Native Americans in German popular culture have, since the 18th century, been a topic of fascination, with imaginary Native Americans influencing German ideas and attitudes towards environmentalism, literature, art,
historical reenactment
Historical reenactment (or re-enactment) is an educational or entertainment activity in which mainly amateur hobbyists and history enthusiasts dress in historic uniforms or costumes and follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or ...
Hartmut Lutz Hartmut Lutz (born April 26, 1945) is professor emeritus and former chair of American and Canadian studies: Anglophone literatures and cultures of North America at the University of Greifswald, Germany. He is the founder of the Institut für Anglist ...
coined the term, Indianthusiasm, for this phenomenon.German professor lectures on his country's "Indianthusiasm" by Darlene Chrapko Sweetgrass Writer, Volume: 19 Issue: 12 Year: 2012, Aboriginal Multi-Media Society AMMSA CanadaLutz, Hartmut: "German Indianthusiasm: A Socially Constructed German National(ist) Myth" in: ''Germans and Indians: Fantasies, Encounters, Projections'', ed. Colin Gordon Calloway, Gerd Gemnden, Susanne Zantop, Lincoln, Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press, 2002, .
However, these "Native Americans" are largely portrayed in a romanticized, idealized, and fantasy-based manner, that relies on historicised, stereotypical depictions of Plains Indians, rather than the contemporary realities facing the real, and diverse,
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
. Sources written by German people (for example,
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...
) are prioritised over those by Native American peoples themselves.
According to Lutz, after
the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, ''Indianthusiasm'' served as a way of coping with the guilt, and avoiding taking responsibility for,
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, through both escapism into a fantasy past and blame-shifting the burden of genocidal qualities onto the victors of World War II. In 1985, Lutz invented the term Deutsche Indianertümelei ("German Indian Enthusiasm") for the phenomenon.Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p.12 The phrase ''Indianertümelei'' is a reference to the German term ''Deutschtümelei'' ("German Enthusiasm") which mockingly describes the phenomenon of celebrating in an excessively nationalistic and romanticized manner ''Deutschtum'' ("Germanness"). It has been connected with German ideas of tribalism,
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
H. Glenn Penny states a striking sense, for over two centuries, of affinity among Germans for their ideas of what American Indians are like. According to him, those affinities stem from German polycentrism, notions of tribalism, longing for freedom, and a melancholy sense of "shared fate."University of Iowa entry Penny, H. Glenn, ''Kindred by Choice: Germans and American Indians since 1800'', Chapel Hill, North Carolina: U of North Carolina, 2013, . In the 17th and 18th centuries, German intellectuals' image of Native American was based on earlier heroes such as those of the Greeks, the
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
, or the Polish struggle for independence (as in '' Polenschwärmerei'') as a base for their projections. The then popular
recapitulation theory
The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using Ernst Haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a historical hypothesis that the development of the embryo of an a ...
on the evolution of ideas was also involved. Such sentiments underwent ups and downs. Philhellenism, rather strong around 1830, faced a setback when the actual Greeks did not fulfill the classic ideals.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and pro-Indian stances did not necessarily exclude each other in Germany.
In the 1920s, Anton Kuh's mockery of a contrast between ''Asphalt und Scholle'' (asphalt and clod), urban literature referred to metropolitan Jews and rural-inspired
Heimatschutz
''Heimatschutz'' is a German word that literally translated means 'homeland protection'. The ''Heimatschutz'' movement arose in the late 19th century in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and had a focus on nature and landscape conservation as ...
writings.
Much of German nationalism glorified ideas of "tribalism", using heroes of Germanic mythology and folklore such as
Sigurd
Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovin ...
and Arminius, and attempting to position itself as an alternative role model to the colonial empires of the time (and the Roman past) by trying to convey the ideal of a colonizer loved by the colonized. After 1880, Catholic publishers had a specific role in publicizing
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...
's fictional Indian stories. The way May described Native Americans was seen as helpful to better integrate German Catholics, which were "a tribe on their own" and faced Kulturkampf controversies with the Protestant dominated authorities and elite. H. Glenn Penny's ''Kindred By Choice'' treats the image and changing role of masculinity connected to Indians in Germany besides a (mutually assumed) longing for freedom and a melancholy sense of shared doom.
Johann Gottfried Seume
Johann Gottfried Seume (29 January 176313 June 1810) was a German author.
