Heliopolis. Looking back at a city

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Ernst Jünger

Heliopolis. Looking back on a city is a utopian novel by Ernst Jünger published in 1949 . In the fictional city of Heliopolis, the supporters of the proconsul and the governor fight each other. The commander Lucius de Geer belongs to the proconsul's staff, but is increasingly distant from the internal struggles. Finally he leaves Heliopolis. The novel combines fantastic elements with philosophical excursions and historical references. Everyday life also has many idyllic and anacreontic features with farmers, winemakers, craftsmen, artists, innkeepers, diners, descriptions of nature, etc.

The novel is set in a future that is not precisely limited in time. According to the description, Heliopolis is a metropolis in the Mediterranean region. "Tremendous spaces" are ruled by it. The country names in the novel show that no exact geographic assignment is intended. In the Greek saga, Hesperides are areas on the western edge of the known world at that time, here they are newly discovered, partly unexplored regions. Also the "Burgenland" (cf. Burgenland ), Asturias (cf. Asturias ), the Parsees (cf. Parsis ) or Mauritanians (cf. Mauritania ) have no or at least no exact modern equivalent. Rather, these countries or folk names stand for certain political orders.

In his novel Eumeswil ( 1977 ) Jünger takes up the fictional world of Heliopolis again, and conversely some terms from the previous novel Auf den Marmorklippen ( 1939 ) are found here, e.g. B. the Mauritanians.

Unless otherwise noted, the following page numbers refer to the 1980 edition of Complete Works. It has been shortened by around a quarter compared to the first edition from 1949 and has been changed considerably. Page numbers with the year 1949 refer to the first edition.

The conflict between the proconsul and the governor

Before the conflict began, a so-called "regent" had established a worldwide monarchical order and waged a first civil war against a league. The regent was able to beat the league in a decisive battle with the Syrians , but his political concept nevertheless failed. This was followed by the “exodus” of the regent with the remark “to chastise you is pointless” (p. 162), since then he has resided somewhere in space, from where he observes the events on earth without intervening. "Diadochian states" emerged, of which Heliopolis became the most important.

In Heliopolis two warring parties have formed, that of the proconsul and that of the governor. Military power still rests with the proconsul, who seeks to defend the previous order. The governor tries to shake this by building a secret police, inciting unrest and persecuting the Parsees minority. He is striving for a dictatorship . The war has not been declared openly; rather, both parties are officially "on friendly terms" with one another.

The power center of the proconsul is the palace in Heliopolis, the "point office", a kind of secret service, and the "energeion", the central energy supply. Officers and academics appear as his followers.

The governor controls the Central Office, also a kind of secret service, and a so-called "toxicological institute" with scientists. In addition, the bailiff uses the "Demos" (Greek for people) for his purposes and the press is described as being bailiff-controlled (including a magazine called "Spiegel" (1949 p. 260)). It is said of the bailiff's followers: "Only rarely did they radiate a higher, reflective consciousness" (p. 39).

The bailiff's supporters only accept research and science if it serves their purposes. They reject projects that they don't expect anything from and results that are not useful to them. The regent's academics, on the other hand, tend to explore the newly discovered areas beyond the Hesperides, for example, only for the sake of better knowledge, without any benefit being seen from the outset. However, there is also pragmatic realpolitik on the part of the proconsul , which is why Lucius falls out of favor with the "boss".

De Geer describes the regent's side as “conservative”, that of the governor as “nihilistic”.

At the beginning of the novel, the proconsul's officers are hoping for a civil war to get rid of the governor before it's too late.

Napoli 2.jpg
Panorama of Naples (Ernst Jünger stated that he thought of Naples when describing Heliopolis)

content

First part

The return from the Hesperides

De Geer returns with the ship Blauer Aviso from a business trip from beyond the Hesperides. He should find out how to deal with the conflict in Asturias and Burgenland. Numerous representatives of both parties are on the ship. Over breakfast on board, the balance of power in Heliopolis is discussed in several conversations.

While entering the port, travelers see a corpse at a point that the ship has to pass close by. It lies at the governor's prison. Apparently Messer Grande, the bailiff's police chief, had the body laid out there in order to intimidate his opponents and to show that he no longer needed to keep his crimes secret.

Riots in the city

On arrival, de Geer sees clouds of smoke rising over the Parsenviertel. He decides to go through this neighborhood and look for the Parish bookbinder Antonio Peri, to whom he had entrusted a manuscript. His servant Costar and his charioteer Mario accompany him.

