Abstract
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the famous German writer Ernst Jünger contributed to the publication of a couple of photography books. These collections of photographic images and essays, written by various authors, dealt with themes including war, sacrifice, death, violence, heroism and Luchtfahrt. In this chapter, we will analyze, amongst other texts by Jünger, his contribution to the volume Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges from 1930 entitled, Krieg und Lichtbild and his introduction to the book Krieg und Krieger.We will gauge the relationship between Jünger’s philosophy of danger on the one hand and his philosophy of violence on the other, ultimately underscoring his suggestion that the moment of danger can endow the confrontation with violence with a specific type of meaning. In other words: the central argument of our contribution is that Jünger, who is often overlooked in philosophy, has an important point to make concerning the relation between meaning and violence. Inserting Jünger’s concepts of nihilism and his view of photography into the discussion, our chapter will build on an analysis of both texts and images. Together, these texts and images will provide a further insight into Jünger’s suggestion that violence can have redemptive qualities.
This chapter has been published in Dutch: Symons, Stéphane, Castelein, & Tammy. (2018). De laatste seconde, of de eeuwigheid: Ernst Jünger kijkt naar foto’s uit de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, 80(4), 749–770. https://doi.org/10.2143/TVF.80.4.3286095.
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Notes
- 1.
The use of the expressions “not quite right,” “all too right” and “eerily ordinary” is borrowed from an essay by Geoff Dyer on the photographer Chris Dorley-Brown. This essay was inspirational, though it revolves around an analysis of work that is very different from Jünger’s (and is not even critical about the attempt to “photograph eternity”). See Dyer (2018).
- 2.
Except when indicated, all translations from the German are by the authors.
- 3.
On this issue, see Part I in Blok (2017).
- 4.
Ernst Jünger, Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges: Fronterlebnisse deutscher Soldaten (Berlin: Neufeld & Henius Verlag, 1930), 186. The authors have attempted, to the best of their ability, to find out who holds the authorship rights of these photographs. They have not, however, been able to locate these since Jünger himself did not provide any indication of the authorship of the photographs, and the publisher of his books no longer exists. If anyone holds the rights to these photos, they can make contact with the publisher.
- 5.
Ibid., 74.
- 6.
- 7.
Richard Junior, hrsg., Hier spricht der Feind: Kriegserlebnisse unserer Gegner, mit einer Einleitung von Ernst Jünger (Berlin: Neufeld and Henius [1931], 24.
- 8.
Ibid., 25.
- 9.
Junior, hrsg., Hier spricht der Feind, 149.
- 10.
For the same argument see also Jünger (1931a, pp. 620–626).
- 11.
For an enlightening comparison between the works of Jünger and Benjamin, see Bullock (1998, pp. 563–581).
- 12.
The original reference is Kracauer (1932, pp. 122–123).
- 13.
See, for instance, also the reference to an “intoxicating lucidity [berauschende Nüchternheit]” in Jünger (1922, p. 102).
- 14.
Cited and translated by Werneburg and Phillips (1992, p. 52).
- 15.
Cited and translated by Werneburg and Phillips (1992, p. 53).
- 16.
Jünger, Hier spricht der Feind, 66.
- 17.
Cited and translated by Werneburg and Phillips (1992, p. 53).
- 18.
Der gefährliche Augenblick: Eine Sammlung von Bildern und Berichten, hrsg. Von Ferdinand Bucholtz, mit einer Einleitung von Ernst Jünger (Berlin: Junker und Dünnhaupt Verlag, 1931), 72.
- 19.
Jünger, Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges, 312.
- 20.
Jünger, Das Antlitz des Weltkrieges, 231.
- 21.
For an extensive discussion of the concept of Rausch in Jünger’s work, see Bullock (1992, pp. 180–225).
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Symons, S., Castelein, T. (2019). The Last Second, or Eternity: Ernst Jünger Looking at Photographs of the First World War. In: Lauwaert, L., Smith, L., Sternad, C. (eds) Violence and Meaning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27173-2_8
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