Wilhelm Tell - play - drama by Friedrich Schiller

A drama by Friedrich Schiller
with surtitles in plain language

The most famous (Swiss) apple in German literature is back, helping to spark a rebellion. In their struggle for control over Switzerland, the Habsburg rulers brutally oppress the local population. To demonstrate his absolute power, the governor Gessler has a hat placed on a pole in the town square - and orders everyone to bow before it as they would before him.

When the title hero Wilhelm Tell refuses to shoot an apple off his own son's head, the governor threatens him with life imprisonment. Tell shoots - and hits the mark. But because he had a second arrow ready in case he needed to kill Gessler in revenge, the machinery of oppression begins to grind.