Karl May

Karl Friedrich May
Born February 25, 1842(1842-02-25)
Ernstthal, later Kingdom of Saxony
Died March 30, 1912(1912-03-30) (aged 70)
Radebeul, German Empire
Occupation Writer; author
Nationality German
Genres Western, Travel Fiction, 'Heimatromane', Adventure Novels
karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/sprachen/englisch/index.htm

Karl Friedrich May (February 25, 1842 – March 30, 1912) was a German writer, noted mainly for books set in the American Old West, (best known for the characters of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand) and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East (with Kara Ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Omar). In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America. May also wrote poetry and a play, as well as composing music; he was proficient with several musical instruments. May's musical version of "Ave Maria" became very well known. Many of his works were filmed, adapted for the stage, processed to radio plays or transcribed into comics.

Contents

Life and career

Karl May's birth house

Karl May was born into a family of poor weavers in Ernstthal, Schönburgische Rezessherrschaften (later part of the Kingdom of Saxony). He was the fifth child out of fourteen, nine of them died within several months. According to his autobiography, he suffered from visual impairment shortly after birth and regained his eyesight after treatment at the age of five. Possibly a lack of vitamin A led to night blindness, which got worse.

During his school time he got private music and composition lessons. 1856 he started his teacher training in Waldenburg, but was excluded 1859, because he embezzled six candles. After a petition he was allowed to continue his education in Plauen. His career as a teacher ended 1861 abruptly after few weeks when he was accused by his roommate of stealing a pocket watch. Therefore he had to be in gaol in Chemnitz for six weeks and his license to teach was revoked permanently.

During the following years he tried to earn a living by giving private education, writing tales, composing and declaiming. But these did not secure his livelihood. As consequence he started thefts and frauds. He was sentenced to four years in a workhouse. From 1865 to 1869 he was in gaol in the workhouse Osterstein Castle (Zwickau). Because of good behaviour he became administrator of the prison’s library and had the chance to read much including travel literature. He planned to become an author and made a list of titles named Repertorium C. May. After his release he failed starting a good existence and continued with thefts and frauds. Compared to the effort the loot was meagre. He got caught, but during judicial investigation, when he was transported to the crime scenes, he freed himself. May fled beyond Saxon boundaries to Bohemia, where he was detained for vagabondage. He was in gaol again in Waldheim from 1870 to 1874. There he met the prison’s catechist Johannes Kochta, who’s influence helped May to find to himself.

After May’s release in May 1874 he went back to his parents in Ernstthal and started writing. The first known publish of a Karl May tale (Die Rose von Ernstthal) was in November 1874. [1] It was a time when the German press was on the move. Industrialisation, increasing literacy and economic freedom lead to many startups of presses (especially in the field of light fiction). Already in the time between his both long imprisonments he had contact to the publisher Heinrich Gotthold Münchmeyer in Dresden. Now he engaged May as editor in his press. For the first time his livelihood was secure. He stewarded several entertainment papers (e. g. Schacht und Hütte) and wrote and edited with or without naming the name numerous articles (e. g. Geographische Predigten, 1875/76). May quitted in 1876, because his employer tried to bond him on his company by marriage with Münchmeyer’s sister-in-law and the firm had a bad reputation. [1] After a second engagement as editor in the press of Bruno Radelli, Dresden, in 1878 he became freelance writer and moved to Dresden together with his girlfriend Emma Pollmer, which he married 1880. But his publications did not result in a regular income yet; there were rent and other arrears.[1]

In 1879 Deutscher Hausschatz, a catholic weekly journal from the press of Friedrich Pustet in Regensburg, published the tale Three carde monte. After some more stories, they made the offer May should present them all of his tales first: In 1880 he started the Orient Cycle, which ran with interruptions until 1888. But at the same time he also wrote for other journals, used pseudonyms and different titles to got multiple payment for his texts. Until his death more than one hundred tales were published in instalments in diverse journals. Another important journal was Der Gute Kamerad of Wilhelm Spemann, Stuttgart, resp. later on Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, which was a magazine for boys in secondary school. There his first tale was published in 1887 (Der Sohn des Bärenjägers) and it printed one of his most famous stories: Der Schatz im Silbersee (1890/91). In 1882 there was new contact with H. G. Münchmeyer and May started the first of five very large colportage novels for his former employer. Das Waldröschen (1882-1884) was many hundred thousandfold reprinted until 1907. But May made just a verbal agreement with his friend Münchmeyer and later on this should become a problem.

