ABSTRACT
Because Junger tries to find an answer to "European nihilism" as it was inaugurated by Friedrich Nietzsche, and this answer is heavily indebted to his doctrine of the will to power, this chapter briefly introduces Nietzsche's thought as an intermezzo. Nietzsche is affected by nihilism, that is, the experience that the Platonic horizon of the transcendental idea or the essence of things is being erased. This experience is eminently discussed in "The Parable of the Madman" in The Gay Science, where Nietzsche speaks about the death of God. Nietzsche tries to overcome this nihilism—the devaluation of the highest values—by a "revaluation of all values". According to Nietzsche, the will to power is the fundamental feature of life and ultimately of the universe itself, that is, it is Nietzsche's answer to the metaphysical question of what Being as such is. Nietzsche therefore says that we are in need of art in order not to be destroyed by the truth.
