''Lützow's Wild Hunt'' (
German: ''Lützows wilde verwegene Jagd'') is a patriotic German song.
The poem was written by young German poet and soldier
Theodor Körner, who served in the
Lützow Free Corps during the
Wars of Liberation. It was set to music by Ferdinand Ludwig Gehricke and became very popular.
The song praises the deeds of the Free Corps that became an essential part of Germany's national identity in the 19th century due to its famous members. Besides Körner, "Turnvater"
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
(11August 177815October 1852) was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist whose writing is credited with the founding of the German gymnastics (Turner) movement, first realized at Volkspark Hasenheide in Berlin, the origin of modern sports ...
, the famous poet
Joseph von Eichendorff, the inventor of the
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
Friedrich Fröbel
Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique nee ...
, and
Eleonore Prochaska, a woman who had dressed as a man in order to join the fight against the French, served in the Corps.
The tune was adopted as the regimental march of the
1st Surrey Rifles, a Volunteer unit of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
.
[Anon, ''War Record'', p. 14.]
Bibliography
* Anon, ''A War Record of the 21st London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 1914–1919'', 1927/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2003, .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutzow's Wild Hunt
German patriotic songs