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SWISS PAGES (5)

WILHELM TELL – MYTH OR HISTORICAL FACT

EVELINA RIOUKHINA

The journey through history and arts, described in the previous Swiss Pages, led us from the Pax Romana (or almost) to the events of today. There is a need, however, for several stops in this journey to see in detail some events or to look at some personalities, mythic or real, that made Swiss history. This Swiss page, this time, is about one such person and it concerns the history of one of the most crucial periods in the formation of Switzerland, the pact of independence at the end of the 13th century, richly endowed by the story – which may be legend or historical truth – of Wilhelm Tell.

The history – the oath at Grütli
Three men, respectively from the cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden – the Waldstätten or forest cantons – met secretly on the plateau of Grütli above the Urner Lake (which is part of the Lake of Lucerne) and pledged that they and their kin would forever help each other against external threats. This was in 1291 and it marks the foundation of the Swiss Federation. The immediate threat came from the House of Habsburg, nominally lords of the region. The interest of the Habsburgs in the Waldstätten, which otherwise had at the time little to tempt avarice, was as so often in Swiss history a line of communication, access to the passes that joined northern and southern Europe, especially the Germanic part of the Holy Roman Empire, to Italy.

Access to the St. Gotthardt pass had become an important issue when around 1230 the local population improved the road, used previously mainly by mountain goats and hunters, in that order. Improvement, moreover, is a relative term. A path was suspended on ropes from the sheer cliff face of the Schöllenen gorge through which flowed the River Reuss (until a 65 metre tunnel was cut through the rock in 1701).

Nonetheless, the valleys in Uri, which gave access to the pass became of high strategic importance. The House of Habsburg (which originated in Switzerland, although it was later associated mainly with Austria) already held the northern approach to the St. Gotthardt route from the Rhine to Luzern. Rudolf I of Habsburg now wished to incorporate into his domain the central Swiss valleys south of Luzern so as to complete his control of the pass. He died in 1291, but within weeks of his death representatives of the communities of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, alarmed by the threat of Habsburg intrusion, met in the field of the Grütli (the location is doubtful) and signed in August 1291 the historic pact whereby its signatories pledged eternal mutual assistance against all enemies and in the process laid the foundation of the Swiss Confederation.

Wilhelm Tell
This is the historic background of the Tell legend, the common elements of which are as follows:
When Albert of Austria became king, succeeding Rudolf I, he sent two tyrannical bailiffs to the Waldstätten, namely Hermann Gessler to Uri and Schwyz, and Beringer (of Landenberg) to Unterwalden. Their reign was said to be one of terror. Three Swiss in particular got into trouble. Arnold Anderhalden (or Abderhalden) von Melchtal in what is now the semi-canton of Obwald protested against the tax imposed by Beringer on a widow. Beringer then ordered his soldiers to seize Melchtal’s draught oxen, saying that if he wanted to eat he could pull the plough himself. Melchtal chased the soldiers away (breaking the finger of one of them) but then fled. Later the soldiers came and blinded Melchtal’s father because he would not say where his son had fled to.

Meanwhile, Wolfenschiessen, the governor of Unterwalden, appointed by Beringer, pursued the wife of another freeman, Konrad Baumgarten, asking her to prepare a bath for him, which they would then both enjoy. The outraged wife ran from the house and fetched her husband who killed Wolfenschiessen with an axe. Baumgarten fled to the Urner Lake where the hero of the story, Wilhelm Tell, freeman of Bürglen in the canton of Uri, saved his life by ferrying him across in a boat despite the turbulent condition of the lake.

The third man in the tale, Werner Stauffacher, lived in Steinen, Schwyz. He had built a fine house, which Gessler wanted for himself. Stauffacher’s wife advised her husband to seek allies to defend the house which, she said, sooner or later Gessler would seize anyway. Stauffacher went to Walter Fürst, Wilhelm Tell’s father-in-law, freeman of Attinghausen in Uri, where also he met Arnold von Melchtal. The three men agreed to confer and decide the future at the Grütli, an isolated clearing which legend has placed beside the Urner Lake, under the Seelisberg.

Many of the details of the story derive from the play of Friedrich Schiller, German playwright and author, whose Wilhelm Tell was first performed in Weimar in 1804. In the play Stauffacher is made to say (to Fürst and Melchtal):

“So be it. Give me your honest hand,
and so, as we three men among us join
our hands, readily and without falsehood,
so will our three cantons, for safety
and in defiance stand together in life
and death.” (transl.)

