Jünger, Ernst - The Great Mobilization

7/27/2019 Jnger, Ernst - The Great Mobilization

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TOTAL MO ILIZ TIONErnst Jnger

IntroductionErnst Jnger b. 1895 came to prominence during the 19105 as theforemost chronicler of the front experience Pronterlebn of WorldWar 1 . His welt-nigh lyrical descriptions of trench warfare and the greatbattles of materiel Materialschlachten -that is , of those aspectswhich made this war unique in human history-in works such as In theStorm of Steel 1910 and War as Inner xperien e 1911 earned himthe reputation of a type of aestheticianof carnage. in this way, Junger,who was, like Heidegger, deeply influenced by Nietzsches critique ofEuropean Nihilism, viewed the energies unleashed by the Great Waras a heroic countermovement to European world.weariness: as a provingground for an entire series of masculinist warrior-virtues that seemed indanger of eclipse at the hands of an effete, decadent, and materialisticbourgeois Zivilisation. Yet, the war of 1914 1918 had proved that inthe modern age warfare was more dependent on the amassing of technological capacities rather than acts of individual heroism, and thisrealization left a deep imprint on al l of Jungers writing in the form of aprofound amor fati. Thus, as the following passage from War as InnerExperience demonstrates, in the last analysis the war did not so muchpresent opportunities for acts of individual prowess as it offered thepossibility of a metaphysical confrontation with certain primordial,chthonic elements: forces of annihilation, death, and horror: The enthusiasm of manliness bursts beyond itself to such an extent that theblood boils as it surges through the veins and glows as it foams throughthe heart. [War] is an intoxication beyond all intoxication, an un

Ernst Junger, Total Mobilization Tonic Mobilmachung first appeared in KriegundKrieger, edited by Ernst Junger Berlin: Junker und Dunnhaupt, 1930.

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ErnstJungerleashing that breaks al l bonds. It is a frenzy without caution and limits,comparable only to the forces of re the individual is like a

ging storm, t e tossing sea, and the roaring thunder. He has meltedinto everything. He rests at the dark door of death like a bullet that hasreached its goal. And the purple waves dash over him. For a long timehe has no awareness of transition. it is as if a wave slipped back into theflowing sea. 1In the late twenties Junger publishedover ioo essays in leading organsof Germany s conservative revolutionary movement Arminius, DeutschesVolkstum, Vormarsch and Widerstand, thus establishing himself, alongwith figures such as Moeller van den Bruck and Oswald Spengler, as oneof the movements most celebrated and influential f igures. Total Mobilization appeared in the 1930 anthology Krieg rind Krieger War andWarrior, which was edited by junger himself. It represents a distillationof the argument of his book-length study of two years hence, DerArbeiter-a work which enjoyed a tremendous commercial success andwhich, along with Total Mobilization, represents a remarkable prefiguration of totalitarian rule,

It is important to understand the paramount strategic role played byworks such as Total Mobilization and The Worker among the German conservative intelligentsia in the postwar period. For thereuponhinges the all-important difference between the traditional Germanconservatism and the new generation of conservative revolutionaries.For this generational split, moreover, the front experience of 19141918 represents, as it were, the great divide. For whereas traditionalGerman conservatives often rejected the utilitarian mind-set of Westernmodernity in the name of an idealized, pre-capitalist Gemeinschaft, theconservative revolutionaries-Junger foremost among them-understood that if Germany were to be victorious in the next European war, amodus vivendi would have to be found with the forces of modemtechnology, on which the future balance of power depended. Certain ofthese thinkers, therefore, began to flirt with the idea of a moderncommunity -a restoration of the integralist values of Gemeinschaft ina manner nevertheless consistent with the new demands of the industrialera. In this way Enlightenment progressivism would undergo a transformation from quantity to quality: for the very forces of science, reason,and technological progress that had been the animating values of the

bourgeois epoch had seemindegree of technological concsurvival of bourgeois liberalisMobilization, in an age of tand peace is effaced, andgrated when the summons t

