Olaf, thanks for your contribution. This is exactly how I see both questions, the New Age analogies in EJs work (as e.g. to be found in the passages of DIE SCHERE we are discussing right now) as well as his role in the forthcoming hullabaloo in the Europäische Kulturstadt 1999. EJ's is a fiercely independent mind who does not shun any question just because for examining it he might be identified with any one ideological camp. In the twenties he did advocate right wing ideas. One part of this right wing turned into Nazism. Some sixty years later this still keeps quite a few people busy lumping him together with the Nazis, seeing in him a Schreibtischtäter. Ironically, he adds to the confusion of confused minds by rarely recanting in public. Even his sobered view of war in his Verdun speech is expressed so tersely that he makes it easy for his critics to ignore its implications. He prefers to abandon old positions by quietly occupying new ones. He himself likens himself somewhere to a minelayer being chased in vain where it no longer is while long since it has been operating in far-away waters. It takes unbiased curiosity instead of the will to demonstrate political correctness in order to comprehend EJs stature. So for example he never tells his readers but expects them to find out for themselves what geological shift has occured between, say, DER ARBEITER and DAS ABENTEUERLICHE HERZ. Like Carlos, I look at the New Age boom with deep suspicion, but I find myself endlessly intrigued by EJs reflexions on astrology in AN DER ZEITMAUER or his discussion of the Zweites Gesicht in DIE SCHERE.
No doubt, we will witness a lot of revaluation of the German cultural heritage coming out of Weimar next year. But the German mind still seems too deeply disturbed by the shame brought upon it by the Nazis that we can expect anything coming close to an unbiased consideration as to whether EJ might be after all included in the tradition of what is sometimes called das Gute Deutschland. Or whether a concept of German cultural heritage, in order to be candid, has to embrace a figure like EJ instead of trying to marginalize him. Bertil, I am sure if you went to Weimar in 1999 and asked such questions you would just provoke the howling of the wolves. So better let sleeping wolves lie. Greetings from the snowy Eifel hills - Günter R. Olaf Schroeter schrieb: > Hello there Carlos, and everybody else, > > > > I must admit this is my second disappointment with Juenger. > > The first one was his support of the Greens (and all of that > > New Age bullshit). Maybe a by-product > > of his old age. > > > > Carlos Mancini > > I'm not at all sure how to phrase this properly: I'm not out to offend > anyone and I certainly don't want to start a flame war. > > But: I certainly think that you have no right to be disappointed by > Juenger because he doesn't voice your exact opinions. That Juenger > never has supported the Greens in any way, only had come to a few > of the same conclusions, is beside the point. > > Juenger will never be the figurehead for any one political thought or > movement or whatever. People have tried to make him into just that > (Hitler and Goebbels among them) but he never ever went for it. > > What makes Juenger so fascinating is the very bandwidth (if that's > the right word) of his thoughts. There are parts in his Werke that I > (who if anything would consider himself "left of the middle" > whatever that means) could never accept as part of my thinking > (Kampf als Inneres Erlebnis for example) but which I consider an > essential part of the whole Juenger. Parts of "Strahlungen" (the pieces > about the death of his son among many) are the exact opposite, > without contradicting himself. Juenger's Werk should never be read > as the Gospel, it simply isn't meant that way and it won't work (as > you, Carlos, have just found out). That doesn't diminish his rank as a > writer, thinker and, foremost, human being in the slightest. > > So, and this goes out to Bertil, it is better (to my opinion) that Juenger > shouldn't feature at Weimar (he doesn't have any connections to the > city that I would be aware of anyway, and as for the Republik, > well...), because which Juenger, so to speak, would it be. I think that > Juenger is (thankfully) still a long way from being Goetheized. > > So, again, I don't want to offend anyone, but don't blame Juenger for > not sharing your opinions, share his, wherever you feel that he's right > and don't, if you think you know better. > > > Greetings from a siberian Berlin > > have nice Sundays the world over > > Olaf > >
