Re: Caucasian sketches

["Olaf Schroeter" <olaf.schroeter@gmx.de>]

> What you are saying, of course, is that the Soviet Union had some areas
> of high technological development while most areas of society were
> primitive, even pre-industrial.  Those few foreigners who had a chance
> to fight alongside the Soviets were appalled by their living conditions.
> Pilots living in shacks ran out on the field to jump into fighter
> planes.  Perhaps EJ saw something like that.  Do the CAUCASIAN SKETCHES
> state anything specific?
>

Hello out there,

first of all: is there no english translation of "Strahlungen" of which
"Kaukasische Aufzeichnungen" forms a part. If not it would be a
shame as the whole thing (in my eyes) is central to understanding
Juenger. It affords a few of the rare passages in his works where the
omnipresent Death and Destruction make it possible to see through
the cracks in his veneer of "coolness", e.g. when his son dies. And
nearly the whole of "Kaukasische Aufzeichnungen" is like that.

The contrast between "technology" an "backwardness" appears in a
few instances, but you always have to keep in mind that it is the
middle of a, of THE war in an occupied area. The description of a
grand hotel where the water doesn't work and everything smells of
unflushed toilets for example is in stark contrast to his Parisian ways,
but you can be sure that it worked before the Germans occupied it.
would be cau

Everything that Russian technology had to offer has been destroyed
in the finghting or as part of the retreat. But you can see it i nthe
people, e.g. during the interrogatioin of a POW: "Bauernsohn, dann
auf der Ingenieursschule, vor der Gefangennahme Führer einer
Granatwerferkompanie. Dazu stimmte der allgemeine Eindruck - der
eines Bauern, der Schlosser geworden war... man konnte sich
vorstellen, daß dieses Hände die Arbeit am Holz noch nicht
vergessen hatten, obwohl sie sich an das Eisen bereits gew÷hnt
hatten." (Beloretschenskaja, 10. Dezember 1942; Strahlungen I, dtv,
s.440f.

To Bertil:

Concerning our earlier discussion omn whether the Nazis simply
copied the Communists in retaliation.  Going through KA again I
found another quote that could - could - be read in your way:

"...es gibt zu viele Stätten, die für mich tabu sind. Dazu geh÷ren alle,
an denen man sich an Wehrlosen vergreift... Derartiges geh÷rt zum
Zeitstil: das sieht man schon daran, daß es überall begierig ergriffen
wird. Die Gegner sehen es voneinander ab." (Maikop, 12. Dezember
1942; dtv s.444)

To Andreas: I think we are pretty close to EJ here. I even have one of
his books in front of me...


Greetings from a white (in the meteorological sense) Berlin

Olaf
===================================================================================
Olaf Schroeter
+49-030-621 65 34
olaf.schroter@gmx.de
Ernst Juenger in Medialand http://www.snafu.de/~os/juenger/
===================================================================================