The two works by Jungehad an indelible impact ontics. In fact, it would not boption for National Sociasupposition that Nazism wasgesellschaft society of workwhich, as such, representedas called for by Nietzsche anFacts and Thoughts 1945Jungers influence on his comThe way I a l ready v iewed the h1930s] may be i nd ic a ted w it hTota l Mob i li za t ion appeared193 z book The Worker are awritings a t th is time, along withshow how in them a n e ss en ti aexpressed, insofar as the historyseen and foreseen in th e horizwritings, an d even more essentiaon what was to come, i.e., wesions.2

In his lectures of the latehimself from Nietzsches merelation to Nietzsche was fclearly viewed the historicalner truth and greatness, asMetaphysics 193 5-in aNietzsche and Jflnger; that iwill to power, that wouldment directed toward the sefollowing the argument se t

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Ernst Junger the soldier-worker is viewed as a new social type Gestalt whois infatuated with risk, danger, heroism, and, as such, represents theantithesis to the timorous bourgeois, Heidegger views Nazism as aNietzschean-Jungerian Arbeitergesellschaft in statu nascendi.Oneof the most prescient contemporary reviews of Warand Warriorswas written by Walter Benjamin. The essence of Benjamin s views wasconveyed unambiguously by the title he chose for his commentary,Theories of German Fascism. One of his central insights concerns thepeculiarly aestheticist tenor of Jungers appreciation of modern warfare. Or as Benjamin expresses it, Thisnew theory of war. is nothingother than an unrestrained transposition of the theses of Part pour lartto war. 3 For Benjamin the salient feature of Jiinger s glorification ofwar lies in the fact that it is not so much a question of the ends for whichone is fighting, but of the intrinsic value of war as an end in itself. Andthus, war becomes a type of aesthetic spectacle to be enjoyed for its ownsake. Or as ,Jnger himself, speaking of the unprecedented carnage of theFirst World War, observes: Whenever we confront efforts of suchproportions, possessing the special quality of uselessness [Zwecklosigkeit]-say, the erection of mighty constructions like pyramids andcathedrals, or wars that call into play the ultimate mainsprings oflife-economic explanations, no matter how illuminating, are not sufficient.

Notesi. Ernst Junger, Kampfals inneres Erlebnis Berlin, 9 2 p. 57.z. Martin Heidegger, Die Selbsthehauptung de r deutschen Universitat/DasRektorat 9 3-34 Frankfurt: Klostermann, 985, p. translated in thisvolume as The Self-Assertion of the German University.Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften Il l Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971,p. 240.

IIt goes against the grain of the heroic spirit to seek out the image of warin a source that can be determined by human action. Still, the multitudinous transformations and disguises which the pure form [Gestalt] of war

endures amid the vicissitudes ofa gripping spectacle to behold.

This spectacle reminds us ofwork in very different regions,fire. To have participated in abeen in the vicinity of such a firdifference between Hekla in IcelOne might say that the differencone approaches the craters glothentic passion breaks through-struggle for life and death-ittance in which century, for whbattle is being fought. But that is

Instead, we will try to assemblast war-our war, the greatestfrom other wars whose history h

IPerhaps we can best identify theby the assertion that in it, the geof progress. This was not onlydifferent countries; it was alsorich second harvest in many of tand world revolution, are much ance would indicate. They arecance, whose outbreak and origspects.

It is likely that many unusualth e reality hidden behind the cocept glittering in many colors.these days to make fun of it comevery truly significant nineteenthsion; still, by all our disgust atforms at issue, the suspicion arisignificance. Ultimately, even thpowers of a wondrous and inex

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ErnstJungerdemonstrated convincingly that progress is , in fact, not really progress.But more important than this conviction, perhaps, is th e question ofwhether the concept s real significance is not of a more mysterious anddifferent sort: one which uses the apparently undisguised mask of reasonas a superb place of hiding.