The neighborhood had been looted and the three found the streets deserted and devastated. The bailiff used such looting to stir up the people and prepare for major changes. De Geer and his companions can only offer protection to a single woman who is being pursued by a leftover looter. Her name is Melitta and she worked for a Parish family.

The bookbinder's shop is in an area that was spared the looting. Peri himself was called to the proconsul and so his niece Budur Peri de Geer gives the bound manuscript. The two start a conversation about the author of the manuscript and de Geer says that we should talk about it in peace.

In the palace

After a first report to his boss, de Geer goes to his apartment. This is located in the so-called aviary, an attic area on the proconsul's palace. De Geer wrote his report on the situation in Asturias overnight. Dom Pedro, a local politician, is planning a coup d'état and hopes the proconsul will ally himself with him and at the same time eliminate the governor in Heliopolis. De Geer advises against such an alliance, since Dom Pedro only strives for a dictatorship, but the proconsul pursues more far-reaching goals. Which is not said.

De Geer spent the rest of the night with handwriting, a draft of a novel by Heinses, and pondered all kinds of thoughts.

The symposium

The next evening de Geer is invited to the birthday of the painter Halder. The writer Ortner and the philosopher Serner are also guests. They are all residents of the aviary. After all sorts of banter about painting and poetry, Ortner sets a topic on which each of the four should speak: the moment of happiness. The four create their different ideas about it. At the end of the evening, Ortner is asked to tell a story.

Ortner's story

This story in the story, which has also been published as a separate book, takes place "in old Berlin" and is about a shabby gambler and drinker who, after an enigmatic stranger "Dr. Fancy" has subjected him to an eye operation, gains clairvoyant abilities. He can now win any game of chance and becomes extremely rich in the stock market. However, despite camouflage measures, he cannot prevent his luck from being recognized by someone who imposes himself on him as a business partner. But he manages to ruin it.

With prosperity now finally secured, he is visibly disgusted with himself out of weariness, feels cut off from other people.

He finally meets a woman with whom he is reasonably happy. When he was Dr. Surprisingly meets Fancy again, he asks him to take away his clairvoyance again. Without this ability, he immediately loses almost all of his assets and can only barely break away from his previous ventures without major debts. From then on he led a peaceful life with his wife.

The excursion to Vinho del Mar

De Geer takes Melitta, who had previously been rescued from the Parsenviertel, on a trip to the island of Vinho del Mar, where wine is grown and all kinds of inns can be visited. Despite the impending civil war, Heliopolis is very cheerful.

On the pagos

On the way to the war school, de Geer and Costar ride into the mountainous hinterland of Heliopolis, the Pagos. Here you will find, among other things, an extensive country residence of the proconsul, where a number of artists and intellectuals from his environment have their studios and workshops, a so-called point office, a gigantic cave complex that served the population during the war as protection and now serves as a cemetery, as well as the seat of the mountain ridge.

De Geer pays a visit to the ridge that manages the gold reserves of Heliopolis. The ridge shows him various mineral finds and at the same time develops his economic theory on how to end the conflict in Heliopolis.

In the war school

On a high plateau on the Pagos are parade grounds and the war school. De Geer attended an hour of moral theology there, a course that he himself had included in the curriculum for the final years. The boss also appears to inspect this course. This is where the biggest differences between de Geer and the boss become apparent. While the boss considers the course superfluous and calls on the cadets to fight resolutely in the event of a conflict, de Geer believes that the proconsul wants to give the cadets the freedom to make decisions about conflicts themselves. "The prince shares in his sovereignty." (P. 199)

The apiary

The hermitage of the hermit Father Foelix is ​​even higher up on the Pagos. He shows him his beekeeping, both discuss various political matters in Heliopolis and general ethical questions.

Second part

The assassination

A short section is told from the perspective of Messer Grande, the bailiff's police chief. After an orgy the evening before, he went to work and was killed in the company car by a bomb from a Parsei assassin. Riots against the Parsees immediately begin. They are officially taken into protective custody by the governor's people, actually interned and systematically murdered. They are also not protected by the proconsul's party for tactical reasons.

De Geer receives the order from the boss to pay the bailiff a condolence visit. On the way he comes across an area where numerous Parsees are being held captive and mistreated. At the fence he recognizes Budur Peri, who calls for help. The governor receives de Geer in his command post, a bunker deep below the central office. He says cynically: "It will be difficult to appease the people in their just indignation." While still in the Central Office, de Geer obtained the relevant specialist Dr. Thomas Becker the release of Budur Peri. He then has de Geer monitored.

