Wolfram von Eschenbach's Willehalm is one of the most-discussed German poetic texts from the High Middle Ages. To date, researchers have been unable to agree how to read this text - as a plea for the ideology of the Crusades, for tolerance or even for humanity. The present study seeks new answers to these important questions by evaluating the text structures predestined to influence the medieval reader or listener in their experience and judgement - when and for whom does the text evoke their empathy, their compassion or even their sympathy?