It is precisely the certainty with which progressive movements produce results contradicting their own innermost tendencies which suggests that here, as everywhere in life, what prevails are not so much thesetendencies but other, more hidden impulsions. Spirit [ Geist ] hasoften justifiably reveled in contempt for the wooden marionettes ofprogress; but the fine threads that produce their movements are invisible.If we wish to learn something about the structure of marionettes,there is no more pleasant guide than Flauberts novel Bouvard andPcuchet. But if we wish to consider the possibilities of this more secretmovement-a movement always easier to sense than prove-both Pascal and Hamann offer a wealth of revealing passages.

Meanwhile, our phantasies, illusions, fallaciae opticae and fallaciesstand under God s realm. We find statements of this sort frequently inHamann; they reflect a sensibility that strives to incorporate the laborsof chemistry into the realm of alchemy. Let us leave aside the questionof which spirits realm rules over the optical illusion of progress: thisstudyis no demonology,but is intended for twentieth-centuryreaders. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: only a power of cultic origi, onlygjjjfcould conceive of something as audacious e x t e n d i n g th perpectj,ve21 utili [Zweckmassigkeit] Aiibcjnfiite.And who, then, would doubt that progress is the nineteenth century sgreat popular church-the only one enjoying real authority and uncritica l faith?

With a war breaking out in such an atmosphere, the relation of eachindividual contestant to progress was bound to play a decisive role. Andprecisely therein lies the authentic, moral factor of our age: even thestrongest armies, equipped with the industrial era s latest weapons ofannihilation, are no match for its fine, imponderable emanations; forthis era can even recruit it s troops from the enemy s camp.

in order to clarify this situatotal mobilization: the times ahundred thousand enlisted sub-as we find, say, in Voltairesbattle, the citizen s first duty wsecond half of the nineteenthprepare, wage, and win warsindifferent towards or even agarelation between crown and arsuperficial change through thewhich still essentially belongebased on a fixed calculation oseem like an exceptional, but iable forces and supplies. In ththe character of a partialmeasu

These restrictions not onlyalso a specific raison d etat. Twarning him not to trespass thdown of his treasure seems lesan assembly; and for the decireserve his guards than a quremaining healthy in , Prussiaexample among many is the biwhereas a brief period of serviwhen dynastic power is at stakable. Frequently, we even comalmost, unthinkable-a renuncequipping of the army; but suchidden in every improvementrange-is an indirect assault oEach such improvement promosalvo incarnates the force of fpleasant to Wilhelm I. It springsack, hides not only storms ofnot the extent of jubilation it re

Partial mobilization thus coThe latter oversteps its bounds

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Ernst Jungerabstract forms of spirit, money, folk -in short, the forces of growingnational democracy-a part of th e preparation for war. Looking backwe can now say that complete renunciation of such participation wasquite impossible. Themanner in which it was incorporated [into politicallife] represents the real essence of nineteenth-century statecraft. Theseparticular circumstances explain Bismarck s maxim that politics is theart of the possible.We can now pursue the process by which the growing conversion of

