The libretto was written by Louise Otto-Peters, who had already shown ardent interest in patriotic subjects as a youth. It depicts the last episode of Theodor Körner's life from the beginning of his military engagement until his death. Körner, a famous German poet during the Wars of Liberation against Napoleonic hegemony, was free of personal worries due to his professional success culminating in the appointment as "k. k. Hoftheaterdichter", a playwright of the imperial court at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He nonetheless voluntarily joined the famous Lützow Free Corps as he wanted to deliver Germany from French dominance, writing to his father: "Yes, my dearest father, I want to become a soldier. I want to give up the newly acquired happy and carefree live joyously in order to fight for my fatherland, even if I have to spill my blood. […] No one is too valuable for the death for the liberty and the honour of his nation, but many are not valuable enough." In 19th-century Germany, Körner hence became a national hero.