Arnold von Winkelried

19th century painting of Winkelried's deed by Konrad Grob.

Arnold von Winkelried or Arnold Winkelried is a legendary hero of Swiss history.

According to 16th century Swiss historiography, Winkelried's sacrifice brought about the victory of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Battle of Sempach (1386) against the army of the Habsburg Duke Leopold III of Austria.

The legend

Further information: Battle of Sempach

According to legend, the Swiss initially could not break the close ranks of the Habsburg pikemen. Winkelried cried: "I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear countrymen and confederates, my wife and children..." He then threw himself upon the Austrian pikes, taking some of them down with his body. This broke up the Austrian front, and made an opening through which the Swiss could attack.

As phrased in the Halbsuterlied printed in the 1530s by Aegidius Tschudi and Wernher Steiner:

Des adels her was veste, ir ordnung dik und breit, Das verdross die frommen gäste, ein Winkelriet der seit wend Irs gniesen lon, min fromme kind und frowen, so will ich ein frevel bston.	The host of the nobles was solid, their order both thick and wide This frustrated the pious host; one Winkelried said: "If you will aliment my pious wife and children, I will do a daring deed."
Trüwen lieben eydgnossen, min leben verlur ich mit, sie hand ir ordnung bschlossen, wir mogänds in brechen nit. ich will ein inbruch han, des wellend ir min geschlechte in ewig geniessen lan:	"True and dear confederates, I shall lose my life doing it. Their battle order is locked tight, we may not breach it But I will make a breach For this may you aliment my family forever."
Hiemit so tett er fassen, ein arm voll spiess behend den sinen macht er ein gassen, sin leben hat ein end. er hat eins lewen mut, sin manlich dapfer sterben, was den vier waldstetten gut.	Saying thus he quickly grasped an armful of pikes, He created an entrance for his own, and his life took an end. He had the courage of a lion, His brave and manly death was a benefit for the four forest-cantons.
Also begunndentz brechen, des adels ordnung bald, mit howen und mit stechen, gott siner seelen walt wo er das nit hett gton, so wurds d eydgnossen han kostet noch mengen bidermann.	And thus they soon began to break up the battle order of the nobles with hewing and with thrusting; may God keep his soul. had he not done this deed it would have cost the confederates many a brave man.

Historicity

The historicity of Winkelried or his deed cannot be substantiated.

The earliest record of the deed is in a 1476 copy of a chronicle written before 1438.^{[citation needed]} The hero in this account is unnamed, identified just as ein getrüwer man under den Eidgenozen (a faithful man among the Eidgenossen ("confederates")). In the chronicle of Diebold Schilling of Berne (c. 1480), in the picture of the battle of Sempach there is a warrior pierced with spears falling to the ground, which may possibly be meant to be Winkelried. In the chronicle of Diebold Schilling of Lucerne (1511), though in the text no allusion is made to any such incident, there is a similar picture of a man who has accomplished Winkelried's feat, though he is dressed in the colours of Lucerne.

The name of Winkelried first appears in the 16th century. The hero is still nameless in De Helvetiae origine by Rudolph Gwalther (1538), but Aegidius Tschudi (1536) has "a man of Unterwalden, of the Winkelried family," this being expanded in the final recension of the chronicle (1564) into "a man of Unterwalden, Arnold von Winckelried by name, a brave knight,". He is entered (in the same book, on the authority of the "Anniversary Book" of Stans, now lost) on the list of those who fell at Sempach at the head of the Nidwalden (or Stans) men as "Herr Arnold von Winckelriet, Ritter," this being in the first draft "Arnold Winckelriet."

Some recensions of the Sempacherlied, which originally dates to about the time of the Burgundian Wars in the 1470s, do mention Winkelried, but these sections are mostly considered additions from the early 16th century, as in the additions by H. Berlinger of Basel to Etterlin's chronicle (made between 1531 and 1545), or the version in Werner Steiner's chronicle (1532). Also from the 16th century is evidence from lists of those who fell at Sempach; the "Anniversary Book" of Emmetten in Unterwalden (drawn up in 1560) has "der Winkelriedt" at the head of the Nidwalden men. A book by Horolanus, a pastor at Lucerne (about 1563), has "Erni Winckelried" some way down the list of Unterwalden men.

It thus appears that the legend may have originated by the 1430s, or at the latest the 1470s, that is within 50 or at the most 90 years of the battle, but the name of "Winkelried" was not associated with the hero before the 1530s or perhaps the 1520s, i.e. the time of the Swiss Reformation, more than 130 years after the battle.

The history of the Winkelrieds of Stans from 1248 to 1534 has been minutely worked out from the original documents by Hermann von Liebenau, in a paper published in 1854 and reprinted at Aarau in 1862, and with much other matter in his book, Arnold von Winkelried, seine Zeit and seine That. According to von Liebenau, they were a knightly family at the time of the earliest documents from about 1250, but towards the end of the 14th century they seem to have been simpler men without the honors of knighthood, and not always using their prefix "von." Among its members we find an Erni Winkelried acting as a witness to a contract of sale on 1 May 1367, while the same man, or perhaps another member of the family, Erni von Winkelried, is plaintiff in a suit at Stans on the 29th of September 1389, and in 1417 is the landamman (or head man) of Unterwalden, being then called Arnold Winkelriet. We have, therefore, a real man named Arnold Winkelried living at Stans about the time of the battle of Sempach, who was, however, apparently alive and well three and even thirty years after the battle.

It is, however, possible that his deed has been historical and he has actually survived the battle. Mail can stand slashes and thrusts fairly well, and a padded gambeson adds protection. If he has, as the tale suggests, grabbed a bunch of lances on his chest and then jumped down, the thrusting power and penetration of the lance heads is reduced significantly and his hauberk and gambeson may have well protected his vital parts. This would create a gap on the phalanx, which then can be employed.

Significance

Similar to William Tell, the figure of Winkelried was an important symbol during the formation of the Swiss federal state, and an icon of Swiss independence during World War II. Napoleon referred to Winkelried as “the Swiss Decius immortalized” at Sempach. The Sempacherlied of ca. 1836, one of the expressions of Swiss patriotism during the period of Restoration, is dedicated to the heroism of Winkelried. The euro-Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges uses his name, among many other known Swiss, as a paradigm of the Swiss spirit in one of his late poems: "Los Conjurados" (The Conspirators), which also gives its name to the book.

There is a philosophy called "Winkelriedism", which name is taken from the hero's name. It is based on an individual giving himself up idealistically and sacrificially to the enemy for the betterment of others. Juliusz Słowacki created this way of thinking in his dramatic poem "Kordian", where the titular character decides to kill the Tsar of Russia to take Poland's suffering on himself, easing a breakthrough to freedom for his nation. Słowacki considered Poland the "Winkelried of Nations", a bitter and fatalistic sentiment.

References

• Lienert, Meinrad. Schweizer Sagen und Heldengeschichten Stuttgart, 1915.
• "Winkelried, Arnold von" in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Borges, Jorge Luis: Los Conjurados (The Conspirators), in Spanish. Alianza Editorial, 1985. ISBN 9788420631592