Ich hatt einen Kameraden [German soldier funeral song][instrumental]

“Der gute Kamerad“ (“The good Comrade“), also known by its incipit as Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden (“I had a comrade“) is a traditional lament of the German Armed Forces. The text was written by German poet Ludwig 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. The song is about the immediate experience of a soldier losing a comrade in battle, detached from all political or national ideology; as a result, its use was never limited to 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, Japanese and others. “The Good Comrade“ still plays an important ceremonial role in the German Armed Forces and is an integral part of a military funeral, con