Lt. Jünger Is Taking His Coat Off Now

On 29th March 1995 the author Ernst Jünger, one of the most unusual witness of this century, became 100. This provided the opportunity for Thomas Schmitt and Hubert Winkels to make their film about the author – following and exploring the life of Jünger, his ideals and his literary development. There is a particular emphasis on trying to come to terms with his spectacular early works, within which Jünger formulates positively about arms, transport and communications systems within a vision of a charged-up-war-like-frightening, from the basis for Jünger´s further journey through life – his affinity and later distance to National Socialism and the following aesthetic change from war-fighter to nature-lover and anarchist. The film lucidly portrays the visionary content of Jünger´s view of the world, its horrors as well as the bizarre and curious, which even causes flare-up discussions in right-wing circles about the fascination with Jünger. Interviews with: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ex-secretary, the right-wing publicist); Heimo Schwilk; as well as the “sixty-eighters” Klaus Theweleit and Helmut Lethen. Gerburg Treusch-Dieter, Klaus Sombart and Heiner Müller complete the bill.