Kurt Eggers | |
|---|---|
 A young Kurt Eggers | |
| Born | (1905-11-10)10 November 1905 Berlin,Brandenburg,German Empire |
| Died | 12 August 1943(1943-08-12) (aged 37) Russian SFSR,Soviet Union |
| Occupation |
|
| Nationality | German |
| Genre | Plays, radio drama, musical comedies, folk stories, walking songs, martial songs, and chants |
| Literary movement | Nazism |
| Spouse | Traute Kaiser |
| Children | 4 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Weimar Republic Nazi Germany |
| Service |  Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops Waffen-SS |
| Years of service |
|
| Rank | |
| Unit | SS Division Wiking |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Kurt Eggers (10 November 1905 – 12 August 1943) was a German writer, poet, songwriter, and playwright with close links to theNazi Party. He served as both a member of a propaganda company (Propagandakompanie) and as aWaffen-SS soldier at the rank ofMann inWorld War II, he was killed while serving in a tank regiment on theEastern Front by theRed Army.
Kurt Eggers was born in 1905 inBerlin, the son of a bank clerk. In 1917 he entered theCadet Corps and began training on a school ship. In 1919 he witnessed the defeat of theSpartacist uprising. In 1921, he joined theFreikorps and was involved in thebattle forAnnaberg hill during theSilesian Uprisings, where German Freikorps personnel fought against Polish nationalists.
After a spell in an artillery regiment, he resumed his education in 1924. He studiedSanskrit,archaeology, philosophy, and theology inRostock, Berlin andGöttingen.[1] He was particularly interested in theGerman Reformation and the revolutionaryUlrich von Hutten.[2] He joined theCorps Vandalia Rostock, a student group, in 1927. After his theology exams, he became a pastor inNeustrelitz and then a curate in Berlin. However, he rapidly fell out of favor with church authorities with his "Song of the Struggling Peasants" calling for a violent revolt.
With the rise ofAdolf Hitler, he received rapid promotion through the new regime, gaining a succession of party positions while he continued to work as a writer, producing plays, radio drama, musical comedies, folk stories, walking songs, martial songs, and chants. His verses were widely used inNazi Party ceremonies and events.
Following theinvasion of Poland, he headed for the Front, joining the staff of aPanzer company, but he later returned to writing. He was the editor-in-chief of the "Das Schwarze Korps"(The Black Corps), the official newspaper of the SS. He was also a member of an SS propaganda company.
Around the middle of 1942, while working as a writer for the Party Chancellery, he expressed a desire to return to battle, and was transferred to the Panzer reserve. It was then that he joined theSS Division Wiking, which was made up partly of foreign volunteers, he took part in the unit'sretreat from the Caucasus in the winter of 1942-43.[3]
In late July 1943, he rejoined the SS Division Wiking in the aftermath of theBattle of Kursk, which was followed by a Soviet offensive. On 12 August 1943 he died southwest ofBelgorod (in Western Russia near the border withUkraine), while attempting to counterattack against the advancing Red Army troops. His death was marked by a memorial service on 26 September 1943 in theKroll Opera House in Berlin. The SS War Reporters Section, a platoon of propaganda staffers attached to SS units, was renamed theSS-Standarte Kurt Eggers in November 1943 in his honor.[4]
He had four children by his second wife, Traute Kaiser, whose father was a pastor.[5]
