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DOI: 10.1177/004724419302300106
1993 23: 101 Journal of European Studies
Richard Griffiths
A certain idea of France: Ernst Jnger's Paris Diaries 1941-44

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A certain idea of France: Ernst
Jüngers
Paris
Diaries 1941-44
RICHARD GRIFFITHS*
Kings College,
London
J European
Studies,
XXlll
(1993), 101-120
Pnnted m
England
Wir sassen dann eine Weile auf der Place du Tertre im Garten der
Mere Catherine und
gingen
danach in Schneckenlinien um Sacr6
Coeur herum. Die Stadt ist eine zweite
geistige
Heimat fur mich
geworden,
wird immer starker zum Inbild
dessen,
was an alter Kultur
mir lieb und teuer ist.
[We
sat then for a while on the Place du
Tertre,
in the
garden
of Mere
Catherine,
and afterwards wandered in the streets that
spiral
around
the Sacr6 Coeur. The
City
has become a second
spiritual
home for
me,
and is
becoming
ever more
ston~ly
the
epitome
of what is dear and
precious
to me in the old
culture.] ]
Ernst
Jfngers
view of Paris and of
France,
during
his
period
of
duty
there from 1941 to
1944,
is often reminiscent of that of his
literary
counterpart,
the German officer in Vercorss Le Silence de la mer.
Jnger
arrived in
Paris,
which he
already
knew from before the
war,
with a whole series of
preconceptions
with
regard
to French
culture,
and with a
strong
sense of the romantic
associations,
from both
literature and
history,
of all that
lay
around him.
His diaries
depict
him as
living
on a number of different
levels;
working
in the Wehrmacht
headquarters, dining luxuriously
in the
best
restaurants,
mingling
with the French
intelligentsia
in their
salons,
but also
spending
a lot of time in
solitary wandering
around
the
city,
often in
nostalgic
mood. And
always reading, reading ...
His breadth of
reading, particularly
of French
literature,
was
enormous.
Jnger
was a
complex
and elusive
figure.
His reaction to
contemporary
German
policy,
which has often been
discussed,
was
one of
distaste,
but inaction. It was
epitomized by
his
feelings
when,
leaving
Maxims after a lunch with Paul Morand and his wife in
June
1942,
he saw for the first
time,
as he sauntered down the Rue
Royale,
three
young girls wearing
the
yellow
star:
Zu
Mittag
im
Maxim,
wohin ich von Morands
eingeladen
war ... In
* Address for
correspondence: Department
of
French,
Kings College,
Strand,
London WC2R 2LS.
0047-2441/93/2301-0101 $2.50
© 1993
Richard Sadler Ltd
101
102
der Rue
Royale begegnete
ich zum ersten Mal in meinem Leben dem
gelben
Stern,
getragen
von drei
jungen
Madchen,
die Arm in Arm
vorbeikamen ...
Nachmittags
sah ich den Stern dann
hdufiger.
Ich
halte
derartiges,
auch innerhalb der
personlichen
Geschichte,
fiir ein
Datum,
das einschneidet. Ein solcher Anblick bleibt nicht ohne
Ruckwirkung -
so
genierte
es mich
sogleich,
dass ich in Uniform war.
[At
midday
to
Maxims,
to which the Morands had invited me ... In
the Rue
Royale
I encountered for the first time in
my
life the
yellow
star,
worn
by
three
young girls passing by
arm in arm ...
During
the
afternoon I saw the star more
frequently.
I consider
this,
even within
ones
personal history,
as a decisive event. Such a
sight
does not
go
without a reaction - I
immediately
felt embarrassed at
being
in
uniform.]2
Just
over a month
later,
at the news of the
way
in which
Jews
were
being deported,
he
again, privately,
showed his
sympathy;
but the
impression
he
gives
is one of
helplessness
in face of
insuperable
forces:
Gestern wurden hier
Juden verhaftet,
um
deportiert
zu werden - man
trennte die Eltern zundchst von ihren
Kindern,
so dass
Jammern
in
den Strassen zu h6ren war. Ich darf in keinem
Augenblick vergessen,
dass ich von
Ungliicklichen,
von bis in das tiefste Leidenden
umgeben
bin. Was ware ich sonst auch fur ein
Mensch,
was fur ein
Offizier. Die Uniform
verpflichtet,
Schutz zu
gewahren,
wo es
irgend
geht.
Freilich hat man den
Eindruck,
dass man dazu wie Don
Quichote
mit Millionen anbinden muss.
[Yesterday,
a number of
Jews
were
arrested,
to be
deported - They
first
separated parents
from their
children,
so that
you
could hear the
wailing
in the streets. Not for a moment must I
forget
that I am
surrounded
by unhappy people, by people suffering
in their
deepest
being.
What kind of a man would I be
otherwise,
what kind of an
officer. The uniform
obliges
one to accord
protection,
wherever one
can. One has the
impression,
to be
sure,
that like Don
Quixote
one will
have to
fight,
to do
that,
with millions of
adversaries.)3
Whatever
Jfngers private thoughts,
however much he confides to
his
diary
his distaste for the activities of &dquo;Kni6bolo
(his
nickname for
Hitler)
and his
henchmen,
there is a
perpetual
sense of an
inability
to
involve himself. He remains an
observer,
outside the events that he
portrays.
Even at the time of the
generals plot,
in
1944,
when he
knew
many
of the
plotters
and was aware of what was
afoot,
he
remained
aloof,
though sympathetic; despite
his
connections,
he
was not
brought
to
book,
but
spared by
Hitler
(though
removed from
active
service).
Jungers
attitudes
epitomize
those of
many
of the old
Wehrmacht,
serving Germany
in
war,
suspicious
of the new forces that were
103
ruling
their
country, disapproving
but subservient.
Only
with the
imminent
prospect
of defeat and chaos did real distress visit
Junger;
by
1944 his diaries are far from the insouciance of his arrival in Paris
in 1941.
Enough
has
already
been
written, however,
about
Jungers
ambiguous
detachment from the
political
dilemmas of his
time,
and
about his
ability
to withdraw into the role of the noble and
disapproving
observer. There are other matters which come to the
surface in his Paris
diaries,
from 1941 to 1944. Prominent
among
these are his attitudes to
France,
to the
French,
to French literature
and to French culture. These form a
counterpoint
to his
depiction
of
the
political
events of his
stay;
and
they
tell us a
great
deal about
attitudes,
both French and
German,
to the
years
of
Occupation.
The
purpose
of this article is to examine
Jfngers relationship
to France
and the French
during
these crucial
years.
***
We
should,
perhaps,
first look
closely
at
Jnger
himself. Often seen
as the
epitome
of a certain kind of German
Right, Jnger
was born in
1895. He had a brilliant career in the First World
War,
being
wounded 14
times,
and
being
awarded the Pour le Merited In his
campaign diary,
In
Stahlgewittern, published
in
1920,
and in a
number of other
works,
he
praised
war,
and
pure
action,
as the force
that would re-fashion and revitalize the world. He became the
embodiment of the restlessness and dissatisfaction of the war
generation
in the
post-war
situation. In contrast with this
(and
in a
way typical
of the contradictions and
ambiguities
that we will see in
him)
he left the
army
in 1923 to do research in
botany, zoology
and
marine
biology.