lin t oenery the increasingly fleeting content of all binding ties in defer-ence to mobility, gives an ever-more radical character to the act ofmobilization-which in many states was th e exclusive right of the crown,needing no counter-signature. The events causing this are numerous:with the dissolution of the estates and the curtailing of the nobility sprivileges, the concept of a warrior caste also vanishes; the armed defense of the state is no longer exclusively the duty and prerogative of theprofessional soldier, but the responsibility of everyone who can beararms. Likewise, because of the huge increase in expenses, it is impossibleto cover the costs of waging war on the basis of a fixed war budget;instead, a stretching of all possible credit, even a taxation of the lastpfennig saved, is necessary to keep the machinery in motion. In the sameway, the image of war as armed combat merges into the more extendedimage of a gigantic labor process [Ajkjtozesses]. In addition to thearmies that meet on the battlefields, originate the modern armies ofcommerce and transport, foodstuffs, the manufacture of armaments-the army of labor in general. In the final phase, which was alreadyhintedat toward the end of the last war, there is no longer any movementwhatsoever-be it that of the homeworker at her sewing machine-without at least indirect us e for the battlefield. In this unlimited marshaling of potential energies, which transforms the warring industrial countries into volcanic forges, we perhaps find the most striking sign of thedawn of the age of labor f eitszei aiter]. It makes the World War ahistorical event superior in significance to the French Revolution. Inorder to deploy energies of such proportion, fitting one s sword-arm nolonger suffices; for this is a mobilization [Rstung] that requires extenion to the deepest marrow, life s finest nerve. It s realization is the taskof total mobilization: an act which, as if through a single grasp of the

control pane l, c onvey s th e extensivsupply of modern life towards theAt the beginning of the World

anticipated a mobilizatiQn of suchifest in isolated instances-for exteers and reservists at the war sregulations, the changes of currenprocess intensified: as examples, wraw materials and foodstuffs, the[Arbeitsverhaltnissesj to militaryarming of trade vessels, the unexpauthority, the Hindenburg progfusion of military and political com

Nevertheless, despke the spectthe later battles of materiel [ Mman talent for organization celepossibilities have not yet been reatechnical side of the process, thimartial operations is prescribed foin the postwar period, many counto the pattern of total mobilization

In this regard, we can introducurtailment of individual libertalways been questionable. Such anand then here in Germany; its aimthat is not a function of the stacountries with global aspirationssustain the release of new formsbalance of power from the perspethis context, as does the model Amtime-for cooperation between iliterature raised issues touching onthe general public to make judgmebelatedly and in reality anticipatinRussian five-year plan presentedthe cpllective energies of a great em

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ErnstJngereconomic theory turns volte-face is here instructive. The planned economy, as one of the final results of democracj, grows beyond itself intoa general unfolding of power. We &iiserve this shift in many eventsof our age. The great sgjag.forth of the masses thereby reaches a pointof crystallization.

Still, not only attack but also defense demands extraordinary efforts,and here the worlds compulsions perhaps become even clearer. Just asevery life already bears the seeds of its own death, so the etiergence ofthe g r e t m s s e s o n t i n s w i t h i n i t s l f a d e m o r y o death. The era ofthe i i i i i i e dst isali-eady behind us . Giving Re night-flightbombing order, the squadron leader no longer sees a difference betweencombatants and civilians, and the deadly ga s cloud hovers like an elementary power over everything that lives. But the possibility of suchmenace is based neither on a partial nor general, but rathermohilization. It extends to the child in the cradle, who is threatened likeeveryone eE-even more so .

We could cite many such examples. It suffices simply to consider ourdaily life, with its inexorability and merciless discipline, its smoking,glowing districts, the physics and metaphysics of its commerce, its motors, airplanes, and burgeoning cities. With a pleasure-tinged horror, wesense that here, not a single atom is not in motion-that we are profoundly inscribed in this raging process. Total Mobilization is far lessconsummated than it consummates itself; in war and peace, it expressesthe secret and inexorable claim to which our life in the age of massesand machines subjects us . It thus turns out that each individual lifebecomes, ever more unambiguously, the life of a worker; and that,following the wars of knights, kings, and citizens, we now have wars ofworkers. The first great twentieth-century conflict has offered us a presentiment of both their rational structure and their mercilessness.4We have touched on the technical aspects of Total Mobilization; theirperfection can be traced from the first conscriptions of the Conventiongovernment during the French Revolution and Scharnhorsts army reorganization* to the dynamic armament program of the World War s last

Translators note: Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst 1755 1813 Prussian

years-when states transformedducing armies on the assembly liday and night, where an equallyrole of consumer. The monotonprecise labor of a turbine fueledheroic temperament; still, there cmeaning. Here a severe necessityin a martial medium.

