Alex Colville

An eye in the storm

He was an influential figure, who despised Hitler and might have joined the Stauffenberg plot; but he preferred to let the Third Reich destroy itself

Ernst Jünger, who died in 1998, aged 102, is now better known for his persona than his work. A deeply confusing and controversial figure who loathed democracy and glorified German militarism, yet despised the Nazis, he not only bore witness to the industrial flesh-mangles of two world wars, but almost the entirety of the 20th century.

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