 First edition cover | |
| Author | Ernst Jünger |
|---|---|
| Translators | Basil Creighton (1929) |
| Language | German |
| Genre | Memoir |
Publication date | 1920 |
| Publication place | Germany |
Published in English | Doubleday (1929) |
| Pages | 187 |
| 940.482 | |
Storm of Steel (German:In Stahlgewittern; original English title:In Storms of Steel) is thememoir of German officerErnst Jünger's experiences on theWestern Front during theFirst World War from December 1914 to August 1918. The book is a graphic account oftrench warfare. It can be read affirmatively, neutrally, or as ananti-war book.[1]
Storm of Steel was originally printed privately in 1920, making it one of the first personal accounts to be published. It was largely devoid of editorialization when first published, but was heavily revised several times. The book established Jünger's fame as a writer in the 1920s. The judgment of contemporaries and later critics reflects the ambivalence of the work, which describes the war in all its brutality, but neither expressly condemns it nor goes intoits political causes.
Storm of Steel begins with Jünger, as a private, entering the line with the 73rd Hanoverian Regiment inChampagne. His first taste of combat came atLes Éparges in April 1915 where he was first wounded by a piece of shrapnel piercing his thigh.
After recuperating, he took an officer's course and achieved the rank ofLeutnant. He rejoined his regiment on theArras sector. In 1916, with theBattle of the Somme underway, Jünger's regiment moved toCombles in August for the defence of the village ofGuillemont. Here Jünger was wounded again, and absent shortly before the final British assault which captured the village — hisplatoon was annihilated. In 1917 Jünger saw action during theBattle of Arras in April, theThird Battle of Ypres in July and October, and the German counter-attack during theBattle of Cambrai in November. Jünger led a company of assault troops during the finalGerman spring offensive, 21 March 1918 when he was wounded again. On 23 August he suffered his most severe wound when he was shot through the chest.
In total, Jünger was wounded 14 times during the war, including five bullet wounds, and earned the GoldenWound Badge. He was awarded theIron Cross 1st and 2nd Class,House Order of Hohenzollern and was the youngest ever recipient of thePour le Mérite.[2]
The first version ofStorm of Steel was essentially Jünger's unedited diary; the original English title wasIn Storms of Steel: from the diary of a Shock Troop Commander, Ernst Jünger, War Volunteer, and subsequently Lieutenant in the Rifle Regiment of Prince Albrecht of Prussia (73rd Hanoverian Regiment). Since it was first published there have been up to seven revisions ofStorm of Steel, with the last being the 1978 version for Jünger'sCollected Works. The major revision came in 1934, for which the explicit descriptions of violence were muted. This edition carried the universal dedicationFor the fallen.
The first translation came out in 1922 with Julio A. López's Spanish translation titledBajo la tormenta de acero and based on the original 1920 edition. The 1924 edition was translated into English by Basil Creighton asThe Storm of Steel[3] in 1929 and into French in 1930. A new English translation, based on the final 1961 version, was made byMichael Hofmann in 2003 which won the 2004Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. In his introduction to his own edition, Hofmann is highly critical of Creighton's translation.
Storm of Steel became a best-seller in Germany and other countries, and was widely admired by writers and politicians across the political spectrum. The left-wing French writerAndré Gide wrote in 1942 that "Ernst Junger's bookon the 1914 War, Storm of Steel, is without question the finest book on war that I know: utterly honest, truthful, in good faith.[4] Nazi propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbels praised the work: “A man of the young generation speaks about the war’s deep impact on the soul and describes the mind miraculously. A great book. Behind it a real man.”[5]Adolf Hitler also admired the book,[6] and despite Jünger remaining aloof from the Nazi Party,Storm of Steel was studied by theWehrmacht for military training purposes during the Nazi era, and party publications recommended the book as a gift for boys.[5]
The work is often noted for its detached perspective on combat and violence which differs greatly from many other works produced by veterans of the First World War. The historianJeffrey Herf wrote, "Unlike the pacifist and expressionist novels and plays of the early 1920s such asRemarque'sAll Quiet on the Western Front orToller'sGas [the playsGas andGas II are actually byGeorg Kaiser], Jünger'sStahlgewittern [Storm of Steel] celebrated theFronterlebnis [Front-experience] as a welcome and long overdue release from the stifling security of the prewarWilhelmian middle class."[7]
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