Juenger quote

["Bertil Häggman" <bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se>]

>Jünger is merely quoting what somebody else says:
>
>"...aß ich zunächst mit Massenbach... Wir sprachen über die Schandtaten der Zeit. Es war
>ein Dritter dabei, der sie für unvermeidlich hielt. Durch die Abschlachtung des russischen
>Bürgertums nach 1917, die Ausmordung von Millionen in Kellern, sei der deutsche
>Kleinbürger in panischen Schrecken versetzt worden und habe sich fürchterlich gemacht. So
>sei von rechts gekommen, was noch entsetzlicher von links gedroht habe.
>Bei solchen Unterhaltungen wird deutlich, wie tief die Technik bereits in das Moralische
>eingedrungen ist. Der Mensch fühlt sich in einer großen Maschine, aus der es kein
>Entrinnen gibt. Da sieht man überall die Furcht regieren..." p. 475 in the dtv-edition
>(Apscheronskaja, 1. Januar 1943)


Olaf,

Why does Juenger quote this view? We probably
don't know. But no doubt the Bolshevik coup in
Russia in 1917 and the attempts of the Soviet
regime to export communist totalitarianism worldwide
had an effect in Western Europe. The excesses
of the Soviet communists (60 million exterminated?
and a global total of between 100 and 150 million
dead) naturally made many feel that strong
measures against the Soviets should be used.
See the views of Mr. Churchill in 1918. Had the white side
supported by the Allies and non-communist
breakaway regimes, managed to oust Lenin
in Russia many lives would have been saved
and countries like Italy and Germany might have
chosen different political paths in the 1930s.
National socialisn to a great extent was a counter-
reaction to bolshevism.



>What Jünger himself thinks about the whole thing is evident in a lot of passages in
>"Kaukasische Aufzeichnungen" which is among the best things he ever wrote. His eye here is
>stronger than all attempts at making sense of what he sees, somethings that often limits
>the results of his observations. (I hope I do express this comprehensibly).:

>"Man teilte ihm zur Versorgung eine Kolchose zu, auf welcher der russische Staat bis
>dahinachthundert Geisteskranke beschäftigt und ernährt hatte. Die Kranken werden nun...
>durch den Sicherheitsdienst umgebracht... (Woroschilowsk, 1. Dezember 1942)


I think this is a quote taken out of
context. Of course Juenger at this
time was strongly influenced by some
of the horrors he saw on the Eastern
front. He had at some points in the 1920s
expressed understanding of the Soviet
system. Now, not having any facts on the
horrible Gulags and the murders of Stalin
and the genocide in Ukraine (7 million dead)
he succumbs to what he sees momentarily.
Had he in 1942 known what all the world knows
today of Stalin's terror he would have been
more balanced. Your quote could be
interpreted as a positive view of the communist
terror system compared to the horrors of national
socialist eastern policy. I am not so sure that this
is a key quote.

>"Der Hauch der Schinderwelt wird oft so spürbar, daß jede Lust zur Arbeit, zur Formung von
>Bildern und Gedanken erstirbt. Die Übeltat hat einen auslöschenden, verstimmenden
>Charakter; die Menschenflur wird unwirtlich wie durch ein verborgenes Aas. In solcher
>Nachbarschaft verlieren die Dinge ihren Zauber, ihren Duft und Geschmack...
>(Woroschilowsk, 2. Dezember 1942) (p.433 dtv)
>
>All in all he is simply apalled by what both sides are doing. Only later, back in Paris,
>will he start to put the whole thing together in a "meaningful way", and this is where the
>whole concept of Titanismus as the final weapon against all things inexplicable in the
>20th century tems from. The seed for it were the weeks in the Kaukasus.


I am not sure here what you mean. "Titanism as a final weapon against all
things inexplicable....(??).  Is Titanism the threat of technology (both in
peacetime and wartime)? Is communism, fascism and national socialism
an expression of Titanism (see futuristic influence in the former Soviet Union,
Italian futurism etc. and admiration of technology and speed). FGJ:s _Die Titanen_ 
and _Perferktion der Technik_ has analytical influence. What about the experience 
of allied bombing and the use of the atomic bomb in 1945? Isn't this too
important?

I understand what you are trying to say
but nobody has suggested that EJ supported
terror. The reason he brought up communist terror
and the reaction in the west was in my opinion
analytical in the same way as he once analyzed
global development in _Der Arbeiter_ and then
after WWII, changed from an admirer of technology
to criticism.

There is much serious research today on the
similarities of communism and national socialism,
Stalin and Hitler. Many with me believe that
both systems and both leaders represented 
similar terrorism and totalitarianism. But the
lingering influence of the generation of 1968
and "the crazy 25 years" results in attempts
to hide the crimes of communism.

Best wishes

Bertil Haggman