The colonel

Götz: Colonel

Kruspe: Colonel

Schröer is pleased with Kruspe's drawing (right). In particular the colonel's wine-face ("Weingesicht") gives a striking portrait of the confident bon-vivant. But in Götz' watercolour (above) the colonel's face has a more healthy complexion.

Death is dressed like a dragoon, and seizes the object the colonel has in his right hand. Schröer thinks it's a pair of binoculars, but in the watercolour it is unmistakably a gun.

Der Tod zum Husaren-Obersten Menzel:
Vor deinem Siegerblick hielt kein Verwegner Stand,
Dein Säbel hat mir auch schon manchen zugesandt;
Jedoch da ich nunmehr bin auch zum Helden worden,
So ist's um dich geschehn, komm, mehr den Todten-Orden.

Death to the Colonel:
No daredevil could stand before your victorious gaze,
Your sword has also sent many people to me;
But now that I have also become a hero,
it is over for you. Come, increase the Order of the Dead.

Der Husaren-Oberst:
Kein Pulver und kein Blei benimmt mir sonst den Muth,
Wo es am schärfsten geht, da wallet mir mein Blut.
Allein, da dieser kommt, der selbst die Helden strecket,
So fall ich, da sein Sch(l)uss mich hin zur Erde strecket.

The Colonel:
No gunpowder and no lead can take away my courage.
When things are at their worst, my blood boils.
But when he comes, who can kill even heroes,
then I fall, for his shot stretches me on the ground.

Death's last word is different in Götz: »Helden-Orden« (order of heroes) instead of »Todten-Orden« (order of dead).

Schröer added a parenthetical "l" in the colonel's last line, turning "Schuss" into "Schluss". I don't see why. Neither Götz nor Pohle have seen any need to alter it, and "Schuss" (shot) fits in with Death wringing the gun from the colonel.