Ernst Jünger. The Occupation Years (April 1945 – December 1948)

The volume contains a "Chronicle" of postwar events, published by Jünger under the title "The Occupation Years" only ten years after its writing. This was the means, once again, to elevate the substance of lived and considered experience above the urgency of the day, above the postwar turmoil and vengeful or magnanimous euphoria. Despite his late, Gnostic view of this world, according to which it is impossible to save it, the author nevertheless managed to extract from his life's experience the hope that even in the catastrophic tendencies of modernity lies the possibility of a turn for the better. This Hölderlinian understanding of danger and salvation brings Jünger close to Martin Heidegger and is characteristic of those few European, and particularly German, intellectuals who managed not only to experience but also to comprehend the fateful events of the past century.