Meanwhile, however,
he became editor of the
Stahlhelm
newspaper
Die
Standarte,
and of the nationalist
journal
Arminius. He became
sympathetic
to the Nazi
movement,
without
actually joining
it. He
seemed,
in
fact,
attracted
by any
kind of
extremist movement which
might get Germany
out of what he saw
as a blind
alley
of
mediocrity.
In Der Arbeiter
(1932)
he
proposed
a
state run on authoritarian
lines,
geared
to war in
every aspect.
From 1933
onwards, however,
when a movement
embodying
some of these ideas came to
power,
he withdrew into the role of a
consciously
detached observer. It was as
though
his ideas had
merely
been the
expression
of a dissatisfaction with Weimar
politics,
and as
though
once
they
were
put
into action he found himself out of
tune with them. He returned to the
study
of insects and
plants
(with
104
which he was also to continue
throughout
the
war;
a
significant part
of the Paris diaries deals with these
matters).
In 1938 he visited
Paris,
where he met a number of
major literary figures.
Then,
in
1939,
he
published
what is
possibly
his most famous
work,
Auf
den
Marmorklippen,
a novel of
heavy symbolism,
whose
ambiguities
concealed an
allegorical
attack on the Nazi
regime (an
attack which
was not at first
perceived
as such
by
its
targets,
but which
during
the
war was to
inspire, among
others,
certain members of the French
Resistance
movement).4
In 1940
Junger,
mobilized once
more,
took
part
in the
campaign
of
France. His 1940
diary,
Grten und
Strassen,
covers this
campaign.
Later,
in
1941,
after a short
period
in France at St
Michel,
he was
posted
to the staff of General von
Stflpnagel
at the
army headquarters
in Paris. There he was to remain until
August
1944
(with
the
exception
of a
spell
on the Russian front from October 1942 to
January
1943).
Something
of his
complex
character is to be
perceived
from the
very
first
day
of his
stay
in
France,
in 1941. As he
journeys,
he
ruminates about literature
(Octave
Mirbeau,
Wagner,
Baudelaire,
Nietzsche).
In
Charleville,
he
buys
books on Rimbaud and
by
Gide.
In St
Michel,
he
begins
to read Si le
grain
ne
meurt,
and is fascinated
by
the
passage
on the
kaleidoscope.
Amid all
this,
he visits
Paris,
in
April,
on a wet week-end. On the
Saturday evening,
with a fellow-
officer,
he eats at the Rotisserie de la Reine
P6dauque
and then
goes
on to a nude show at
Tabarin,
where the nudes and their
spectators
give
rise to
philosophical musings
about the human
anatomy
and
about the Mechanismus des Triebes.
Later,
they proceed
to a
brothel, where,
like Camoes
talking
about Petrarch to the
prostitutes
in a Goa
brothel,
Jnger
finds a
young
Russian
girl
to whom he can
talk about his favourite Russian
authors, Pushkin,
Aksakov and
Andreyev.
On the
following day,
a wet
Sunday,
he wanders around
Paris on his
own,
visiting
the Madeleine
twice,
and
eating
at
Pruniers for lunch and dinner. He sees Paris as
being
like ein
altvertrauter
Garten,
der nun verodet
liegt
und in dem man dennoch
Weg
und
Steg
erkennt.
[A
garden
known of
old,
which now lies
waste,
but in which one can nevertheless
recognize
the
paths
and
byways]5
After his
appointment
to
Paris,
from October
onwards,
Junger
was
to divide his leisure time between
high living
in the best restaurants
and
clubs,
and
nostalgic
walks around
Paris,
its churches and its
cemeteries. The additional
ingredient
in this life was to be his
frequent meetings,
in the social
context,
with Parisian
writers,
artists
and dilettantes. The
very
first
diary entry
after his move
gives
us a
perfect example
of his
reception
into this kind of
society. Junger
has
105
been invited to lunch with Ambassador de Brinon.6
Among
those
present
are the
playwright
and actor Sacha
Guitry,
and the actress
Arletty. Twenty policemen
are
posted
around the house.
Junger
notes
that,
though
Brinons wife is
Jewish,
he
continually
makes fun
of the
Youpins. Guitry
is on
top
form,
and
Jnger
finds him
angenehm
... obwohl das Mimische das Musische in ihm stark
fberwiegt
[agreeable...
although
in him the actors
mimicry
outweighs
the
poetic ] . ~
As for
Arletty,
Um sie zum Lachen zu
bringen, genfgt
das Wort
Cocu;
sie kommt also hierzulande kaum
aus der Heiterkeit heraus.
[To
make her
laugh,
all that is needed is
the
word &dquo;cocu&dquo;;
so she
scarcely
ever
stops laughing,
in these
circles .]8
8
Guitrys
main
joke
of the
evening appears
to have been a
remarkably
unselfconscious
(or
rather,
remarkably selfconscious)
pun upon
the word collaboration.
Junger
was
talking
to him about
one of his favourite
authors, Mirbeau;
Guitry, describing
how
Mirbeau died in his
arms,
ascribed to him the
following
final words:
Ne collaborez
jamais!. Junger
noted this down for his collection of
famous last
words,
making
it clear that Mirbeau was
naturally
referring
to
plays
written in
collaboration,
denn damals hatte das
Wort noch nicht den
heutigen Hautgout [for
in those
days
the word
did not
yet
have its
present
savour].9
Guitrys
unconcern,
nay glee,
at the
implications
of collaboration
was
typical
of
many
in Paris at the start of this second
year
of the
Occupation.
From now
on,
Jnger
was to mix with such
people
freely.
We will be
examining
more
closely Jfngers relationship
with
smart Parisian
life;
but first we should
perhaps
look at the
nostalgic
and emotional attitudes to
France,
based in
part
on his
reading,
which were to find their
expression
in his
private relationship
with
the
city
itself.
***
Part of
Jfngers pleasure
at
being
in Paris had to do with a sense of
continuity
with his
pre-war experience
of that
city.
When he visited
an old
friend,
Poupet,
in the rue
Garanci~re,
for
example,
the streets
around
Saint-Sulpice gave
him a sense of
eternity,
while the rue
Garancire
itself,
which he had visited in
1938,
gave
him the
impression
that time had come full circle:
Nachmittags
bei
Poupet
in der Rue Garanci~re. In diesen Gassen um
Saint
Sulpice
mit ihren
Antiquariaten, Buchhandlungen
und alten
106
Manufakturen fiihle ich mich so
heimisch,
als ob ich schon fiinfhundert
Jahre
in ihnen
gelebt
hatte.
Als ich das Haus
betrat,
entsann ich
mich,
dass ich im Sommer 1938
zum ersten Mal seine Schwelle berschritten
hatte,
damals vom
Luxembourg
kommend,
wie heute von der Rue de Tournon. So
schloss sich der Zirkel der verflossenen
Jahre
wie in einem Gurtelstuck.
[In
the
afternoon,
went to see
Poupet,
in rue Garanci6re. In these little
streets around Saint
Sulpice,
with their
antique shops, bookshops
and
old small
factories,
I feel as much at
home,
as if I had lived in them for
five hundred
years.