Biography
Seume was born in Poserna (now part of Lützen, Saxony-Anhalt). He was educated first at Borna, then at the Nikolai school and University of Leipzig. The study ...
(1763–1810) was among the Hessian auxiliaries contracted by the British Crown for military service in Canada and wrote about his encounters with Native Americans in his autobiography. His admiration for naturality and a description of a
Huron
Huron may refer to:
People
* Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America
* Wyandot language, spoken by them
* Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec
* Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
as a noble but sort of frank man is part of his poem "
Der Wilde
Der or DER may refer to:
Places
* Darkənd, Azerbaijan
* Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US
* Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq
* d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Oc ...
" (the savage) which became well known in Germany.Germany and the Americas: O–Z, Thomas Adam, ABC-CLIO, 01.01.2005, p. 968 Seume is also among the first to use the words "Canada" and ''Kultur'' (culture) in today's meaning in German. Seume's Huron has stereotypical characteristics used as well for Germanic people of old – he drinks mead and wears a bear skin and uses a sort of blunt didactic on an unfriendly European settler.Puszkar, Norbert, "Johann Gottfried Seume's 'Der Wilde'. Homely/Unhomely Encounters in the Wilderness", ''Lessing Yearbook'' 2008/2009, American Lessing Society Seume had actually met some
Mi'kmaq
The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...
, but in his poems he used tribe names with symbolic significance. Hurons (
Wyandot people
The Wyandot people, or Wyandotte and Waⁿdát, are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Wyandot are Iroquoian Indigenous peoples of North America who emerged as a confederacy of tribes around the north shore of Lake Ontario ...
) stood in the contemporary poetry for the noble savage, Mohawks for the brute.
Wandervogel and youth movement
The German Empire saw the rise of the German youth movement, especially the
Wandervogel
''Wandervogel'' (plural: ''Wandervögel''; English: "Wandering Bird") is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 to 1933, who protested against industrialization by going to hike in the country and commune with n ...
, as an antimodern culture criticism. The German image of Indians again projected German beliefs and dreams about a bucolic past onto them. Authenticity, living free and close to nature, was among those aims. It closely interacted with outdoor meetings, games, songs and even commercial
Wild West shows
Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of co ...
, as by Buffalo Bill and other various media. Austrian Christian Feest attributes the popularity of the Indian in the German youth movement to the then all-European impact of late-19th-century
human zoo
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were public displays of people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays sometimes emphasized the sup ...
s. The first actual Indians came to Germany in the 19th century. Kah-ge-ga-ga-bow, an Ojibwa born in 1819, baptized as Reverend George Copway, took part in the 1850 World Peace Congress at
St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt am Main
St Paul's Church (german: Paulskirche) is a former Protestant church in Frankfurt, Germany, used as a national assembly hall. Its important political symbolism dates back to 1848 when the Frankfurt Parliament convened there, the first publicly ...
. The image of the warrior turned Christian went down well with the public and Conway became a media star in Germany.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tran ...
recommended him to the leftist poet Ferdinand Freiligrath.
Other Native Americans arrived with human zoos and took part in shows in zoological gardens and circuses. In 1879 Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) engaged among others some
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
for a show in Dresden. Painter and author
Rudolf Cronau
Rudolf Daniel Ludwig Cronau (21 January 1855 – 27 October 1939) was a German-American painter, illustrator and journalist.
Rudolf Cronau was well known in Germany for his illustrations, articles and books about the American West.
Early life
...
Hunkpapa
The Hunkpapa (Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as ...
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
, who came to Europe in 1886. Buffalo Bill's European shows in 1890 and between 1903 and 1907 involved several hundred Indians and were quite popular in Germany. Edward Two-Two, a Lakota-Sioux, worked at the
Sarrasani Sarrasani is a German circus that reached world fame before World War II and was resident in Dresden, but also became known as the national circus of Argentina during the years of German separation.
Sarrasani was founded by ''Hans Stosch'', a cl ...
circus in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
in 1913/14 and was buried there in 1914 according to his wishes.
File:Karl-May-Spiele-Bischofswerda.Blutsbrüder.jpg, Karl-May-Spiele
Bischofswerda
Bischofswerda (; hsb, Biskopicy) is a small town in Germany at the western edge of Upper Lusatia in Saxony.
Geography
The town is located 33 km to the east of Dresden at the edge of the Upper Lusatian mountain country. The town is k ...
