Fire and Blood

Ernst Jünger published his first war diary, In Storms of Steel (In Stahlgewittern), in 1920 at the age of 25. The recipient of the Pour le Merite, Germany's highest award for bravery in the field, Jünger was revered by his generation for his celebration of the 'purifying' experience of war. The 'heroic nihilism' of his early work with its tendency to glorify violence, which originated in his reading of Nietzsche, was further articulated in his War as an Inner Experience (Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis), published in 1922.

First published in 1925, Fire and Blood (Feuer und Blut) is the fourth and final book of Jünger's WWI diaries. It expands on the chapter The Great Battle from his first book, In Storms of Steel (In Stahlgewittern). In Fire and Blood, Jünger leads a company of assault troops during the Spring Offensive in 1918, which was Germany's last attempt to defeat the British and French armies on the Western Front. Fire and Blood is over four times the size of The Great Battle, resulting in stylistic changes, as well as more detailed descriptions.