A Strange Homology: Buber’s and Jünger’s Descriptions of the Fighting Individual

Abstract

Martin Buber and Ernst Jünger are both authors, whose most famous works were published in post-World War I Germany. Although in the interwar years Buber and Jünger could be easily seen as antipoles, this is not the case when we compare their early reflections on the existential-social processes unfolding during World War I. As I show in the article, there are striking similarities between their descriptions of the fighting individual. I speak in this case of a homology, as there is no evidence of influence in either direction. I focus on three essays from Buber’s pre-dialogical period—Die Tempelweihe (1914), Bewegung. Aus einem Brief an einen Holländer (1915) and Die Losung (1916)—and on Jünger’s treatise Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis (1922). The presented analysis provides an insight into the often problematic processing of the World War I experience in Germanophone philosophy.

Keywords

• The Fighting Individual
• War
• Community
• the Enemy
• M. Buber
• E. Jünger