:
Winnetou
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ch ...
and Old Shatterhand in the "blood brothers" bonding scene
File:Karl-May-Spiele-Bischofswerda.Darsteller.jpg, Karl-May-Spiele Bischofswerda: German actors playing Apaches
Karl May
A strong influence on the German imagination of Native Americans is the work of
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...
(1842–1912), who wrote various novels about the American
Wild West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
which relied upon, and further developed, this romantic image. May (1842–1912) is among the most successful German writers.Perry, Nicole (
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
Archive . August 2006. Info page /ref> , about 200 million copies of May's novels have been sold, half of them in Germany. He is among the most popular authors of formula fiction in the German language. These specifically German fantasies and projectionsColin Gordon Calloway, Gerd Gemünden, Susanne Zantop (ed.): ''Germans and Indians. Fantasies, encounters, projections''. Lincoln, Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press, 2002, . about ''Indianer'' have influenced generations of Germans. ''Indianer'' refers to
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United State ...
, and also to natives of the Pacific, Central and Latin America, and "Red Indians" in the stereotypical sense.
Karl May found admirers among such different personalities as
Ernst Bloch
Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...
,
Peter Handke
Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...
and
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, but has almost no presence in English-speaking countries. His most famous books, mainly about the Wild West with a fictional Apache,
Winnetou
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ch ...
, among the main characters, were at first deemed 19th-century pulp fiction. Winnetou was described by some as "an apple Indian" (outside red, inside white). However, Karl May never visited America, or had any direct contact with Native American people, before he wrote these influential works. May drew his inspiration among other sources from Balduin Möllhausen, who had traveled in the Rocky Mountains in 1850 with Duke Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg, and
George Catlin
George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West.
Traveling to the American West five times during the 183 ...
's reports, which were popular in Germany..
Gojko Mitić
Gojko Mitić ( sr-Cyrl, Гојко Митић; born June 13, 1940) is a German-Serbian actor and director. He gained great popularity in the GDR as the leading actor in historical and fictional Indian personalities in numerous DEFA Indian films. ...
became famous playing Red Indians in various films for the
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
company
DEFA
DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence.
Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...
, such as ''
The Sons of Great Bear
''The Sons of Great Bear'' (german: Die Söhne der großen Bärin; literally, The Sons of the Great She-Bear) is a 1966 East German Western film, directed by the Czechoslovak filmmaker Josef Mach and starring the Yugoslav actor Gojko Mitić in ...
'', and was popular in the Eastern bloc. The Karl May festivals (in East and West Germany) gain interest by real Indian guests and partners in the meanwhile. In 2006 the cultural authority of the
Mescalero Apaches
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-ce ...
and the Karl-May-Haus in
Hohenstein-Ernstthal
Hohenstein-Ernstthal () is a town in the Zwickau rural district, Saxony, Germany. The towns of Hohenstein and Ernstthal were united in 1898, and the town is either known by its hyphenated form, or simply called Hohenstein.
The town grew in the 15 ...
made an agreement to cooperate.
Films based on May's Winnetou novels were shot from 1962 to 1968, starring Pierre Brice. A parodistic adaptation of the genre, the comedy ''
Der Schuh des Manitu
''Der Schuh des Manitu'' (eng.: ''The Shoe of Manitou'') is a 2001 German Western (genre), Western Parody film, parody film. Directed by Michael Herbig, it is a film adaptation of the Winnetou sketches from his ProSieben television show ''Bullyp ...
'', was among the biggest box office hits in Germany. ''
Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
*Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
*Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...
'', Germany's largest teen magazine, awards an annual prize, the ''Bravo-Otto'', in the form of a classic Karl May Indian.
Spiritual and esoteric aspects
At the end of the 19th century, there was a widespread notion of a coming new humanity, building on then-current esoteric myths such as those of
Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, uk, Олена Петрівна Блаватська, Olena Petrivna Blavatska (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 187 ...
and
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
as well as on popularly accepted philosophy such as
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...
's ''
Übermensch
The (; "Overhuman") is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In his 1883 book ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra), Nietzsche has his character Zarathustra posit the as a goal for humanity to set for itse ...
''. May was no esoteric, but a devout (Protestant) Christian, published by Catholic publishing houses. He used Winnetou and other protagonists (Winnetou's mentor Klekih-Petra, a former German 48er, became a member of the Apache tribe) less as 'apple Indians' than as personifications of his dream of a German-Native American synthesis based on shared Christian faith. According to Mays' vision "in place of the Yankees, a new man will emerge whose soul is German-Indian". This approach is found both in his later novels, such as ''Winnetou IV'', and in public speeches, such as his last speech, given in 1912 and titled "Empor ins Reich der Edelmenschen" (Ascend to the empire of noble men).
