ERNST JÜNGER’S WAR PROSE AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The article explores the inﬂ uence of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy on Ernst Jünger’s early works, Storm of Steel, Battle as Inner Experience, Fire and Blood, Copse 125, On Pain, and The Adventurous Heart. The literatures of Nietzsche and Jünger are rooted in the contemplation of the ﬁndesiècle cultural crisis. Nietzsche viewed it as decadence which would be followed by an “age of Superman”. Reﬂ ecting on World War I and Nietzsche’s philosophy enables Jünger to construct a speciﬁ c literary reality, where war becomes an alternative to bourgeois life and the opportunity to reach a sacred superhuman existence. Jünger adopts Nietzsche’s similes of man as a smart animal and of life as endless danger, as a struggle for an idea, as natural selection process. Using these notions, Jünger creates his character of a stoic soldier who demonstrates great physical and emotional strength, who is ever ready to face his enemy. Jünger’s key metaphors inspired by Nietzsche are war, blood, fear, Eros, dream, Dyonisian intoxication, and death. They have a semisacred meaning. The ability of adopting Nietzsche’s ideas and style makes Jünger unique among Nietzsche’s followers in early 20th century German literature.