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A review by bertwagner
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger
4.0
Ernst Jünger served with distinction during World War 1, from 1914 to 1918, and received the Pour le Mérite (Blue Max) for his efforts, an unusual decoration for a lieutenant.
He relished being a soldier, accepted one dangerous mission after another and gives the reader a dispassionate and brutally honest view of the carnage, even though he is quite repetitive (likely due to the fact that the book is a transcript of his war diaries). However, his view of the war was not negative as he felt that fighting was an expression of love to one’s country, one’s friends, one’s enemies, and oneself. He also felt that the war experience was an important developmental factor for men. In contrast, in Erich Remarque’s “All is Quiet on the Western Front”, war is displayed as indiscriminate and dehumanizing. The difference is likely due to the fact that Remarque was a private soldier who had served less than two months in the trenches before injuries took him off the field whereas Jünger, being an officer and trainer of storm troops, spent more time above the trenches, being able to have more influence on his situation. Furthermore, Remarque’s book was written more than a decade after the war whereas Jünger wrote his book right after the war when anti-war sentiments were not so strong.
Both books offer different perspectives on the war to end all wars and I recommend them.
He relished being a soldier, accepted one dangerous mission after another and gives the reader a dispassionate and brutally honest view of the carnage, even though he is quite repetitive (likely due to the fact that the book is a transcript of his war diaries). However, his view of the war was not negative as he felt that fighting was an expression of love to one’s country, one’s friends, one’s enemies, and oneself. He also felt that the war experience was an important developmental factor for men. In contrast, in Erich Remarque’s “All is Quiet on the Western Front”, war is displayed as indiscriminate and dehumanizing. The difference is likely due to the fact that Remarque was a private soldier who had served less than two months in the trenches before injuries took him off the field whereas Jünger, being an officer and trainer of storm troops, spent more time above the trenches, being able to have more influence on his situation. Furthermore, Remarque’s book was written more than a decade after the war whereas Jünger wrote his book right after the war when anti-war sentiments were not so strong.
Both books offer different perspectives on the war to end all wars and I recommend them.