Friedrich "Fritz" Georg Jünger (1 September 1898 — 20 July 1977) was a German writer and lawyer. He wrote poetry,

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions of ...

ism and novels. He was the younger brother of

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir '' Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful businessman and ...

Life and work

The younger brother of

, he volunteered for military service in 1916 and was seriously wounded in the Battle of Langemarck. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

cameralism Cameralism (German: ''Kameralismus'') was a German science of public administration in the 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed at strong management of a centralized economy for the benefit mainly of the state. The discipline in its most na ...

at the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and Halle-Wittenberg. After moving to Berlin, he and his brother became involved with the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

magazine '' Widerstand'' and the people around it such as

Friedrich Hielscher Friedrich Hielscher (31 May 19026 March 1990) was a German intellectual involved in the Conservative Revolutionary movement during the Weimar Republic and in the German resistance during the Nazi era. He was the founder of an esoteric or Neopagan ...

and

Ernst Niekisch Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and politician. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he later became a prominent exponent of National Bolshevism. Early life Born in Trebnitz (Silesia), and b ...

. In 1926, he published a national revolutionary manifesto, ''Der Aufmarsch des Nationalismus'', where he praised the virility of an envisioned revolutionary state in the following terms: "Let thousands, nay millions, die; what meaning have these rivers of blood in comparison with a state, into which flow all the disquiet and longing of the German being!" His stance against

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

is explicit in the poem "Der Mohn", published in the collection ''Gedichte'' (1934), and he was interrogated by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

because of it. He was interrogated again in 1937 when Niekisch was arrested. The same year he left Berlin to live with Ernst in

Überlingen Überlingen is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis (district), and a cent ...

, and two years later the brothers moved to Kirchhorst near

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. Here he wrote ''The Failure of Technology'', a study of mechanization with lines of reasoning that later would become associated with the

ecological movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advoc ...

. After getting married, he moved back to Überlingen and settled in what had been his parents' house. From there he wrote about Greek mythology and began to work on a translation of the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

'', eventually published in 1981. Jünger's post-war works include poetry, novels, essays and short stories. These include the monograph ''Nietzsche'' (1949) and the novel ''Heinrich March'' (1979), which traces the experiences of his generation. Important early influences on his thinking and writing had included

Jean Paul Jean Paul (; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825) was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories. Life and work Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountain ...

Christian Dietrich Grabbe Christian Dietrich Grabbe (11 December 1801 – 12 September 1836) was a German dramatist of the ''Vormärz'' era. He wrote many historical plays conceiving a disillusioned and pessimistic world view, with some shrill scenes. Heinrich Heine ...

Georg Trakl Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem " Grodek", which he wr ...

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...

and

Oswald Spengler Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (; 29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best known ...

. Other influences included the poetry of ancient Greece, Icelandic

saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...

s, the poetry of

Friedrich Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Part ...

Eduard Mörike Eduard Friedrich Mörike (8 September 18044 June 1875) was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk songs, while others were used by ...

Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 178826 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.Cf. J. A. Cuddon: '' ...

and

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

, his brother Ernst,

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

Paul Yorck von Wartenburg Hans Ludwig David Paul, ''Graf'' Yorck von Wartenburg (1 April 1835 – 12 September 1897) was a German lawyer, writer, and philosopher. Life Graf (Count) Yorck was descended from the Prussian general Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg. His father Hans ...

and

Rudolf Kassner Rudolf Kassner (11 September 1873 Velké Pavlovice – 1 April 1959 Sierre Switzerland) was an Austrian writer, essayist, translator and cultural philosopher. Although stricken as an infant with poliomyelitis, Kassner traveled widely to norther ...

Selected works

* ''Der Aufmarsch des Nationalismus'' (1926) * ''Gedichte'' (1934) – poetry * ''Der verkleidete Theseus'' (1934) – play * ''Der Taurus'' (1937) – poetry * ''Der Missouri'' (1940) – poetry * ''Griechische Götter'' (1943) – essay * ''Die Titanen'' (1944) – essay * ''Die Perfektion der Technik'' (1946) – essay ** English translation: ''The Failure of Technology: Perfection Without Purpose'' (1949) * ''Nietzsche'' (1949) – essay * ''Grüne Zweige'' (1951) – autobiography * ''Iris im Wind'' (1952) – poetry * ''Die Spiele'' (1953) – essay * ''Der erste Gang'' (1954) – novel * ''Ring der Jahre'' (1954) – poetry * ''Erinnerung an die Eltern'' (1955) – autobiography * ''Schwarzer Fluß und windweißer Wald'' (1955) – poetry * ''Zwei Schwestern'' (1956) – novel * ''Gedächtnis und Erinnerung'' (1957) – essay * ''Sprache und Denken'' (1962) – essay * ''Heinrich March'' (1979) – novel * ''Homers Odyssee'' (1981) – translation

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Junger, Friedrich Georg 1898 births 1977 deaths Writers from Hanover People from the Province of Hanover German-language poets German Army personnel of World War I Conservative Revolutionary movement German male poets German male essayists German male novelists German nationalists German technology writers Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Translators of Homer

Life and work

Selected works

See also

References

Further reading

External links