KÖRNER, THEODORE, the Tyrtæus of Germany, was born at Dresden in 1791. When a child, he was sickly and feeble, but as he grew up, his whole nature seemed to undergo a complete change. He began to study with intense ardour, devoting himself to history, the physical sciences, and above all to poetry. His father, a man of good station and fortune, enjoyed the personal friendship of Goethe and Schiller. Till his seventeenth year the young Körner had been educated at home. He was then sent to the mining school of Freiberg, and in due time was transferred to the university first of Leipzig, and afterwards of Berlin. In both of these cities he distinguished himself by his enthusiasm for the independence of Germany, and his efforts to rouse his countrymen to throw off the iron yoke of Napoleon. His zeal outran his prudence, and his father judged right to send him for a time to Vienna, where such doctrines might be taught with greater safety. Here he began to write for the theatre. His first two plays, "Die Braut" (The Bride), and "Der Grüne Domino" (The Green Domino), were completely successful, but were altogether eclipsed by the brilliant triumph of "Rosamonde," "Toni," and above all of "Zirny." When the disastrous issue of Napoleon's Russian campaign restored the prospects of freedom to Germany, Körner volunteered as a private into the Prussian light-horse of Lützow. At the affair of Kitzchen, he fought with distinguished valour against the French. Severely wounded in the battle, he crawled during the night into a wood, where he was found next morning by some peasants, who took care of him till he was quite recovered. When he rejoined his corps he was presented with a commission as the reward of his valour. In the constant skirmishes between the French and German troops he exposed his person in the most reckless and daring fashion. At last, on the 26th August 1813, he met the death he had so often seemed to court in vain, being killed by a shot near the village of Wöbbelin in Mecklenburg. He was buried where he fell, at the foot of an oak-tree by the wayside, and his name was carved in the bark. An iron monument now marks the spot.
Körner, at the time of his death, had not completed his twenty-second year, and, in forming an estimate of his poetry, this fact must always be borne in mind. One thought breathes through all his works,—the freedom and independence of the German fatherland, to be wrought out at whatever cost of treasure and blood. Intense hatred to the French, the oppressors of his country, breathes in every line of Körner's lyrics, and these are the poems on which his fame chiefly rests. These lyrics, most of which were written in the camp, were collected into a volume under the title of "Leier und Schwert" (Lyre and Sword). The best of them, the "Schwert-lied" (Song of the Sword) was written on the field of battle only an hour before he fell. His dramas, though they contain many really powerful scenes, and even some well-drawn characters, are ill-sustained. Many deep thoughts happily expressed, and the general outline of the plots, seem to indicate that, had his life been spared, he might have attained eminence as a dramatist. As it is, his fame will rest mainly on the short pieces which he threw off in the white-heat of a temporary passion.