As I entered the
house,
I remembered that I had crossed its
threshold for the first time in Summer
1938,
coming
on that occasion
from the
Luxembourg,
while
today
I was
coming
from the rue de
Tournon. In this
way
the circle of the
years
closed like a
belt. ] 10
Much of his
enjoyment
of Paris stemmed from
literary
and
historical associations. The
city
was,
for
him,
the scene of
events,
fictional and
real,
which had stimulated his
imagination
over the
years.
Thus,
visiting
Cocteau in the rue
Montpensier,
he remembered
that Cocteau lived in
jenem
Hause,
in welchem
Rastignac
die Frau
von
Nucingen empfing
[in
the house where
Rastignac
received
Mme de
Nucingen].11
Balzac is a recurrent
theme,
as is
Huysmans.
Visiting
Saint
Sulpice, Jnger
climbs die
enge Wendeltreppe,
die
Huysmans
in LA-Bas beschrieb
[the
narrow
spiral
staircase described
by Huysmans
in
LA-bas.]. 12
In some
cases,
historical and
literary
references
intermingle. Visiting
Picasso in the rue des Grands
Augustins, Jnger
associates the house both with Balzac and with
the
regicide
Ravaillac:
Nachmittags
bei Picasso. Er wohnt in einem
weitraumigen
Gebdude,
dessen
Etagen
zu
Speichern
und
Lagerrdumen herabgesunken
sind.
Das
Haus,
Rue des Grands
Augustins, spielt
in den Romanen von
Balzac eine
Rolle,
auch brachte man Ravaillac nach seinem
Mordanschlag
dorthin.
[In
the
afternoon,
went to see Picasso. He lives in a vast
building,
whose various floors have sunk to
being
storerooms of various kinds.
This
house,
in the Rue des Grands
Augustins, plays
a role in the
novels of
Balzac;
it was
here, too,
that Ravaillac was
brought
after his
assassination
attempt.]13
Jfngers
visits to
cemeteries, too,
are in search of the
graves
of
some of his favourite
writers, artists,
musicians and historical
characters. In P6re Lachaise he
deplores
the
poor
taste of Oscar
Wildes
tomb,
and admires those of Cherubini and
Chopin,
and of
the
entomologist
Latreille. 14 In the little
cemetery by
the Trocad6ro
he revisits the
funerary
monument to Marie Bashkirtseff. 15
Looking
107
for Verlaines
tomb,
he
goes
in error to
Clichy cemetery.
The next
day,
he finds it in
Batignolles cemetery,
and notices a fresh
bouquet
of flowers on it: Nicht
jeder
Dichter hat nach
ffnfzig
Jahren
noch
frische Blumen auf seinem
Grab,
he muses.
[Not
every poet
still has
fresh flowers on his
grave fifty years
on.]16
Most of the associations he draws between life and literature have
to do with
nineteenth-century
writers,
and
particularly
the
fin-de-
si8de
poets
and novelists. Such writers
preponderate,
too,
in his
reading
and in his
literary
conversation.
Jungers
sense of Paris
is,
however,
wider than this.
For,
he
believes,
the fact that
history
and
literature
leap
out at him from
every
corner means that
he, too,
is
participating
in an ocean of real or fictional events.
He, too,
is a
part
of the
continuity
of the
living
nature of Paris:
Gedanke: Auch ich
geh6re
nun zu den
ungezahlten
Millionen,
die
dieser Stadt von ihrem Lebensstoff
gegeben
haben,
von ihren
Gedanken und
Geffhlen,
die das Steinmeer
einsaugt,
um sich im
Laufe der
Jahrhunderte
geheimnisvoll
zu wandeln und aufzubauen zu
einem Schicksalskorallenstock. Wenn ich
bedenke,
dass ich auf
diesem
Wege
an der Kirche von Saint Roch
vorfberkam,
auf deren
Stufen C6sar Birotteau verwundet
wurde,
und an der Ecke des Rue de
Saint
Prouvaires,
an der die sch6ne
Strumpfhandlerin
Baret im
Hinterstbchen ihres Ladens Casanova das Mass
nahm,
und dass das
nur zwei
winzige
Daten in einem Meer
phantastischer
und realer
Vorgdnge
sind - dann
ergreift
mich eine Art von
freudiger
Wehmut,
von schmerzhafter Lust.
[A
thought:
I too now
belong
to the untold millions of
people,
who
have
given
to this
city something
of the substance of their
being,
of
their
thoughts
and
feelings,
which are absorbed
by
the sea of
stone,
which then
mysteriously changes
them in the course of centuries and
builds them
up
into a coral reef of
destiny.
When I think
that,
on the
way
here,
I
passed by
the Church of Saint
Roch,
on whose
steps
C6sar
Birotteau was
wounded,
and also the corner of the rue de Saint
Prouvaires,
where the beautiful
stocking-seller
Baret measured
Casanova in the back of her
shop,
and that these are
merely
two
tiny
facts in an ocean of fictional and real events - then I am
gripped by
a
kind of
joyous melancholy,
a kind of
painful pleasure. ]17
On a visit to Paris in
May
1941,
before the definitive move
there,
but at a time when his
placement
there was
definitely
on the
horizon,
Junger
had been made aware
by
a friends comments that
Paris could be a source of
inspiration
for him.
Musing
on Pariss role
as a transmitter of
culture,
he sees how
advantageous
it would be to
take the
opportunity
of
taking
root there:
Es ist eine Idee von
Gruninger,
der seit
langem
zu meinen
begabten
Lesern und wohl auch Sch1ern
zahlt,
dass ich hier in Paris besser als
108
bei
dem,
was ich sonst
treibe,
aufgehoben
sei. Und in der Tat ist es
wohl
moglich,
dass diese Stadt nicht nur besondere
Gaben,
sondern
auch
Quellen
der Arbeit und der
Wirkung
fur mich
birgt.
In einem fast
wichtigeren
Sinne als frfher ist sie noch immer
Kapitale,
Sinnbild und
Festung
altererbter Lebenshohe und auch verbindender
Ideen,
an
denen es den Nationen
jetzt
besonders fehlt. Vielleicht tue ich
gut,
wenn ich die
Moglichkeit,
hier Fuss zu
fassen,
wahrnehme. Sie trat
ohne mein Zutun an mich heran.
[Grfninger,
who has
long
been one of
my
most talented readers and
indeed
disciples,
has the idea that I am in safer hands in Paris than in
what I otherwise
might
be
doing.
And it is indeed
possible
that this
city
contains not
only singular gifts,
but also sources of work and
effective action for me. It is
still,
in an almost more
important
sense
than
before,
the
capital,
the
symbol
and the
stronghold
of an elevated
style
of life
passed
down across the
ages,
and also of
unifying
ideas,
which are
particularly lacking
in the nations
to-day. Perhaps
I will do
well to take
up
the
possibility
of
establishing myself
here. The
opportunity
came to me without
my having anything
to do with
it.]18
The same
feeling
for
Paris,
the
city,
was to remain with him
throughout
his
stay (even
when he found
contemporary
French
culture a
disappointment).
