"Der gute Kamerad" ("The Good Comrade"), also known by its opening line as "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" ("I had a comrade"), is a traditional German

anti-war song Some anti-war songs lament aspects of wars, while others patronize war. Most promote peace in some form, while others sing out against specific armed conflicts. Still others depict the physical and psychological destruction that warfare causes to ...

and soldiers'

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

. The lyrics were written by

German romantic German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German var ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Ludwig Uhland Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862) was a German poet, philologist, literary historian, lawyer and politician. Biography He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, b ...

in 1809. Its immediate inspiration was the deployment of Badener troops against the

Tyrolean Rebellion The Tyrolean Rebellion () was an 1809 rebellion in the County of Tyrol against the Bavarian and French occupation of Tyrol during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Led by Andreas Hofer, the rebellion was initially successful in freeing the Coun ...

. In 1825, the

Lied In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

er composer

Friedrich Silcher Philipp Friedrich Silcher (27 June 1789 in Schnait (today part of Weinstadt) – 26 August 1860 in Tübingen), was a German composer, mainly known for his lieder (songs), and an important Volkslied collector.Luise Marretta-Schär, Silcher, (Ph ...

set it to music, based on the tune of a Swiss folk song, in honor of those who fell during the more recent Wars of Liberation against the

French Imperial Army French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), a ...

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. The lyrics are about the universal wartime experience of losing a friend in combat, while completely detached from any political or nationalist ideology, and twice shift from

past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...

to present tense in order to explore the subject of

trauma Trauma most often refers to: *Psychological trauma, in psychology and psychiatric medicine, refers to severe mental and emotional injury caused by distressing events *Traumatic injury, sudden physical injury caused by an external force, which doe ...

tic flashbacks,

survivor's guilt Survivor guilt or survivor's guilt (also survivor syndrome, survivor's syndrome, survivor disorder and survivor's disorder) happens when individuals feel guilty after they survive a tragic, near death, or traumatic event when others perished. It ...

, and what is now called

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...

. As a result, the song's appeal was overwhelming and has never been limited to any one country or political ideology. It was widely sung and used across the political and nationalist spectrum by both right and left throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, and its lyrics have been translated into multiple languages for use in numerous military forces, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese amongst others.

Usage

Ernst Busch used the tune for his eponymous

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

song about the death of Hans Beimler. German playwright

Carl Zuckmayer Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer. His first two dramas were failures. In 1929, he wrote the script ...

in 1966 used the song's line "Als wär's ein Stück von mir" as the title for his autobiography (English title: ''A Part of Myself''). "The Good Comrade" still plays an important ceremonial role in the

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

and

German armed forces The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: German Army, ...

and remains an integral part of each

military funeral A military funeral is a memorial or burial rite given by a country's military for a soldier, sailor, marine or airman who died in battle, a veteran, or other prominent military figures or heads of state. A military funeral may feature guards ...

, continuing a tradition started at least around 1871. The song has also become traditional in obsequies of the Austrian firebrigades. In the German-speaking Italian province of

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

, the piece is played at funerals of volunteer firefighters and during remembrance ceremonies held by the Schützenbund. The

Chilean Armed Forces The Chilean Armed Forces () is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Minister of Defence. In recent ...

and the

National Army of Colombia The National Army of Colombia () is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, and is the second largest army in the ...

also utilize it, though Chile does not exclusively use it for funerals or remembrance ceremonies. The song has been adopted by the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

at least by the 19th century. Occasionally the song is played at civilian funeral ceremonies, most often when the deceased had been affiliated with the military. Its use was also common in the formerly

German-speaking German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

region surrounding

St. Cloud, Minnesota St. Cloud or Saint Cloud (; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the c ...

, which was largely settled in the 1850s by Catholic immigrants invited by local missionary Fr.

Francis Xavier Pierz Francis Xavier Pierz ( or ''Franc Pirec''; ) (November 20, 1785 – January 22, 1880) was a Slovenian-American Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the Ottawa (tribe), Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians in present-day Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, and ...

. According to local historian Fr. Colman J. Barry, during the traditional parish feast day picnics and old country festivals that, very similarly to the

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch (), also referred to as Pennsylvania Germans, are an ethnic group in Pennsylvania in the United States, Ontario in Canada, and other regions of both nations. They largely originate from the Palatinate (region), Palatina ...

Fersommling, were very much a central pillar of "Stearns County German culture", it was particularly common at for

German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

Union Army veterans of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

to stand up and sing, ''Ich hatt' einen Kameraden'', with tears and intense emotion, in honor of their fallen friends. (see German Americans in the American Civil War). On 22 May 2009, an all-

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

band performed the lament on the

Great Highland bagpipe The great Highland bagpipe ( 'the great pipe') is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the great Irish warpipes. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British Armed Forces, British mili ...

s and drums during a joint Belgian, British, and German memorial ceremony at the

Langemark German war cemetery The German war cemetery of Langemark (formerly spelt 'Langemarck') is near the village of Langemark, part of the municipality of Langemark-Poelkapelle, in the Belgian province of West Flanders. More than 44,000 soldiers are buried here. The villag ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. In addition to the

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

Werner Voss Werner Voss (; 13 April 1897 – 23 September 1917) was a World War I German flying ace credited with 48 aerial victories. A Dyer (occupation), dyer's son from Krefeld, he was a patriotic young man while still in school. He began his milita ...