The unrest spreads to districts ruled by the proconsul. He has suspended tanks deployed, one of which is shot down. A civil war is looming. However, the proconsul shies away from a dictatorship and the governor considers it safer to continue to undermine his power "coldly". After negotiations in the house of the Mauritanians, the fighting stops again.

De Geer orders his servant Costar to get Budur Peri out of Heliopolis and to safety. But that doesn't work because the city is cordoned off. You return to the aviary. Budur Peri has to be hidden in de Geer's apartment.

In the arsenal

De Geer is given the task of destroying Doctor Mertens' toxicological institute as a revenge for the suspended tank that was shot down. First of all, he has the chief fireworker Sievers equip him with suitable camouflage and protective suits, firearms and explosive devices. On the occasion he visits the weapons collection in the arsenal with crossbows that kill magnetically, mirrors for “diathermic combustion”, radiation traps and the like. “Lucius sighed. The times when these worlds had charmed him were only so short ago. ... Now a shiver blew up at him. " (P. 254)

Conversations in the aviary

De Geer and Budur Peri hold conversations every evening on literature, philosophy and politics. She also reveals to him that her uncle Antonio has experimented with drugs.

De Geer receives an anonymous tip that Antonio Peri is trapped in the institute.

The company in Castelmarino

After some preparation, de Geer and a small group penetrated the institute of Doctor Mertens. There he finds references to human experiments and work on biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. He has Antonio Peri free and the building blown up. As they retreated, the squad was discovered and shot at, but was able to escape with the help of the chief fireman.

Antonio's funeral

Antonio Peri dies shortly after his liberation. De Geer attends his funeral in the Tower of Silence, where the body is laid out for the vultures.

The laurel night

De Geer and Budur Peri dare to try a drug experiment described by Antonio Peri. They get glaring nightmares of concealers, opium dens , gambling dens and galley slaves. It is noticeable that Lucius feels the nightmare far more intense and cruel than Budur.

The fall

The Central Office submitted reports to the chief according to which de Geer Budur Peri was hiding with himself and had attacked the institute in order to free the uncle of his “mistress”. He becomes untenable for the boss and dismissed. De Geer insists that the exemption did not change the action, he would have had the building examined anyway.

In Ortner's garden

De Geer initially stayed in a summer house belonging to his friend Ortner. He cannot go back to Burgenland because he chose luck "breaking with tradition". He received invitations from Doctor Becker, the Mauritanian Order and Father Foelix.

The blue pilot

On mediation by the priest, de Geer meets Phares, the commandant of the rain ship. He wears a blue suit made of asbestos, “the costume of long journeys and strong radiation” (p. 333). Phares offers de Geer to enter the service of the regent. He is counting on someone like him who, having "exhausted all attempts to lead life, is faced with the hopeless" (p. 337). Phares goes on to say: “We want to assume that there is a power that has higher solutions” (p. 336) and “We consider it possible to pull an elite out of the world that pain has formed ... That is how it is to understand also the departure of the regent - as parting with the plan of the second coming ” (p. 337f). De Geer assumes that Budur Peri and the war student Winterfeld can accompany him.

Farewell to Heliopolis

The three begin their journey to the regent's ship with Phares. At the end it is said that after a quarter of a century they would return in the regent's retinue, and “These days are far from us” (p. 343).

people

Lucius De Geer

De Geer is a hunter on horseback, a troop of officers from Burgenland that are obviously very traditional. He has a "tendency to be closed and dreamy" (p. 14). He does his job conscientiously. When reporting on Asturias or in the war school, however, he tends to argue and weigh up what his boss displeases. He would rather see him more straightforward and more exclusively limited to his duties. He also likes to turn to beautiful things, restored books or various objects in the vicinity of his artist friends. Often these things are called "exquisite" here.

De Geer looks more at the victims than any other character in the novel. During the first riots in the city, he was protecting a chased maid of a Parsei family. He seems to be the only one to reject the persecution of the Parsees and has Budur liberated. The destruction of the institute, however, was the result of an order from the chief, not his initiative.

The biggest discrepancy between him and the boss is evident in the war school, when the boss mainly urges the students to show determination in combat, while de Geer tries to show them that they can choose between alternatives.

The parties and actors in Heliopolis are becoming increasingly alien to de Geer. "They did not know the various impulses which met him, Lucius, and which reluctantly united" (p. 203). In the end, he finds no place on the proconsul's side either: "What the boss resents to me is basically that I brought feelings with me - feelings that elude his judgment" (p. 324).

Budur Peri

Budur Peri has a doctorate in German studies, and de Geer first talks to her about books. Her father was the brother Antonio Peris, her mother was Norwegian. As a half-parswoman, she too suffers persecution from the governor.

