ERNST JUNGER. “STORM OF STEEL (IN STAHLGEWITTERN)”. LONDON:PENGUIN BOOKS. 2004. xxiv +289 pp. translated by Michael Hoffmann

ERNST JUNGER who died at age 1021 wrote this book of his soldier’s experiences in the German army from 1914 to 1918 based upon his wartime diaries. During his lifetime he revised and rewrote it numerous times to take advantage of the tastes of changes in his audiences. He writes as a warrior thrilled by the excitement of battle. He began as an underage soldier of fortune by joining the French Foreign Legion and then after deserting, was able to return to Germany to enlist immediately after Germany’s mobilization in August 1914. He served through the war rising to officer ranks to command a storm trooper squad in many of the major battles on the Western Front. Wounded more than fourteen times and hospitalized but never reluctant about returning to battle, he writes in graphic terms of trench warfare in World War I. He takes great pride in writing of soldiering especially German.

JUNGER wrote his first edition of ‘Storm of Steel’ in the early 1920’s for a German audience of dispirited former German soldiers and militarists who were depressed by Germany’s defeat in 1918 and by the humiliating (to them) terms of the Peace Treaty which forced Germany to bear full responsibility for the start of the War. While the rest of the world was mourning the ‘ lost generation’ 2of young men killed in the war Junger spoke of the valour, honour and pride Germans should have in having fought valiantly against overwhelming odds. This was a book to make his audience and himself feel proud of their record as soldiers. Like Adolf Hitler who admired Junger, the writer felt the German defeat was as a result of the mistakes of politicians not the military. Junger openly spoke of his dislike of the democratic Wiemar government3 that followed Germany’s defeat and agreed with Hitler that Germany needed a strong fascist type government to make Germany strong again. The main aim of the book is to create a hero figure of the author himself4

While other post World War I writers with war experience such as Robert Graves5 wrote about the ‘pointless wastefulness of battle’ Junger wrote in praise of the honour and manliness of war and of the German soldier including himself. It is no surprise that Junger became an icon for the Nazis Party6 and wrote articles for its propaganda machinery.

This is not to say that the book is not an enjoyable read given its vivid descriptions of life in the trenches and despite its lack of criticism of the war. Junger is clearly pro warrior,if not pro war, expressing the height of exhilaration when shooting an unsuspecting group of enemy as ‘game’.

1 “Obituary:Ernst Junger” The Economist,London,Feb 28,1998,v.346,Iss. 8057,892 Lunn, Joe. “Male Identity and Martial Codes of Honor: A Comparison of the War Memoirs of Robert Graves, Ernst Junger, and Kande Kamara”, The Journal of Military History, v. 69,3,(Jul.,2005),7213 Obit,Economist,894 Wachsmann, Nikolaus. “Marching under the Swastika? Ernst Junger and National Socialism, 1918-33” Journal of Contemporary History, 33,4,(Oct,1998) 573-589.5 Lunn. “Male Identity” 7146 Stokes, Lawrence D.(Aug 1998) “Ernst Junger and Germany”, Canadian Journal of History,33,2,315-17

The visual images used by Junger give the reader the sense of being there with him on the battlefield as he shows us the trenches, the dugouts, the bombardments and the never ending results. His repeated theme is that soldiers are just doing their duty and doing their best of an unpleasant job. Junger never apologizes for his service, his courage, his sense of duty or his forthright action under fire.

This book stands in marked contrast to “All Quiet on the Western Front”7 written by his fellow German, Eric Maria Remarque and which deplored the futile nature of war. Of course most Germans criticized that writer because of his lack of a substantial war record and of course because he was a Jew.

