Ernst Jünger

German writer (1895–1998)

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Lived 1895–1998, aged 103Germany

Germany WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
54 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1895–1998
Aged 103
Known for
One Man's War
1982

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

A German soldier who turned World War I's carnage into prose so unflinching it became a cult text across ideological lines, then spent eight decades confounding everyone who tried to claim him.

Biography

About

The son of a successful chemist, Ernst Jünger ran from comfort to the French Foreign Legion as a teenager, an illegal move that his father's intervention reversed just in time for him to enlist in the Imperial German Army in 1914. Wounded badly in a 1918 offensive, he emerged with the Pour le Mérite and a manuscript that became Storm of Steel, a memoir stripped of sentiment. He wrote against Weimar liberalism through the 1920s but refused the Nazis when they came calling, serving instead as an army captain in occupied Paris during World War II. By 1943 he had written "The Peace," a decisive tu…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger

said1947

There are periods of decline when the pattern fades to which our inmost life must conform. When we enter upon them we sway and lose our balance.

— p. 25

Ernst Jünger

said1934

Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are!

— On Pain (1934)

Ernst Jünger

said1934

Man's relation to pain changes with every significant shift in fundamental belief.

— On Pain (1934)

Ernst Jünger

said1925

Politics is a continuation of war by different means.

— p. 63

Ernst Jünger

said1920

We had come from lecture halls, school desks and factory workbenches, and over the brief weeks of training, we had bonded together into one large and enthusiastic group.

— Storm of Steel (1920)

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