In any event, Total Mobilizatbasis-like that of al l technologas the readiness for mobilizatiowhere: the World War was onehistory. This was because it tookall but popular wars. Also, asideplunder, the involved nations hapeace. At the beginning of ouremphatically not to focus on the ethat mix of wild and noble passioopen to the battle cry. Rather,multiple signals announcing and a

Whenever we confront effortsspecial quality of uselessness [ mighty construdions like pyramid play the ultimatemainsprings of lhow illuminating, are not sufficienhistorical materialism can onlyexplain efforts of this sort, we ouphenomena of acultic variety.

In defining progress as the ninhave already suggested the sourcegreat masses, whose participatioalone accounts for the decisive asaspect with the force of faith, Shgeneral and creator of the modern Prussithe Napoleonic wars, he reformed the Prmercenary character and opting instead ftion.

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Ernst Jungerin proportion to the degree of their conviction-hence in proportion tothe purity with which the resounding words moving them to action hada progressive content. Granted, these words often had a harsh and luridcolor; their effectiveness cannot be doubted. They resemble the brightrags steering the battue prey towards the rifle s scope.

Even a superficial glance, geographically separating the warring parties into victors and vanquished, must acknowledge the advantage of theprogressive nations. This advantage seems to evoke a deterministicprocess such as Darwins theory of survival of the fittest. It s deterministic quality is particularly apparent in the inability of victorious countries like Russia. and Italy to avoid a complete destruction of theirpolitical systems. In this light, the war seems to be a sure-fire touchstone,basing its value judgments on rigorous, intrinsic laws: like an earthquaketesting the foundations of every building.

Furthermore, it turnsout that, in the late hour of belief in universalrights of man, monarchical systems are particularly vulnerable to war sdestruction. Along with innumerable petty crowns, those of Germany,Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Turkey turn into dust. Austro-Hungary, astate that, similar to an island preserving an extinct epoch, schematicallycast itself in a medieval mold, collapses like an exploding house. Czardom, Europes last traditional absolute sovereignty, falls victim to a civilwar, devouring it with horrific symptoms-as would a long suppressedepidemic.

On the other hand, the progressive system s unexpected powers ofresistance, even in a situation of great physical weakness, are striking.Hence, in the midst of the French army s suppression of that highlydangerous 1917 mutiny, a second, moral miracle of the Marne unfolds, more symptomatic for this war than purely military factors. Likewise, in the United States with its democratic constitution, mobilizationcould be executed with a rigor that was impossible in Prussia, where theright to vote was based on class. And who can doubt that America, thecountry lacking dilapidated castles, basalt columns, and tales of knights,ghosts and brigands, emerged the obvious victor of this war? It s coursewas already decided not by the degree to which a state was a militarystate, but by the degree to which it was capable of Total Mobilization.

Germany, however, was destined to lose the war, even if it had wonthe battle of the Marne and submarine warfare. For despite all the care

with which it undertook partiaescaped Total Mobilization; foinner nature of its armament,sustaining, and above all explosuccess. To affix such successpreparing for another Cannae,Schlieffen devoted his life s wor

But before carrying this ardisparate points, in the hope oress andTotal Mobilization.

One fact is clearly illuminatingprogress in its gaudy timbre:horrific torture, a Ravaillac orassassination of royalty would-one more deeply etched in beXvis execution. It turns out thbelongs to a not especially favo

Let us imagine, for a mommajor advertising executive hadwar. With two possibilities aexcitement-namely, the Sarajegian neutrality-there canbe nimpact. The superficial cause oftitious it might seem-is inhabof the Sarajevo u l p r i t s and

Translators1note, Itwas at the bathe Romans. In the history of warfare,double envelopment of an opposing arthe loss.