In
1943,
as he saw
catastrophe approaching,
he nevertheless
expressed
his
joy
that this
jewel among
cities was
still
untouched,
and
hoped
that it would survive the
deluge,
like the
Ark,
and continue its cultural task across the centuries:
Wieder
empfand
ich ein starkes Geffhl der
Freude,
der
Dankbarkeit,
dass diese Stadt der Stadte die
Katastrophe
noch unvehrsert bestand.
Wie Unerhortes bliebe uns
erhalten,
wenn sie
gleich
einer mit alter
und reicher Fracht bis an die Borde beladenen Arche nach dieser
Sintflut den
Friedensport
erreichte und uns verbliebe fiir neue Sakule.
[Once
more I
experienced
a
strong feeling
of
joy,
of
thankfulness,
that
this
city
of cities was
getting through
the
catastrophe
still intact. What
a marvel it would
be,
if
she,
like an ark laden to the brim with a rich
old
cargo,
were to reach the
port
of
peace
after this
deluge,
and were
to remain to us for future
centuries.]1
As he left the
city
before the allied advance in
1944,
Junger
was still
obsessed
by
the course of
history,
in which this
occupation
had been
merely
one event.
Saying good-bye
to the
city
from his favourite
vantage-point
of the Sacre
Coeur,
he saw it as a woman
awaiting
new
embraces;
cities are like
women,
and are
gracious only
to the
victor:
Noch einmal auf der Plattform von Sacr6
Coeur,
um einen Abschiedsblick
auf die
grosse
Stadt zu tun. Ich sah die Steine in der heissen Sonne
zittern wie in der
Erwartung
neuer historischer
Umarmungen.
Die
StAdte sind weiblich und nur dem
Sieger
hold.
109
[Once
more on the terrace of the Sacr6
Coeur,
to have a farewell look
at the
great city.
I saw the stones
quiver
in the hot
sun,
as
though
awaiting
new embraces from
history.
Cities are like
women,
and are
only gracious
to the
victor.]2
* * *
Junger,
on his arrival in
Paris,
clearly presumed
that
friendship
between Frenchmen and Germans would continue on the same basis
as before the war. He looked
up
old
literary
and artistic
friends,
as
though
there were no
change
in their
relationship.
In
1941,
shortly
after his arrival in
Paris,
he
telephoned Schlumberger:
Er weilt
jedoch,
wie fast alle meine frfheren
Bekannten,
nicht in Paris.
[Like
most of the
people
I
already
know, however,
he is not in
Paris].21
This
naturally says
more about
Jfngers presumptions
than about
Schlumbergers
attitudes. But
just
as,
in the
early days, Junger
found
many signs
of
sympathy
or
acceptance among
the
general population
of
Paris,22
(even
though, by
late
1942,
this
general acceptance
had
disappeared),
so he
found, too,
a welcome in the smart
literary
circles of the
capital (an acceptance
that was to be more
lasting).
There is a
strange
sense of
continuity
about it
all,
as
though
the
war were a mere interlude. This is summed
up by
the
history
of Mme
Marie-Louise
Bousquets
salon. In the late 1950s and
early
1960s,
this
salon in the Place du Palais-Bourbon was still
receiving
visitors
every
Thursday
afternoon. It was known to those who visited it at that
stage
that it had also flourished in the inter-war
period,
when such
people
as
Val6ry
and Giraudoux were
reported
to have
frequented
it.
What
Jfngers diary
makes clear is that Mme
Bousquets
social
activities had continued unabated
throughout
the
war,
with
Junger,
once he had met her in March
1943,
being very
much one of her
circle,
as he was
already
of that of her friend Florence Gould.
Jungers description
of a visit to Mme
Bousquets
flat in
April
1943
not
only
describes
brilliantly
the rather
disconcerting
character of the
hostess,
but also evokes her cult of the descendants of the
great,
and
her habit of
taking any
newcomer to examine the
library
of which she
was so
proud:
Zum Tee bei Marie Louise
Bousquet,
am Platz du Palais Bourbon ...
Ich traf dort auch
Heller,
Poupet,
Giraudoux und Madame Olivier de
Prevost,
eine Urenkelin von Liszt. Madame
Bousquet -
in deren
Behandlung
ich
fbrigens
immer eine
gewisse
Behutsamkeit walten
lasse wie ein Chemiker
gegenber
Stoffen von unbestimmter Reaktion
-
zeigte
mir die
Bibliothek,
die
klein,
quadratisch
und
ganz
mit Holz
110
getafelt
war. Ich betrachtete dort die
Manuskripte,
die
Widmungen
und die sch6nen Einbande.
[Went
to tea at Marie-Louise
Bousquets,
in the Place du Palais-
Bourbon... I met there
Heller,
Poupet,
Giraudoux and Madame
Olivier de
Prevost,
a
great-granddaughter
of Liszt. Madame
Bousquet
-
whom I
always
treat with a certain
caution,
like a chemist faced with
volatile substances - showed me the
library,
which is
small,
square
and
entirely panelled
with wood. I looked at the
manuscripts,
the
dedications and the beautiful
bindings 123
Madame
Bousquet,
Florence Gould and their circle
appear
to have
indulged
in a certain amount of
gossip
and
malice,
into which
Junger
himself,
we know from other
sources,
was not
unprepared
to
join.
Jouhandeau,
for
example,
in his
Journal
sous
loccupation,
describes
how Florence Gould and Marie-Louise
Bousquet
were
extremely
catty
about his wife tlise
(Bousquet:
Elle nest
pas fr6quentable),
and how
Junger
entered into the
game.24
These two ladies were also
extremely favourably disposed
towards the
young
German officers
whom
they
met.
Junger
records Madame
Bousquets
remark about
his
young
friend Klaus Valentiner: Mit einem
Regiment
von solchen
jungen
Leuten hatten die Deutschen Frankreich erobert ohne einen
Kanonenschuss.
[With
a
regiment
of
young
men like that the
Germans could have
conquered
France without a shot
being
fired].25
I am reminded of the French man of letters whom I
asked,
in the
1950s,
to tell me what it had been like
living
in Paris
during
the war.
It was
very good,
he said.
Everything
went on much as before. The
salons flourished. In
fact,
they
were made more
interesting by
some
delightful
German officers. The
only problem
was the awful
collaborators one sometimes had to meet there ...
Everything
went on much as before.
People
like Madame
Bousquet
seem to have survived
regimes
in a
way only
matched,
a
century
and a half
before,
by
the Abbe
Sieyes.
One is not
surprised,
very shortly
after the
war,
to
find,
in
Evelyn Waughs diary
for 1-2
April
1946,
that
Nancy
Mitford took him to the salon of a certain
Madame
Bouquet,
who received
people
on
Thursdays:
Next
day
met Maurice
Bowra,
sat in the sun in Tuileries
gardens,
drank
champagne
cocktails,
drove
up
the river with Diana to lunch at
a terrace
restaurant,
then with
Nancy
to the salon of a Mme
Bouquet
who has her
Thursdays.26
In
Waughs
bread-and-butter letter to
Nancy
Mitford,
he mentions
once more Madame
Bouquets:
Paris was heaven but
goodness
it was
exhausting.
It so much
overexcites me
nowadays
to meet new
people
that I cannot
sleep
after
111
it. I should be neither
genial
nor
genial
after a second
Thursday
at
Mme
Bouquets. 27
So Madame
Bousquet
carried
on,
in much the same
way, despite
war,
occupation,
liberation,
puration.