For Junger the war was an exciting and exhilarating challenge to his manliness where his ‘eyes and ears are tensed to the maximum’8 Each foray into enemy lines raised the level of excitement for the author. Even death can not dull the excitement and it is described in clinical terms throughout the book-‘his skull was smashed by a mortar bomb’9. Junger’s soldiers are like ‘Tigers’ launching themselves against the enemy10. War to Junger is a way of men testing their mettle and “interrupting the monotony of trench life. There’s nothing worse for a soldier than boredom”11. Junger’s descriptions glamorize war and death when he describes the “ smell of corpses oozed” 12 from a building. War is a test of man’s strength and resolve as Junger “threatens his men to use their last energy”13. War and soldiering is placed on a pedestal and becomes sacred. “By the light of a flare, I saw steel helmet by steel helmet, blade by glinting blade; and I was overcome by a feeling of invulnerability. We might be crushed but surely we could not be conquered”14. War could not involve emotions at least for the enemy. A ration party of British were shot point blank because it was “ hardly possible to take prisoners in this inferno and how could we have brought them back through the barrage?”15

Junger is a warrior writing about warriors and during a war “ no soldier should be permitted to say the word ‘peace”16. According to Junger even Nature accepted War for it was “pleasantly intact and yet the war had given it a suggestion of heroism and melancholy; its almost excessive blooming was even more radiant and narcotic than usual”17. The author seems oblivious to

7 Firda, Richard A.,”Young Erich Maria Remarque: ‘Die Traumbude’”,Monatshefte,University of Wisconsin Press,v.71,1,(Spring, 1979)49-558 Junger, ”Storm”, 719 “Storm” 7610 “Storm” 8711 “Storm” 8812 “Storm” 9413 “Storm” 9614 “Storm” 9915 “Storm” 10116 “Storm” 11317 “Storm” 143

thoughts of dying and suffering for the voices of those crying for help “ were like the noise that frogs make in the grass after a rainstorm”18.

But man, the soldier must prove himself through battle and when battle comes for Junger ‘ it was precisely an engagement like this that I’d been dreaming of during the longeurs of positional warfare”19. “It took pluck to hold your head up when the bullets were pinging around”20.The invincibility of the German soldier was “unstoppable” and “it was as though nothing could hurt them anymore”21. The blood lust was up and the soldier who saw “ a bloody mist in front of his eyes as he attacks doesn’t want prisoners; he wants to kill”22. The soldier in Junger’s mind has absolution for whatever he does as “the state relieves us of our responsibility”23. Above all the German soldier is never defeated for “ everyone knew we would no longer win but we would stand firm”24. This is a book of war experience downplaying the suffering of war in favour of exalting comradeship and praising the fallen for their help in regenerating the nation25.

The detached and unemotional way in which Junger comments on the death around him fits the character of a man who in later years roamed the globe amassing a 40,000 Beatle and Insect collection. Above all the author is confident in his superiority over others and his status as a member of the master race. During the Second World War he was back in the army he loved so much and assigned to Paris which he had never seen during the previous war. There he lived in a grand hotel and when dining on lobster, while others starved, he wrote in his diary “ In such times to eat and to eat well, gives one a sensation of power”26.Is there any dispute to the opinion that this book is an ego-document, “a testimony to the author’s search for his identity as a writer and as a man”?27

Throughout his life and the revisions of his book Junger remained unapologetic for his views especially those of a strident nationalist. In the edition translated by Hoffmann we are spared the jingoistic final line of previous editions “Germany lives and shall never go under!”.28

18 “Storm” 14919 “Storm” 15120 “Storm” 24721 “Storm” 24722 “Storm” 23923 “Storm” 24124 “Storm “ 27725 Mosse, George. “Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars”, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1900, 15-5226 Obit, Economist 8927 Weisbrod, Bernd /Selwyn, Pamela E..”Military Violence and Male Fundamentalism: Ernst Junger’s contribution to the conservative Revolution”, History Workshop Journal, Oxford University Press, 49,(Spring, 2000)68-9428 Nevin,Thomas. “Into the Abyss,1914-1945”,Durham,N.C.,duke University Press,1996,x,284