I'm writing about Winnetou....!

I’m delighted and excited to have been asked to write the Foreword to “Reiten Wir!” —  an anthology of new short stories based on Karl May characters to be published in October as part of events and initiatives this year marking May’s 175th birthday.

Gojko Mitic as Winnetou

Proceeds and royalties will go to support the Karl May Museum in Radebeul, Germany.

Karl May theme beer at the Karl May festival in Radebeul, some years back

My first exposure to the Imaginary Wild West in Europe (and Karl May) dates back to 1966, when my family spent the summer in Prague -- my father was leading an archaeological dig in the village of Bylany, near Kutna Hora, east of Prague.

In preparation for writing my Foreword, I dug out the diary I kept that summer -- and where I noted the Czech fascination with Winnetou and the Wild West.

"Cowboys 7 Indians are BIG. Esp. the W. German (I think) movies Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. In almost every store window you see color postcards &/or slides with scenes from the films being sold [;] I have seen Winnetou candy bars, books, a poster in a record store for the Winnetou music etc. W. is apparently the solemn-faced 'Indian' (typically clthed) who looks like either Sal Mineo or Paul Newman (or both). Shirts, brown with fake buckskin fringe & laced neck are advertised as ARIZONA, & next to them re TEXAS blue jeans....[...] More Winnetou junk: iron on patches, special blue jeans, new cards, packs of cards of the actor who plays Winnetou. Magazine cover..."

Karl May and Indian stuff, on display in Germany

Later in the summer, I watched Winnetou, the movie, on television.

"It was a pretty bad movie but interesting for a couple things. The cast was international. Herbert Lom was the baddie & Lex Barker Old Shatterhand. These two are US I think. Pierre Brice (French) was Winnetou. Then there were British & others. I think it was filmed in Yugoslavia. I don't know in what language -- it was dubbed in Czech. This was the first time [in a movie] I ever hear an Indian (Winnetou) who didn't have a deep voice. He was high & thin & nasal. Also, the Indians were goodies."

Our family went to a live performance of the operetta "Rose Marie" (of "Indian Love Call" fame), set in the Canadian west. It starred the pop singer Waldemar Matuska who, I wrote "is a big star here. His pictures are in the shop windows and magazines & record stores almost as much as Winnetou."

I decided that Matuska would be my favorite singer and bought a picture postcard of him (which I still have) to go with the ones I bought of the French actor, Pierre Brice, who played Winnetou in the movies.

Many years later, when I first started seriously researching the Imaginary Wild West and the European country music scene, I met Matuska, who was headlining of the first Czech country festivals I attended (in around 2004).

Matuska, who had moved to the United States in the 1980s, died in 2009.

I wrote at the time on this blog:

Matuska was a towering figure in Czech popular music and culture and was instrumental in popularizing American folk and country music to the Czech audience. (Singing, as was required under communism, Czech lyrics to American songs.) He also appeared in the seminal 1964 movie "Limonady Joe" -- a wonderful send-up of the singing cowboy genre of movies and a classic of Czech cinema.

Matuska was important to me in my connection with Eastern Europe, and in my feel for the music and popular culture of the Czech Republic in particular. He became my idol when, as a kid, I spent the summer in Prague with my family in the 1960s. I bought picture postcards of him -- he was lean, bearded and extremely handsome. And I convinced my entire family to go hear him at a rather weird performance of "Rosemarie" at a sort of indoor sports arena...Matuska played the role of the mountie that was taken by Nelson Eddy in the classic movie. I remember that it was a rather static performance, as they all seemed to sing to the microphones that were hanging prominently above the stage...

When I actually met Matuska decades later, at the Strakonice Jamboree folk and bluegrass festival in the Czech Republic in 2004, it was a remarkably emotional experience. I had just begun following the European country scene, and Strakonice was my first Czech festival. And there he was -- the idol of my youth!

Matuska -- who had "defected" to the United States in 1986 but, after the fall of communism, returned frequently to CZ to tour -- was the headline act. Heavier, even bloated-looking, with clearly dyed hair, he didn't look much like the slim, handsome singer/actor of the 1960s, but he had the audience in the palm of his hand.

I went backstage and spent 20 minutes or so talking with him. I felt shy and fluttery! What I remember are his hands -- very small and delicate, with polished nails and an almost dainty ring.

