camaraderie

Feature photo: Detail of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington | © Pixabay

Many people like to talk about leadership, which today is also called leadership, as well as about camaraderie, mostly by those who have never experienced either of them themselves, let alone witnessed them.

Unfortunately, leadership and camaraderie are hard to find; the latter is even more difficult to find, since it only reveals itself in actual and existential crises or even war situations.

You can order them or even sue them, but camaraderie is similar to intelligence or decency, because a person has to have these skills or at least try to work hard to find them themselves.

Ultimately, however, comradeship only shows up in exceptional situations, namely in those in which at least one person plunges into an existential crisis and this crisis can only be overcome with the help of at least one other person together.

Or in wars and operations, sometimes even in situations that try to replicate these crisis situations.

And those who were allowed to experience camaraderie received a wonderful gift, which in turn can hardly be understood by all the other fellow human beings.

And better than Ludwig Uhland formulated it in 1809 in the following poem, comradeship can hardly be put into words.

The good comrade

I had a comrade,
You won't find a better one.
The drum beat to the dispute,
He walked by my side
In the same step and step. 

A bullet came flying
Is it for me or is it for you?
It tore him away
He lies at my feet
Like it's a piece of me

still wanna give me your hand
Meanwhile I'm loading.
can't shake your hand
You stay in eternal life
My good comrade!

Ludwig Uhland, 1809

Ludwig Uhland was himself his friends of the Swabian circle of poets Justin Kerner, Gustav Schwab and Karl Mayer deeply connected. Which also made him write a poem about the Wurmlingen Chapel inspired that I don't want to withhold from you.

The chapel

Above is the chapel 
Look quietly down into the valley. 
Downstairs sings at Wies' and Quelle 
Happy and bright the shepherd boy.

The little bell rings sadly, 
Horrible the corpse choir, 
Silence are the happy songs 
And the boy listens up.

Up there they are buried, 
They rejoiced in the valley;
Shepherd boy, Shepherd boy! 
They also sing to you there once.

Ludwig Uhland