She follows only a part of the Parsian traditions and in a conversation with de Geer shows some insight into the conditions of Heliopolis. Like de Geer and Winterfeld, she proves the intellectual independence that enables her to serve the regent.

Antonio Peri

Antonio Peri is a Parish bookbinder who mainly produces valuable bindings and coats of arms. He is one of the artists sponsored by the proconsul. Persecuted by the Parsees, his business is constantly threatened by looting.

To de Geer's surprise, he kept a logbook of drug experiments for decades. De Geer and Budur Peri perform one of them on Laurel Night.

For his funeral, Antonio Peri insists on the meticulous observance of the Parish rites.

The boss

The chief is the head of the proconsul's staff. He is an unsentimental officer who is all about efficiency and punch. He has no access to the cultural interests and ethical discussions of de Geer and the proconsul.

While it is said of his predecessor that he was lost in details and mountains of files, he pushes for the essential facts and summaries. He asked questions "not with the edge, but with the handle" (p. 79)

The governor

The governor is the proconsul's opponent. After disappointments with previous dictators, the "mass" turned to such "calibans". "She loved them in their pomp, in their arrogance, in their insatiability" (p. 234).

He is described as addictive, cruel and cynical, is extremely fat, but at the same time shows remnants of an original beauty and has a full, impressive voice. He surrounds himself with beauty queens and always has cigars, strong coffee and sweets at hand. In contrast to the proconsul, he pursues a populist policy and also exploits the unpopularity of the Parsees among the common people. He regularly provokes looting and unrest in the Parsenviertel, because for him these are nothing more than a means to an end.

The Parsees for the governor, like the Jews for the sovereigns earlier, were part of the capital. He squeezed it out like a sponge. But the essential thing remained that he needed her as an object if the political climate was to be changed. (P. 67)

The proconsul

The proconsul is only indirectly present through various descriptions and does not appear in any scene. In contrast to the boss, he shows a strong musical orientation, makes more general reflections and, to the displeasure of the boss, has some ethics lessons introduced at the war school.

He is more ascetic and more rule-driven, in contrast to the pleasure and decadence type Landvogt. His voice is "a little tired, amiable, not without irony. He loved the silence, the nuance, the brief hint" (p. 230). He represents an outmoded power that de Geer has seen as legitimate. The governor is entirely "will", he is entirely "form" (p. 231).

Temporal references

Historical references

  • Antiquity is often quoted.
  • It is said of Burgenland that the "second and third sons of these farms" went on sea and war voyages or found their bread as lay brothers in the monasteries, which is reminiscent of the Middle Ages.
  • The First World War, in which Jünger himself participated, is hinted at at various passages in the text. The village of Guillemont is mentioned at the beginning of the chapter "In The War School": "The long side was decorated with an old battle picture: >> The last of Guillemont <<" (p. 188)
  • The main character Lucius visits the arms depot of the proconsul some time after his stay in the war school in order to get the necessary equipment for the secret command against Mertens' institute. On this occasion, the chief fireworker Sievers showed him the huge collection of war instruments of all kinds that are kept in the arsenal. You pass a tank in front of which Lucius stops. In contrast to the more modern "colossi", this one looks like a children's toy to him. Sievers thinks the small tank is "funny" and says that it was excavated in a settlement "that is said to have been called Combles ". (P. 252)
  • The name of the chief fireworker Sievers goes back to a real person whom the author knew. During the First World War, Jünger was good friends with a comrade named Sievers, who is also mentioned in his famous diary In Stahlgewittern .

Contemporary references

  • The novel was published shortly after the Second World War, so there are references to the previous National Socialism . The ruler's starved prisoners, on whom human experiments also take place, are called " Muselmänner ".
  • The persecution of the Parsees, a people expelled from the "Middle East", is reminiscent of the persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich. The Parsees are, however, also expressly differentiated from the Jews: "After the regent had taken on the Jews and provided them with land through the decisions of Sidon and the Stieglitz and Carthage plans, the Parsees took on the inheritance of persecution."
  • When describing the bailiff as fat, indulgent, popular with the people, etc., Jünger probably thought of Hermann Göring .
  • The assassination attempt on Messer Grande is similarly reminiscent of that on Reinhard Heydrich , right up to the mention of the horse hair from which Heydrich suffered the actual fatal poisoning and which also oozes out of the destroyed seat cushions in the novel (p 222).