Death of Herbert Lom - Karl May movie villain

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I read a lot of obituaries yesterday of the Czech-born actor Herbert Lom, who has died at the age of 95. Almost none of the obits I saw in the English and American media mentioned the fact that Lom -- famed as the hapless  Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films and known for many other roles -- had a starring role as the villain in the first Karl May film, Der Schatz im Silbersee, or The Treasure of Silver Lake.

In that movie, released in 1962, Lom played the evil Cornel Brinkley -- who murdered for a treasure map and led a band of outlaws against Winnetou and Old Shatterhand....the role enshrined Lom in the canon of Karl May movie villains.

Here's the trailer for the film:

Karl May -- 60th Anniversary of the Karl May Movies!

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This year does not only mark the 100th anniversary of Karl May's death -- it also marks the 50th anniversary of the first Karl May movies, starring Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand.

The first movie in the series was Der Schatz im Silbersee -- The Treasure of Silver Lake -- which came out in 1962. It was shot on various locations in Croatia and starred Herbert Lom as the villainous Cornell Brinkley as well as Brice and Barker.

Here's the trailer in English:

Various events are taking place to celebrate the half-century and there is a web site devoted to the anniversary. Events include a Golden Jubilee celebration in Croatia June 5-9, with Pierre Brice in attendance.

Happy Karl May Year!

Poster for one of the exhibits

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Happy Karl May Year! The German adventure writer who gave us Winnetou and Old Shatterhand was born 1842 and in died in 1912 and many events are scheduled to mark the 170th and 100th anniversaries.


A web site has been set up to keep track of events and news. There is a long series of exhibits, festivals, symposia, conferences, lectures and other events programmed throughout the year, mainly in Germany but also in other countries. Some of the exhibits kicked off already in later 2011.

With any luck, I'll be able to get to some of these and report here.

Germany -- Karl May Festival anniversaries

By Ruth Ellen Gruber


This year, two of the biggest Karl May festivals in Germany are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

The Karl May Festtage in Radebeul -- the town outside of Dresden where May lived, and where there has been a Karl May Museum since the 1920s -- marks its 20th anniversary with this year's edition, June 3-5.

Special feature will be the participation of Pierre Brice -- the French actor who won fame (and stole the hearts of girls all over Europe) by playing Winnetou in the German-made movies in the 1960s. I myself was one of these girls -- I saw my first Winnetou movie ("Old Shatterhand") in Prague in 1966, and I still have the pictures of Brice I bought or cut out of Czech magazines at the time.

In addition, the Karl May Spiele in Bad Segeberg, north of Hamburg -- the biggest and oldest Karl May Festival -- is celebrating its 60th anniversary this season! The festival runs from June 25-Sept. 4 and will feature a performance of "The Oil Prince" -- based on Karl May's classic book -- on its outdoor stage. Erol Sander stars as Winnetou, and Joshy Peters as Old Shatterhand (I saw Peters in this role in 2003).

Next year -- 2012 -- marks the 100th anniversary of Karl May's death, and many events are being planned.

Celebrations and Events for big Karl May anniversaries coming up!

Poster for upcoming Karl May exhibit

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Next year, 2012, marks 100 years since the death -- and 170 years since the birth -- of Karl May, the German hack writer who created the most popular and enduring Wild West heroes in Europe: the Apache chief Winnetou and his German immigrant adventurer sidekick Charlie, AKA Old Shatterhand.

Plans are already afoot for a wide range of programs, exhibits, symposia, events and activities -- and a web site has been set up: http://www.karl-may-2012.de/

More details as they emerge.

Slovakia -- Silver Lake Ranch -- a Dude Ranch and Rodeo Arena near Bratislava

 Photo: Ranc na Striebornom jazere web site

Take a look at "Silver Lake Ranch" -- or Ranč na Striebornom jazere -- a dude ranch and rodeo area near Galanta, in southeast Slovakia.

The web site is in Slovak, but you can get an idea of what's what by looking at the pictures. The ranch offers guest accommodations, rodeos and other horse-riding competitions, "horse therapy" and other activities.

