Carl Theodor Körner's death at Gadebusch at 26th August 1813

Karl Theodor Körner, poet and freedom fighter (born 23.9.1791 Dresden, died 26.8.1813 in the Rosenower Fichten near Gadebusch). He is still known to many today as the poet of the song "Das ist Lützow's wilde verwegene Jagd" (This is Lützow's wild and daring hunt).

The tasks of the Lützow hunters, disdainfully called "brigands noirs", "black bandits", by Napoleon because of their black uniforms, included primarily disruptive manoeuvres in the enemy's rear. Their deployment in Mecklenburg in August 1813 also served such purposes. A bold enterprise of this kind was the advance against the enemy's rear line of communication, the Gadebuscher Landstrasse. Part of the Lützow Free Corps and a detachment of Cossacks, were charged with carrying it out.
In the course of this engagement Theodor Körner was mortally wounded in the Rosenower Fichten. Three other Lützowers died with him.

Carl Theodor Körner (23 September 1791 26 August 1813) was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works for the Burgtheater, he became a soldier and joined the Lützow Free Corps in the German uprising against Napoleon. During these times, he displayed personal courage in many fights, and encouraged his comrades by fiery patriotic lyrics he composed, among these being the "Schwertlied" (Sword Song), composed during a lull in fighting only a few hours before his death, and "Lützows wilde Jagd" (Lützow's Wild Chase, or Hunt), each set to music by both Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. He was often called the "German Tyrtaeus