Schiller's Genius

My readers know that Red Baron is a member of Freiburg's Museumsgesellschaft. Once a year, the society organizes the Museumsreise, a three-day excursion. My blog about our trip to southern Burgundy in 2012 still ranks second when counting my blogs' all-time visits.

Thirty members traveled to Interlaken Switzerland this year to attend the local Tellspiele. The play is based on Friedrich Schiller's drama Wilhelm Tell (William Tell), performed outdoors. Schiller, the poet of freedom, wrote the ultimate play about the formation of the Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft (Swiss Confederation) born out of the fight for independence against the Habsburg rule: Wir wollen frei sein, wie die Väter waren (We want to be free as our fathers were).

Wilhelm Tell, initially uninterested in the struggle for freedom, became the symbol of Swiss resistance once Governor Gessler threatened his family's physical integrity by forcing him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow. Tell even assassinated Gessler, thus liberating his countrymen/women from the Habsburg yoke.

In the beginning: Rural idyll.

Forced labor: Building the stronghold for Governor Gessler.

Oath on the Rütli: We want to be a single folk of brothers.

Tell's arrest: He had refused to greet Gessler's hat, which is visible on the pole.
Governor Gessler with a yellow cape on horseback.

On the left: The apple on Walter's head.
On the right: Usher is watching Tell, taking aim
further on the right at a distance of 80 steps.

The French Revolution greatly influenced Schiller's ideas about freedom and even more so the American Declaration of Independence. While in France, the third estate had reckoned with nobility and clergy guillotining them by hundreds, Schiller deliberately, but somewhat artificially, included the clergy in the strive for freedom. In Schiller's idealist view, all Swiss eventually stand united.

Our group was lucky to have an expert in our ranks carving out Schiller's genius as Germany's poet of freedom and as a playwright in a lecture. In fact, in the 19th century, Schiller was more popular than Goethe among Germany's Bildungsbürgern (educated citizens). No wonder that in the 20th century, right and left-wing governments tried to embrace Schiller's genius.

Corrupted in the Third Reich: Schiller as Hitler's comrade in arms.
Not for long. Hitler ordered a ban on William Tell on June 3, 1941,
when he sensed the spectators' reactions to
the tyrannicide during a performance at Vienna's Burgtheater.

Abused in the GDR: He belongs to us: Schiller, the poet of freedom.

Schiller was so famous that many a proverb in today's language is a citation from Schiller's ballads and plays. Here are just a few:

Karl Mohr in Die Räuber (The Robbers) V,2: Dem Mann kann geholfen werden (This man can be helped).

Questenberg in Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini) I,2: Was ist der langen Rede kurzer Sinn? (Is there any sense in this long sermon?)

Wrangel in Wallensteins Tod (Wallenstein's Death) I, 5: Ich hab' hier bloß ein Amt und keine Meinung (Here I merely have a task and no opinion).

Pappenheim in Wallensteins Tod (Wallenstein's Death) III,15: Daran erkenn' ich meine Pappenheimer (By this, I recognize my Pappenheimers [his soldiers]).

Talbot in Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans) III,6: Mit Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens (With stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain).

Most of the most popular quotations are, however, taken from Wilhelm Tell:

Gertrud in I,2: Der kluge Mann baut vor (A wise man plans ahead).

Tell in I,3: Der Starke ist am mächtigsten allein (A strong man is most powerful alone).

Attinghausen in II,1: Ans Vaterland, ans teure, schließ dich an (Attach you to your dear fatherland).

Tell in III,1: Die Axt im Haus erspart den Zimmermann (An ax in the house saves the carpenter).

Tell in IV, 3: Auf diese Bank von Stein will ich mich setzen (I want to sit down on this bench of stone).

Tell in IV, 3: Mach deine Rechnung mit dem Himmel, Vogt (Settle your account with heaven, governor).

Red Baron, in particular, admires Schiller for his work as a historian. Today, students still profit from reading his book, The History of the Thirty Years' War. Schiller's thorough research on this first of Europe's many tragedies enabled him to write his epic drama trilogy, Wallenstein.

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