The name, "Silver Lake," harks back to one of the bestknown Winnetou tales by Karl May, the Treasure of Silver Lake (Der Schatz im Silversee). This was the title of the first Winnetou film starring Pierre Brice, Lex Barker and Herbert Lom, release in 1962.

Here's the original German trailer:

 And here's the English trailer:

"Silver Lake City" was the name of a short-lived wild west town near Templin, north of Berlin, Germany (which currently operates as Eldorado).

Germany -- Karl May Fest in Bad Segeberg has hugely successful season

 Erol Sander meets fans. Photo: www.karl-may-spiele.de  

The summer Karl May festival season is ending, and the biggest and oldest KM Festival, in Bad Segeberg in northern Germany, reports that it had its third most successful season ever --  307,787 visitors came to see its open air production of "Halbblut" starring Erol Sander  as the Apache chief Winnetou, Eva Habermann  as Kitty LaBelle and Ingo Naujoks as Charles Leveret.

The season, as always, ran from late June into early September. The number of spectators was a bit lower than the record set last year, when The Treasure of Silver Lake drew 320,339 people. It was the first time in the nearly 60-year history of the festival that the audience has topped 300,000 two years in a row. (The person who bought the 300,000th ticket sold this year received a prize of €3,000.)

Next year the Bad Segeberg festival will celebrate its 60th year jubilee, premiering a production of The Oil Prince on June 25.

Bad Segeberg is the most venerable of about a dozen summer festivals in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in central Europe that feature open-air productions of plays based on the stories and characters of Karl May, the German adventure writer who created the most enduring Wild West characters in Europe. May died in 1912 and never visited the American west -- on his one trip to the USA, in 1908,  the furthest west he got was Niagara Falls.

Emilio Salgari -- the Italian Karl May

 Books displayed at the Karl May Festival in Radebeul, Germany, May 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I had dinner the other night with an Italian friend who worked in film for many years. He recounted his love of westerns and the fascination with the Wild West he had had since childhood. I asked him how he had first become interested in the West, how it had captured his imagination. The answer? The stories by Emilio Salgari -- a 19th century Italian adventure writer who can be called the Italian Karl May.

Salgari, who was born in 1862 in Verona and committed suicide in Turin in 1911, was, in fact, an almost exact contemporary of May, the German writer who created the iconic Western heroes Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. And, like May, Salgari wrote adventure stories set in the Middle East and elsewhere as well as Western tales. (He is, in fact, bestknown for creating the character Sandokan, a Bornean prince turned pirate: the Sandokan tales were turned into many movies and an inconic television series.)

Also like May, Salgari rarely traveled -- he created his swashbuckling, incredibly detailed and wildly popular worlds from his imagination, based on books, encyclopedias and other reading. Karl May never visited the American West -- his one trip to the U.S. came in 1908, four years before he died and decades after he had created Winnetou, and he never went further west than Niagara Falls.

Salgari, it seems, never ventured further than the Adriatic Sea.

There has been considerable study on Karl May -- in English as well as German. But Sagari, and particularly his western stories, remain largely unknown in the English-speaking world. As do the dozens of other European authors who produced hundreds -- thousands? -- of westerns in the 19th and early 20th century.

The Brigham Young University scholar Richared H. Cracroft  writes in detail about these writers in his chapter "World Westerns: The European Writer and the American West" in the huge volume A Literary History of the American West, sponsored by the Western Literature Association and published by Texas Christian University Press in 1987.

Cracroft writes:

From the steppes of Russia and the cities of Poland and Italy to the villages of the Spanish plains, the zest for literature of the American West continued through much of the nineteenth century. This fervor, centered primarily in Germany, spilled over the borders of German lands into every nation of Europe. In every case, the western works of popular German writers, including those already considered, and others not considered (such as the fifty-nine western adventures of Wilhelm Frey, or Fricks), thrilled Europeans from Holland to Greece. Nineteenth-century Norwegians, for example, elevated Frey and Möllhausen to top position among their nation’s most popular writers and read the translations of English Western author Mayne Reid as well. And in the twentieth century Karl May continues a best seller in many European nations.
 

Such German success stimulated writers throughout Europe to turn their pens to western subjects. Emilio Salgari, in Italy, and Ferenc Belányi, in Hungary, joined France’s Gustave Aimard and England’s Mayne Reid in producing hundreds of sensational western adventures.

