Das zerbrochene Ringlein
"Das zerbrochene Ringlein" (The broken little ring) is a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff, which can be found also titled as "Lied" (lay, or song), first published 1813 by Justinus Kerner et al. in the almanac "Deutscher Dichterwald" (German Poets’ Forest) under the pseudonym "Florens" and afterwords in his novel "Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts". 1807/08 Eichendorff pondered in his diaries about his unhappy love affair with Käthchen Förster, the daughter of a Heidelberg cellarman, during his student days. This fact is remembered by a memorial stone at the (Philosophers' Walk) in Heidelberg, along the Neckar. In  1814, Eichendorf's love poem was set to music by , and became popular under the title "In einem kühlen Grunde" (In a cool valley), taken from the first verse of the first stanza. The poem can be heard in recent versions by Comedian Harmonists, Heino, and Max Raabe, among others.