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The Peace

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\Theelwright & RegnerY Co'23 East26th Street' New York 10' N'

Y'DI STRIBU T OR S

THE HUMANIST LIBRARYERNST JUENGER] "\

T6n3efr,cr,lTranslatecl frorn the Gerrnan by

Stuart O. Hood,INTRODUCTION BY LOUIS CLAIR

1948

HENRY REGNERY COMPANYHINSDALE, ILLINOIS

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Copytight 1948 in' the United States of AmericaBY HenrY RegnerY ComPanYProduction and design by Edit Inc'' Chicago

AUTHOR'S FOREWORDTnE essay Peace was sketched out in its basic outiines inthe winter of 7947, and was ready in its present formin the summer of L943. In the meantime the situationhas changed drastically, but unchanged are rhe curarivemeans which alone can heal Europe and, beyond ir,the world.It is an obligation for me to thank the readers of themanuscript for the care with which they kept the secrer-many of them, in spite of all the horrors of imprison-ment. Especially I think of General von Stiilpnagel, thatknightly man, under whose protecion the essay cameabout.

This work is to be dedicated ro my son, Ernst Juenger;he also had known it. After he had proved himself-irlmost still a boy-in the resistance to the internal tyr-anny and had languished in its prisons, he fell on the29th of November 1944 at eighteen years for his home-Irnd, in the Marble Mountains near Carara. In the sameway have the best of all nations nor spared themselves.'l'lreir sacrifice and rhe sorrow they left behind will befruitful.

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INTRODUCTION

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It is high time that the moral insanity which grippedAmerica during ar,d after the war concerning all thingsQs1mzn-1hat raving frenzy of hatred so assiduously fos-tered by the Emil Ludwigs, the Morgenthaus and Vansit-tarts-gives way to a ruironal attitude toward what iscalled, somewhat condescendingly, "the German prob-lem."Modern man has a fatal propensity for attempting to freehimself of his own feelings of guilt, his own anxieties andterrors, by projecting them onto some scapegoar, someincarnation of absolute evil, which he burdens with all the

sins, all the shorcomings that he cannot face within him-self. The Jews were made to assume this burden for theNazis; for the addicts to the Stalin myth, the "trotskyites"are the scapegoat; and for mafly afi otherwise liberal and"flormal" American, this role has of late been assigned to

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PART ONETHE SEED*The hatred, which is completely con-

quered by love, becomes love; and suchlove is then stronger than if hatred hadnot preceded it."Spinoza, Et hics, 44th Theorem

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IURELY never before was so great a responsibilitylaid upon a generation of men and on its thinkersand leaders as now when the war is drawing to its

end. Certainly our history has never been lacking in graveand momentous decisions. But never did the fate of such am,ultitude depend upon them. Each inhabitant of thisplanet will be affected by them fot weal or for woe, andnot only he but his remote descendants also.It may safely be said that this war has been humanity'sfirst joint efiott. The peace that ends it must be the second'The builders who fashion peace out of chaos must notonly test and improve the old structures, but also createnew ofles towering above and uniting them. On thesemen it depends whether good spirits will guard the newhouse, and whethet mankind can live in it in freedomand happiness, or whether prisons and cells for martyrsarc again to be hidden in its foundations as sources ofcorrupdon.

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greatest sum of human endeavor was produced that menhave ever harnessed to one end. In fulness of gratitudeand of emotion one must remember these men andwomen, their laborious days'in gloomy workshops, theirnight watches in the darkened towns and their long hoursof work with hearts filled with care for brothers, sonsand children. There is no reckoning those who died thus,worn out with overwork, bowed down with burdens andcare, snufied out like nameless lights.

The good seed that was there ground down must notbe lost; it must for long furnish us with bread. That willcome about only if we grasp the true and hidden signifi-cance of their labor and sacrifice. It is not that theyfashioned the instruments of death and destruction, theweapons for killing, for sinking ships, for destroying cityafter city. Deep in their hearts there lived instead a seflseof true generosity, true sacrifice, which flowers and bearsfruit more richiy than in the world of hate.

Under a just peace, then, we must unite what has flowedfrom separate but pure sources. Through reason we mustgive reality to something that existed as a vague force inthe aspirations of unnumbered millions, whatever the landin which they chanced to'be born-a greater and betterrule of peace.

III\7hen we review the sacrifice we must not forget those

who were plunged into the depths of pure sorrow, of puresuffering. The times lay upon the weak and innocentwith the weight of iron.\7ho knows the hosts of those who died from hunger,disease, exhausdon, from lack of care and medicaments?And those other hosts destroyed when the towns werelaid in ruins, who feIl beneath the wreckage of theirhouses, who drowned in the cellars, who sufiocated orwere consumed by liquid phosphorus? The line of women,children and aged who vanished thus is endless. Untoldnumbers had their days cut short; as many again wereflever to know what life is. The young grew up in hells,in realms fit rather for the habitation of demons than ofmen, and the children gained their first images from aworld of terror. They heard the howling of the sirensbefore the peal of the bells, and their cradle was flearerthe fire than the light.

n(/e must think too o{ those who went down with theships, who drowned in the solitude of the seas, who frozein the icy waters or whom death ovetcame in scaldingsteam, in the flare of the explosion, in the rings of burn-ing oil spreading wide round their boats. In those daysdarkness lay over the paths of the sea.

