Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque. Memory images of the Great War

Abstract

The article analyzes the image of the military generation of the Great War using the example of the works of Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque. The work of E. Junger is significant for understanding the historical memory of the war, since in his works he tried not only to record what was happening, but also to understand the motivation for the actions of the participants in the battles. In the historical memory of Germany, his book “In Storms of Steel” became a striking example of recording the historical memory of the war, gained worldwide fame and became one of the central works on the history of the war and the war generation. Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” became an example of an anti-war work that gained worldwide fame. The article explores the methods of transmitting the historical memory of the war, that were used by E. Junger and E.M. Remarque to convey to the German population the war experiences of war participants. It seems that through the demonstration of war experiences, the authors tried to show the deep connection between war veterans and the global world processes of the First World War. The article discusses the formulation of the problem of the military generation as a “lost generation” and its various assessments by E. Junger and E.M. Remark.