Gerhard Nebel (1903–1974) was a German writer and conservative

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

. Nebel studied philosophy and classical philology in Freiburg, Marburg and Heidelberg from 1923 to 1927, under

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

and

Karl Jaspers Karl Theodor Jaspers (; ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. His 1913 work ''General Psychopathology'' influenced many ...

. He worked as a teacher in the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

for a short time but was suspended for "socialist agitation", being a member of the

Socialist Workers' Party of Germany The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (, SAPD) was a centrist Marxist political party in Germany. It was formed as a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in the autumn of 1931. In 1931, the remnants of the ...

. He resumed teaching in 1933, and was again suspended within a year. He then travelled to Egypt, where he worked as a private tutor, intermittently working in Germany in 1937 before travelling in East Africa during 1938/9. Nebel was drafted into the ''Luftwaffe'' and worked as a translator in Paris in 1941, where he met

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomology, entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir ''Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful busin ...

. After comparing fighter airplanes with insects in an essay, he was demoted and transferred as a

construction soldier A construction soldier (, BS) was a non-combat role of the National People's Army, the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), from 1964 to 1990. ''Bausoldaten'' were conscientious objectors who accepted conscription but re ...

Alderney Alderney ( ; ; ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependencies, Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-largest isla ...

. After the war, he worked again as a teacher. He published his diaries, and the essay collections ''Von den Elementen'' and ''Tyrannis und Freiheit''. He retired in 1955, working as an independent author, his last book ''Hamann'' appearing in 1973. Nebel switched his ideological alignment several times during his life; he identified as a

Social Democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

, a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, a

Nihilist Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...

, an

Atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, a

Reactionary In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...

and after World War 2 he developed his own idiosyncratic form of

conservativism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

. His temper was choleric, and his style often polemic and zealous.Rolf Vollmann: "Bei den Käfern beginnt die Metaphysik. Ernst Jünger wieder gelesen – zum Briefwechsel mit Gerhard Nebel". In: ''DIE ZEIT'' vom 27. November 2003

Bibliography

* ''Feuer und Wasser''. Hamburg 1939. * ''Vom Geist der Savanne''. Hamburg 1941. * ''Von den Elementen. Essays''. Marées, Wuppertal 1947. * ''Tyrannis und Freiheit''. Drei Eulen, Düsseldorf 1947. * ''Bei den nördlichen Hesperiden. Tagebuch aus dem Jahre 1942''. Marées, Wuppertal 1948. * ''Ernst Jünger und das Schicksal des Menschen''. Marées, Wuppertal 1948. * ''Ernst Jünger. Abenteuer des Geistes''. Marées, Wuppertal 1949. * ''Auf ausonischer Erde. Italienisches Tagebuch 1943/44''. Marées, Wuppertal 1949. * ''Unter Partisanen und Kreuzfahrern''. Klett, Stuttgart 1950. * ''Weltangst und Götterzorn. Eine Deutung der griechischen Tragödie''. Klett, Stuttgart 1951. * ''Die Reise nach Tuggurt''. Klett, Stuttgart 1952. * ''Das Ereignis des Schönen''. Klett, Stuttgart 1953. * ''Phäakische Inseln. Eine Reise zum kanarischen Archipel''. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1954 (3rd ed. 1987, ). * ''Feuer und Wasser. Ostafrikanische Bilder und Erinnerungen''. Stuttgart 1955. * ''Die Not der Götter. Welt und Mythos der Germanen. Hoffmann und Campe''. Hamburg 1957. * ''An den Säulen des Herakles. Andalusische und marokkanische Begegnungen''. Klett, Hamburg 1957. * ''Homer''. Klett, Stuttgart 1959. * ''Pindar und die Delphik''. Klett, Stuttgart 1961. * ''Orte und Feste. Zwischen Elm und Esterel''. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1962. * ''Hinter dem Walde. 16 Lektionen für Zeitgenossen''. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1964. * ''Zeit und Zeiten''. Klett, Stuttgart 1965. * ''Portugiesische Tage''. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1966. * ''Die Geburt der Philosophie''. Klett, Stuttgart 1967. * ''Meergeborenes Land. Griechische Reisen''. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1968. * ''Sokrates''. Klett, Stuttgart 1969. * ''Sprung von des Tigers Rücken''. Klett, Stuttgart 1970. * ''Hamann''. Klett, Stuttgart 1973, . * ''Schmerz des Vermissens. Essays''.ed. Gerald Zschorsch, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2000, . * ''„alles Gefühl ist leiblich“. Ein Stück Autobiographie'', ed.

Nicolai Riedel Nicolai Riedel (born 17 October 1952 in Lübeck) is a German philologist, author and an editor. Riedel worked for a long time as a research fellow in the library of the German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar. In addition, he is the author ...

, Marbach 2003, . * Ernst Jünger, Gerhard Nebel: ''Briefe (1938–1974)'', ed. Ulrich Fröschle und Michael Neumann. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, . * ''Zwischen den Fronten. Kriegstagebücher 1942–1945''. ed. Michael Zeller, wjs, Berlin 2010, .

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