Zweimal Halley

by Ernst Jünger

Text: German

100 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Ernst Jünger was a decorated German soldier and author who became famous for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. The son of a successful businessman and chemist, Jünger rebelled against an affluent upbringing and sought adventure in the Wandervogel, before running away to briefly serve in the French Foreign Legion, an illegal act. Because he escaped prosecution in Germany due to his father's efforts, Junger was able to enlist on the outbreak of war. A fearless leader who admired bravery above all else, he enthusiastically participated in actions in which his units were sometimes virtually annihilated. During an ill-fated German offensive in 1918 Junger's WW1 career ended with the last and most serious of his many woundings, and he was awarded the Pour le Mérite, a rare decoration for one of his rank.

Junger served in World War II as captain in the German Army. Assigned to an administrative position in Paris, he socialized with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau. His early time in France is described in his diary Gärten und Straßen (1942, Gardens and Streets). He was also in charge of executing younger German soldiers who had deserted. In his book Un Allemand à Paris , the writer Gerhard Heller states that he had been interested in learning how a person reacts to death under such circumstances and had a morbid fascination for the subject.

Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler (July 20, 1944). He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army, and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian, officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. He was only peripherally involved in the events however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in the summer of 1944, rather than execution.

In the aftermath of WW2 he was treated with some suspicion as a closet Nazi. By the latter stages of the Cold War his unorthodox writings about the impact of materialism in modern society were widely seen as conservative rather than radical nationalist, and his philosophical works came to be highly regarded in mainstream German circles. Junger ended his extremely long life as a honoured establishment figure, although critics continued to charge him with the glorification of war as a transcending experience.

Reviews

[Brodolomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

„U znaku Halejeve komete“ je Jingerov dnevnik sa putovanja u Maleziju tokom proleća 1986. godine. Nevelik po obimu, napisan prepoznatljivim stilom „izbrušene tame“ u njemu su predstavljeni utisci i razmišljanja sa jednomesečnog putovanja po ostrvima malezijskog arhipelaga, gde je autor uglavnom lovio bube i družio se sa drugim entomolozima amaterima, razmenjujući, poput masonskih simbola, svečane darove u vidu retkih leptirova i jelenaka (pretpostavljam da nije pristojno nekom pokloniti bubašvabu ili stenicu?) Ovo je pravi dnevnik, a ne maskirani putopis, stoga forma je sačinjena od kratkih zapisa, što onih o spoljašnjim utiscima (događajima sa putovanja) što unutrašnjim razmišljanjima (savremenost, leptiri, droge, Eleusine, Kipling, hermafroditi, cveće, Konrad, slikarstvo itd), uklopljenih u antiprostvetiteljsku retoriku ezoterične metafizike, astrologije, straha od tehnologije, cikličnog shvatanja istorije i duboke sumnje u ideju progresa. Tome treba priodati prolazak Halejeve komete, čiju putanju Jinger ima priliku da posmatra drugi put u životu, Černobiljsku katastrofu tog proleća i aktuelizovanje ekoloških problema.

Onom ko nije upoznat sa Jingerovim delom, kao i onom ko je upoznat, ali je ostao nešarmiran i izritiran njegovim estetizmom izvan dobra i zla, knjiga bi mogla biti nezanimljiva. Reč je o sporednom koloseku u njegovom opusu, više zanimljivom jer autor u trenutku putovanja ima 91 godinu, te se i sam zbunjeno pita kako je moguće da je još uvek živ (a živeće još 12 godina). Jinger nije bio veliki mislilac, ali je bio esteta. I to vrlo posebna vrsta u insektarijumu dekadenata, gde se među rodom u kome imamo tolike ljude bez volje, umorne i preumorne, Jinger izdvajao time što je imao i čeličnu volju i vojničku disciplinu. A i u starosti vrlo odlučno ostaje veran ideji da artificijelni svetovi imaju veću vrednost od samog života: „Nezamislivo mi je da dan prođe a da nisam nešto pročitao, pa se često pitam nisam li u stvari živeo kao čitalac? Svet knjiga, tada bio bi pravi svet spram koga bi doživljaj predstavljao samo priželjkivanu potvrdu – i to priželjkivanje uvek bi se izjalovilo."

[Gijs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het dagboek van Jünger bij zijn reis naar Zuid-Oost Azië om daar in 1986 de komeet Halley voor de tweede keer in zijn leven te zien na het vorige bezoek van Halley in 1910. De aantekeningen behandelen een breed spectrum aan thema's: de komeet Halley zelf, de ontwikkeling van de moderne techniek, entomologie en de culturele en natuurlijke veelzijdigheid van de regio. De conclusie is echter overal gelijk: de moderne samenleving is de balans met de natuur volledig kwijt en de moderne mens is als een parasiet voor de aarde. Er lijkt weinig verbeterd sindsdien.

Boeiend is daarbij dat Jünger, die nogal eens tot een held van (extreem-)rechts gemaakt wordt, enerzijds groene politiek propageert, anderzijds respect en begrip voor andere culturen, en met name de Islam, uitstraalt. Jünger mag dan reactionair/conservatief zijn; maar hij toont dat dat niet samen hoeft te gaan met de culturele oorlog, zoals door neoconservatieven gevierd wordt. Sterker nog, dat dat geheel in tegenspraak is met zijn veel meer romantisch conservatisme. Dat maakt Jünger's oude politieke opvattingen niet opeens salonfähig; het toont wel aan dat we de hedendaagse extreem-rechtse toe-eigening van Jünger met een korrel zout dienen te nemen en kritischer moeten zijn dan extreem-rechts kennelijk in staat is geweest te zijn.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo è un libro preso a random, come si dice, dalla libreria di un'amica in quanto mi incuriosì il titolo. Ma invece che essere fiction, è una parte del Journal di Ernst Junger durante un suo secondo viaggio in Indonesia con la speranza di vedere per la seconda volta nella sua vita la cometa Halley. Quindi dal contenuto due temi i appaiono, la sua passione per la cometa e quella per gli insetti e le piante, che trova sfogo esilarante nella natura malesiana. Mi colpisce la vastità della cultura di quest'uomo, che trasla dall'entomologia alla linguistica, più volte mi son trovata a cercare parole sul dizionario, è chiaro che è un uomo versato in vari campi: musica classica, letteratura, arte, entomologia e flora e altri. Interessante.

[Leonhard]

Schmetterlinge fangen, Kometen gucken.

"I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life, if I don't go out with Halley's comet." (Mark Twain, 1835-1910)