"Here and there the
last cigar. A song comes timidly, soon stronger, my favorite song:
In the marching quarters on hard straw I stretch my tired feet, And send my love my greetings into the night.
I'm not the only one who did it, Annemarie, The whole company dreams of his sweetheart at night The whole eighth company.
We must fight bloody battles with the Russian pack. I can't tell you yet about a reunion day.
Perhaps I'll be with you soon, Annemarie, Perhaps we'll all be rounded up tomorrow!
(Perhaps tomorrow the whole company will bury me).
The whole company, the whole, whole company.
And if a bullet shoots me dead, And I can't go home, Don't cry your eyes red, Look for someone else!
Take a lad slim and fine, Annemarie, It doesn't have to be one from my company
From my dear eighth company.
The song fades away melancholically; it echoes in one: “Perhaps tomorrow they'll be rounding up the whole company.” I look for a place to stay. We all find accommodation with a Panje (polack) family. First a welcome and a gift in the form of rum, which we drink from a broken glass, smacking our lips and feeling good. Then a cigar to the Pan, who is very upset because our boys untiled something from his roof, claiming it was their bed. The cigar calmed him down."
-Hans Stegemann, b. March 28, 1893 in Wetzenow, died. September 20, 1916 near Swinjuchy, Volhynia
kriegsbriefe gefallener studenten 1918
(letters of fallen german ww1 soldiers)
the song itself is called "Im Feldquartier auf hartem Stein streck'..."
the letter does not continue the last verse which goes :
"And when I return home from the campaign, then we will have a wedding.
Soon scolds the whole house, from happy children's laughter.
But all of them have to be boys, Annemarie;
So we both make all alone,
A whole company."
