Ernst Jünger

German novelist, philosopher and essayist that was, in his early period, preoccupied with the power and glory of war causing him to be a controversial figure. He joined the French Foreign Legion at 18, was wounded seven times in WW I and was awarded Germany's highest decorations. He served in World War II as an army captain. Assigned to an administrative position in Paris, he socialized with prominent artists of the day such as Picasso and Jean Cocteau.

Jünger appears on the fringes of the Stauffenberg bomb plot. He was clearly an inspiration to anti-Nazi conservatives in the German Army, and while in Paris he was close to the old, mostly Prussian, officers who carried out the assassination attempt against Hitler. He was only peripherally involved in the events however, and in the aftermath suffered only dismissal from the army in the summer of 1944, rather than execution.

His elder son Ernst Jr., born 1 May 1926, then a naval (Kriegsmarine) cadet, was imprisoned that year for engaging in "subversive discussions" in his Wilhelmshaven Naval Academy. Transferred to Penal Unit 999, he was killed near Carrara in occupied Italy on 29 November 1944.

His fiction books include, "The Storm of Steel" in 1920 (German: In Stahlgewittern), "On Marble Cliffs" in 1939 (Auf den Marmorklippen) and "The Glass Bees" in 1957. His non-fiction books were a gifted rendition of botany and entomology. The total number of books exceeds fifty. In his book An der Zeitmauer (1959) he discusses astrology at length, in a very positive light.

During many years, Jünger experimented with LSD and other psychedelic drugs, together with his friend Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD.

He died on 17 February 1998, six weeks before his 103rd birthday.