Wilhelm Tell (Schiller)

First print with colored copper engraving by Melchior Kraus as a frontispiece and in a contemporary binding

“Hunter's song for Walther Tell with Actus III. one of the few surviving manuscript sheets .

Data
Title:	William Tell
Genus:	play
Original language:	German
Author:	Friedrich von Schiller
Publishing year:	1804
Premiere:	March 17, 1804
Place of premiere:	Weimar Court Theater
people
Hermann Gessler, Reichsvogt in Schwyz and Uri Werner, Baron von Attinghausen, Banner Lord Ulrich von Rudenz, his nephew Country people from Schwyz: Werner Stauffacher Konrad Hunn Itel Reding Hans on the wall Jörg in the courtyard Ulrich the blacksmith Jost von Weiler Country people from Uri: Walter Fürst William Tell Rösselmann, the pastor Petermann, the Sigrist Kuoni, the shepherd Werni, the hunter Ruodi, the fisherman Country people from Unterwalden: Arnold vom Melchthal Konrad Baumgarten Meier of Sarnen Struth von Winkelried Klaus von der Flüe Burkhardt am Bühel Arnold of Sewa Piper of Lucerne Kunz of Gersau Jenni, fisherman boy Seppi, shepherd boy Gertrud, Stauffacher's wife Hedwig, Tell's wife, Prince's daughter Berta von Bruneck, a wealthy heiress Peasant women: Armgard Mechthild Elsbeth Hildegard Tells boys: Walther Wilhelm Mercenary: Friesshardt Leuthold Rudolf der Harras, Gessler's stable master Johannes Parricida, Duke of Swabia Stüssi, the hall contactor the bull of Uri an imperial messenger Fronvogt Master stonemason, journeymen and henchmen public crier brothers of Mercy Gessler and Landenberg riders many country people, men and women from the forest sites

Wilhelm Tell is the last (or penultimate) completed drama by Friedrich von Schiller . He completed it in 1804, and on March 17, 1804 it was premiered at the Weimar Court Theater. The drama, simply referred to as “ play ” in Schiller's paratext , takes up the material of the Swiss national myth about Wilhelm Tell and the Rütli oath .

action

Schiller interweaves three storylines: The focus is on the legend of Wilhelm Tell with the apple shot and the liberation from the tyrant Gessler as an act of self-defense. The historical background is formed by the act of the Swiss Confederation and the liberation of Schwyz (Switzerland). The third plot is determined by the love story between Berta von Bruneck and Ulrich von Rudenz, who reconciles with his people and gives them freedom. The last two storylines are linked at the end, while there is only a loose connection between the Tell story and the other event.

1st elevator

(Scene 1) In the middle of Switzerland, on the high rocky shore of Lake Lucerne . The opening song implicitly gives a key to Tell's character. The shepherd Kuoni, the hunter Werni and the fisherman Ruodi discuss an approaching storm when a refugee appears: Konrad Baumgarten. Habsburg mercenaries pursue him because he killed Wolfenschießen, the bailiff of Unterwalden , who wanted to desecrate his wife. Wilhelm Tell steps in and everyone storms the fisherman to row the refugee across the lake, but he knows the strong foehn storm and refuses. Now Tell dares, with success. In retaliation, the arriving persecutors devastate huts and herds.

(Scene 2) In Schwyz , after a long conversation, the large farmer Gertrud Stauffacher encourages her husband to ally with other "like-minded people" and to oppose the Habsburg tyranny. So Stauffacher decides to travel to his friends, who feel just as oppressed as he does.

(Scene 3) In Uris capital of Altdorf afford farmers and artisans forced labor : A Habsburg fortress that Zwing-Uri intended to end the old kingdom of freedom are built the central Swiss resorts. Stauffacher tries in vain to persuade Tell to join him against the Habsburg tyranny. The hat of Bailiff Hermann Gessler is put on the pole, which everyone should honor like the bailiff.

(Scene 4) Werner Stauffacher from Schwyz , the young Unterwaldner Arnold von Melchtal , the son of an arbitrarily robbed and violently blinded farmer, and the elderly Walter Fürst from Uri join forces to prepare for a joint uprising in their cantons .

