In this master‘s thesis, individual testimonies from very chaotic sociohistorical circumstances as well as thoughts of certain philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche, are examined in order to find out what it is that enables some individuals to remain constructive and humane in the most nihilistic periods of our history, where it is only rare that one does not subordinate to the destructive patterns of the surroundings. It turns out that only a very strong individual with a deep understanding of the fact that there is no inherent sense in the bare act of surviving and that as people we have to fight not only for bare existence, but for a life in a much fuller and more meaningful sense, has an existential position forceful and constructive enough to be able to successfully fight this very basic human struggle of surpassing our own bestial predispositions.
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