameters, all of which are subject to change, Neaman closely examines how the writings of Junger play out culturally and politically. An added complication to this task is that Junger lived to the age of 102 years, actively engaged until the end. An interesting point raised is that some of the leftist students who led the uprisings across Europe in 1968 later came to embrace some of the views of Junger by the 1990s.

A recurrent theme in the book is the high regard in which Junger was held in France during and after WWII. During the occupation of Paris, both members of the resistance and the collaborationists spoke well of him. He socialized with the literary and artistic collaborators and other members of the French haut monde. These included such names as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Georges Braques, and Alfred Fabre-Luce. Many of his French friends would come to his support when there was great controversy when he was awarded the Goethe Prize in 1982. Some observed that Junger was more revered in France than in his own country.

Who should read this book? Literary scholars will derive the greatest benefit, of course. It may well be a five-star pick for some of them. Otherwise, serious readers, those who are interested in how books and authors fit into a larger socio-political framework, will be able to take away much from A Dubious Past. I found it a stretch, and was not able to reach into the gauzy constructs of philosophy found there, but am glad to have read it.

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is some valuable information in here, and some thorough research. The first two thirds of this book are about as good an overview of the work and international reception of Ernst Junger that one is likely to encounter in scholarly secondary sources. It is, however, in the final third of the book where the project runs off the rails.

The author (in Fukuyama fashion) unfairly tars Junger's fellow travelers like Ernst Nolte as relativists (he doesn't go as far to call them revisionists), this despite the fact that the author himself admits that Nazi and Communist atrocities are in fact comparable ( with the preponderance of exterminationist policy weighted toward the collective crimes of the Left). Despite making this statement, though, at the end of the day Neaman is- like any member of the Humanities who wants to keep his job/get tenure- well to the left of center, and to paraphrase Alexander Dugan, liberalism is in the air he breathes. This wouldn't be a problem if a) the subject of the book wasn't himself so deeply anti-Enlightenment b) Neaman didn't present his own opinion as incontrovertible fact.

Another sore point of the book is that it makes the (groundless) assertion that Junger's Tagebucher/ diaries and philosophical ruminations are somehow superior to his fiction output. The fact that Junger's more allegorical/magical realism pieces continue to find an audience (outside of his stronghold of popularity, in France and among some remnants of the German readership) puts the lie to this claim.

That being said, this is a must for anyone who wants to know how Ernst Junger's "problematic" output has been received in the Anglosphere/Occident in the 20th century and into the nascent 21st century. Just be ready to sift wheat from chaff, and opinion from fact, even when the former is presented as if it were the latter.