Ich hatt' einen Kameraden

"Der gute Kamerad" ("The good Comrade"), also known as "I had a comrade", is a traditional lament of the German Armed Forces. The text was written by the German poet Ludwig Uhland in 1809. In 1825, the composer Friedrich Silcher set it to music.

"The Good Comrade" plays an important ceremonial role in the German Armed Forces and is an integral part of a military funeral. The song has also become traditional in obsequies of the Military of Austria, the Austrian firebrigades and the highly prussianized Chilean Army. It is also used to some degree in the French Army, particularly in the Foreign Legion. When the song is played, soldiers are to salute, an honour otherwise reserved for national anthems only.

Occasionally the song is played at civil ceremonies, most often when the deceased had been affiliated with the military. It is also commonly sung at the funerals of members of a Studentenverbindung. Finally, the song is often played on Volkstrauertag, the German Remembrance Day, at memorials for the fallen.

German playwright Carl Zuckmayer in 1966 used the song's line "Als wär's ein Stück von mir" as the title for his hugely successful autobiography (English title: "A Part of Myself").

The tune is also used for the eponymous Spanish Civil War song about the death of Hans Beimler.