Wilhelm Tell is Switzerland's most important legendary figure

National hero

The national hero was already known here in the late middle ages and also modern age. Long before Friedrich Schiller made the figure world famous through his stage play «WILHELM TELL» (first performed 1804 in Weimar).
Tell is first mentioned around 1470 in the so called «White Book of Sarnen». This is the chronicle which Hans Schreiber wrote when he was the Notary of Obwalden. Therefore for more than 500 years he has been an important part of the Swiss Confederate freedom mythology and in the same connection
the supression of the Habsburgers by the bailiffs, the Rütli Oath, Burgenbruch and the fight for liberation.
As a blameless mountain farmer he fought the tyrant bailiff Heinrich Gessler, who he shot in an ambush with his crossbow in the Hohle Gasse in Küssnacht am Rigi.
Through his heroism he became part of the legendary confederate freedom fighters around 1300 which reached its climax at the Battle of Morgarten (1315).
Tell was an old man when he died, rescueing a small child out of a ravenous mountain stream in Schächental located in the county of Uri. Right up to today his name stands for bravery, strong will and determination and since hundreds of years represents the symbol for freedom and independence.