Karl May as Old Shatterhand, 1896

In October 1888 May moved to Kötzschenbroda (a part of Radebeul) and 1891 into Villa Agnes in Oberlößnitz (another part of Radebeul). The key breakthrough came in 1891 by contact with Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld, who offered to print the Deutsche Hausschatz-stories as books. With the start of the new book series Carl May’s Gesammelte Reiseromane in 1892 (since 1896 Karl May's Gesammelte Reiseerzählungen) for the first time May experienced financial security and glory. But after a short time he had problems to differ between reality and fiction and went as far as to say he had experienced himself as Old Shatterhand resp. Kara Ben Nemsi what he had written. This was the so called "Old-Shatterhand-Legend". A gunsmith in Kötzschenbroda manufactured the legendary guns of the heroes in his novels for him, first the "Bärentöter" (Bear Killer) and the „Silberbüchse“ (The Silver Gun), later on the "Henrystutzen" (Henry rifle). The readers followed the equalisation of author and protagonist and send numerous letters to him. In the following years he took lecture tours in Germany and Austria, let print autograph cards and let take costume photos. In December 1895 he moved into the Villa Shatterhand in Alt-Radebeul, which he bought from the Ziller Brothers.

1899/1900 May travelled to the Orient. In the first part he was for nearly three-quarter year alone just accompanied by his servant Sejd Hassan and came from Egypt to Sumatra. In 1900 he met his wife and his friends, the couple Klara and Richard Plöhn. Together they continued the journey and got back to Radebeul in July 1900. During the year and a half May wrote a travel diary, which is extent in fragments and transcription parts. According to his second wife Klara (widowed Plöhn, see below) May had two times a nervous breakdown during the journey, which lasted both times over a week. Hans Wollschläger and Ekkehard Bartsch belief that this was due to an irruption of the reality into May’s dream world.[2] He overcame the crisis without medical benefit.

While May was on his Orient journey, attacks in the press set in, especially pursued by Hermann Cardauns and Rudolf Lebius. They criticised – with different motivations – May’s self promotion and the associated Old-Shatterhand-Legend. Simultaneously they reproached him religious sham (he wrote as protestant for the catholic Deutscher Hausschatz and several Marian calendars), immorality and later on his criminal history. These polemics and several trials about unauthorized book publications lasted until his death. His broken matrimony was dissolved 1903 by May’s endeavour. According to May, Emma, who was a friend of adversary Pauline Münchmeyer (widow of H. G. Münchmeyer), embezzled documents, which could had verified the verbal agreement with Münchmeyer. In the same year he married the widow Klara Plöhn.

Since his first employment as editor May added illegally a doctoral degree to his name. 1902 he got an Doctor honoris causa by the Universitas Germana-Americana in Chicago for his work Im Reiche des Silbernen Löwen. Christian Heermann assumes, this happened on endeavour of May or Klara Plöhn to give the false doctoral degree a legal basis.[3] This university was a known diploma mill, where degrees could be bought for money.

In 1908 Karl and Klara May travelled for six weeks to North America. They visited among others Albany, Buffalo, the Niagara Falls and some friends in Lawrence. But he did not reach the Wild West. May used the journey as inspiration for his book Winnetou IV.

Tomb of Karl and Klara May

Since his Orient journey May wrote in another way. He called his former works "preparation" and started then writing complex, allegoric texts. He was convinced to solve or at least to discuss the "question of mankind". He turned deliberately to the pacifism and wrote several books about the raising of humans from "evil" to "good". The friendship to the artist Sascha Schneider lead to new symbolistic covers for the Fehsenfeld edition. An exultant approval May experienced on the March 22, 1912; he was invited by the Academic Society for Literature and Music in Vienna to hold the lecture Empor ins Reich der Edelmenschen (Upward to the realm of noble men). Thereby he met his friend the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bertha von Suttner. Karl May died one week later on March 30, 1912. According to the register of deaths, the cause was "paralyse of the heart, acute bronchitis, asthma". Today an (unrecognised) lung cancer is not excluded. May was buried on the graveyard Radebeul-East. The tomb was inspired by the Temple of Athena Nike Klara had seen on the Orient travel.