Germany --The AP runs a story on the German Imaginary Wild West

The Associated Press runs a story about the Imaginary Wild West in Germany. It covers, of course, all the ground I've been covering in this blog and various articles over the years. It focuses more specifically on the connection with Texas,

"The picture of Texas as a Wild West country with cowboys is very strong in Germany," says Claudia Baierl, who has been contracted by the Governor's Economic Development and Tourism division in Austin to help promote the state in Germany.

In recent years, Texas tourism officials have increased advertising in German news media and on the Internet.

"There's a lot of interest in us right now," says Julie Chase, chief marketing officer for the state's Economic Development and Tourism division, noting that Germany is the fifth-largest source of international visitors to Texas. Some 77,000 visited the state last year, the most since 2003.

The article mentions Old Texas Town, the nearly 60-year-old cowboy club in Berlin, which I visited at the end of 2007.

At that time, "Ben Destry" (real name Fritz Walter) -- one of the original founders of the club -- was its "Mayor."

"Ben Destry" at the Saloon in Old Texas Town, December 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

"Destry" was a courtly man in his 80s, who spoke almost no English, but loved the American West and Texas -- he dressed up in both Union and Confederate Civil War costume -- and was particularly fascinated by the Alamo. There is monument to those who died at the Alamo in the Old Texas Town grounds.

Ben's  death earlier this year closed a long, intense personal chapter of Germany's Imaginary Wild West. But O.T.T. itself seems to have overcome some of the financial and other problems that threatened to close it, and the town, at least through this year, remained open to the pubic the usual first Saturday of each month. (It is closed in January ad February).

It's Karl May Festival Season on European Summer Stages

Karl May Festival, Elspe, Germany, 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Just a reminder that it's Karl May Festival season on a dozen open-air stages around central Europe....Here, in a sort of summer ritual similar to the pantomine shows at Christmas in England, stage presentations take place based on the adventure tales -- most of them set in the Wild West -- by Karl May, the German popular author who died in 1912.

May created the iconic Wild West heroes Winnetou and Old Shatterhand (I've posted a number of items on the blog about them.)

I've sampled a number of these festivals -- and I have to say they are fun. Recorded theme music from the popular Winnetou movies of the 1960s plays each time Winnetou or Old Shatterhand makes an appearance, and parents (who attended these festivals as children) teach their own kids how to boo at the villains. Some of the festivals also include little Wild West towns as part of the complex. The festival in Elspe, Germany (which I attended 2 years ago) even has its own special festival grounds. Last year in Berlin, the anthropologist/folklorist Dana Weber -- who is doing her PhD on Karl May Festivals -- introduced me to Prof. Markus Kreis, who has studied the phenomenon, and who showed us his photos of the Elspe Festival from the 1980s. They looked remarkably like my photos from 20 years later!

Stuff on sale at Elspe. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

As I wrote in an article a few years ago, the biggest and oldest of the festivals is the Karl May Spiele at Bad Segeberg, in northern Germany north of Hamburg and provides a model for the others.

Founded in 1952, the Bad Segeberg festival attracts more than 250,000 people a year to elaborate, highly professional productions presented on a striking open-air stage that incorporates a steep wooded crag as a backdrop.

The Bad Segeberg productions often feature popular German performers or actors famed for their roles in the Karl May movies of the 1960s or other European-made Western films. Its adjoining "Western city" features a Native American museum and a bookshop stocked with material on the Far West.

Read Full Article

This year its show is Der Schatz im Silbersee, an all-time favorite that also featured in 1962 as the first Winnetou Movie, starring the French actor Pierre Brice as Winnetou and the American ex-Tarzan Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand.

Karl May Magazine Jubilee

I need a way to clone myself....Because of other commitments, I had to miss three festivals I would have loved to have attended this weekend -- this year's annual Karl May Fest in Radebeul, Germany, the European World of Bluegrass, in Holland, and the Acoustic Music Festival in Sarzana, Italy (this year dedicated to Woody Guthrie.) Oh yes, the International Country Music Festival at Belmont University, where I spoke last year, also takes place this weekend, and I'm not there either.