One does
not,
unfortunately,
have such
complete
information as
regards
the
post-war
activities of
Florence
Gould,
whose
midday receptions Jnger
continued to
attend
regularly right up
to his final
departure
in
August
1944:
Mittags
bei
Florence;
vielleicht ist dies der letzte
Donnerstag.
[At
noon,
to Florences. This is
perhaps
the last
Thursday].28
* * *
One would be
tempted,
on the basis of a number of entries
in
Jiingers diary relating
to Florence Goulds and Marie-Louise
Bousquets
salons,
to see
Jiingers
activities in
literary
circles in Paris
as
being exclusively
on this rather
superficial
and mondain
level,
so
far from the more serious
depiction
of Paris as the cultural
capital
of
the world that we find in his
solitary musings.
And there is no doubt
that his relations with a number of the
authors,
artists and actors he
met were on the same level of
inconsequentiality.
He noted Sacha
Guitrys
bons mots about his
guests (Die
schonste Frau von Paris
-
vor
zwanzig
Jahren [The
most beautiful woman in Paris -
twenty
years ago]29),
and
depicted
his obsession with stories about
himself,
in which his
meetings
with
royalty played
an
important part.
Much
of what he
reported
about
people
like Cocteau related to the
superficially funny
anecdotes and
jokes
that
they
told;3
and much of
his conversation with the literati of the
capital
seems to have
consisted of
gossip
and mondanities.
One would be
tempted
to see his attachment to French literature
as
being
on the same level. His interest in
Proust,
Bloy,
Mirbeau,
etc.,
seems at times to have been fed above all
by
anecdotes and
autograph
letters.
Guitry gave
him letters of
Mirbeau,
Bloy
and
Debuss~,
Poupet
a letter of
Prousts;
Cocteau told anecdotes about
Proust;
1
Bonnard described Gide as Le vieux Voltaire de la
p6d6rastie,
and Rochefort
(whom
he had known
personally)
as
having
den Eindruck eines kleinen
Photographen gemacht [given
the
impression
of
being
a small
photographed]
32 And so on.
But
Jfngers
own comments on his
reading,
confided to his
diary,
show a far more
serious,
and often
profound, appreciation
of the
books that he was
reading;
and when he found suitable
people
with
whom to discuss that
literature,
worthwhile conversations ensued.
Thus he discussed
Pascal, Rimbaud,
L6on
Bloy,
Gide, Montherlant,
112
with Henri
Thomas;
Baudelaire with Carlo
Schmid,
who had been
translating
him;
Leon
Bloy
with
Jouhandeau;
Maupassant
with the
Morands;
etc.33 In these
conversations,
and in
Jiingers diary
entries,
certain authors recur
obsessively;
none more so than L6on
Bloy.
But
it is also
significant
to note that
among
the
living
authors with whom
he was
obsessed,
there was an
important place
for authors who were
politically suspect
in the wartime situation - Malraux in
particular.
The first mention of Malraux is in a conversation with Drieu la
Rochelle
shortly
after
Jiingers
arrival in Paris.
Jiinger
felt a
strong
affinity
for
Drieu,
with whom he had so much in common: a heroic
war
record;
an obsession with the action and
fraternity
of
war,
and
the decadence of the
peacetime
world to which
they
had returned in
1918;
a
consequent turning
to the solutions of the fascist
Right;
an
eventual disillusionment with
every
such solution that had been
tried. It is
significant
that
Drieu,
who in 1944 was to confide to his
diary
his esteem for
Malraux,
who nest
pas dupe,
ni des
autres,
ni
de
lui-meme,
and was to claim him as his fr6re en Nietzsche et en
Dostoievski,34
should have chosen to talk to
Jiinger,
at their first
meeting,
about this
fellow-writer,
whose
political itinerary
had been
so different from
his,
but who was in essence so similar to him. It is
even more
significant
that
Junger,
too,
should declare how much he
valued Malrauxs
insights
into the civil war of the twentieth
century, insights
which he had valued from the moment he had read
La Condition humaine:
Gesprach
mit Drieu la
Rochelle,
dem
Herausgeber
der Nouvelle
Revue
Fran~aise,
im besonderen fber
Malraux,
dessen
Erscheinung
ich
verfolge,
seit mir vor
Jahren
sein Roman La Condition humaine in
die Hdnde fiel. Ich halte ihn seitdem fur einen der seltenen
Betrachter,
denen ein
Auge
fiir die
Biirgerkriegslandschaft
des 20.
Jahrhunderts
gegeben
ist.
[Conversation
with Drieu la
Rochelle,
the editor of the Nouvelle
Revue
franqaise,
in
particular
about
Malraux,
whose career I have
followed,
ever since
years ago
his novel La Condition humaine came
into
my
hands. Since then I have held him to be one of the rare
observers who have a clear view of the civil war
panorama
of the 20th
century.]35
Talking
with
Jouhandeau
in
early
1942,
Jnger
was to come back to
this view of Malraux as the chronicler of the twentieth
century
civil
war,
this time
coupling
his name with that of Bernanos. He
may
well have been
referring,
in
part,
to both writers involvement on the
Republican
side in the
Spanish
Civil
War;
but also to the
greater
civil
war of inter-war
Europe
(in
which the
Right-wing
Bernanos and the
Left-wing
Malraux had
played
such similar
parts).
The nature of
113
their
political
commitment does not seem to have concerned
him;
what mattered was their
powers
of
observation,
and their attitude to
action.
Jouhandeau
drew attention to the fact that Ciceros
biography
was
perhaps
the best
description
of civil war in
general:
Jouhandeau,
mit dem ich fber Bernanos und
Malraux,
dann fber die
Landschaft des
Bfrgerkrieges
im
allgemeinen sprach,
meinte,
dass
nichts so verstandlich macht wie Ciceros
Biographie.
Er weckte in mir
die
Lust,
mich wieder mit
jenen
Zeiten zu
beschaftigen.
[Jouhandeau,
to whom I talked about Bernanos and
Malraux,
and then
about the
picture
of civil war in
general, thought
that
nothing
makes it
so understandable as Ciceros
biography.
He awoke in me the desire
to
occupy myself
with that
period again.]36
Another
person
to whom
Jnger
talked about Malraux was
Thierry
Maulnier,
with whom he also discussed the
progress
of the war.
Jungers
comments on this conversation are
significant.
He declares
that he felt himself to be
standing right
outside the
issues,
which he
perceived
as
being illusory, merely serving
as
they
did to
produce
the action that was
necessary
(a
very
Malrucian
concept):
Bei all dem wird mir
deutlich,
wie sehr ich bereits ausserhalb des
Nationalstaates stehe ... Die Menschen
kampfen
heute unter den
alten Fahnen um eine neue
Welt;
sie wdhnen sich immer noch an den
Punkten,
von denen sie
aufgebrochen
sind. Doch darf man hier nicht
zu
klug
sein
wollen,
denn die
Tauschung,
in der sie sich
bewegen,
ist
fur die Aktionen
notwendig, gehort
zum Rdderwerk.
