Radiations (Ernst Jünger)
Radiation is a diary by Ernst Jünger published in 1949 . The first version covered the period from February 18, 1941 to April 11, 1945 and thus dealt with Jünger's time in occupied Paris during the Second World War , his trip to the Caucasian front and his time in his native Kirchhorst before the end of the war. Often in the entries there are reports of terrible aspects of the war in a consciously shocking contrast to descriptions of the beauty of works of art or nature.
In the first work edition 1962/63, the previously published diaries Gardens and Roads (1942) and Years of Occupation (1958) were included, so that radiation now covers the period from April 3, 1939 to December 2, 1948.
Radiation was one of Jünger's most successful books, with a print run of 20,000 copies in the first year, and received extremely wide attention.
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Gardens and streets
Gardens and Streets covers the period from April 3, 1939 to July 24, 1940, including Jünger's call-up and his participation in the campaign in the west . This part was published individually as early as 1942, more details can be found in the article Gardens and Streets .
The first Paris diary
The first Paris diary covers the period from February 18, 1941 to October 23, 1942. This leaves a gap of almost seven months from the previous part. In Paris, Jünger worked on the staff of the military commander of France. The entries deal with encounters with other military members or German and French intellectuals, Jünger's work, his walks or his reading, including the Bible. Jünger receives visits from Carl Schmitt and Carlo Schmid, among others, or visits Pablo Picasso himself . At the same time, news and rumors of war crimes arrive. Under March 30, 1942 it says:
He told of a gruesome fellow, a former drawing teacher, who had boasted of leading a murder squad in Lithuania and other peripheral areas that slaughtered countless people. After the victims have been rounded up, they are first allowed to dig the mass graves, then lie down in them and shoot them dead in layers from above.
On June 7, 1942:
In the Rue Royale, I met the yellow star for the first time in my life , carried by three young girls who passed arm in arm ... - so I was immediately embarrassed that I was in uniform.
On July 18, 1942, Jünger witnessed the arrests of Jews:
Yesterday Jews were arrested here in order to be deported - parents were separated from their children first, so that the wailing could be heard in the streets. In no moment must I forget that I am surrounded by unhappy people, by those who suffer deeply. Otherwise what kind of person would I be, what kind of officer. The uniform obliges to provide protection wherever possible. Of course, one has the impression that, like Don Quixote, one has to tie up with millions.
His affair with the married, German-born, Parisian pediatrician Sophie Ravoux is also reflected in this diary in encrypted form. Madame Ravoux hides disciples behind the ciphers "Doctoresse", "Madame Dankart", "Madame d'Armenonville", "Charmille" or "Camilla". It was first entered under her real name in Jünger's diary Seventy Gone Away in 1972 .
Caucasian records
The Caucasian records range from October 24, 1942 to February 17, 1943. Jünger was sent on a trip to the Caucasus front by the military commander in France, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel , in order to document the extent of the war crimes there others to sound out the mood among the officers. Under December 31, 1942 it says:
- If one has looked into such individual fates and then suspects the numbers in which the deed is carried out in the smack's huts, the prospect of a potentiation of suffering opens up, before which one lets one's arms sink. Then I feel disgusted at the uniforms, the shoulder pieces, the medals, the weapons, the shine of which I loved so much.
The second Paris diary
The second Paris Diary runs from February 19, 1943 to August 13, 1944 and essentially continues the first Paris Diary. The most famous and most heavily criticized passage can be found on May 27, 1944 during a bombing of Paris:
- The second time, at sunset, I was holding a glass of burgundy with strawberries in my hand. The city, with its red domes and towers, was immensely beautiful, like a chalice that is flown over to fatal impregnation. Everything was drama, pure power, affirmed by pain and exaggerated.
This passage has often been cited as an example of an immoral aestheticism on the part of Jünger. However, there are similar passages from Marcel Proust , Oscar Wilde and Erich Kästner, among others .
Kirchhorster leaves
The Kirchhorster sheets range from August 14, 1944 to April 11, 1945. With the advance of the Allies, Jünger moved from Paris back to Kirchhorst near Hanover. Among other things, a number of air attacks are described. This part ends with the arrival of American troops.
The hut in the vineyard
The hut in the vineyard covers the period from April 11, 1945 to December 2, 1948. This part describes Jünger's life in Kirchhorst during the occupation . It was published individually in 1958 under the title Years of the Occupation , see the article Years of the Occupation for more information.
reception
Radiation was one of Jünger's most successful books with a print run of 20,000 copies in the first year. It received extensive and very controversial contemporary criticism. For example, Erich Kuby criticized it as unproductive and frozen, while Alfred Andersch praised it as a logbook. Peter de Mendelssohn criticized various forms of “kitsch” on the one hand, and praised the documentation of German war crimes on the other. In 2012, Die Zeit included the book in a canon of "Europe's World Literature" as one of the ten "best and internationally most powerful" European novels of the forties.
literature
- expenditure
- Radiations, Heliopolis Verlag Ewald Katzmann, Tübingen 1949
- Complete Works, Volume 2. Diaries II: Radiations I, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 978-3-608-93472-4
- Complete Works, Volume 3. Diaries III: Radiation II, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 978-3-608-93473-1
- Radiation I (Gardens and Streets - The First Paris Diary - Caucasian Records), dtv (paperback), Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-10984-X
- Radiation II (The second Paris diary - Kirchhorster Blätter - Die Hütte im Weinberg), dtv (paperback), Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-10985-8
- Secondary literature
- Helmuth Kiesel: Ernst Jünger. The biography. Settlers, 2007, ISBN 3-886-80852-1
- Steffen Martus: Ernst Jünger. Stuttgart. Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-476-10333-1
- Peter de Mendelssohn: counter-radiation. A diary for Ernst Jünger's diary. The Month 2 (1949), pp. 149-174
Web links
Remarks
- ^ Tobias Wimbauer : Register of persons in Ernst Jünger's diaries . Edition Antaios 1999, 2nd edition, expanded and supplemented, 2003. ISBN 3-935063-51-2 .
- ↑ Kiesel: Ernst Jünger. P. 519
- ^ Alfred Andersch: Radiations. Frankfurter Hefte 5 (1950), pp. 209-211 and Erich Kuby: Strahlungen. Frankfurter Hefte 5 (1950), pp. 205-209
- ↑ Peter de Mendelssohn, Gegenstrahlungen… The Month 2 (1949), pp. 149–174
- ↑ Die Zeit No. 29, July 12, 2012, p. 45 ff.