The Awakening of the Will to Live

by Kurt Eggers

Kurt Eggers, poet and member of the Waffen-SS, discusses the necessity of embracing maturation, the sanctity of life and procreation, and the critical roles of parents and educators in guiding the young towards fulfilling their potential.

This is an excerpt from Kurt Eggers’ On Courageous Living and Brave Dying (1935).

The will to become lies hidden as a seed within humans even before they are born.

Physical becoming, or growth, concludes definitively in adulthood. Spiritual becoming, or maturation, only ends with death.

Growth and maturation together constitute true human development. It is as unnatural and absurd to inhibit maturation as it is to arbitrarily halt growth.

Inevitably, signs of decay and deformity appear. However, some people find maturation — filled with restlessness, hardship, and all sorts of discomfort — distasteful. They view childhood as the only desirable state and mourn it as a lost paradise.