Futuristic elements

  • Mention is made of past "great fire strikes" which destroyed parts of Heliopolis and whose associated weapons are now prohibited. They are reminiscent of the atomic bomb.
  • There is space travel because Heliopolis has a missile airport. A "mountain ridge" dictates the description of a hike on the moon.
  • The " phonophore " is a type of mobile phone. It is also a badge of rank.
  • "Atomizers" provide special air.
  • A “point office” can “locate and thus threaten any place on earth”, a kind of global positioning system .
  • A "type of crossbow" "magnetically" locates the target and then kills them with radiation.
  • The proconsul uses "floating tanks".

interpretation

Mass society and nostalgia

Since many aspects from the area of ​​the bailiff allude to the Third Reich (see above: contemporary references), it is first necessary to identify them with one another. Fascist Italy or the Soviet Union can also be used as models. On the other hand, it is far more difficult to find a role model for the proconsul. It fits much less with the historical opponents of the Third Reich, the democracies of Great Britain and the USA, let alone the communist Soviet Union. Rather, the aristocratic and pre-bourgeois features of this part of Heliopolis resemble the worldview of people from the conservative resistance against the Third Reich such as Stülpnagel , Goerdeler or Stauffenberg . The domestic political situation in Germany at that time corresponds best to the constellation of the novel. But Heliopolis is an extraordinarily complex novel that alludes to a lot more than just this era.

A more general background for the interpretation of the novel is provided by Jünger's essay Der Arbeiter , in which he describes how, in his opinion, the world is developing from a mass society of the ideologized bourgeoisie into a society of anonymous specialists, in which people conform to a “type of Workers ”, while on the one hand individual freedoms and mass ideologies, but on the other hand also older traditional values ​​and class structures are pushed back. The Heliopolitan Mauritanians can now be identified quite well with the world of the “worker” from the essay, the bailiff's party with the bourgeoisie as a mass, that of the proconsul with the gradually displaced old world. If Jünger was still fascinated by this new world of the “worker” when he wrote the essay and he had welcomed it, Heliopolis shows with the far more positive description of the proconsular side, as he now regrets it Change and a certain nostalgia predominated. Nevertheless, in the end the conclusion is a turn to the regent, in which pure knowledge becomes power, and who is therefore superior to all other protagonists.

Height and depth symbolism

A very clear pattern in the novel is the arrangement of many places according to height and depth. The more abstract and "spiritual" the respective people or conversations are oriented, the higher up they are:

  • The populist bailiff, who appeals to the lower instincts of the people, resides in an underground bunker.
  • The proconsul's palace is of course above ground.
  • The artists live there in the attic, so again high up.
  • During the gradual ascent on the Pagos, economic questions are first addressed in the mountain ridge,
  • then questions about the fulfillment of military duties in the war school
  • and finally ethical and theological matters in general discussed in the Apiarium.
  • And the regent, who is assumed to have “higher solutions”, hovers high up in space.

Participation in sovereignty

A central position in the novel is the great discussion about obedience, military duty and possible conflict avoidance in the war school. Obviously, this discussion and the "participation in sovereignty" mentioned in it means the rejection of the unconditional obedience often associated with the military .

At the same time, this chapter provides a characteristic detail for Jünger's worldview. Here it says as de Geer's summary: "The prince shares in his sovereignty" (p. 199). First of all, this presupposes that sovereignty does not lie with the people, as in modern democracies, but with the monarch. Nor are the citizens as such involved, but only the graduates of the war school, i.e. officers. The war guilt discourse here boils down to an aristocratic conclusion.

expenditure

  • First edition: Heliopolis. Looking back at a city. Heliopolis-Verlag, Tübingen 1949.
  • Work edition: Complete works Volume 16: Third section, Narrative writings II: Heliopolis. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-12-904261-X . 2nd, unchanged edition: 1998, ISBN 3-608-93486-3 . E-book: 2015, ISBN 978-3-608-10919-1 . In addition to the novel itself, it contains the "Pieces of Heliopolis":
    • The House of Letters
    • The phantom slingshot
    • The desert hike
    • About the suicide
    • Ortner on the novel

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Dr. Thomas Beckett, Department for Foreign Peoples" in the first edition
  2. ↑ Combles and Guillemont are places where the Somme battle raged. On the eve of the offensive, Jünger was wounded at Combles, and while he was recovering in the hospital, his platoon at Guillemont was wiped out.
  3. ↑ 1949: p. 65.
  4. ↑ Steffen Martus: Ernst Jünger, p. 206
  5. ↑ Steffen Martus: Ernst Jünger, p. 205
  6. ↑ cf. Helmuth Kiesel: Ernst Jünger. The biography, p. 506 f