Austrian novelist Robert Müller's 1915 ''Tropen. Der Mythos der Reise. Urkunden eines deutschen Ingenieurs'' (Tropics, The myth of travel) is an important early example of a German exotic novel. Here, as in May, the Indians are not just projections of what white Europeans had been (in a mere racist outline of
unilineal evolution
Unilineal evolution, also referred to as classical social evolution, is a 19th-century social theory about the evolution of societies and cultures. It was composed of many competing theories by various anthropologists and sociologists, who belie ...
), but also of what they should be in the future, on a higher level.Tropen. Der Mythos der Reise. Urkunden eines deutschen Ingenieurs. Herausgegeben von Robert Müller anno 1915. Hugo Schmidt, München 1915. Reprints 2007: , Reclam 1993 Igel-Verlag 1991 & 1992
Role of the noble warrior image
Prior to European contact, the Native American population is estimated to have been in the millions. But 1880, the population had been severely impacted mainly by disease brought by the colonists as well as wars and violence. The destruction of communities and culture gave rise to the idea of the "Vanishing Indian". Theories about the rise and fall of human "races" (in and beyond Germany) were rather popular in the late 19th century, as a part of science and the eugenics movement, and in esoteric writings by authors such as
Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, uk, Олена Петрівна Блаватська, Olena Petrivna Blavatska (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 187 ...
.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
's popular, ''
The Gay Science
''The Gay Science'' (german: Die fröhliche Wissenschaft), sometimes translated as ''The Joyful Wisdom'' or ''The Joyous Science'', is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche published in 1882, and followed by a second edition in 1887 after the completio ...
'' praised endurance of pain as a prerequisite of true philosophy. Nietzsche drew parallels between his ideas of contemporary Indians and his preference for
Pre-Socratic philosophy
Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...
and "pre-civilized", "pre-rational" thinking. The romantic image of the noble savage or "seasoned warrior" took hold on Wilhelminian Germany; phrases that originated in this period, such as "An Indian knows no pain" (''Ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz''), are still in use today, for example to console children at the dentist's.
The German approach was somewhat different from the
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...
taking place in the majority of American society at the time, as the German stereotypes were more idealized than denigrating. However, according to Philip J. Deloria, Americans also perpetrated the same, problematic idealization in a parallel tradition of
Playing Indian
''Playing Indian'' is a 1998 nonfiction book by Philip J. Deloria, which explores the history of the conflicted relationship white America has with Native American peoples. It explores the common historical and contemporary societal pattern of non ...
- simultaneously mimicking stereotypical ideas and imagery of "Indians" and "Indianness", while also dismissing, and making invisible real, contemporary Indian people. In Germany and America, these hobbyists idealize these archaic and "back to the roots" stereotypes of Native Americans.
Stefan George
Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary ...
, a charismatic networker and author, saw (and studied) Indians as role models of his own cosmogony, using
ecstatic
Ecstasy () is a subjective experience of total involvement of the subject, with an object of their awareness. In classical Greek literature, it refers to removal of the mind or body "from its normal place of function."
Total involvement with ...
and unmediated experiences to provide a sacred space for himself and his disciples.Erlebnisdruck: Philosophie und Kunst in einem Bereich des Übergangs und Untergangs Gerard Visser Königshausen & Neumann, 2005, p. 14ff The
Munich Cosmic Circle
The Munich Cosmic Circle was a group of writers and intellectuals in Munich, Germany at the turn of the 20th century, founded by esotericist Alfred Schuler (1865–1923), philosopher Ludwig Klages (1872–1956), and poet Karl Wolfskehl (1869–194 ...
, an enlarged (compare
Fanny zu Reventlow
Countess Fanny "Franziska" zu Reventlow (''Fanny Liane Wilhelmine Sophie Auguste Adrienne'') 18 May 1871 – 26 July 1918) was a German writer, artist and translator, who became famous as the "Bohemian Countess" of Schwabing (an entertainment dis ...
) circle of followers beyond the all-male Georgekreis, became (and made
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
) famous for its lavish parties and happenings ante litteram. George has been quoted with "Nietzsche may have known the Greek philosophers, but I am aware about the (Red) Indians".