General Alfred vonSchlieffen 8331891 to 906. I-ic was responsible forwhich concerned theproblem of waging

tTranslators note: Franois RavaiHenry IV .Robert-Franois Damiens 1714 17tempt on the life of Louis XV.

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Ernst Jngern d y n s t i p r i n i p l e s collided-the modern r i g h tof national

self-determination with the pciple of legitimacy pstakingly restored at thitongress of Vienna [1815] through statecraft of the oldstyle.

Now certainly, being untimely in the right sense-setting in motion apowerful effect in a spirit that desires to preserve a legacy-is praiseworthy. But this requires faith. It is clear, however, that the Central Powersideology was neither timely, nor untimely, nor beyond time. Rather, themood was simultaneously timely and untimely, resulting in nothing buta mixture of false romanticism and inadequate liberalism. Hence theobserver could not help but notice a predilection for outmoded trappings, for a late romantic style, for Wagners operas in particular. Wordsevoking the fidelity of the Nibelungs, hopes pinned on the succss ofIslam s call to holy war, are examples. Obviously, technical questionsand questions of government were involved here-the mobilization ofsubstance but not the substance itself. But the ruling classes inadequaterelationship both to the masses and to profounder forces revealed itselfprecisely in blunders of this sort.Hence even the famous, unintentionally brilliant reference to a scrapof paper suffers from having been uttered 150 years too late-and thenfrom principles that might have suited Prussian Romanticism, but atheart were not Prussian. Frederick the Great might have spoken thus,poking fun at yellowed, musty parchment in the manner of an enlightened despotism. But Bethmann-Hollweg must have known that inour time a piece of paper, sa y one with a constitution written on it, hasa meaning similar to that of a consecrated wafer for the CatholicChurch-and that tearing up treaties certainly suits absolutism, but liberalismsstrength lies in their exegesis. Study the exchange of notes precedingAmericas entry into the war and you will come upon a principle offreedom of the seas ; this offers a good example of the extent to which,in such an age, one s own interests are given the rank of a humanitarianpostulate-of an issue with universal implications for humanity. German social democracy, one of the bulwarks of German progress, graspedthe dialectical aspect of its mission when it equated the war s meaning*ith the destruction of the czar s anti-progressive regime.

But what does that signify as compared to the possibilities for mobi

lizing the masses at the West s dtion is more profoundly attachelanguage is spoken in the large ciat its command to which Kultur

n n o t u s e d f o r propaganda.th1iay i itself e s t r n g efromgreat German spirits heads on mpointless, or even sad.

We have, however, no desirewish only to establish that Getaking on the spirit of the age,incapable of proposing, to itselfrior to that spirit. Rather, we finidealistic, sometimes in rationaland images that the fighting indBut the validity lying within thespartly to a milieu alien to Germutmost devotion to the advancea fearful battle against a world d

In this light we must struggelemental substance, the deep, puntouched by such a search. Wiyouth, at the beginning of this cnations are called under the spellraise the battle cry: glowing, enrvirtually unique in our history.

If one of these youths had beethe answer, certainly, would havspoken of the struggle against bathe freeing of Belgium or freedhave offered the response, forGvolunteer regiments went on the

And yet, this smoldering fire,Germany, was sufficient for anmarrow. What if it had possessetalt]?

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ErnstJnger

6As a mode of organizational thinking, Total Mobilization is merely anintimation of that higher mobilization that the age is discharging uponus . Characteristic of this latter type of mobilization is an inner lawfulness, to which human laws must correspond in order to be effective.

Nothing illustrates this claim better than the fact that during warforces can emerge that are directed against war itself. Nonetheless, theseforces are more closely related to the powers at work in th e war than itmight seem. Total Mobilization shifts its sphere of operations, but notits meaning, when it begins to set in motion, instead of the armies ofwar, the masses in a civil war. The conflict now invades spheres that areoff limits to the commands of military mobilization. It is as if the forcesthat could not be marshaled for the war now demanded their role in thebloody engagement. Hence the more unified and profound the war scapacity to summon, from the outset, all possible forces for its cause, thesurer and more imperturbable will be its course.

