Leuthen Chorale

The Leuthen Chorale was a tune originally composed in the seventeenth century by Johannes Crüger, tutor to the von Blumenthal family and Director of Music at the Nikolaikirche in Berlin. It was used as the setting for Martin Rinckart's hymn Nun danket alle Gott (sung in English to the same tune as Now Thank We All Our God). This hymn is the basis for two J.S. Bach compositions: the chorale harmonisation BWV 386 and the Leipzig Prelude BWV 657.

After the Battle of Leuthen in 1757, an unknown Prussian soldier standing near Frederick the Great began singing it spontaneously, and the hymn was taken up by the entire assembled Prussian army, about 25,000 men. Thereafter the melody was known in German, and sometimes in English, as Leuthen.