- Theodor Körner (author)
Carl Theodor Körner (
September 23 1791 –August 26 1813 ) was a Germanpoet andsoldier .Background
He was born at
Dresden in 1791, the son of the consistorial councillorChristian Gottfried Körner and his wife Minna Stock Körner. He was raised by his parents and by his aunt, the artistDora Stock , who lived in the home.After his education, he chose
mining as an occupation. He moved toVienna , where he befriendedWilhelm von Humboldt , thePrussia n ambassador,Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel , and other eminent literary and scientific men. Here, within the short space of fifteen months, he produced a succession ofdrama s,opera s, andfarce s, as well as several smallpoem s. The success of his works obtained him the appointment of poet to the court.He left Vienna in March 1813, and joined the
Lützow Free Corps (a voluntary association) which Major von Lützow was then forming. In the midst of the most active campaigns, Körner continued to write poetry.Napoleonic Wars
On
28 May , Major von Lützow had determined on setting out on an expedition towardsThuringia , with four squadrons of hiscavalry , and fiftycossack s. Korner earnestly entreated permission to accompany him, and his desire was fulfilled by his being appointedadjutant by Major von Lützow, who highly esteemed him, and wished to have him near his person.The expedition passed in ten days through
Halberstadt ,Eisleben , Buttstadt, and Schlaitz, toPlauen , though not without encountering the enemy, who were dispersed throughout these districts, but, also, not without effecting some important results. Intelligence and information were procured,ammunition was captured, and prisoners were taken. As a result, the French emperor planned to destroy the corps, and the 1813armistice provided an opportunity for putting it in practice.Major von Lützow had received official information of the armistice at Plauen. Without expecting to meet with any opposition, he chose the shortest route to rejoin the
infantry of his corps, having received assurance of safety from the enemy's commanding officers, and proceeded, without interruption, to Kitzen, nearLeipzig ; but here he found himself surrounded and menaced by a very superior force. Körner was despatched to demand an explanation; but, instead of replying, the commander of the enemy struck at him with hissword , and ordered a general attack be made on the three squadrons of the Lützow cavalry. Several were wounded and taken, and others dispersed in the surrounding country; but Major von Lützow himself was saved by the assistance of a squadron of Uhlans, who had been in advance with the Cossacks. He reached, with a considerable number of his troops, the right bank of theElbe , where the infantry of his corps, and a squadron of its cavalry, were already collected.Körner received the first blow, which he was not prepared to parry, as he approached the enemy's commanding officer to deliver his message, and was severely wounded in the head. He managed to escape on his horse to a nearby forest. After he had assisted a wounded comrade, he noticed an enemy troop that was in pursuit of him, and called with a loud voice, "Fourth squadron,—Advance!" His ruse succeeded—the enemy drew back, and he was able to retreat farther into the forest. The pain of his head wound had become very severe. It was in this position that he composed the
sonnet "Farewell to Life", of which the following is a translation:: "Farewell to Life"
"(Written in the night of the 17th and 18th of June, as I lay, severely wounded and helpless in a wood, expecting to die.)"
:"My deep wound burns;—my pale lips quake in death,—:I feel my fainting heart resign its strife,:And reaching now the limit of my life,:Lord, to thy will I yield my parting breath!
:Yet many a dream hath charm'd my youthful eye;:And must life's fairy visions all depart;:Oh surely no! for all that fired my heart:To rapture here, shall live with me on high.
:And that fair form that won my earliest vow,:That my young spirit prized all else above,:And now adored as freedom, now as love,:Stands in seraphic guise, before me now.
:And as my fading senses fade away,:It beckons me, on high, to realms of endless day!"
During the night he heard the enemy searching the forest near him, but afterwards fell asleep, and was saved in the morning by two peasants. He was conveyed secretly into Leipzig, which was then under French control, and where the concealment of any of the Lützow Free Corps was prohibited, under severe punishment. He subsequently travelled to
Berlin , and having recovered from his wound, rejoined the corps of Lützow on the right bank of the Elbe.His death
Hostilities recommenced on
17 August ; and on the 28th an engagement took place nearRosenberg , in which Körner fell. He had been in pursuit of a group of the enemy, when the riflemen, who had found a rallying-place in some under-wood, sent forth a shower of balls upon their pursuers. By one of these Korner was wounded in the abdomen, theliver and spine were injured, and he was immediately deprived of speech and consciousness. He was carried to a neighbouring wood, but could not be revived. He was buried under an oak in the village ofWobbelin , about a mile fromLudwigslust . A tomb has since been placed over his remains, and enclosed by a wall. He died at the age of twenty-one. His "Poetischer Nachlass" were edited by his father and published at Leipzig in 1815.Bibliography
Biographical and critical studies are by Bauer (Stuttgart, 1883), Rogge (Wittenberg, 1891), Kregenberg (Dresden, 1892), Jaden, (Dresden, 1896), Peschel and Wildenow (Leipzig, 1898) and Peschel (Dresden, 1901).
Publications
* Zeiner, "Körner als Dramatiker" (Stockerau, 1900)
* Strucker, "Beiträge zur kritischen Würdigung der dramatischen Dichtungen Körners" (no place, 1910)External links
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/3/3/11330/11330-h/11330-h.htm Project Gutenberg article]
* http://www.zeit.de/zeitlaeufte/koerner (in German)
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