We have seen that in Germany, the spirit of progress could only bemobilized incompletely. To take just one among thousands of examples,the case of Barbusse shows us that in France, for instance, the situationwas far more propitious.* In reality an outspoken opponent of war,Barbusse could only stay true to his ideas by readily affirming this one:to his mind, it reflected a struggle of progress, civilisation, humanity,and even peace, against a principle opposed to all these factors. Warmust be killed off in Germanys belly.

No matter how complicated this dialectic appears, its outcome isinexorable. A person with the least apparent inclination for militaryconflict s till f in ds himself incapable of refusing the rifle offered by thestate, since the possibility of an alternative is not present to his con-sciousness. Let us observe him as he racks his brains, standing guard inthe wasteland of endless trenches, abandoning the trenches as well asanyone when the time comes, in order to advance through the horrificcurtain of fire of the war of materiel. But what, in fact, is amazing aboutthis? Barbusse is a warrior like any other: a warrior for humanity, able

*Translators note: Henri Barbusse 1873-1935, French writer whose experiences inWorld War I led him to pacifism. In 1916 he wrote the powerful anti-war novel, I.e f t nderFire.

to forgo machine-gun fire andlittle as the Christian church canorder to achieve such a degreeto live in France.

The German Barbusses foundOnly isolated intellects movedwage open sabotage against thcooperating with the deploymenof German social democracy. Linternationalist dogma, the movworkers, hence could be movedshifted towards a revision that lMarxism. We can ge t a roughspeeches delivered during this crDemocratic leader and Reichsta

H unteer, fell from a shot to the heWecomrades without a fatherlwe are children of Germany, anagainst reaction. If a war breaksalso conscientiously fulfill their dinformative passage contains intion that fate holds in readiness.

For those who wish to studythe newspapers and journals dexamples. Hence Maximilian Hperhaps the best-known journaladjusting his public activity tonote, only insofar as it is symptthe war s radicalism as well asRevolution. And thus, Simplicisweapons of nihilistic wit againstarmy, now took on a chauvinisjournals quality diminishes asabandons the field of its strength

Perhaps the inner conflict at is Translators note: A late nineteenth

terly based in Munich.

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Ernst JungerRathenau;* it endows this figure-for anyone struggling to do himjustice-with the force of tragedy. To a considerable extent, Rathenauhad mobilized for the war, playing a role in organizing the great armament and focusing-even close to the German collapse-on the possibility of a mass insurrection. How is it possible that soon after, hecould offer the well-known observation that world history would havelost its meaning had the Reich s representatives entered the capital asvictors through the Brandenburg Gate? Here we se e very clearly how thespirit of mobilization can dominate an individuals technical capacities,yet fail to penetrate his essence.

7With our last fighters still lying before the enemy, the secret army andsecret general staff commanding German progress greeted the collapsewith exultation. It resembled the exultation at a victorious battle. It wasthe closest ally of the Western armies soon to cross the Rhine, theirTrojan horse. The reigning authorities acknowledged the new spirit bythe low level of protest with which they hastily vacated their posts.Between player and opponent, there was no essential difference.

This is also the reason that in Germany, the political transformation[following the military collapse] took on relatively harmless form. Thus,even during the crucial days of decision, the Empires Social Democraticminister could play with the idea of leaving the crown intact. And whatwould that have signified, other than maintaining a facade? For a longtime, the building had been so encumbered with progressive mon-gages, that no more doubt was possible as to the true owner s nature.

