Most probably Ernst Juenger was more widely translated in Sweden than in the four other Scandinavian countries. Swedish poet Werner Aspenstroem was first after World War II to write about Ernst Juenger as a man who resisted the National Socialists in a review of "Paa marmorklipporna" (On the Marble Cliffs). In 1954 Gunnar Brandell wrote in a leading Swedish daily: "If Germany chooses the same direction as Juenger - from the demons of nihilism, to a purer experience of the human condition - there is no reason of talking about incompetence." Johannes Edfelt, a member of the Swedish Academy and translator of much German poetry into Swedish wrote in an article in 1956: "Juenger's diaries from the Second World War is the prism of a highly developed mind of the sinister times. But it is much more a homage of Athena than of Bellona." Werner Aspenstroem compares Juenger with Orwell and claims that Juenger shines brighter, his prose was more artistic. _On the Marble Cliffs_ was the first translation into Swedish of a Juenger book. Many more have followed the latest being _Eine gefährliche Begegnung_ (_Farligt moete_) from 1985. Ernst Juenger did not receive the Nobel Price in Literature although he deserved it. Many notable authors did not receive it either, although they certainly deserved it. Nobel Price or not Ernst Juenger was Germany's now living greatest author and he will be greatly missed by many admirers in Sweden including myself. What impressed me personally most was the dedicated postwar work Ernst Juenger did for German-French reconciliation. Ernst Juenger - Rest In Peace Bertil Haggman
Replies to this Message
Markup © John King, 2008. Web archive generated Tue, 21st August 2007.