[In
all this it become clear to me how much I am
already standing
outside the national State ... Men are
fighting today
under the old
flags
for a new
world;
they imagine
themselves still to be at the
point
where
they
started from. Yet one should not
try
to be too clever about
this,
because the illusion within which
they
move is
necessary
for
actions,
belongs
to the clockwork that
produces
them. j3l
In all
this,
Jiinger
is close to Malrauxs
ideas,
and also to those of
Drieu la Rochelle.
Meeting
the latter at the German Institute in
November
1943,
Junger
reminisced with him about the time when
they
had been
facing
each other across the lines in 1915. The
companionship
of
arms,
and the sense of the heroism and
purity
of
the war
experience,
and of the terrible decline that has set in in this
new
world,
are
vividly expressed:
Abends im Deutschen Institut. Dort der Bildhauer Breker mit seiner
griechischen
Frau,
ferner Frau
Abetz,
Abel Bonnard et Drieu la
Rochelle,
mit dem ich 1915 Schfsse wechselte. Das war bei Le
Godat,
dem
Orte,
vor dem Hermann Lbns
gefallen
ist. Auch Drieu entsann
sich der
Glocke,
die dort die Stunden
schlug;
wir haben sie beide
114
gehort.
Dazu dann
gekaufte
Federn,
Subjekte,
die man nicht mit der
Feuerzange
anfassen
mag.
Das alles schmort in einer
Mischung
aus
Interesse,
Hass und Furcht
zusammen,
und manche
tragen
schon das
Stigma
des
grausigen
Todes auf der Stirn.
[In
the
evening,
at the German Institute.
There,
met the
sculptor
Breker and his Greek
wife,
also Frau
Abetz,
Abel Bonnard and Drieu la
Rochelle,
with whom I
exchanged
shots in 1915. It was near Le
Godat,
the
place
where Hermann L6ns fell.
Drieu, too,
remembered the bell
that struck the hours
there;
we both heard it. Then I met
mercernary
writers,
open
to
bribery,
creatures one wouldnt care to touch even
with
tongs. They
all stew in a mixture of
self-interest,
hatred and
fear,
and
many
of them
already
bear on their foreheads the
sign
of dreadful
death.]38
The
contempt
for the vendus who inhabit the Parisian world
has,
by
1943,
become
part
of
Jfngers make-up.
Drieu
clearly
stands out
as a bearer of former
virtues;
and even
now,
in no
way
does
Junger
see
friendship
with the
occupier
as
having any disgrace
in it for the
French writers and artists to whom he is closest.
Jouhandeau,
Morand, Giraudoux, Cocteau, Maulnier, L6autaud, Arland,
Braque,
Marie
Laurencin,
they
are all
part
of an international of the arts
which seems to him
naturally
to
produce friendships
which are
above events. His scorn is reserved for those who involve themselves
in the
politics
of
collaboration,
those
murky figures
who were ever-
present
on the Paris
scene,
and who vied with the
occupier
in their
zeal for the
policies
of the Third Reich.
Jnger
would
perfectly
have
understood the
writer,
mentioned
earlier,
who referred to the charm
of the war-time
salons,
spoiled only by
the
presence
of
collaborators;
he
appears
to make the same distinction.
By early
1942,
Junger
was aware of the forces for evil in some of the
French,
which could create a terrible alliance with those forces in
Nazi
Germany
which he so much detested and feared:
Kein
Zweifel,
dass es Einzelne
gibt,
die f3r das Blut von Millionen
antwortlich sind. Und diese
gehen
wie
Tiger
auf
Blutvergiessen
aus.
Ganz
abgesehen
von den Pobelinstinkten ist in ihnen ein satanischer
Wille,
ein kalter Genuss am
Untergang
der
Menschen,
ja
vielleicht der
Menschheit,
ausgepragt ...
Entsetzlich
war,
was
Jodl
dort uber
Kni6bolos Absichten ausserte. Auch muss man
wissen,
dass viele
Franzosen solche Plane und Henkersdienste zu leisten
begierig
sind.
Nur hier im Hause walten
Krafte,
die die
Verbindung
der Partner zu
Verhindern oder doch aufzuhalten
fdhig
sind ...
[There
is no doubt that there are individuals who are answerable for
the blood of millions.
They
aim,
like
tigers,
at the
shedding
of blood.
Quite
apart
from the herd
instinct,
there is a Satanic will
stamped
within
them,
a cold
enjoyment
at the destruction of human
beings,
115
perhaps
even of all
humanity ...
What
Jodl
told us about Kni6bolos
(Hitlers)
aims was terrible. And it must be realized that
many
Frenchmen are
eager
to
carry
out such
plans
and to
perform
executioners duties.
Only
here
(in
the Wehrmacht
headquarters)
do
powers govern,
which are
capable
of
hindering
or
preventing
the
alliance of these
partners.]39
The best
example
that
Jnger gives
of a Frenchman with such a
satanischer Wille is someone hidden under the
pseudonym
Merline. Commentators have seen in this a reference to
C61ine;
and
certainly,
the characters utterances would not have seemed out of
place
in C61ines mouth:4o
Nachmittags
im Deutschen Institut. Dort unter anderen Merline ...
Er
sprach
sein
Befremden,
sein Erstaunen darber
aus,
dass wir
Soldaten die
Juden
nicht
erschiessen,
aufhdngen,
ausrotten - sein
Erstaunen
daruber,
dass
jemand,
dem die
Bajonette
zur
Verffgung
stehn,
nicht unbeschr5nkten Gebrauch von ihnen macht ... Es war
mir
lehrreich,
ihn derart zwei Stunden wften zu
horen,
weil die
ungeheure
St5rke des Nihilismus durchleuchtete.
[In
the
afternoon,
at the German Institute. There I
met,
among
others,
Merline ... He
expressed
his
surprise,
his astonishment that we
soldiers are not
shooting, hanging, exterminating
the
Jews -
his
astonishment that
anyone
with
bayonets
at their
disposal
does not
make unrestricted use of them ... It was instructive for me to listen to
him
raving
on in this
way
for two
hours,
because the monstrous
strength
of nihilism shone
through
it all.
]41
This led
Junger
to muse on the nature of such
people,
and the forces
that drive them:
Ihr Gluck
liegt
nicht
darin,
dass sie eine Idee haben. Sie hatten deren
schon viel - ihre Sehnsucht treibt sie Bastionen
zu,
von denen aus sich
das Feuer auf
grosse Menschenmengen
erbffnen und der Schrecken
verbreiten lasst. Ist ihnen das
gelungen,
dann halten sie mit der
geistigen
Arbeit
inne,
gleichviel
mit welchen Thesen sie
emporgeklommen
sind.
Sie
geben
sich dann dem Genuss des Tbtens
hin;
und dieser Trieb zum
Massenmorde war
es,
der sie von
Anfang
an
dumpf
und verworren
vorwdrtszwang.
[Their happiness
does not lie in the fact that
they
have an idea.
They
have
already
had
many
of them - their desire drives them to
bastions,
from which to
open
fire on
great
masses of
people
and
spread
terror. If
they
succeed in
this,
they stop
all mental
activity,
no matter with what
theories
they
have climbed
up
there. From then on
they give
themselves
up
the
pleasure
of
killing;
and it was this
impulse
towards
mass murder that
pushed
them on from the
beginning,
in an obscure
and confused
way.]42
116
If Merline was an
extreme,
Jfngers
relations with the other
political
collaborators were marked
by
a detached
curiosity,
and at
times
by
distaste. Abel Bonnard
was,
it is
true,
a
special
case,
as he
was both
politically
involved,
and a writer.