But there is another reason why the change could take place lessviolently in Germany than, say, Russia-besides the fact that the authorities themselves prepared the way for it. We have seen that a largeportion of the progressive forces had already been occupied withdirecting the war. The energy squandered during the war was then nolonger available for the internal conflict. To express it in more personal

Translators note: Walter Rathenau 1867-1911, leading German industrialist whoplayed a key role in organizing the supply of raw materials for Germanys war effortduring World War 1 Served as minister of reconstruction and foreign mini s te r during theWeimar Republic and negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union. Rathenau,who was Jewish, was assassinated by right-wing extremists on June 24 1922.

terms: it makes a difference ifrevolutionary aristocracy, educa

Germany lost the war by wsphere-civilization, peace, andcould we expect anything differgiance to such values; at no pricbeyond that wall wrapped a rodifferent ideas and different alvalues. An incitement of substanthrough progressivist optimism

When we contemplate the world-what unity of effect, what incReally, if all the spiritual and phvariety extending from the ninetbeen assembled in a small spaweapons-the success could notThe Kremlin s old chimes nownople, schoolchildren us e the Larabesques. In Naples and Palesouthern life as if directing modelegendary lands, houses of parcated. The abstractness, hence thincreasing inexorably. Patriotismalism, strongly fused with elemeBolshevism, Americanism, Zionples, progress has made advanceunthinkable; it proceeds, as itcircular course of an artificial diaon a verysimple plane. Disregardfreedom and sociability, it is stadifferent from those of an absoluian mask has almost been stripphalf-barbaric fetishism of the moccurs particularly where there i

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Ernst Jngerdynamic energies for whose destructive, triumphal course long-rangeartillery and bomb-loaded fighter squadrons represent only the martialexpression. Simultaneously, esteem for quantity [Massen] is increasing: quantity of assent, quantity of public opinion has become the decisive factor in politics. Socialism and nationalism in particular a re thetwo great millstones between which progress pulverizes what is left ofthe old world, and eventually itself. For a period of more than a hundredyears, the masses, blinded by the optical illusion of the franchise, weretossed around like a ball by the right and left. It always seemed thatone side offered refuge from the others claims. Today everywhere thereality of each s id e s i den ti ty , is becoming more.and more apparent; eventhe dream of freedom is disappearing as if under a pincers iron grasp.The movements of the uniformly molded masses, trapped in the snareset by the world-spirit, comprise a great and fearful spectacle. Each ofthese movements leads to a sharper, more merciless grasp: forms ofcompulsion stronger than torture a re at work here; they are so strong,that human ,beings welcome them joyfully. Behind every exit, markedwith the symbols of happiness, lurk pain and death. Happy is he alonewho steps armedinto these spaces.

9Today, through the cracks and seams of Babel s tower, we can alreadysee a glacier-world; this sight makes the bravest spirits tremble. Beforelong, the age of progress will seem as puzzling as the mysteries of anEgyptian dynasty. In that era, however, the world celebrated one ofthose triumphs that endow victory, for a moment, with the aura ofeternity. More menacing than Hannibal, with al l too mighty fists, somber armies had knocked on the gates of its great cities and fortifiedchannels.

In the craters depths, the last war possessed a meaning no arithmeticcan master. The volunteer sensed it in his exultation, the German demon s voice bursting forth mightily, the exhaustion of the old valuesbeing united with an unconscious longing for a new life. Who would

- have imagined that these sons of a materialistic generation could havegreeted death with such ardor? In this way a life rich in excess andignorant of the beggar s thrift declares itself. And just as the actual result

of an upright life is nothing but thfor us the results of this war canGermany. This is confirmed bymark of the new race: one that caideas nor any image of the past. Aborn from the elements of earththe seeds of a new form of dominstands revealed, one which strivesharder metals that prove impervio

The German conducted the wambition of being a good EuropeEurope-who else but Europe cEurope, whose area extends in ptremely thin, extremely varnishedin the force of conviction. New poDeep beneath the regions in wmeaningful, the German encounhimself. In this way, the war wasthe means of his own self-realizatiof armament, in which we have amust be a mobilization of the GerTranslated by Joel Go/b and Rich

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Documents

Jünger, Ernst - The Great Mobilization