Ernst Jünger - A Figure of the Century and a Fascinating Character

The writer Ernst Jünger (1895 - 1998) was a figure of the century. Born in the German Empire and passing away only after reunification, his life reflects like few others the central turns and contradictions of German history in the 20th century. Kiesel vividly and knowledgeably depicts Jünger’s life and work in the context of his time. Ernst Jünger (1895 - 1998) has always polarized and fascinated, as he does not fit into any mold: he was a typical educated bourgeois and at the same time an enemy of the bourgeoisie. He was an indefatigable worker and experimented with drugs. He was regarded as the exponent of right-wing conservatism, yet for some of the '68 generation, he became "a kind of insider tip, surrounded by the aura of the intellectually obscene," as Joschka Fischer once remarked. Jünger’s aesthetic views are both famous and infamous.