On the night of 8 November 1307 (in the legend), the three, each accompanied by ten men, took an oath to act in common in all
things to protect their ancient rights and chase away the bailiffs and their mercenaries. New Year’s day was to be the time of action.

Meanwhile, however, Gessler had a hat displayed in the village of Altdorf, chief locality of Uri. Citizens were to salute the hat as they passed, and a guard was placed to report those who did not. Wilhelm Tell failed to salute the hat, was arrested and brought before the bailiff. Gessler, knowing of Tell’s prowess in archery, told him to shoot an arrow through the apple placed on the head of Tell’s son. Tell loaded one arrow in his crossbow and placed another next to it. As the audience held its collective breath, he shot and pierced the apple. A dramatic moment, but it was not the end of the matter. Gessler had noticed the second arrow and asked what Tell had intended, promising to spare his life whatever the reply. Tell, unafraid, confessed that had his first arrow missed its target and injured his son the second arrow would have cost Gessler’s life. It was an offence that Gessler was unlikely to overlook. He had promised to spare Tell’s life, he said, but he would imprison him forever.

Tell in chains, they embarked on a boat to cross the Urner lake. A storm arose and Tell, expert boatman, was freed of his chains so he could steer the boat. He made for the shore, leapt on land, leaving Gessler and the boat to cope as best they could. They eventually reached land and made their way along a narrow passage towards Küssnacht. Tell saw them coming, shot and killed Gessler. Thus, as the story goes, Gessler met the fate which as a tyrant he deserved.

On the morning of the first day of the New Year the Confederates sacked and burned the bailiffs’ strongholds and chased their soldiers from the land.

Myth or historical fact
The story was amply illustrated, although not until much later. Virtually every painter worth his salt has tried his hand at scenes such as the shooting of the apple, Tell’s leap to the shore, Gessler’s death or Wolfenschiessen being axed in the bath.

The question remains as to whether Tell existed or belonged to legend and similarly for the events that led to the meeting in 1307. There is no historical trace of Tell, but this means little in an age where few records – and certainly none of births and deaths – were kept and few people could write. Moreover, many of the local records of the period were lost in fires.

The earliest artistic record of Tell is in the chronicles of Petermann Etterlin, of Basel, in 1507 (now in the Tell Museum). The text in one of the illustrations in the chronicles reads (in translation): “This is the story of the devout Wilhelm Tellen who was compelled to shoot an apple off his son’s head and how he fared thereafter.” But the Etterlin manuscript, coming 200 years after the event, is hardly evidence of the historical truth of the legend. Nor is a first “authentic” portrait of Tell that appeared in Rome in 1577, about 250 years after his legendary death.

Sceptics, such as the historian Werner Meyer have noted in passing that the legend of Wilhelm Tell arose between the 15th and 17th centuries at a time of severe economic and political hardship when people sought relief in patriotic myths. The domestic authorities of the time, themselves oppressive in their rule – the author suggests – turned the Tell story into a patriotic myth in which the emphasis is on Gessler as an Austrian intruder and on Tell’s liberation of his people from a foreign, rather than a domestic, yoke.

The debate has been fierce, fuelled by patriotism. We might agree (or disagree) with the Swiss art historian Jakob Burkhardt that: “A myth is not a lie, it is the dramatization of an event which is the kernel of historical truth”. In this sense, Tell personifies the Swiss urge for freedom. If he did not exist there is ample ground for inventing him. The Federal Loisirs Pact of 1291 at any rate is fact, borne out by a (carbon-dated) one-page document in the possession of the Cantonal Government of Schwyz.

As regards the history, the pact of independence or the intervention by Tell were by no means the end of the matter. Some 25 years later Leopold I of Habsburg, continuing to press for control of the Reuss valley and the St. Gotthardt Pass, mounted a powerful military campaign against the forest cantons. It was a dramatic moment in the history of the Swiss who found themselves on a knife’s edge, with foreign bondage on one side, freedom on the other. The historical background and the Tell legend, as well as the sequel of events, are vividly described in Wolf Scott’s recently published book, of which all the above is an extract, Pictures from an Exhibition, An Introduction to Swiss History and Art, obtainable from the Geneva International Welcome Centre, route de Ferney 106 or from their kiosk at Door 6, Palais des Nations, also from the Musée des Suisses dans le Monde, Domaine de Penthes, and to whom I address all my thanks for the current Swiss page.