My War Memories, 1914-1918
building, typical of the Russian despotic rule in that country. There I heard for the first time on foreign soil the beautiful old melody sung as a hymn :
I have given myself With heart and with hand, To thee, land of love and life, My German Fatherland.*
I was deeply moved. This hymn ought to be sung every Sunday in all the churches, and should be engraved on the hearts of all Germans.
Ill
The first task before us was to consolidate our front and endeavour to improve the living conditions for the armies. On our right wing Prince Leopold of Bavaria's Army Group was occupying the sector south of the Niemen as far as south of Pinsk. This Army Group and the C. in C. in the East himself were under our G.H.Q. To the south these troops linked up with the front line of the Austrian Army (with its G.H.Q. at Teschen), which had Linsingen's Army Group on its left wing and its right close to the Rumanian frontier.
In the sphere of command of the C. in C. in the East the line of the I2th and 8th Annies had been so shortened that there was only room for one of them. The isth remained where it was; it extended from the Niemen to beyond the Lida-Molodetchno railway. General von Gallwitz had given up the command and taken over the command of an army against So'rbia. His place with the izth Army had been taken by General von Fabeck, who had come from the Western Front.
' Ich hab* mich ergeben mit Herz und mit Hand, Dir.Land voll Lieb' und Leben, nxcin deutsches Vaterland/* 180