Junger
had a number of
talks with
him,
feeling
that he
vorziiglich
eine Art von
positivistischer
Geistigkeit verkorpert,
mit der es zu Ende
geht
[embodies
a kind of
positivist spirituality,
which is fast
disappearing.],
even
though
his
features were
distinguished by
eine Art von
kindlich-greisenhafter
Verdrossenheit
[a
kind of childlike-cum-senile
peevishness].43
After a dinner with Bonnard in
August
1943,
Junger
asked himself
how such an
apparently kluger,
klarer
Kopf
[clever,
clear
mind]
as Bonnard could have
got
mixed
up
in
politics,
and above all
in a kind of
politics
where auch nimmt die
Anruchigkeit
noch
ununterbrochen zu
[the
disreputable
nature of the
activity
is
continuously increasing
For
Benoist-MOchin, too,
Junger clearly
felt some
sympathy,
pitying
him for
having
set out on the
wrong path,
which was
going
to lead him to disaster:
Dieser Minister macht den Eindruck einer
prdzisen Intelligenz.
Sein
Fehler
liegt
darin,
dass er am
Scheideweg
die falsche Wahl
getroffen
hat. Nun sieht man ihn auf einem
Pfade,
der
enger
und
unwegsamer
wird. Hier muss er die
Bewegung steigern,
wdhrend das
Ergebnis
geringer
wird. Auf diese Weise verbrauchen sich die
Energien;
sie
fhren
Verzweiflungsschritten
und endlich dem Sturze zu.
[This
minister
gives
the
impression
of a
precise intelligence.
His error
consists of
having,
at the
crossroads,
chosen the
wrong path.
Now we
see him on a
path
which is
becoming
ever narrower and more
impracticable.
He has to increase his
efforts,
while the results become
ever smaller. It is in this
way
that
energies get
used
up; they
lead to
acts of
despair,
and
finally
to
catastrophe.]45
But if
Jnger
could feel some
sympathy
for men such as Benoist-
M6chin and
Bonnard,
in the
presence
of extreme collaborators like
D6at 46 he felt
nothing
but
unease;
for
him,
such men were
dangerous company,
and
gave
off an aura of demonic forces
which were the result of the obsession with
power
at
any price:
D6at,
den ich zum ersten Male
sah,
zeigte
Kennzeichen,
die ich schon
an verschiedenen Menschen beobachtete ... Es handelt sich um
einschneidende moralische
Prozesse,
die
physiognomisch,
und zwar
vor allem an der
Haut,
sichtbar
werden,
indem sie ihr bald einen
pergamentenen,
bald einen
abgebrhten,
auf
jeden
Fall aber
vergroberten
Charakter verleihen. Das Streben nach Macht um
jeden
Preis verh5rtet
den
Menschen,
zugleich
wird er im damonischen Bezirk
angreifbar.
Man
spurt
diese
Aura;
sie wurde mir besonders deutlich,
als er mich
nach dem Aufbruch in seinem
Wagen
nach Haus brachte. Auch ohne
117
die beiden
stammigen
Herren,
die man den
ganzen
Abend nicht
gesehen
hatte und die sich nun neben den Chauffeur
setzten,
hatte ich
gespurt,
dass die Fahrt nicht unbedenklich war. Gefahr in schlechter
Gesellschaft verliert den Reiz.
[D6at,
whom I was
seeing
for the first
time,
showed characteristics
that I have
already
noticed in various
people ...
It is a
question
of
decisive moral
processes
which become visible in the
face,
and above
all in the
skin,
which is lent a character which is sometimes
parchment-like,
sometimes
scalded,
but at all events coarsened. The
striving
for
power
at all costs hardens a
person,
and at the same time
he becomes
subject
to demonic forces. One can
perceive
this
aura;
it
became
particularly
clear to
me,
when he took me home in his car after
the
party
broke
up.
Even without the two massive
gentlemen,
whom
one had not seen all
evening,
and who now came to sit next to the
chauffeur,
I would have
perceived
that the
journey
was not a
harmless one. In bad
company, danger
loses its
attraction.]4~
* * *
It has been
impossible,
in an article of this
length,
to
explore
all the
complexities
of
Jfngers relationship
with France and the French.
Above
all,
there is an
important study
still to be made of his
reading,
and of its effects on his attitudes.
Jungers
obsession with the
writings
of L6on
Bloy
(whose
works he is
continually reading
throughout
his
stay -
the
only greater reading being
that of the entire
Bible,
book
by
book - and whom he is
continually discussing
with
whomever he
meets)
would,
in
particular, repay
close
examination,
for the
insight
it
gives
us into
Jfngers
own
mentality,
and his
apocalyptic
vision of
contemporary
events,
as the war
proceeds. 48
What we have
seen, however,
is a man who came to France with
certain
presuppositions
about Frances historical and
literary legacy.
He
mingled
in cultured French
circles,
and was
accepted
in them. As
the war
proceeded,
he became aware that the French
population
in
general
was far less
favourably disposed
towards the
occupier
than
had been the case on his arrival in 1941. He
noted,
on a number of
occasions,
examples
of these new
attitudes,
which
initially surprised
him.49 No such
change
of attitudes was
evident, however,
in the
literary
circles in which he moved. In
Jfngers
last
year
in
Paris,
Morand had of course
departed
for his
ambassadorship
in
Roumania,
but the salons and homes of all those whom
Jnger
had been
seeing
remained
open
to him -
particularly
the home of
Jouhandeau,
to
whom he had become
particularly
close.
Among
new
people
to share
his
company
in that last
year
were the artist Marie Laurencin and the
118
author Paul
L6autaud,
who as late as 6
July
1944 was still
giving
him
literary
advice
(to
read
Jules Vall6s),
while at the same time in sehr
zarter Weise
[very
delicately]
offering
him
help,
if the Germans
had
any problems
in the
city.
As
Jnger
left Florence Goulds salon
on his last
Thursday
in
Paris,
he met Marcel Arland in the street: Wir
wechselten einen Handedruck
[We exchanged
a
handshake].51
This was his last wartime
meeting
with a French littrateur.
One cannot avoid
having
the
impression,
however,
that the Paris
literary
world must have
disappointed Junger. Happy
as he was to
exchange gossip
and
mondanities,
content as he was to
exchange
literary
anecdotes and
autograph
letters,
he had in fact a serious
enthusiasm for French literature
(particularly
that of the late
nineteenth
century),
and a vision of French culture which was better
served
by
his
solitary nostalgic wanderings
in the Paris that had been
the
setting
for
it,
than in the
literary
salons and
gatherings
in which
he
participated.
And his
readings
take a
greater
and
greater place
in
the diaries as the war
progresses
(even
though
the social life retains
its
place),
as
though
he were
looking
more and more
inwards,
to find
some kind of
explanation
of the
crumbling
world around him. This
is,
of
course,
where L6on
Bloy
comes
in;
but that is another
story,
to
be told another time.
