> > "Am 26. September 1996 war er, der Protestant, zum roemisch-katholischen > > Glauben uebergetreten." > > > > Paul Noack "Ernst Juenger. Eine Biographie", p. 321
John King wrote: "This also featured in a paper at the Heidelberg conference. The burial ceremony was Catholic - appropriate for the region. At the conference it was suggested that this was precisely the reason J changed church - because he wanted to buried according to local customs and in the local cemetery in Wilflingen without causing any difficulties of a clerical-administrative kind." After just having seen the graves of EJ (with a wooden 'roofed' cross inscribed "Ernst Jünger 1895-1998") and his family in Wilflingen I have my doubts as to this explanation. He is buried next to his son Ernstel, his first wife Gretha and his brother Alexander. At least Gretha (= Perpetua) and Ernstel were Protestants, as can be gathered from EJ's diary SIEBZIG VERWEHT IV: "The book (Huysmans's LA CATHÉDRALE) awakened in me after WWI a passing penchant for catholicism; likewise, some hereditary disposition might have been the cause. At that time I asked Perpetua whether we should Ernstel rather have baptized by a Catholic priest whereupon she had him registered with the Protestants right away. However, the grandchildren have found back, as the saying goes, to the bosom of the Catholic Church." (28 June, 1987) (1) Perpetua, the resolute Protestant, and Ernstel, having been baptized by a Protestant Pfarrer and who died too young and in times when you never think of a conversion, were obviously acceptable to the local clerical administration when the question of burial in the Wilflingen cemetery came up. Why should EJ have any difficulties some 30 years later? His "passing penchant for catholicism" had in 1987 again passed, as the almost flippant tone of the diary entry indicates. One year earlier he noted two relevant characteristics of the Anarch. The Anarch, "if he so pleases", may decide to take part in the rite of any religion since "there are gods here, too", as Heraclitus said. And the Anarch does not like to attract attention by behaving conspicuously different from the people around him. (2) Again, not a pressing reason to find back to the bosom of the Catholic Church ten years later. Accordingly, Noack in his biography cites a "penchant sporadically manifested throughout decades" as the reason for EJs conversion. (3) (1) Huysmans hat diese Kathedrale (i.e. Chartres) als Vorbild für alle anderen gesetzt: "La" Cathédrale. Das Werk hat in mir nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg eine flüchtige, vielleicht auch in der Erbanlage begründete Neigung für den Katholizismus erweckt. Ich fragte damals Perpetua, ob wir Ernstel nicht lieber katholisch taufen lassen solten, worauf sie ihn unverzüglich bei den Protestanten anmeldete. Dafür sind die Enkel, wie man so sagt, in den Schoß der Kirche zurückgekehrt. (p. 171-172) (2) Die sakramentalen Handlungen der Kulte sind um so überzeugender, je mehr sie sich auf überlieferte Texte und Handgriffe beschränken, also auf reines Offizium. Dazu Musik und Gesang. Der Anarch wird, falls es ihm beliebt, daran teilnehmen. "Auch hier sind Götter", laut Heraklit. - Man kann dieses Verhalten nicht parasitär nennen, wenn es die Beteiligung am Opferdienst einschließt dem entspricht, daß der Anarch nicht aufzufallen liebt. (SIEBZIG VERWEHT IV, 1. Juli 1986, p. 111) (3) Am 26. September 1996 war er, der Protestant, zum römisch-katholischen Glauben übergetreten. Er gibt damit einer Neigung nach, die er seit Jahrzehnten sporadisch immer wieder dokumentiert hatte. (Paul Noack, Ernst Jünger. Eine Biographie. Berlin 1998, p. 321) Günter Rebing