I had a great time at the Karl May Fest last year, and also in 2005, and I wrote about it on this blog. As part of this year's festivities, the magazine Karl May & Co, which is dedicated to all things Karl May, celebrated its 25th anniversary. Congratulations! Click HERE to see my other blog posts and photos on the Magazine, the Festival and other Karl May related info.

Next weekend I'm going to miss even more festivals -- the annual Trucker and Country Festival in Geiselwind, Germany and the Jamboree folk and bluegrass festival at Strakonice, CZ.

There's just too much!

Italian Cowboys

I had hoped to be able to report today on the Rodeo held this weekend at the Cowboyland-Cowboys' Guest Ranch, a Wild West theme park in northern Italy, outside the town of Voghera.



Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the weekend extravaganza due to other commitments (and also the fact that I did not feel like driving for four hours in bad weather).

I am eager to visit the Ranch, though, and am hoping to set up a visit in advance so that I meet with the management and get a feel for the place -- I have already spent time at Wild West theme parks in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. They all are very similar -- but quite different at the same time. And in Italy, I wonder, will there be any mention at all of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand -- the western heroes created by the German writer Karl May that are universally known in Germany and other central European countries?

There are several other Rodeos scheduled for this summer and fall at Cowboyland, plus other events.

For Italian readers, here's what the park's homepage has to say:

Welcome to Cowboyland, l’unico parco a tema western in Italia. Siete pronti per scoprire il vecchio selvaggio west ?
Cowboyland è un luogo ideale per la famiglia dove trascorrere un intero giorno tra le divertenti attività dedicate soprattutto ai più piccoli.

Cowboys e Indiani saranno in vostra compagnia per una serena gita all’aria aperta a contatto con la natura.Una straordinaria occasione per conoscere da vicino anche molti animali che popolano le praterie e i ranch degli Stati Uniti d’America.

Il parco si sviluppa su un’area di 30.000 mq., ma orientarsi non è mai un problema. Strutturato in modo semplice per agevolare i piccoli ospiti, comprende una sola strada principale di collegamento fra tutte le attrazioni e costruzioni realizzate con materiali naturali. Numerose le zone picnic dove poter consumare uno spuntino o più semplicemente riposarsi all’ombra.
“Cowboyland” ha studiato e sviluppato una serie di attrazioni nel più caratteristico “stile western” pensando al divertimento dei bambini senza, ovviamente, trascurare tutta la sicurezza necessaria.

Molti dei bambini che ospitiamo non hanno mai visto una mucca, un asinello o un tacchino ! A “Cowboyland” potranno finalmente vedere da vicino moltissimi animali, comprese diverse specie che vivono oltre oceano e contemporaneamente imparare come e dove vivono. Inoltre, assistiti dallo staff e con l’aiuto di una serie di cartelli descrittivi, scopriranno vita e tradizioni degli indiani ed i cowboys unitamente alle leggende del vecchio, selvaggio west.

Tutti in sella…inizia l’avventura !

Karl May -- Indonesian Links

Dana Weber, who is doing her PhD on Karl May festivals, has come across Karl May web sites in Indonesia....It's not Europe, but it is the imaginary wild west. I wonder how this German version of American translates into Asia...

Check out tokowinnetou.com and indokarlmay. com

Canada's imagineNATIVE's CULTURE SHOCK program at Berlin Film Festival

The Canadian indigenous film and media arts project ImagineNATIVE's CULTURE SHOCK PROGRAM will have its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2009.

Contemporary Canadian Aboriginal artists Bonnie Devine (Ojibway), Keesic Douglas (Ojibway), Darryl Nepinak (Saulteaux) and Bear Witness (Cayuga) respond to the image of native people as portrayed in the 1960s Karl May films in West Germany (featuring the French actor Pierre Brice as May's Apache hero Winnetou) and the "Indianer Films" in communist-era East Germany (often starring the Yugoslav-born actor Gojko Mitic -- who went on to play Winnetou in stage productions after German reunification).

States the press release:

For the program, four artists were selected to respond to two films from West and East German film collections, provided by the Goethe-Institut Toronto. The films represented classic German cinematic interpretations of Indigenous North Americans from the 1960s, such as the infamous Winnetou films based on Karl May's novels popular in West German cinema and the so-called "Red Westerns" created by East Germany's legendary DEFA studios. The artists created four new video works in response to the two films that had their world premiere at imagineNATIVE in October 2008. The Culture Shock program was accompanied by a publication provided by V tape with essays by curator Steven Loft and guest writer Stephen S. Foster.


