The Combative Existence in the Literature of Ernst Jünger and Stanislav Krakov

Abstract

Starting from Ernst Jünger’s essay literature and Stanislav Krakov’s military prose, both outstanding heroes and great contemporary witnesses of the First World War, the author presents a phenomenological analysis of the military situation, i.e., the existence of the warrior. The study begins with the concept of situation, which is similar to Heidegger’s early conceptual intervention in his Ontology—Hermeneutics of Facticity. The discussion starts from the insight that the concept of situation is the general basis for the perception of any concrete life; and the paradigm of situationality is supposed to play a decisive role in existential philosophy, i.e., in the self-understanding of late modern man. This insight is the prerequisite for a deeper unfolding of the military situation and its significance for reflection on the position of man in the modern world. It becomes apparent that the trench existence on the fronts of the First World War was a decisive figure for the preceding cultural decline and the subsequent “peace time” after Versailles.