This march was composed in 1806 for Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and a Field Marshall in the Prussian army. He commanded the Prussian forces in the battle of Jena-Auerstädt, during which both of his eyes were destroyed by a musketball. He died shortly afterwards. His son, Frederick William, established the Brunswick Ducal Corps (or "Black Brunswickers"), a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of around 2,000 men, which served alongside the British Army after Brunswick-Lüneburg was annexed by the Kingdom of Westphalia, a French satellite state. Frederick William died at the Battle of Quatre Bras in 1815. The Congress of Vienna re-established Brunswick-Lüneburg as the Duchy of Brunswick, to which the remnants of the Corps returned on the 6th of December 1815.
