Carl Gottlieb Bellmann (* 6 September 1772 in Muskau, Oberlausitz; † 24 December 1861 in Schleswig) was a German organist and composer.
The son of a master mason, he was initially a cellist in the court chapel of Count Erdmann von Pückler, who appointed him as his musical director in the 1790s. Through the Count's mediation, he and his brother Adolph became cellists at the theatre and opera house of Landgrave Carl von Hessen in Gottorf Castle near Schleswig in around 1800. On 9 December 1800 Bellmann married Friederica Christina Krause (on the common gravestone: Kranse) from Kiel, who was barely two years younger. In Schleswig, he composed the melody of the Schleswig-Holstein song Schleswig-Holstein meerumschlungen, which was first sung in 1844 and became today's national anthem in the revolution against Denmark.
Bellmann was buried in the cemetery of the St. Johannis monastery on the Holm off Schleswig. The organ, on which Bellmann is said to have composed his most famous work, can still be seen in the monastery's remembrance. The Chemnitz Bellmann Lodge of the Teutonic Order of the German Druids takes care of the gravesite.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Schleswig-Holstein meerumschlungen, a monument by the sculptor Paul Peterich was erected in Schleswig. The pedestal bears the portrait of Bellmann and Chemnitz, who created the text of the Schleswig-Holstein song. The monument stands at the Schützenkoppel, the place where the Schleswig-Holstein-Lied was first performed on July 24, 1844. In Schleswig a street is named after Bellmann.
Source: Wikipedia
