German writer Ernst Jünger was born and lived in what has been the centre of European power, culture, politics and science for virtually the entire 20th century. Jünger fought in the first world war and received Germany's highest military decoration from Hindenburg in 1918; he discussed politics with Goebbels and Brecht in Berlin in the '20s and art with Picasso during the Second World War; he conspired against Hitler and tried LSD in 1950. The news footage in the film becomes a commentary on Jünger's life and writings, as contradictory and controversial as the history of the century.