The Overture to “Hermann and Dorothea” is the only compositional result that Schumann reaped from Goethe’s epic poem. He had originally planned an entire opera, then a Singspiel, and finally an oratorio. In the end (1851), he quickly produced an orchestral score that remained unprinted during his lifetime. The striking thematic use of the Marseillaise is multiply motivated: Goethe’s poem unfolds in 1796, when the two eponymous lovers are fleeing from the French revolutionary troops; Schumann had directly experienced the revolutionary uprisings of 1848 in Dresden; finally, Louis Napoléon’s coup d’état of 2 December 1851 must also have made an impact on the composer. The primary source of the Urtext edition of Schumann’s “Revolutionary Overture” is the carefully written autograph.