Pierre Brice and Lex Barker in Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi (Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi)


imagineNATIVE's Artistic Director Danis Goulet stated: "The presentation of Culture Shock will be a landmark showing of Canadian Indigenous-made works at the Berlin International Film Festival and represents a breakthrough year. It is a significant accomplishment for the artists and curator of the program to have their incredible works presented in such a renowned and international forum."

For the full press release and links, click HERE


Gojko Mitic in Die Söhne der großen Bärin (The Sons of the Great Bear)

I saw Gojko Mitic perform as Winnetou several years ago at the annual Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg, Germany (founded nearly 60 years ago). And I actually met him this year at the Karl May Festival in Radebeul -- he was a guest of honor, dressed, this time, as a cowboy. (At some point, I'll post the interview I did with him.)

Below, here I am with Gojko and with Dana Weber, who is doing her PhD on Karl May festivals.

New Edition of Karl May & Co. Magazine

Karl May Festival, Radebeul, May 2008. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber

The latest edition of the Karl May & Co. magazine arrived today. The magazine, which comes out four times a year, is a beautifully produced compendium of everything related to the world of Karl May, the German author who died in 1912 and created the most enduring of Europe's Wild West heroes -- the Apache chief Winnetou and his "blood brother", "Old Shatterhand," a young German immigrant/adventurer. Each issue is full of articles on all aspects of May's life, work and legacy -- the festivals that take place each year, the movies, the distinctive sound tracks, the actors, the landscapes, the cartoons and other spin-offs, the scholarly works....

Much has been written, in print and on line, about Karl May and his key role in helping shape the imaginary wild west among millions of Europeans over more than a century.

I have posted a number of entries and photographs related to May, his work and his legacy on this blog -- search in the labels, or click HERE to see the list. (You may view some of my published articles by clicking here or here or here.)

Karl May & Co. is celebrating 25 years of publication with a festival weekend next May; gala dinner, VIP guests, the works. Its editors are lively young people, and I enjoy spending time with them when we meet at festivals. I was happy to provide photographs for one of this year's issues -- pictures of Gojko Mitic, a legendary, Yugoslav-born actor who played Winnetou in German stage productions after making a career as a Native American in communist-era East German "Indianer" (or "red western") films.

Other Karl May-related anniversaries are also taking place. This year, for example, marks the 80th anniversary of the Karl May Museum, located in May's former home, the "Villa Shatterhand", in Radebeul near Dresden (scene of the annual Karl May Festival). It is also, I learned from the magazine, the 90th anniversary of the publication of the first "Karl May Jahrbuch," or yearbook.

This edition of the magazine provides information on a number of upcoming cultural events relating to the imaginary wild west. These include a big exhibition, "Sitting Bull und Seine Welt," to be held at the Ubersee Museum in Bremen, Germany, Dec. 13- May 3.

Each summer there are at least a dozen open-air Karl May theater festivals around Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic... the new edition of the magazine lists the dates for the 2009 season-- and the online version of the magazine provides links to many of them. Click HERE.

Pictures from Karl May Fest Radebeul

I've posted some pictures from the Karl May Fest in Radebeul as a facebook album -- you can see them by clicking HERE.

Radebeul Karl May Fest as Wild Western Space

The Karl May Fest in Radebeul is one of the most complex of the country music/western-style festivals I've been to. Spatially, too, it literally covers the most ground. Banners mark the main entrances to the park where it takes place, and then the park itself is divided into several separate but connected areas.

There's "Little Tombstone" (pronounced "Tumstun"), a wild west town in a large, enclosed area. Lining the perimeter are shops, stalls, booths where acting troups perform skits and wild west plays, almost tableaux. There are two stage areas - one a real stage where country artists perform; the other is another, fenced enclosure opposite where, this year, actors played scenes from the Karl May show that is being performed this spring and summer at the open air theater in Rathen, not far from Dresden on the Elbe.

At the Hoher Stein, an old quarry, there is an area where the Native American performances and activities take place. This year, as every year, the sheer wall of the quarry, a flat cliff, was painted with a huge mural highlighting Native American symbolism.

