Lützow Free Corps ( ) was a volunteer force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. The Corpsmen were also widely known as the “Lützower Jäger“ or “Schwarze Jäger“ (“Black Hunters”), sometimes also "Lützower Reiter" ("Lützow Riders"). Origins The unit was officially founded in February 1813 as Königlich Preußisches Freikorps von Lützow (Royal Prussian Free Corps von Lützow). Lützow, who had been an officer under the ill-fated Ferdinand von Schill, obtained permission from the Prussian Chief-of-Staff Gerhard von Scharnhorst to organize a free corps consisting of infantry, cavalry, and Tyrolean Jäger (literally, “hunters” ― i.e., marksmen, snipers), for flank attacks and guerrilla warfare behind the French lines. Volunteers were to be drawn from all over Germany (including Austria) to fight against Napoleon I of France; it was hoped that this broadly national force would aid in rallying the smaller German governments into the ranks of the Allies. The Corps has been alleged to have consisted mostly of students and academics; however, in reality these amounted to no more than 12% of the total force, which was actually composed mostly of craftsmen and laborers. Besides the well-known Saxon dramatist and poet Carl Theodor Körner, the Corps also included academics, writers, and other well known figures, such as Georg Friedrich Kersting, Friedrich Friesen, Joseph von Eichendorff, and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. The educator Friedrich Fröbel, who later developed the concept of the Kindergarten, also belonged to the Lützowers. In addition, at least two women, Eleonore Prochaska and Anna Lühring, managed to join in disguise. The Tyroleans, whose leaders Jakob Riedl and Joseph Ennemoser had fought with Andreas Hofer for the liberation of Tyrol since 1809, came into the Lützow Corps after the armistice of Summer 1813. Uniforms Because the Kingdom of Prussia already had problems financing and equipping its regular forces, the volunteers had to equip and supply themselves by their own means. Many times civilian clothing or old uniforms ― even enemy uniforms taken as booty ― were simply dyed. Black was therefore used for their uniforms rather than the normal Prussian blue, because this was the only color that could be used to dye the improvised clothing (if any other had been used, the clothing's original color would have shown through, resulting in an unacceptable mix of colors for the Corps as a whole). The quality of the material