About May's works

May used many different pseudonyms, including Capitan Ramon Diaz de la Escosura, M. Gisela, Hobble-Frank, Karl Hohenthal, D. Jam, Prinz Muhamel Lautréamont, Ernst von Linden, P. van der Löwen, and Emma Pollmer (the actual name of his first wife; according to May, she was never aware of the purpose or content of his writing). Nowadays his works are all published under his own name.

Non-dogmatic Christian feelings and values play an important role, and May's heroes are often described as being of German ancestry. In addition, following the Romantic ideal of the "noble savage" and inspired by the writings of writers like James Fenimore Cooper or George Catlin, his Native Americans are usually portrayed as innocent victims of white law-breakers, and many are presented as heroic characters. In his later works, there is a strong element of mysticism. Karl May and his works are deeply rooted in the belief that all mankind should live together peacefully; all of his main characters try to avoid killing anyone, except when necessary to save other lives.

With some exceptions later on, May had not visited the places he described. He compensated successfully for his lack of direct experience with these places by a combination of creativity, imagination, and factual sources including maps, travel accounts and guide books, as well as anthropological and linguistic studies.

Karl May as Kara Ben Nemsi, 1896

For the novels set in America, May created the characters of Winnetou, the wise chief of the Apache Tribe, and Old Shatterhand, the author's alter ego and Winnetou's white blood brother. Another successful series of novels is set in the Ottoman Empire. Here the narrator-protagonist calls himself Kara Ben Nemsi, i.e. Karl, son of Germany, and travels with his local guide and servant Hadschi Halef Omar through the Sahara desert and the Near East, experiencing many exciting adventures. Both series are linked not only by the common narrator, the author himself as either Old Shatterhand or Kara Ben Nemsi, but also by numerous other references and shared minor characters.

May's works were extremely successful, particularly in continental Europe, and have been translated into more than thirty languages including Hebrew, Latin, Volapük, Esperanto and Ido. More than 200 million copies of May's books have been sold worldwide.

For a long time, literary critics tended to regard May's literature as trivial, but recent research has reversed this assessement, at least partially.

Original German Works

Generally there is no reading order, because May himself produced unintentionally chronological inconsistencies. Most of them arose, when he revised earlier texts for the book edition.

Travel stories

In the book series Carl May's Gesammelte Reiseromane, later entiteld Karl May’s Gesammelte Reiseerzählungen, 33 volumes were published from 1892 to 1910 in the press of Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld. The most famous titles are the Orient Cycle (volume 1–6) und the Winnetou-Trilogy (7–9). May integrated many earlier shorter texts.

  1. Durch Wüste und Harem (1892, since 1895 entitled as Durch die Wüste)
  2. Durchs wilde Kurdistan (1892)
  3. Von Bagdad nach Stambul (1892)
  4. In den Schluchten des Balkan (1892)
  5. Durch das Land der Skipetaren (1892)
  6. Der Schut (1892)
  7. Winnetou I (1893, temporarily also entitled as Winnetou der Rote Gentleman I)
  8. Winnetou II (1893, temporarily also entitled as Winnetou der Rote Gentleman II)
  9. Winnetou III (1893, temporarily also entitled as Winnetou der Rote Gentleman III)
10. Orangen und Datteln (1893, an anthology)
11. Am Stillen Ocean (1894, an anthology)
12. Am Rio de la Plata (1894)
13. In den Cordilleren (1894)
14. Old Surehand I (1894)
15. Old Surehand II (1895)
16. Im Lande des Mahdi I (1896)
17. Im Lande des Mahdi II (1896)
18. Im Lande des Mahdi III (1896)
19. Old Surehand III (1897)
20. Satan und Ischariot I (1896)
21. Satan und Ischariot II (1897)
22. Satan und Ischariot III (1897)
23. Auf fremden Pfaden (1897, an anthology)
24. „Weihnacht!“ (1897)
26. Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen I (1898)
27. Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen II (1898)
25. Am Jenseits (1899)
28. Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen III (1902)
29. Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen IV (1903)
30. Und Friede auf Erden! (1904)
31. Ardistan und Dschinnistan I (1909)
32. Ardistan und Dschinnistan II (1909)
33. Winnetou IV (1910)

After foundation of the Karl-May-Verlag 1913 in the new series "Karl May's Gesammelte Werke" many volumes were revised (partly radically) and many got new titles. Texts from others than Fehsenfeld-Press were added to the new series.