There there is the encampment of the local Civil War (Confederate) Reenactor club -- a sea of tents.

Other, smaller, enclosures set off a sort of trapper-tavern area, an "oriental" section devoted to Karl May's tales set in the middle east, a food and vendors area, an area rather distant, where horses and riders hang out. In addition, vendors line the main road through the park.

All of it is, to some extent, pulled together by the figure of Karl May and the many, even tangential themes, in his books.

More later.

Karl May Fest in Radebeul Opens

So here I am at the Karl May Festival in Radebeul. Germany -- near Dresden, the little town where Karl May lived out the last part of his adventursome life.

May, who died in 1912, was a German popular writer who created Europe's most enduring western heroes -- the Apache chief Winnetou and his German adventurer sidekick Old Shatterhand. The series of stories and novels, published more than 100 years ago, were translated into dozens of languages and spawned movies, TV shows, comics and all sorts of pop culture stuff. May is believed to be the best-selling and most translated German author.

But I don't have to go into Karl May's history here.... there are plenty of web sites and other sources -- even various articles that I myelf have written!

Every year, there are at least a dozen open-air Karl May festivals around Germany and neighboring countries. Most of them are centered on stage presentations of plays based on May's stories and characters. (The biggest is in Bad Segeberg, north of Hamburg -- it draws upwards of 250,000 spectators each year.) I've been to five or six of these festivals in the past few years.

The Festival in Radebeul is somewhat different, in that it doesn't really highlight a stage production (though there are scenes being presented this weekend).

Instead, it focuses on the thematic elements in Karl May stories -- first and foremost his emphasis on Native American lore and legend. Much has been written about the German fascination with the American Indian, and the roots of this, in large part, can be found in the all-pervasiveness of Karl May stories, figures and themes in German (and also central European in general) pop culture. (Again, I don't want to go into this in detail here.)

The Radebeul festival takes place in a big park area outside the town center. There are several thematic areas -- a Native American section in an old quarry; a wild west in general section in a mocked up Wild West town known as Little Tombstone, and a Middle Eastern section, as May also wrote adventure tales set in the Middle East.

I was here three years ago, at the 2005 Festival -- cold, cold, cold, with rain, sleet etc.

At that time, I knew no-one, except for Slow Horses, one of the bands that was playing at the country music festival held during the Festival in Little Tombstone.

This time, I find it remarkable how many friends and acquaintances I have here, from Dana Weber, a graduate student doing her PhD on Karl May festivals, to the editor and staff of the magazine Karl May & Co., to the musicians Roland Heinrich and Pepa Malina, who are playing at Little Tombstone, to the German writer Tom Jeier, one of my heroes in the Western Scene in Germany, whom I last saw last year at the Geiselwind Trucker Festival.

Tom writes western novels and travel books about the US, he writes about country music, and in fact sort of helped shape the trucker scene with his columns in Trucker magazine and his German book about country music.



The Festival opened formally Friday afternoon, with a ceremony at the Karl May Museum. The American Consul from Leipzig gave opening remarks, as did the Museum Director and the Mayor.

(The picture shows Museum Director Rene Wagner, in western dude attire....)

Then, Indians from Canada and the US performed dances. Some of them live in Germany -- they include former US soldiers who married German women and then stayed on... the most famous of these in Nicky "Buffalo Child" who is a legend in these circles -- it was my first time to see him, though I have heard about him for years. Since his army discharge in the 1960s, he has made a career on the German Wild West circuit, performing and serving as an attraction in Karl May fests and other events. He is now about 85 -- looks much much younger with smooth, brown skin and a regal air. He is very tall and imposing, dressed in elaborate (scanty) attire....

More later....time to leave the public internet and enter the imaginary wild west...

Karl May Fest, Radebeul

I'm off tomorrow night to the annual Karl May Fest in Radebeul, Germany, near Dresden -- a weekend with multiple Sauerkraut Cowboys and Indian Dreams in one of Germany's paramount Wild Western Spaces.

It's the first time I've been there since the Fest in 2005 -- which was so cold and wet that discomfort is my main memory...

This time I'm meeting friends there -- Dana Weber, who is doing her PhD on Karl May festivals, the German country singer Roland Heinrich, who is performing, and Nicolas Finke, who edits the Karl May & Co magazine.