2nd elevator

(Scene 1) Shows the disagreement of the established nobility: The elderly Freiherr von Attinghausen expresses understanding for the displeasure in the people, while his young nephew Ulrich von Rudenz takes sides in the Habsburg cause: “No, uncle! It is beneficial and wise caution | in these times of division | to join a mighty head. "

(Scene 2, a core scene) Conspirators from Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden gather in the moonlight for a joint oath on the Rütli , among them Fürst, Stauffacher and Melchthal, but not Tell. Under the leadership of the former Landammann Itel Reding, they form a rural community and establish the Confederation - the first continental European constituent assembly , so to speak . They resolve the expulsion of the Habsburg occupying power and vote on the details of the plan.

3rd elevator

(Scene 1) Begins in Tell's yard, characteristically he repairs his gate himself ( “The ax in the house saves the carpenter.” ). He sets off for Altdorf with his older son - his wife Hedwig tries in vain to hold him back, as she suspects something bad.

(Scene 2) The knight's lady Berta von Bruneck wins Ulrich von Rudenz for the federal cause during a court hunt.

(Scene 3, dramatic climax) Tell does not greet the hat put on by Landvogt Hermann Gessler and is arrested by the bailiff. Gessler himself appears and forces him to shoot an apple from the head of his own child in order to save both lives and for his release. Tell takes two arrows from his quiver and hits the apple. At first he evaded the bailiff's question as to what the other arrow was intended for. Gessler assures him life, whatever he answers. Tell told him in the face that the second arrow was for him if he had hit his son. Gessler writhes out of his promise and has him handcuffed to imprison him.

4th elevator

(Scene 1) Tell escaped his captors during a sea storm. He lets a fisherman's boy show him a secret way to Küssnacht and tells his father that we will hear from him.

(Scene 2) The dying Attinghausen speaks to his servants and friends that the special position of the blood nobility is over : “The nobility is rising from its old castles | And swear his citizenship oath to the cities ” ; his last words are: "Be united - united - united" . His nephew Rudenz joins the Confederation.

(Scene 3) Tell Gessler is lying in wait in the Hohlen Gasse near Küssnacht. His monologue gives his very own motive for this difficult decision: to put an end to the unnatural, "diabolical" activities of the bailiff; Tell's arrow kills Gessler when the latter is about to ride over a supplicant.

5th elevator

(Scene 1) The fortress in Altdorf is razed , together the noblewoman Rudenz and the farmer's son Melchthal rescue Berta from the dungeon . Then a message arrives from Johannes Müller : The Habsburg King Albrecht was murdered by his nephew Johannes Parricida because he wanted to withhold his inheritance from him. But it was precisely this king who had disregarded the Swiss imperial immediacy in order to make them Habsburg feudal people.

(Scene 2) Tell's wife accuses him of endangering his child's life. The fugitive Parricida appears and asks Tell, the murderer of the tyrant, for assistance. Tell points out the great difference between the two acts: "May you mix blood-like guilt with ambition | with the just self-defense of a father? " . He moves him to confess the "horrible" deed to the Pope in Rome.

(Scene 3) The crowd flocks and cheers Tell's act. Schiller, the master of the dramatic finals, lets himself step back here completely; rather, it ends with the inclusion of women and the unfree: Berta von Bruneck connects with Rudenz: “So I give this young man my rights, | The free Swiss woman for the free man! ” Rudenz's answer closes the play: “ And I declare all my servants free. ”

history

Wilhelm Tell from the Schiller Gallery,
engraving by Johann Leonhard Raab after Pecht

The play Wilhelm Tell was written by Friedrich Schiller 1803-1804 and premiered on March 17, 1804 at the Weimar Court Theater. It was directed by Schiller's friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who was then director of the theater.

