Lützow Free Corps (German: Lützowsches Freikorps pronounced [ˈlʏtso:vʃəs ˈfraɪˌkɔɒ̯ps]) was a volunteer force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars.

Volunteers were to be drawn from all over Germany (including Austria) to fight against Napoleon I of France; it was hoped that this broadly national force would aid in rallying the smaller German governments into the ranks of the Allies.

The Tyroleans, whose leaders Jakob Riedl and Joseph Ennemoser had fought with Andreas Hofer for the liberation of Tyrol since 1809, came into the Lützow Corps after the armistice of Summer 1813.

The cavalry wore a felt shako (though due to scarce resources, some were made even of cardboard) with a black-and-yellow braid and tassel; often a black oilcloth was worn over them as protection from the weather.

In the early days of the Corps, Lützow and others also wore a skull on their headgear (in the same manner as the Duke of Brunswick’s Schwarze Schar), until forbidden by royal command.

The Lützow Free Corps distinguished itself from the mass of the army, in that it was a voluntary association, whose members were remarkable for superior activity, energy, and enterprise.

Unlike many of the regular army, their loyalty was rather to Germany as a whole than to Prussia or the House of Hohenzollern; many of them made a vow to neither cut their hair nor their beards till they had driven the French entirely out of German lands.

Nevertheless, it had the highest percentage of deserters in the Army of Prussia, was treated with marked coolness by the King (who was anything but an ardent nationalist and anyway preferred his regulars), and accomplished relatively little in the way of major military success.

Upon hearing that the then Major von Lützow had announced the formation of the Free Corps, on 15 March 1813 Theodor Körner abandoned a promising career as a dramatist in Vienna and his engagement with the beautiful actress Antonie Adamberger.

Inspired with the Romantic nationalism of the times, Körner felt himself irresistibly attracted towards a body consisting of volunteers drawn from all over the numerous German realms.

Inasmuch as many Lützow Free Corps veterans took part in the first Wartburg festival of 1817, demanding German unity and democratic reforms, the black-red-gold color scheme formed by the combination of black cloth, red trim, and brass buttons on their uniforms would later become associated with republican and nationalist (or Pan-German) ideals.