Ernst Jünger: On Pain

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Written and published in 1934, a year after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ernst Jünger's On Pain is an astonishing essay that announces the rise of a new metaphysics of pain in a totalitarian age. One of the most controversial authors of Twentieth century Germany, Jünger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice. Jünger heralds the rise of a breed of men who—equipped with an unmatched ability to treat themselves and others in a cold and detached way—become one with new, terrorising machines of death and destruction in human-guided torpedoes and manned airborne missiles, and whose 'peculiarly cruel way of seeing', resembling the insensitive lens of a camera, anticipates the horrors of World War II. With a preface by Russell A. Berman and an introduction by translator David C. Durst, this remarkable essay not only provides valuable insights into the cult of courage and death in Nazi Germany, but also throws light on the ideology of terrorism today.

Ernst Jünger: On Pain

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Author	Jünger, Ernst
Full Title	On Pain
Binding	Softcover
Publisher	Telos Press (2008)
Pages	96
ISBN	9780914386407
Language	English
Short Description	Written and published in 1934, a year after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ernst Jünger's On Pain is an astonishing essay that announces the rise of a new metaphysics of pain in a totalitarian age. One of the most controversial authors of Twentieth century Germany, Jünger rejects the liberal values of liberty, security, ease, and comfort, and seeks instead the measure of man in the capacity to withstand pain and sacrifice. Jünger heralds the rise of a breed of men who—equipped with an unmatched ability to treat themselves and others in a cold and detached way—become one with new, terrorising machines of death and destruction in human-guided torpedoes and manned airborne missiles, and whose 'peculiarly cruel way of seeing', resembling the insensitive lens of a camera, anticipates the horrors of World War II. With a preface by Russell A. Berman and an introduction by translator David C. Durst, this remarkable essay not only provides valuable insights into the cult of courage and death in Nazi Germany, but also throws light on the ideology of terrorism today.
About the Author	Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) was one of the foremost German writers of the Twentieth century. After serving in the trenches of France as a storm trooper during the First World War, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite. During the Weimar period in Germany, he became one of the foremost thinkers of what has become known as the Conservative Revolution, which posited a third position beyond the conventional Left/Right dichotomy. Originally hailed by the National Socialists as a forerunner, he was later ostracized by them when he wrote against the excesses of Hitler's regime. He served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, mainly in occupied France. He continued to write and generate controversy after the war, and was also one of the first subjects to take the new drug, LSD, along with its inventor, Dr. Albert Hofmann. He traveled extensively to nearly every continent and died just short of his 103rd birthday, becoming the only German writer to have lived through the Wilhelmine, Weimar, Third Reich, divided Germany and reunified periods of German history.