Ernst Junger’s writing is strongly influenced by the idea of the autobiographical. His own life is the material from which many of his texts are woven. This applies not only to his diaries, but also to many of the author’s prose works and essays. This proximity between life and literature has inevitably led to Junger’s texts being read and interpreted primarily as artistic expressions of his own experiences. Yet the contributions in this volume (by Wolfgang Riedel, Helmuth Kiesel, Volker Weiss, and others) also repeatedly reveal moments of fictionalization and alienation in Junger’s autobiographical texts. The ‘Junger-Debatte 4’ examines the complex tension between life and literature in the writing of the Junger brothers. The salient feature of this volume is the first edition of Ernst Junger’s ‘Secret Diary’, which he kept between 1927 and 1986 and which reveals many hitherto unknown facets of Junger’s personality.
