Theodor Körner (1932)

Prussia at the time of Napoleon’s invasion in the early 19th century. Large parts of the country have already been occupied by the French, and the hesitant, evasive King Frederick William III seems politically paralyzed. Resistance is stirring among the young patriots, who want to drive the French out of the country. Among them is the up-and-coming poet and writer Theodor Körner, a member of a Leipzig student fraternity. He writes fervent patriotic essays and poems of freedom. Not all his fellow students share Körner’s Sturm und Drang outlook, and he even has to fight a duel with one of his opponents. As a result, he faces arrest, so Körner flees to his parents in Dresden. At his parents’ request, Wilhelm von Humboldt, a diplomat and friend of the Körner family, takes the young firebrand with him to Vienna to get Theodor out of the French line of fire and their sights. There, the aspiring writer not only gets his plays performed at the court theater; Körner also meets a young woman with whom he later falls in love. Her name is Toni Adamsberger, and she is an actress. The two eventually become engaged. Their happiness is short-lived, because the young Körner is drawn back to Prussia. He has learned that a serious resistance movement has now taken shape at home in the form of volunteer corps. He is determined to join these men. In Breslau, he joins Major Lützow’s volunteer corps. Eleonore Prohaska serves in this regiment too, having disguised herself in a soldier’s uniform and blended in among the men. The young woman soon falls in love with Körner. During a combat mission, she courageously throws herself in front of him when the enemy fires at him. Eleonore is killed. In the ensuing clashes between the Lützow men and the French, the volunteer corps fighters are almost completely wiped out. During the fighting near Kitzen, Körner is severely wounded in the head. Nevertheless, he manages to make his way back to his parents’ home in Dresden once again. As soon as he has recovered, Theodor Körner rushes back to take up arms. Toni’s love does nothing to diminish his fighting spirit. In Mecklenburg, he is determined to join a newly formed volunteer corps. He continues writing poem after poem, bearing witness to the turbulent times. His final work is titled “You Sword at My Side.” In another encounter with the “hereditary enemy from beyond the Rhine” near Gadebusch, a French bullet strikes him fatally.