In 1900 Stans had a population of 2798, all German-speaking and Romanists.
Stans was the home of the Winkelried family (q.v.) and has a modern monument to the memory of Arnold von Winkelried, the legendary hero of the battle of Sempach (1386).
In 1481 the holy Nicholas von der Flue composed at Stans by his advice the strife between the Confederates, while in 1798 many persons were massacred here by the French.
The history of the Winkelrieds of Stans from 1248 to 1534 has been minutely worked out from the original documents by Hermann von Liebenau, in a paper published in 1854, and reprinted at Aarau in 1862, with much other matter, in his book, Arnold von Winkelried, seine Zeit and seine That.
Among its members we find an Erni Winkelried acting as a witness to a contract of sale on the 1st of May 1367, while the same man, or perhaps another member of the family, Erni von Winkelried, is plaintiff in a suit at Stans on the 29th of September 1389, and in 1417 is the landamman (or head man) of Unterwalden, being then called Arnold Winkelriet.
