Why does man have a certain knowledge of death?
There is nothing in the future outlook of his existence (Daseins) in the world which is to him more surely known than death.
--Because he is spirit. (The animal knows nothing of death).
And why is he himself conscious of the spirituality of his essence?
Because he knows of death. (The animal is not spirit).
Spirit and death themselves help men to be reciprocally conscious.
Ferdinand Ebner, Fragmente Aufsätze Aphorismen: Zu einer Pneumatologie des Wortes in Schriften I, München: Kösel, 1936, 26.