Stories for the youth

These stories were written from 1887 to 1897 for the magazine Der Gute Kamerad. He intentionally wrote for young readers. Here Old Shatterhand is not the first-person narrator as he is in the travel stories. The most famous volume is Der Schatz im Silbersee. In the broadest sense the early works Im fernen Westen and Der Waldläufer belong to these category.

Early and Colportage Novels

There are five large (many thousands of pages) colportage novels May wrote mostly pseudonymously for the press of H. G. Münchmeyer from 1882 to 1888. When it comes to know May has written these, he was affronted for them, because the novels were seen as indecent (from the aspect of his time).

Other Works

To the other works belong mostly shorter tales. Besides exotic scenes May used home settings, especially for his early works, e. g. the Erzgebirge for Die Rose von Ernstthal (1874). Some early stories are about „the Old Dessauer“ Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1676–1747), (e. g. Ein Stücklein vom alten Dessauer (1875)). His first non-European tale Inn-nu-woh, der Indianerhäuptling (1875) contains a rough draft of Winnetou.

Furthermore to his other works belong educationals (e. g. Das Buch der Liebe, Geographische Predigten (both 1875-76)), lyrics (e. g. Himmelsgedanken (1900)), essays (e. g. Briefe über Kunst (1906–07)), a drama (Babel und Bibel (1906)), autobiographical texts (e. g. Mein Leben und Streben (1910)), some texts for trials and defence, and also some musical compositions (e. g. Ave Maria and Vergiss mich nicht, collected within Ernste Klänge (1898)).

After May’s death there were publishings of his residue: Fragments of stories and dramas, lyrics, musical compositions, his self made library catalogue and mostly letters.

Influence

Karl May had a substantial influence on a number of well-known German-speaking people - and on the German population itself.[4] The popularity of his writing, and indeed, his (practically always German) protagonists, are considered by some as having filled a lack in the German psyche which had few popular heroes until the 19th Century.[5] His readers longed to escape from an industrialised, capitalist society, an escape which May offered them.[6] He was noted as having "helped shape the collective German dream of feats far beyond middle-class bounds" – and criticised as having offered those dreams for later exploitation by the Nazis.[5]

Adolf Hitler was an admirer, who noted that the novels "overwhelmed" him as a boy, going as far as to ensure "a noticeable decline" in his school grades.[7] According to an anonymous friend, Hitler attended the lecture given by May in Vienna in March 1912 and was enthusiastic about the event.[8] Ironically, the lecture was an appeal for peace, also heard by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bertha von Suttner. Claus Roxin doubts the anonymous description, because Hitler had told much about May, but not that he had seen him.[9] Hitler defended May against critics in the men's hostel where he lived in Vienna, as the evidence of May's earlier time in jail had come to light; although it was true, Hitler confessed, that May had never visited the sites of his American adventure stories, this made him a greater writer in Hitler's view since it showed the author's powers of imagination. May died suddenly only ten days after the lecture, leaving the young Hitler deeply upset.[10] Hitler later recommended the books to his generals and had special editions distributed to soldiers at the front, praising Winnetou as an example of "tactical finesse and circumspection",[11] though some note that the latter claims of using the books as military guidance are not substantiated.[5] However, as told by Albert Speer, "when faced by seemingly hopeless situations, he [Hitler] would still reach for these stories," because "they gave him courage like works of philosophy for others or the Bible for elderly people."[11] This influence on the German 'Fuehrer' was later castigated by Klaus Mann, a German writer who accused May of having been a form of 'mentor' for Hitler.[4] In his admiration Hitler ignored May's Christian and humanitarian approach and views completely, not mentioning his – in some novels – relatively sympathetic description of Jews and persons of non-white race. Several novels of Karl May were re-edited in an antisemitic style during the years of Nazism and led to serious misunderstandings about Mays original intentions.[12]

