But there are even stones that tells us a lie...
I was driving on the Swiss Highway 2 towards Luzern to see a Norwegian friend in Luzern. Since it was still early afternoon, and we had arranged to meet in the evening, I left the highway at Sempach a few miles ahead of Luzern for a lunch.
Sempach has its charme, and I parked next to one of the two impressing main gateways. Coloured, with a narrow passage now only suitable for pedestrians. I walked along the short main street, passing by some old builings - even one build in and upon another - until I reached the second gateway with its watchtower on top. There I found what I was looking for - a place to eat. At a small square in front of the gateway was the Stattkeller.
I found a table outside in the shadow, close to a huge column with a lion on its top. After having ordered a meal, I looked at the column. It was raised 1886 in honour of some Arnold von Winkelried who then lived five hundred years ago. This made me thinking about Scandinavians. For the most of us, Switzerland is just a "place" we are driving through - or passing above - on our way to sunny Italy. That is why we are more common with the nature - and the tunnels, than with its history and the charming villages around. Some are familiar with names as Wilhelm Tell and Calvin, and have made acquaintance of Swiss chocolade and the Pope's Swiss guard.
Curious as I am, I made contact with a family of three at a neighbouring table. I wished them "Gute Appetit" and asked if they might tell me why this Winkelried had been honoured with such a huge memorial?
All three looked at me, astonished? Even the little girl remained with her mouth open after having tried to decide what was her favourite dessert. The grown-ups looked surprised at eachother and I realized how silly it was, not to ask them if they spoke German... in fact Switzerland has three different languages. And who could they be having lunch out in Sempach, if not turists as my self? But - it soon turned out that they knew German. Very well, indeed. It was their mother tongue, at least the swiss kind of German. And they lived three blocks away. Their house was integrated in the old wall that once surrounded Sempach. They gave me quite a lesson...
Their young daughter of eight or nine informed me of my complete ignorance by not knowing the life and dead of Arnold von Winkelried. To her, he was as familiar as Donald Duck, but more precious. The name of Arnold became immortal here at Sempach - except for some ignorant stranger...
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| Memorial of Winkelried |
The very Arnold von Winkelried did not come to Sempach as a turist. He had joined the Swiss army, before anything was called Swiss or Switzerland. At the time of Winkelried this "army" consisted of a bunch of more or less volunteers being summoned to defend the four cantons south of the Vierwaldstättersee. These cantons had proclaimed their independence at the end of the 13th Century. In 1386 six more cantons had joined the four independent Waldstätter. The Austrians did not support this push from Swiss cantons towards liberty. A tendency that would keep the income from customs and other cunning taxes from travellers through the Swiss valleys within the cantons, and then threaten Austrian expectations and economy.
If the cantonal wishes for freedom had generated some sympathy, it ended abrupt when residents from Luzern destroyed the Austrian custom office at Rothenburg outside their town. The cantons had to be punished, and Duke Leopold III of Austria was appointed to execute the retaliation and reopen the economic income to the Austrian castles. The Duke put together an expeditionary army of knights and mercenary troops in 1386 to punish both the people of Luzern and to crush the tendency of secessions.
The independent cantons were commited by oath to mutual support if threatened, intimidated or being attacked. This treaty sent Arnold von Winkelried and other assosiates to the fields of Sempach. Farmers, carpenters, fishermen - they all found whatever they might call a weapon and walked away to fight the Austrians.
The Duke's army happened to confront the confederate peasants from the Waldstätter at the hills outside Sempach on the 9th of July 1386. The local band had hoped for a cavalry attack on the fields full of treacherous rabbit holes which would make the horses stumble and their horsemen thrown to the ground and easy to kill. The Duke, however, realized that the terrain did not seem suitable for a cavalry attack, and let his knights dismount their horses. The knights - consisting of Austrian noblemen - saw that the confederates from the Swiss valleys were much outnumbered compared to themselves. As a result, they did not want the mercenary troops in front, fearing they would miss the honour of winning the battle. They formed themselves a wide front with their pikes and lances pointing against the attacking confederates. The locals had few and too short weapons to force the iron ring of armour and pikes. Their arrows and spears bounced off the armoured knights without doing any harm. The rank of armour and pikes tightened in and threatened to surround them.
The first four Eidsgenossen had been able to defend themselves in narrow valleys with rivers, but their new collegues lived in open spaces like the one at Sempach. The old tactics did not work out in the open. Their situation seemed so bad that the Duke calculated on an easy and devastating victory. Then he ordered the knights to surround the peasants. The confederates confronted total slaughter or to escape. Both options would have as a result that their newborn independence was lost.
Then the confederates heared the voice of Arnold von Winkelried crying out something like "Take care of my wife and my children, dear friends, and I'll make a passage for you". According to my young informer at the neighbouring table.
Arnold von Winkelried threw himself onto the pikes, making a breach in the armoured "wall", by bringing down pikes and lances with his body. Before the Austrians managed to free the long pikes from his dying body, the confederates attacked through the opening.
Heavy armour and the long pikes made it difficult for the Austrians to turn around. They also formed a line so close to each other that this blocked their ability to draw their swords. This made it easy for the local peasants to attack and kill the knights from behind. The austrian certainty of victory turned rapidly into dismay and despair. Duke Leopold sensed the mortal fear among his troops, and set into the battle with his whole staff to encourage the men. But soon he was as dead as Arnold von Winkelried...
Since I did not want this little girl to describe more bloodshed, I thanked her for enlightening me. Her parents let me pay her an extra dessert while I concentrated on my food that was about to get cold. They left, and so did I an hour later. I did not leave Sempach, but went to the area where the battle was fought. A small chapell built in the area are equiped with remains from the battle, and the modern Swiss army do now inaugurate their standards on the premises. Another monument of Arnold von Winkelried also mark the site, and his prayers became real. His family was taken care of, and when someone to-day looses his life while serving in the Swiss army, his family still has support from a foundation having the name of Winkelried.
I left the hills of Sempach and entered the highway with more piety than when I entered Sempach. The small town was no longer just a "lunch-break", but the very symbol of how Switzerland became Switzerland
until I met my friend. He could tell me the doubt of modern scholars. That this heroic sacrifice of Arnold von Winkelried was no more a fact than Wilhelm Tell shooting an apple from his son's head. These stories were made for inflickting proud in the new nation, he said.
I enjoyed the story and the way I learned about it. Therefore I keep to the true reason for creating memorial stones. I do not like the idea that old stones can tell a lie...
Yours Thor Thorstensen
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