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the great treasure of sufiering he had gathered io the fireshould henceforth be the center of the nation, warmingand shedding light, just as the hearth is the center of thehome. And in f.act aa image did adse for the nations withpower to form and unite in an age poot in uue vitaliry'But this time the sufiering was mote widely spread,more obscure and complex; it teached deeper into therealms of motherhood. It was closer to the great teligiousimages. For that reason it will form the base for suuc-tures towering higher into the light. Just as the sacrificeembodied in the unknown soldier inspired the peoples,so the new sacrifice will shed its influence and creativepower far over the frontiers between the nations'

Later when the fighting has died down, people willunderstand that reason could recognize the new ways oflife and stive towards them, but that for their creationthere was required the combined efiort of passions, suf'fering and the fire. The complexities of the fronts con-cealed from those who were active and those who sufferedthe unity of the gteat work under whose spell they playedtheir parts-yet through their creative power, through thetransformation into sacrifice it will become evident' Thusby falling they became the good seed which will bearfruit a hundredfold.

PART T\TOTHE FRUIT

"Not in the even course of the bourgeoiswodd, but in the thunder of the Apoca'lypse are religions reborn."

'Walter Schubart, Ewopa und' d.ie Seele d'es O$ens

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In have seen the victims of this war. To theirsomber ranks all nations added their contingent'All shared the suffering and therefore the peacemust beat fruit for them all. That is, this war must be

won by all.That is not to say that there will not be conquerors and

conquered. On the contrary, it is desirable that thereshould be a clear decision by arms and that flo cornershould remain unpurged by fire. Once mattets have beenreferred to the jurisdiction of force as the court of lowestappeal, they must remain there pending an unequivocaldecision. The more clearly, the more mathematically thelogic of force finds expression, the more deeply it con-vinces those who recognize no othef arguments, the moresurely will the foundations o{ the peace be secured. T7eap-ofls must create an opportunity for a decision to be made,for the mind to plan. In that sense it is better for man

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XVIIlIt is the mark of a just peace that it gives full expres-sion to the spirit of the times. That spirit it must make

manifest in politics, in things of the spirit, in the doc-trine and rites of religion-and rhat irrespective of whetherthis or that group of powers has emerged victorious, irre-spective of whether the fight is fought out to the end orwhether subtle diplomacy contrives to spare the peoplespart of the ordeal.Yet it is better to fight longer and suffer longer thanto retrrn to the old world. Let the rowns be laid low ifthey know neither justice nor freedom, let the cathedralscrash in ruin if there is no reverence in them. Peace isdesitable only if it embraces whatever works of man stillhave some worth and dignity.But should the final word be with mere commonsenseacting in accordance with technical principles, then theconclusion of the war will be only apparenr. It will turnto civil war, to pure butchery. Tyranny and with it fearwill grow and darkness spread further abroad; then afterafl even shorter intemal than before new fronts and newconflicts will ripen.It should be borne in mind that the technique fordeveloping the powers imprisoned in the elements is stillprogressing. And thereby the possibilities of destruction74

will also increase. Today they attempt to strike at themasses of the population, a fact which has become par-ticularly evident by the attacks on the cities. But akeadythere are signs of the desire to go beyond that, to achievetotal annihilation-that is, to desroy life altogether. Sotoday dreams of exterminating whole countries and wholegroups of peoples aheady form part of the nihilist,sideology.That is the prospect which nihilism has to offer_thegreat triumph of death after which it yearns. It is a spiritwhich you may recognize by its diabolical lusrs_whichthe majority applaud-lusts after hatred, disunity anddestruction.

xrxThe question remains: $Vhat can the individuar con-tribute to the peace? It is all the more urgent since todaythe individual tends to underestimate rhe importance ofthe role assigned to him.The rage of the elements makes him despair of hispower; he lets his hands drop in face of the conflagra_tion. By renouncing his free will he renders himself help_Iess and thereby subject to fear and the powerful forcesof evil whose might Iies in the interplay of hate andterror. They think to make man their instrumenr and are

waiting only for the kind of wild exurtation with which75

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he shall assume full responsibility. Thus he adopts a posi-tion in which he loses the power to difierentiate betweengood and evil and becomes only a plaything of hispassions.

The answer to rhis is that the responsibility of theindividual is tremendous, and that no one can relievehim of it. The world must answer before his court andhe is judge of right and wrong.Thetefore today more than ever before he can do good.The world is full of violence, of men persecuted, impris-oned and suffering. How easily and with what scanty

means can one bring comfort, assuage the suffering andgive protection! Even the least of us has the opportunity,and the service rendered grows in proportion to the limitedpowers at one's disposal. True power is to be recognizedby the protection it affords.Above all the individual must recognize that peacecannot grow out of iassitude. Fear, too, contributes towar and its prolongation. Only thus can one explain theoutbreak of the Second \7orld $Var so soon after thef,rst. To have peace it is not enough not to wish for war.True peace postulates courage of a higher order than thatwhich war demands; it is a product of spiritual uavail, oispiritual strength. It is attained when we learn to extin-guish the red fires within us and to free our own heartsfrom hate and its disruptive power.76

Thus each one of us is like a light which as it growsovercomes the surrounding gloom. A litde light is grearef,has more power than thick darkness.That is true also of those who are destined to fall.They pass in goodly fellowship through lofty portals intoeternity. The real struggle in which we are involved ismore and more clearly that between the powers of destruc_tion and the powers of life. In that fight the fighters forjustice stand shoulder to shoulder like the chivalry of old.The more fully this finds expression the more encluringwill be the peace.

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