"Der gute Kamerad" ("The Good Comrade"), also known by its incipit as "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" ("I had a comrade"), is a traditional German soldiers' lament. The lyrics were written by German poetLudwig Uhland in 1809. Its immediate inspiration was the deployment of Badener troops against the Tyrolean Rebellion. In 1825, the composer Friedrich Silcher set it to music, based on the tune of a Swiss folk song and in honor of those who fell during the more recent Wars of Liberation against Napoleon Bonaparte.[1]
The song is about the immediate experience of a soldier losing a buddy in combat, while completely detached from any political or nationalist ideology. As a result, its use has never been limited to any one particular faction and was sung or cited by representatives of all political backgrounds throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and was translated for use in numerous fighting forces, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese amongst others.[2]
Usage
Ernst Busch used the tune for his eponymous Spanish Civil War song about the death of Hans Beimler.[3] German playwright Carl Zuckmayer 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 German armed forces and is an integral part of a military funeral, continuing a tradition started at some point around 1871.[4]
The song has also become traditional in obsequies of the Military of Austria and the Austrian firebrigades. In the German-speaking Italian province of South Tyrol, the piece is played at funerals of volunteer firefighters and during remembrance ceremonies held by the Schützenbund. The Chilean Armed Forces and the National Army of Colombia 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 at least by the 19th century.[5]
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 region surrounding St. Cloud, Minnesota, which was largely settled in the 1850s by Catholic immigrants invited by local missionary Fr. Francis Xavier Pierz. 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 DutchFersommling, were very much a central pillar of "Stearns County German culture", it was particularly common at for German-AmericanUnion Army veterans of the American Civil War to stand up and sing, Ich hatt' einen Kameraden, with tears and intense emotion, in honor of their fallen friends.[6] (see German Americans in the American Civil War).
Ich hatt' einen Kameraden,
Einen bessern findst du nit.
Die Trommel schlug zum Streite,
Er ging an meiner Seite
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt.
Eine Kugel kam geflogen:
Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?
Ihn hat es weggerissen,
Er liegt zu meinen Füßen
Als wär's ein Stück von mir.
Will mir die Hand noch reichen,
Derweil ich eben lad.
Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,
Bleib du im ew'gen Leben
Mein guter Kamerad!
I had a comrade,
You couldn't find a better one.
The drum called to battle,
He walked by my side,
In the same pace and step.
A bullet came a-flying,
Was it aimed for me or you?
He was swept away,
He lies at my feet,
As if he were a part of me.
He reaches out for my hand,
While I was loading.
I cannot hold your hand,
Stay in eternal life
My good comrade!
The above text is Uhland's original version. Various variants have been recorded over the years.
Heymann Steinthal 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. "the bullet came flying" instead of "a 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.[2]
Silcher (1825): "aus der Schweiz, in 4/4 Takt von mir verändert" ([melody] from Switzerland, changed to 4 4 time by me", cited after Suevica[de] 4 (1983), p. 76).