Emergence

Tell's Knabe from the Schiller Gallery ,
steel engraving by Gonzenbach after Pecht , around 1859

Gessler from the Schiller Gallery ,
steel engraving after Pecht , around 1859

Hedwig, Tell's wife from the Schiller Gallery ,
steel engraving after Pecht , around 1859

Berta von Bruneck from the Schiller Gallery ,
steel engraving after Pecht , around 1859

Arnold vom Melchthal from the Schiller Gallery ,
steel engraving after Pecht , around 1859

Charlotte von Lengefeld , later wife of the poet, introduced Schiller to the tell saga as early as 1789, when she wrote to him reporting on reading Johannes von Müller's "Stories of the Swiss Confederation" (published in 1780). Goethe traveled three times to central Switzerland between 1775 and 1797 and informed Schiller in October 1797 that he was just visiting the " small cantons " again and was intensively concerned with the legend (letter of October 8, 1797). The area around Lake Lucerne and the figure of Wilhelm Tell fascinated him. He obtained the Swiss Chronicle from Tschudi and initially considered implementing the Swiss liberation saga himself epically . It is not known whether Goethe left the material to the younger Schiller or whether he took possession of the material. From 1803 to 1804 he wrote the Tell drama in five acts. In the first four acts he stayed true to the details of Tschudi’s chronicle. Although he never stayed in Switzerland, he showed a remarkably precise knowledge of the place, as he had known how to teach himself as a historian.

reception

In his interpretation, Schiller depicts the individual and collective struggle for freedom of the Swiss natives against the brutal arbitrary rule of the Habsburg bailiffs. One aspect is the step of the title hero out of his natural innocence, to which he cannot return after the murder of the tyrant . While Tell acts intuitively at the beginning of the piece and explains his actions rather sparingly, in the fifth and last act he becomes an almost philosophical figure. As early as the 19th century, however, this act was either severely shortened or not played at all, since, according to the reading that has prevailed since Ludwig Börne , Schiller expressed a problematic view of liberation. According to her, the title hero should have shot the bailiff straight away instead of the apple shot and so should have accepted the " heroic death " - a view that is typical of the zeitgeist after 1815.

In the “Third Reich” the play was initially integrated into Nazi propaganda . In the early years, Propaganda Minister Goebbels praised it as the “Führer Drama” and it was accordingly performed frequently. The main characters Tell and Werner Stauffacher were interpreted as ideal leaders, and quotations from Tell were found in most reading books. Schiller's motif of the justified murder of tyrants , the applause of the German theater audience at the "unsuitable" places as well as several assassinations on Hitler (planned by the Swiss Maurice Bavaud, among others ) seem to have led the Nazis to completely abandon the Tell myth; the change in attitude was so dramatic that on June 3, 1941, the play was banned from performance and school lessons on Hitler's orders. 1941 was also the year in which official Switzerland celebrated the 650th anniversary of the Confederation . At that time reference was often made to Schiller's “Wilhelm Tell”; the Tellspielgesellschaft Altdorf performed the Rütli oath scene on the Rütli on August 1st . This reference to Schiller's play as a portrayal of a loner who triggered an uprising and independence in his country by assassinating the Reichsvogt probably contributed to the fact that it became undesirable under Hitler's dictatorship.

On October 10, 1989, the Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin staged a more or less openly revolutionary production of “Wilhelm Tell” on the Berlin Volksbühne . The state guests of honor left the theater hall knocking the doors. On the evening of the fall of the Berlin Wall , the play was performed again in Schwerin - this time without interruption.

In 2004, on the occasion of its bicentenary, the play was performed for the first time on the Rütli by the German National Theater in Weimar .

In 2006, the production by the director Samuel Schwarz at the St. Gallen Theater caught the attention of Swiss feuilleton . In it the instrumentalization of the Tell myth by the propaganda of the National Socialists is thematized and updated with reference to anti-American-anti-Israeli mainstream ideas; The director also compared the figure of Wilhelm Tell with the man who ran amok by Friedrich Leibacher and the Islamic terrorist Mohamed Atta .

For interpretation

General

Wilhelm Tell is Schiller's last stage work to be completed sixteen months before his death. The pious mountain game hunter Tell is the natural , freedom-loving man of action ( if you think too much, you will achieve little ), who courageously opposes the arbitrariness of the sadistic Vogts Gessler. Gessler, on the other hand, embodies the raw emotional, morally depraved lust for power. By forcing Tell to shoot an apple from the head of his own child, he shows his unnatural depravity.

