Jakartans paying homage to German author Karl May

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It has been said that Adolf Hitler so admired Karl May's work that 300,000 copies of the author's famous novel Winnetou were printed in the middle of World War II to be delivered to German soldiers for inspiration (Hitler's Table Talks, Martin Bormann, 1953).

Hitler was also said to lean on Karl May as proof that "it wasn't necessary to travel in order to know the world" (Spandau: The Secret Diaries, Albert Speer, 1976).

Although he is less known in the United States -- where only several of his works have been translated -- Karl May was arguably one of the most widely read German authors. The German edition of his adventurous tales has sold more than 100 million copies, and shaped the way millions of Europeans view the American frontier.

Translated into more than 35 languages, May's stories of the Wild West and the Orient have been in Indonesia since the early 1920s -- first translated into Dutch, and much later into Bahasa Indonesia -- and were regarded as staple reading for boys of our father's generation.

May had so masterfully woven fantastic adventures around his well-beloved characters that Winnetou, Old Shatterhand, Kara ben Nemsi and Hadschi Alef Omar ibn Hadschi Abu Abbas ibn Hadschi Dawud al Gosarah became household names.

He was so famous that in the 1890s May associated himself with Old Shatterhand, and -- since his novels were told in the first person -- went so far as to claim that the stories were based on his true adventures with Winnetou, the Apache Indian.

But the fact of the matter was May had not been to any of the places mentioned in his famous stories until long after they had been in circulation, during the 1900s.

Many scholars believe that his literary bent sprouted during the time he spent in prison for impersonating a police officer. They also speculate he was influenced by German travelers' accounts of the American Wild West, and inspired by novels such as James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.

Karl May was born Carl Friedrich May in 1842 to a poor weaver's family in Hohenstein-Ernstthal/Sachsen, near Dresden in Germany. The fourth of fifteen children, and one of only five to survive infancy, May had suffered from malnutrition during his childhood and temporary blindness for the first five years of his life.

He was expelled from boarding school for stealing candles and later when he became teacher, his license was revoked for the theft of a watch. Later, May was arrested twice for fraud.

After his release in 1874 May found work as an editor in Dresden, and began publishing his first stories. His first book Im fernen Western (In the Distant West) in 1879 was a reworking of his earlier tales, such as Old Firehand (1875).

Winnetou was perhaps May's best known work, published in three volumes between 1876 and 1893. Winnetou tells the story of the friendship between German cowboy Old Shatterhand and Winnetou the Indian chief.

Winnetou and Old Shatterhand debuted on the silver screen in the early 1960s, and between 1963 to 1968, six films were made starring Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand.

May died on March 30, 1912 in Radebeul after suffering from a severe case of pneumonia.

Out of respect for the German author, GoetheHaus will organize a film screening and discussion of the works of Karl May on April 4 and April 5.

A 40-minute film, titled The Tragedy and Triumph of Karl May, will be shown on April 4 at 5:00 p.m. and will be followed by a 90-minute parody of Karl May's films from the 1960s, Manitou's Shoe, at 6:40 p.m.

Winnetou I will be screened the following day at 1:00 p.m., and will be followed by a slide show at 2:45 p.m.

A discussion of May's book Und Friede auf Erden (And Peace on Earth) (1901/1904), led by Goenawan Mohamad, will be organized on April 4 at 7:30 p.m., and one on Winnetou I with Seno Gumira Ajidarma is scheduled for the next day at 3:40 p.m.

I-box: Hommage an Karl May on April 4 and April 5 at GoetheHaus, Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15, Menteng, Central Jakarta. For more information call 021-23550208.