Die Bürgschaft
Die Bürgschaft (The Pledge) is a ballad by Friedrich Schiller. He wrote it in 1798 and published it in 1799. The story comes from the old Damon and Pythias legend and shows strong ideas about loyalty and true friendship. The action takes place in ancient Syracuse.
Plot in simple terms: Damon tries to kill the cruel tyrant Dionysius but is caught and sentenced to death. He asks for three days to marry his sister to the man she loves. Dionysius agrees, but Damon must have his friend stay behind as surety that Damon will return. If Damon does not come back, the friend would be punished; Damon would go free. On the long journey back, Damon faces floods, bandits, heat, and thirst. At the last moment he returns to save his friend. The tyrant is ashamed by this act and learns to value loyalty, asking to be considered a friend among them.
Schiller wrote Die Bürgschaft in the summer of 1798, at the same time as another poem, and published both in 1799. In 1804 he revised the ballad and changed the main character’s name from Moerus to Damon.
An English translation appeared by 1842 in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. In the 1930s Bertolt Brecht wrote a verse commentary on the poem, praising the idea of a time when contracts had strong moral force; this was set to music by Hanns Eisler. In 1940 the Japanese writer Osamu Dazai published the short story Run, Melos! inspired by Schiller’s work. The piece is widely taught in Japanese schools.
Franz Schubert set Die Bürgschaft to music twice: a 1815 song for voice and piano (D 246) and an unfinished 1816 opera (D 435). There is also a later narrator-and-piano setting by Gustav von Gizicky in 1883. Die Bürgschaft remains a well-known classic in German literature.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:17 (CET).