Because of its civilizational content, but also because of its artistic form, after the fall of the " Third Reich " , the drama was considered the most important play in high school German lessons, which was first treated in the 1960s, mostly in the 10th grade, and even before that today ( 8th school year).

The role of women

Not only the original cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, but also old and young, women and men as well as members of different classes or high and low against the Habsburg tyranny are allied in the liberal stage work .

In the drama, it is noticeable that women from all three classes are more radical than ever the men: Farmer Gertrud encourages her husband Werner Stauffacher: “All honest people complain to Schwyz whether this bailiff's greed and rage [...] You are men too , know how to use your ax ” , and when he objects: “ We men can die bravely fencing ” , but what will happen to women, she replies:“ The last way remains open even to the weakest. A jump from this bridge sets me free. “- The noble Berta wins Rudenz for the common cause. - And in the hollow alley, Armgard, the wife of a poor wildcat (small farmer) who has been imprisoned without a judge's verdict, desperately and courageously stands in the way of the Vogt with her starving children and asks for her husband's release; When Gessler threatens to ride her and her children down, Tell's arrow pierces him. All are affected, but ARMGARD raises one of her little ones up: "Look kids, like a tyrant . Passes away" as motivation for the "sacred" Wrath of women leads Schiller in a prominent place in his drama in its time much-discussed "right of first Night " .

The right to resist

In the Rütli scene, Schiller puts his conception of the individual and collective right of resistance against tyranny into the mouth of Werner Stauffacher :

“No, a border has tyrant power, | when the depressed cannot find the right anywhere, | when the burden becomes unbearable - he takes hold | up to heaven with comforted courage, | and brings down his eternal rights, | those above hang inalienable | and unbreakable like the stars themselves - | The old origin of nature returns, | where man confronts man - To the last resort, when there is no other | wants to get caught, the sword is given to him - | We may defend the highest goods | against violence [...] "

“The old primordial state of nature returns” - this formulation refers to Schiller's conception of natural law : Tell embodies Schiller's ideal of the free human being, who is aware of his rational and linguistic human nature and does not allow himself to be subjugated by any other human being. Resistance to the occupying power is justified because the locals of Central Switzerland use their freedom to defend nothing less than their human dignity.

Tells language

Language and speaking are for Tell - insofar as he embodies the naturally acting human being - not a primary means of expression and not a popular discursive medium. That is why Tell speaks little at the beginning of the piece, and when he justifies something, he dresses his wisdom in popular phrases or gnomes : “ Words do not make a heavy heart light. “His monologue, performed later in the piece, shows that a change has taken place in him. He won't use his crossbow after the Gessler shot.

Opinion on the revolution of 1789

In the play, Schiller does not deal directly with the French Revolution , although many contemporaries expected this of him. The Jacobin revolutionaries had u. a. invoked the Tell myth when they beheaded the French king, as did numerous nobles and opposing revolutionaries of the third estate .

The 45-year-old Schiller is more concerned with the preservation and development of the “glory of humanity” in general, when he brings together morally developed individuality and legally ordered collectivity in a kind of model revolution against arbitrary rule (speech by Freiherr von Attinghausen on his death bed, IV. Act, second scene). Schiller also refers to the revolutionary declaration of human rights of 1789. The tension between individual freedom and human solidarity is, besides the right to resistance, one of the main themes of the drama, which is reflected in numerous emergency situations - from the rescue of Baumgarten his pursuers (Act I, Scene 1), the Rütli oath (Act II, Scene 2), the lack of humility in front of the Geßlerhut and the apple shot at Walther (Act III, Scene 3) to the Parricida scene (5th act, 2nd scene). Schiller also addresses the brutal excesses of the revolution and the Jacobin reign of terror ( La Terreur ) 1793–1794 in the Rütli scene when he proclaims the Prince Walter :

