Arnold von Winkelried

Lore & Background

The earliest record of the deed appears in the Zürcher Chronik of the 1480s, where the hero is unnamed, described only as 'a faithful man among the confederates.' The name Winkelried first appears in the 16th century, in chronicles by Aegidius Tschudi (1536) and others, identifying him as 'a man of Unterwalden, of the Winkelried family.' The legend may have originated by the 1430s or 1470s, but the name was not associated until the 1520s or 1530s, over 130 years after the battle.

According to the legend, the Swiss could not break the close ranks of Habsburg pikemen. Winkelried cried out, 'I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear countrymen and confederates, my wife and children...' He then threw himself onto the Austrian pikes, taking some down with his body, which broke the Austrian front and allowed the Swiss to attack. The Sempacherlied explains that the Austrian nobility fought in the front rank, so breaking that rank killed leaders like Leopold and ended the battle, though the song does not attribute Leopold's death specifically to Winkelried's action.

Historical research by Hermann von Liebenau in 1854 traced the Winkelried family of Stans. One candidate for the historical figure is Erni Winkelried, who witnessed a document on 1 May 1367. He is absent from records in the 1370s, possibly in foreign service, but reappears on 29 September 1389, after the battle. An Arnold Winkelried is attested as landamman of Unterwalden in 1417, suggesting at least two people with the name, perhaps father and son.

Reader's Guide

Arnold von Winkelried became an important symbol during the formation of the Swiss federal state and an icon of Swiss independence during World War II. Napoleon referred to him as 'the Swiss Decius immortalized' at Sempach. The figure is mentioned in works by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature, 1836) and Henry David Thoreau (The Maine Woods, 1864). The Sempacherlied of about 1836, a patriotic song from the Restoration period, is dedicated to his heroism. The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges used his name in the poem 'Los Conjurados' as a paradigm of the Swiss spirit. A philosophy called 'Winkelriedism' emerged, based on an individual sacrificing themselves for the betterment of others; the Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki considered Poland the 'Winkelried of Nations' in his dramatic poem 'Kordian.' The American historian Jack D. Forbes noted that childhood stories of Winkelried helped form his early sense of identity. The historicity of Winkelried remains disputed: 19th-century historiography took it for granted, 20th-century scholars often deconstructed it as legend, but late 20th-century scholarship again considers it plausible, though no positive proof exists.

Did You Know?

• The earliest record of the deed, in the Zürcher Chronik of the 1480s, does not name the hero, calling him only 'a faithful man among the confederates.'
• The name Winkelried first appears in the 16th century, over 130 years after the Battle of Sempach.
• A pierced mail shirt identified as Winkelried's was preserved in Stans in the early 19th century.
• A folk tradition says Winkelried was found alive after the battle and died of his wounds on a boat on Lake Sempach.