Re: Desinvolture et al.

[Wahe@aol.com]

This little anecdote reminds me of what I used to think end of the eighties,
that German soldiers in west and east would easily obey (Prussian?) and shoot
at their own people as it happend on the border with fugitives - luckily when
it came to it, the leaders were to weak to give respective orders (Aquarius?,
comet?, ...)

>D a s  G a n z e
>h a t t e  e t w a s  z u g l e i c h  A e r g e r l i c h e s
>u n d  E r h e i t e r n d e s, w i e  w e n n  
>D i l e t t a n t e n  s i c h  m i t  u e b e r l e g e n e n
>K u e n s t l e r n  e i n l a s s e n." (my emphasis).

I would want to understand 'desinvolture' connected with success of  the
action, i.e. 'getting away with it'  - I recall the term in several EJ works
(though would not find them) and appreciate the effort of definition .
 
>Does anyone know of English versions of some of Juenger's articles 
>from the 1920s, especially things not taken up in the collected 
>works?

I suppose not in print even in German. I only know excerpts presented in a
critical essay, but from what I get not necessarily representative for his
oevre - not everything somebody produced needs perpetual presentation, one
does not have all the time of the world to read anyway ("Lasst das Schlechte
ruhig beiseite, dass wir das Gute besser sehn ..."). But of course a slightly
more sympathetic report by somebody knowing more of these articles would be
very interesting. I believe they can be found in libraries containing copies
of Weimar Republic publications (Die Kommenden, Standarte, Arminius,
Sueddeutsche Monatshefte, Deutsches Volkstum, Der Tag, Das Reich).

>And getting back to Juenger, I realize that wine is a quite 
>Juengerian product, since it needs the intervention of so many 
>elemental forces:  Erde, Sonne, auch Sternen.  And it resembles Blut, 
>if you think of it...

'Bread and Wine' came to my mind before I read Bertil Haggmans response and
'hic est corpus' etc. Didn't someone inquire about catholicism ... well we
already have the wine ...

Allow a last remark to the Elbe, the Saxon friend who introduced me
considered it 'ein guter Zechwein' - zechen : to sit together and drink for
the purpose of sitting together and drink - just to give a better idea. And
its mainly white.

In a publishers brochure for 100th  birthday is a nice report by Heiner
Mueller (playwright from east-Berlin) of a visit in '88:

*[...]
Juenger ist ein sehr graziler alter Mann. Er bewegt sich sehr leicht. Er hat
ungeheuer viel Sekt getrunken. Ich vertrage keinen Sekt. Es war  sehr
schwierig fuer mich, mitzuhalten, so ein Glas nach dem anderen. Es gab ein
Fruehstueck dazu. [...] Gieseler [a friend] konnte sich auch als Kenner von
Juengers Werk profilieren, weil er gerade etwas Unangenehmes an der Grenze
von Italien nach Deutschland erlebt hatte. Er hatte _Annaeherungen. Drogen
und Rausch_ von Juenger neben sich im Wagen liegen gehabt. Der italienische
Zoellner sah hin und sagte: "Sie lesen Ernst Juenger, interessant." Der
bayrische Zoellner sah das Buch und sagte: "Machen Sie den Kofferraum auf,
und leeren Sie Ihre Taschen." Juenger war gluecklich ueber die Geschichte. Er
hatte eine ganz jugendliche, fast kindliche Freude daran, ein boeser Junge zu
sein.
[...]*

It ends with :

*Juengers Problem ist ein Jahrhundertproblem: Bevor Frauen fuer ihn eine
Erfahrung sein konnten, war es der Krieg.*

(Sorry - too much to translate now)

Excuse I'm just throwing bits, but I am for years now mainly writing business
letters and lack the art of  wordful writing a bit.

Thankyou  for the friendly responses

Walter Hedderich
Wahe@aol.com