Theodor Körner Connects Art, War, and the German Fatherland (1813)
Abstract
The poet Theodor Körner (1791–1813) emerged from a process of nationalist mythmaking as a hero of the Napoleonic Wars, which were celebrated as the “Wars of Liberation.” He was depicted as a “poet and thinker” who battled for the nation and died for it. The very title of his posthumously published volume of poems, Lyre and Sword, represents the fusion of art and war.
Source
Where is the singer’s fatherland? —
Where from noble minds
sparks flew,
Where for beauty wreaths were laid,
Where
stalwart hearts joyfully blazed,
For all that is sacred and
true,
There was found my fatherland!
What name the singer’s fatherland? —
Now o’er the graves of
its dead sons,
It weeps under a foreign yoke,
Known once
just as the Land of Oaks,
This free land, this German
land,
Thus was called my fatherland!
What laments the singer’s fatherland? —
That its peoples’
princes bent,
Before the winds of the raging
foe,
Forgetting the sacred oath they swore,
That its
appeal unheeded went,
This laments my fatherland!
Whom calls the singer’s fatherland? —
It calls out to the
silenced Gods,
Thundering with desperation,
For its
freedom, its salvation,
For the vengeance-wreaking
hand,
For this calls out my fatherland!
What wants the singer’s fatherland? —
To drive the
bloodhound from its bounds,
To know the battle has been
won,
And freely carry its free sons,
Or lay them free
beneath the ground,
This wants the singer’s fatherland!
And what hopes the singer’s fatherland? —
It hopes for
justice to be done,
Hopes for its loyal folk to
wake,
Hopes that God will vengeance take,
Does its avenger
not mistake,
This hopes the singer’s fatherland!
Source: Theodor Körner, “Mein Vaterland,” in Leyer und Schwerdt. Berlin: Nicolai, 1914, pp. 23–24. Available online at: http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/koerner_leyer_1814
Further Reading
Karen Hagemann, Revisiting Prussia’s Wars Against Napoleon. History, Culture, Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.