What lies behind Jünger's stylization is a psychological processing that is unique in literature. With each new version, he attempted to project some sort of sense or meaning into the horrors, to make the unspeakable explicable. His manic reworkings of his book, however, clearly show just how deeply traumatized Jünger was by his experiences in the trenches. While Eric Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front was celebrated around the world as the anti-war novel par excellence, the three-year-younger Ernst Jünger was considered by many to be a war apologist. His stance toward the National Socialists was ambivalent for a long time, yet their monopolization was too abhorrent to Jünger. This exaltation of war turned Ernst Jünger into a figurehead of the conservative right, even though the author saw himself more as a member of the avant-garde with an affinity to the Futurists. Of all the war's exciting moments none is so powerful as the meeting of two storm troop leaders between narrow trench walls.' 'Trench fighting is the bloodiest, wildest, most brutal of all. Writing and rewriting Ernst Jünger as an officer in 1939 Image: picture-alliance/akg-images

'For I cannot too often repeat, a battle was no longer an episode that spent itself in blood and fire it was a condition of things that dug itself in remorselessly week after week and even month after month. In the original diary entries, war-weary Jünger asks in an admonitory manner: He nearly manically wrote and rewrote the text over the years, creating seven different versions which vary fundamentally in the force of their expression. His Storm of Steel would not relinquish its grip on him. Jünger meticulously wrote in his journal throughout the war years. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Jünger's storm of steel