The wider influence on the populace also surprised post-WWII occupation troops from the US, who realised that thanks to Karl May, "Cowboys and Indians" were familiar concepts to local children (though fantastic and removed from reality).[4] The new Eastern Germany was less favouring of his work, and officially considered him a "chauvinist" - though this could not break his popularity, and eventually, even the communist state allowed free publication of his books and created its own Karl May museum.[5]

Karl May museums and societies

Karl May's Villa Shatterhand

May's house "Villa Shatterhand" in Radebeul near Dresden, Germany now houses a museum devoted to him and his collection of anthropological artifacts of American Indian origin. It is also the home of the "Karl May Foundation". A second museum is in his home town Hohenstein-Ernstthal, which is officially named "Karl-May-Geburtstadt Hohenstein-Ernstthal" since 1992. Next that museum is the "Karl May International Heritage Center".

The Karl May Society (Karl-May-Gesellschaft) was founded in 1969 to commemorate his life and works, but also to offer platform for serious research.

Filmed works

Between 1912 and 1968 German cinema produced 23 movies made from May's novels, most only loosely following the books. In thirteen of these American actor Lex Barker starred either as Old Shatterhand, Kara Ben Nemsi, or Doctor Sternau. Three movies saw British actor Stewart Granger in the leading role as Old Surehand, and one film starred American Rod Cameron as Old Firehand. May considered the prefix "old" added to the names of several of his heroes as illustrating their considerable experience. Eleven movies featured French actor Pierre Brice as the fictional Apache chief "Winnetou".

The music for the movie Der Schatz im Silbersee (The Treasure of Silver Lake) (1962), composed by German Martin Böttcher, became well known. Music was one reason for the great success of the Karl May movies of the 1960s. Their success made possible the so called "Spaghetti Western" from Italy (with the famous compositions of Ennio Morricone). The star of some of the Spaghetti Westerns, Terence Hill, began his career in the German Karl May movies.

The 1960s Karl May films are typical productions of the time and have not aged as well as the Italian westerns from the same time period. Most were shot in the then Yugoslavia, some in Spain, and none in America. May himself is the subject of a 1974 film by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.

Karl May festivals

The most famous Karl May festivals are the open air festivals held every summer in Bad Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, and in Lennestadt-Elspe, North Rhine-Westphalia, where for ten years movie actor Pierre Brice played his Winnetou character in a live version. Another open air Karl May stage is in Rathen, Saxony, near the village of Radebeul, where May lived and died.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sudhoff/Steinmetz: Karl-May-Chronik I
  2. ↑ Bartsch/Wollschläger: Karl Mays Orientreise 1899/1900. Within: Karl May: In fernen Zonen. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg, 1999.
  3. ↑ Christian Heermann: Winnetous Blutsbruder. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg, 2002.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ich bin ein Cowboy - The Economist, 24 May 2001
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Tales Of The Grand Teutons: Karl May Among The Indians - The New York Times, 4 January 1987
  6. ↑ The American Indian in the Great War, Real and Imagined – Camurat, Diane
  7. ↑ Hitler's Mein Kampf attribution of his poor grades in secondary school (his primary school marks, in grades first through fifth, had been quite good in general) to his fascination with May is not entirely reliable. There were a number of factors which contributed: attendance at a larger school in Linz, segregation of classes by subject matter rather than by age, and more difficult subject matter are several identified by Kershaw (Adolf Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris, chapter 1).
  8. ↑ (Anonymus): Mein Freund Hitler Within: Moravsky ilustrovany zpravodaj. 1935, No. 40, p. 10f.
  9. ↑ Claus Roxin: Letter from 24.2.2004. Cited within: Wohlgschaft: Karl May - Leben und Werk, p. 2000.
  10. ↑ Hamman, Brigette (1999). Hitler's Vienna: A Dictator's Apprenticeship. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 382–85. ISBN 0-19-512537-1. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Mein Buch - Grafton, Anthony, The New Republic, December 2008
  12. ↑ Ralf Harder: Mißbraucht im Dritten Reich

Literature

Works

Secondary Literature

External links

Works in English

German sites

Compositions by Karl May