“We want to abort hated coercion. | The old rights as we inherited them | of our fathers, we want to keep | do not reach out unrestrainedly for the new. [...] What has to be done, but not over it. | We want the bailiffs with their servants | chase away and break the strong locks, | but, if it may be, without blood. "

literature

• Kiermeier-Debre, Joseph (Ed.): Friedrich Schiller. Wilhelm Tell , original text with appendix on author, work and text form, incl. Timetable and glossary, published in the library of first editions, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2005³, ISBN 978-3-423-02647-5 .
• Nordmann, Beate: Friedrich Schiller: Wilhelm Tell, King's Explanations and Materials (Vol. 1), C. Bange Verlag, Hollfeld 2001, ISBN 978-3-8044-1691-8 .
• Jansen, Uwe (ed.): Friedrich Schiller: Wilhelm Tell . Acting, Reclam XL - Text and Context, Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-019020-3 .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Tell  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Wilhelm Tell  - Sources and full texts

Wikiquote: Friedrich Schiller # Wilhelm Tell (1804)  - Quotes

Wikiversity: First print with colored copperplate engravings by Georg Melchior Kraus  - course materials

• Table of contents, explanation, development and characterization of the play Wilhelm Tell
• Wilhelm Tell in the Gutenberg-DE project
• Wilhelm Tell at Zeno.org .
• Friedrich Schiller Archive: full text of the play, background information and pictures
• Wilhelm Tell as a free and public domain audio book at LibriVox
• Illustrations by Otto Peter for the play "Wilhelm Tell" (Friedrich Schiller)
• Postcard series for Schiller's “Wilhelm Tell” from the publishing house of Theo Stroefer, Nuremberg
• Wilhelm Tell in the Munich picture sheet
• Albrecht Koschorke. Brotherhood and Ban. The drama of political inclusion in Schiller's "Tell" (PDF file; 219 kB)
• Sieglinde Grimm, Aesthetic Education revisited. Schiller's "Wilhelm Tell" (PDF file; 171 kB)
• On Schiller's concept of nature
• Report by Swiss television about the scandalized performance by Samuel Schwarz
• Telepolis article about the EU-critical potential of the play and its disappearance from the curriculum
• Harald Maihold, “A right archer helps himself”. Emergency aid, freedom and solidarity in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell (PDF file; 777 kB)
• Tell monument and Tell performances in Altdorf (Uri)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The count depends on the evaluation of an occasional work: The Homage to the Arts . A lyric play is only ten printed pages long and is usually not counted as a drama. Demetrius was left unfinished. - Friedrich Burschell: Friedrich Schiller, depicted with personal testimonies and photo documents (= Wolfgang Müller, Uwe Naumann [Hrsg.]: Rowohlt's monographs ). 31st edition. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-499-50014-0 , p. 159 : "This piece (...) is the last that he was able to complete." - Reinhard Buchwald: Schiller . New, edited edition. 10-14 A thousand copies. tape 2 . Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1956, DNB  450671178 , p. 440 : "The Tell was the last play that Schiller was allowed to complete." - Otto Mann: Geschichte des Deutschen Dramas (=  Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 296 ). 2nd Edition. Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1963, DNB  453202969 , p. 299 : "(...) his next and last completed dramatic work, Tell , (...)" - Martin Neubauer: Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell. Lektüreschlüssel for students (=  Universal Library . No. 15337 ). Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-015337-9 , pp. 6 : "(...) Wilhelm Tell is not only his last completed drama, but together with the first part of Goethe's Faust also the most popular of German classical music." - Peter-André Alt: Schiller. Life - work - time . tape 2 . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46225-1 , p. 586 : “In November 1804 (...) composed (he) the festival The Homage to the Arts . It is the last independent job that he can finish. "
2. ^ Friedrich Schiller: Tell. Acting In: Ders., Works and Letters , Volume 5: Dramen IV , Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp. 385–505 (Commentary: pp. 735–850), ISBN 3-618-61250-8
3. ↑ To honor the hat means to immediately recognize the House of Habsburg as sovereign; it is not an imperial attribute, because the Swiss saw themselves as directly imperial.
4. ↑ With this name Schiller erected a small memorial to the Swiss historian Johannes von Müller , to whom he owes many details.
5. ↑ 200 years of Wilhelm Tell - start of rehearsals on the Rütli ( PDF , 71.9 kB )
6. ↑ Georg Ruppelt : Hitler against Tell ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.