(1897-1917), the cemetery contains the graves of more than 44,000 German and 2 British soldiers who fell during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It is also commonly sung at the funerals of members of a ''

Studentenverbindung () or , often referred to as , is the umbrella term for many different kinds of fraternity-type associations in German-speaking countries, including Corps, , , , and Catholic fraternities. Worldwide, there are over 1,600 , about a thousand in ...

''. The song is often played on the trumpet during the annual wreath laying ceremonies at the ''

Neue Wache The Neue Wache () is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Erected from 1816 to 1818 according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel as a guardhouse for the Royal Palace and a memorial to the Li ...

'' along

Unter den Linden Unter den Linden (, "under the Tilia, linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. Running from the Berlin Palace to the Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the Tilia, linden trees (known ...

, Germany's national war memorial, on ''

Volkstrauertag ' (, ) is a commemoration day in Germany two Sundays before the first day of Advent. It commemorates members of the armed forces of all nations and civilians who died in armed conflicts, to include victims of violent oppression. It was first obs ...

'' or

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces me ...

and every 20 July at the

Memorial to the German Resistance The German Resistance Memorial Center () is a memorial and museum in Berlin, capital of Germany. History It was opened in 1980 in part of the Bendlerblock, a complex of offices in Stauffenbergstrasse (formerly Bendlerstrasse), south of the Groß ...

inside the courtyard of the

Bendlerblock The Bendlerblock () is a building complex in the Tiergarten (Berlin), Tiergarten district of Berlin, Germany, located on Stauffenbergstraße (formerly named ''Bendlerstraße''). Erected in 1914 as headquarters of several Imperial German Navy (''Ka ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

."Ich hatt einem Kameraden (The Good Comrade)
/ref> This is because the legacy of the

20 July plot The 20 July plot, sometimes referred to as Operation Valkyrie, was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German r ...

to assassinate

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and overthrow the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

has permanently changed the ideology of the German armed forces. Since its creation during

West German rearmament West German rearmament () began in the decades after World War II. Fears of another rise of German militarism caused the new military to operate within an alliance framework, under NATO command. The events led to the establishment of the ''Bund ...

in the 1950s, the modern

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

holds that military officers and enlisted men have a moral duty () which goes beyond

blind obedience Corpse-like obedience (, also translated as corpse obedience, cadaver obedience, cadaver-like obedience, zombie-like obedience, slavish obedience, unquestioning obedience, absolute obedience or blind obedience) refers to an obedience in which the ...

superior orders Superior orders, also known as just following orders or the Nuremberg defense, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether civilian, military or police, should not be considered guilty of committing crimes ordered by a Officer (armed forces ...

, and that the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

and

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

officers who plotted to kill Hitler were not traitors, but heroes, martyrs, and national icons who died trying to save the

German people Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

from continued rule by a genocidal

police state A police state describes a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the exec ...

.''Die Konzeption der Inneren Führung''
(German), Zentrum Innere Führung (Center of Leadership Development and Civic Education)

Text

The above text is Uhland's original version. Various variants have been recorded over the years.

Heymann Steinthal Heymann, Hermann or Chajim Steinthal (16 May 1823 – 14 March 1899) was a German philologist and philosopher. He studied philology and philosophy at the University of Berlin, and was in 1850 appointed ''Privatdozent'' of philology and mytholog ...

in an 1880 article in ''Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie'' noted a variant he heard sung by a housemaid, "Die Kugel kam geflogen / Gilt sie mir? Gilt sie dir?" (i.e. " bullet came flying" instead of " bullet". Steinthal argued that this version was an improvement over Uhland's text, making reference to the concept of a "fateful bullet" in military tradition and giving a more immediate expression of the fear felt by the soldier in the line of fire.

Melody

\header \layout global = scoreTenorI = \relative c'' scoreTenorII = \relative c'' scoreAVerseChoirI = \lyricmode scoreBassI = \relative c' scoreBassII = \relative c scoreAChoirIPart = \new ChoirStaff << \new Staff \with << \new Voice = "tenorI" \new Voice = "tenorII" >> \new Lyrics \lyricsto "tenorI" \scoreAVerseChoirI >> scoreAChoirIIPart = \new ChoirStaff << \new Staff \with << \clef bass \new Voice = "bassI" \new Voice = "bassII" >> >> \score

References

External links

''Ich hatt' einen Kameraden'' , old recording by the French Foreign Legion
(MP3 format) * {{IMSLP, work=Der gute Kamerad (Silcher, Friedrich), cname="Der gute Kamerad" (Silcher)
"Ich hatt' einen Kameraden ..." postcards
in German

1809 poems 1820s songs Funerary and memorial compositions German-American culture in Minnesota German-American history German language in the United States German songs Songs about the military Songs about soldiers Songs about friendship

Usage

Text

Melody

References

Further reading

External links