REFERENCES
1. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
18
September
1942
(Werke, Stuttgart:
Klett
Verlag,
n.d., II, 399).
2. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
7
Juni
1942
(Werke,
II, 351).
3. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
18
Juli
1942
(Werke,
II,
363).
4. This statement is based on a comment made
by
Professor Gilbert
Gadoffre,
himself a
prominent
member of the Resistance
movement,
on the occasion of a
heated discussion after a
paper
on
Junger
at a conference at Loches in the
early
Sixties.
5. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
6
April 1941
(Werke,
II,
240).
6. Fernand de Brinon: b.1885. Started as a
journalist. Strongly Germanophile
and
pro-Hitler,
he founded in
1935,
with Otto Abetz
(future
German ambassador to
occupied
France)
the Comité
France-Allemagne.
In
1940,
he was
appointed Vichy
ambassador to the
Occupied
Zone. Took a
strong
collaborationist line.
Escaped
to
Germany
in
August
1944,
and
attempted
to form a
government
in exile with
Déat,
Darnand and Luchaire.
Arrested,
tried in
1947,
and shot.
7. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
8 Oktober 1941
(Werke,
II, 270).
8.
Ibid.,
same date
(Werke,
II,
271).
9.
Ibid.,
same date
(Werke,
II,
270).
10.
Ibid., 7 Januar
1942
(Werke,
II,
298).
11.
Ibid.,
4 Dezember 1941
(Werke,
II,
291).
12. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
4
April
1943
(Werke,
III,
36).
13. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
22
Juli
1942
(Werke, II 365) (Ravaillac
was the assassin
who killed Henri IV in
1610).
14.
Ibid.,
19
Juli
1942 and 2
August
1942
(Werke,
II, 363, 373).
15. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
23 Februar 1943
(Werke,
III, 13).
16.
Ibid.,
4
Januar
1944
(Werke,
III,
216).
119
17.
Ibid.,
10 Mai 1943
(Werke,
III,
70).
18. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
Vincennes,
30 Mai 1941
(Werke, II 256).
19. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
Paris,
7
August
1943
(Werke,
III, 122).
20.
Ibid., Paris,
8
August
1944
(Werke, III, 303).
21. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
29
April
1941
(Werke,
II,
245).
22.
E.g.,
the cordial handshake
given
to him
by
a man in the crowd on Bastille
Day
(14 Juli 1941) (Werke,
II,
269);
the
relationships
he has with various Parisian
women;
his
friendly relationships
with various French families on his arrival in
France;
etc.
23. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
18
April
1943
(Werke,
III,
46).
24. Marcel
Jouhandeau, Journal
sous
loccupation (Paris:
Gallimard,
1980),
174-5
(juin
1943) .
25. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
11 Marz 1943
(Werke, III, 20).
26. The Diaries
of Evelyn Waugh,
edited
by
Michael
Davie,
(Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books,
1979), 647.
27. The Letters
of Evelyn Waugh,
edited
by
Mark
Amory (Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books,
1982), 227 (Letter
to
Nancy
Mitford,
Maundy Thursday
(18
April)
1946).
28. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
10
August
1944.
(Werke,
III,
304).
29. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
15 Oktober 1941
(Werke,
II,
274).
30.
See,
e.g.,
Cocteaus conversation in a little cellar
night-club
in the Rue de
Montpensier
on 10
January
1942,
and bei Madame Boudot-Lamotte
(Gallimards
secretary)
on 1
February
1942,
etc.
(Werke,
II, 300,
311).
31. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
15 Oktober
1941,
7
Januar 1942,
17 Februar 1942.
(Werke,
II, 273, 299,
318).
32. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
27
April
1943
(Werke,
III,
55-6).
33. Pariser
Tagebucher, passim.
34. Drieu la
Rochelle, Journal, 19/4/44,
quoted
in Frédéric
Grover,
Drieu la Rochelle
(Paris:
Gallimard, 1962),
201.
35. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
11 Oktober 1941
(Werke, II,
271).
36.
Ibid.,
28 März
1942,
(II, 336).
37. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
13
Juli
1943
(Werke,
III,
102).
38.
Ibid.,
16 November 1943
(Werke,
III,
196).
39. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
8 Februar 1942
(Werke,
II, 315-6).
40. But one cannot be
sure;
Céline
appears
under his own name elsewhere in the
diaries.
41. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
7 Dezember 1941
(Werke,
II,
292).
42. Ibid.
(Werke,
II,
292).
43. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
27
April
1943
(Werke,
III,
56).
Abel Bonnard
(1883-
1968)
was a writer and
journalist
who was
prominent
on the French
Right
in the
inter-war
period.
Minister of Education for
Vichy
from
April
1942 to the
Liberation,
he was also a
prominent
racist who welcomed the
wearing
of the
Yellow Star and was a member of the Comité
dÉpuration
de la Race
Française, and,
along
with such men as
Benoist-Méchin,
involved in the
organization
of the
Legion
of Volunteers
against
Bolshevism. He fled to
Germany,
and then
Spain,
in
1944,
and was condemned to death in absentia.
44.
Ibid.,
31
August
1943
(III, 143).
45. Das erste Pariser
Tagebuch,
9
September
1942
(Werke,
II, 391).
Jacques
Benoist-Méchin
(1901-1983)
had been an enthusiast for
rapprochement
with
Germany
in the inter-war
period.
A member of Doriots Parti
Populaire
Français,
he became a minister
under Darlan in
1941,
Secretary
of State involved in Franco-German
negotiations.
He
resigned
from the Government in
September
1942
(just
after this
meeting
with
Junger),
and in 1942-3 was involved in the
organization
of what
eventually
became the
Légion
des Volontaires
Français
contre le Bolchévisme. After the
war,
he
was sentenced to death
(commuted
to life
imprisonment,
and amnestied in
1953).
46. Marcel Déat
(1894-1955),
a
prominent
Socialist in the immediate
post-war years,
split
off
(with
Marquet
and
others)
from the SFIO in
1933,
and headed a
group
of
néo-socialistes. A
prominent pacifist
in the
pre-war years,
and a
proponent
of
an authoritarian Socialist state. After the Fall of
France,
he became one of the
120
leading
and most violent Paris
collaborators,
keen to
incorporate
France in the
New Order for
Europe.
A member of the Amis des
Waffen-SS
and of the Milice.
Violently anti-Vichy,
he
finally
became a
minister,
in March
1944,
in the last
Vichy government,
in
which,
under German
pressure,
the influence of the Paris
collaborators was
paramount.
Fled to
Germany
in
August
1944,
and
participated
in Brinons
government
in exile.
Escaped
to
Italy
in
1945,
was condemned to
death in
absentia,
but lived in
secrecy
in a Turin convent until his death in 1955.
47. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
5
Juli
1943
(Werke,
III,
97).
48. The
present
writer is
undertaking
such a
study,
which will
appear
elsewhere.
49. The first
example
of this
being
his
surprise
at the look of hatred in a
shop-girls
eyes
as she looks at him in uniform
(18 August
1942) (Werke,
II,
384).
50. Das zweite Pariser
Tagebuch,
6
Juli
1944
(Werke,
III, 294).
51.
Ibid.,
10
August
1944
(III, 304).