In
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, about 15,000 Native Americans served in the Allied Forces as members of the United States and Canadian armies. Both their own comrades and the enemy shared the stereotypical image of them as a "vanishing race" but with a strong warrior spirit. German soldiers feared Indian
snipers
A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision ri ...
, messengers and
shock troops
Shock troops or assault troops are formations created to lead an attack. They are often better trained and equipped than other infantry, and expected to take heavy casualties even in successful operations.
"Shock troop" is a calque, a loose tra ...
and the Allied troops were already using Indian languages via "
windtalkers
''Windtalkers'' is a 2002 American war film directed and co-produced by John Woo, starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, and Christian Slater. It is based on the real story of Navajo code talkers during ...
" to encode open communication.Thomas A. Britten: ''American Indians in World War I: at home and at war''. Part 570, UNM Press, 1999 World War I propaganda claimed to be quoting a Cherokee soldier, Jo Fixum, with stereotypical, improbable, and offensive language features.
By 1940, the Indigenous population in the USA had risen to about 350,000. Because the German government was aware of the Indian communications specialists' abilities, their agents tried to use anthropologists as spies on reservations to subvert the cultures of some Indian tribes and learn their languages. The pro-Nazi
German American Bund
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation (german: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FoN ...
tried to persuade Indians not to register for the draft, for example using the swastika with some Native Americans as a symbol depicting good luck in order to gain sympathy. The attempts may have backfired. During World War II, more than 44,000 Native Americans joined the military service, e.g. the 45th Infantry Division (United States), and had all Americans enlisted in similar numbers and with such fervor, conscription would have not been necessary. Indian participation in World War II was extensive, and became part of American folklore and popular culture.American Indians in World War II defense.gov entryJohnny Cash's recording of '' The Ballad of Ira Hayes'', which commemorates the Pimasoldier of the title who was one of the six men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima, also became popular in Germany. Like Cash himself, who had been a GI in Bavaria, soldiers formerly or currently based in Germany played a role in German-Native American relations. Veterans are highly honored in most Native American communities, and many who serve in tribal government are veterans.
Since 1945, more Native Americans have set foot in Germany - many through US Army bases, and others due to business or educational reasons. The Native American Association of Germany, formed in 1994, provides resources and contact between Native Americans in Germany, greater Europe and the USA.
"Indianthusiasm", hobbyists and politics
There was a widespread cultural passion for Native Americans in Germany throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. "Indianthusiasm" contributed to the evolution of German national identity.Usbeck, Frank, ''Fellow Tribesmen: The Image of Native Americans, National Identity, and Nazi Ideology in Germany'', forthcoming 2015, . Long before German unification in 1871, it had been widely assumed in German nationalist circles that an unified ''Reich'' would also have a colonial empire, and many of the debates at the proto-parliament in Frankfurt in 1848-49 concerned colonialist ambitions. In the late 19th century, a recurring complaint in Germany was that the ''Reich'' had a relatively small colonial empire compared to other nations, especially the United Kingdom.Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p.14 As a result, "Indianthusiasm" served as a sort of ''Handlungsersatz''-an untranslatable term meaning a surrogate for an action that substitutes for real power. Many of the colonial adventure stories in 19th century Germany had as their theme "stories of sexual conquest and surrender, love and blissful domestic relations between colonizer and colonized, set in colonial territory, stories that made the strange familiar and the familiar 'familial'". A recurring theme of "Indianthusiasm" suggested that German immigrants would be act in a morally superior manner towards the indigenous population of North America than the "Anglo-Saxon" powers of Great Britain, Canada, and the United States; this theme also promoted the idea that Germans held a genuine interest in
Native American culture
Native American cultures across the United States are notable for their wide variety and diversity of lifestyles, regalia, art forms and beliefs. The culture of indigenous North America is usually defined by the concept of the Pre-Columbian ...
that other Europeans lacked.
A popular theme of Indianthusiasm novels in
Imperial Germany
The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...
were stories of German immigrants settling in rugged places such as the wilderness of Canada, where ''Auslandsdeutschtum'' ("Germanness abroad") served as a "civilizing force" that tamed the wilderness while also simultaneously offered up a very romanticized picture of the Indigenous inhabitants of Canada as " noble savages".Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p.15 The idealized picture of Indigenous Canadians as having an innate moral nobility served as a critique of modernity. Most notably, the image of Indigenous Canadians as "noble, but dying races" suffering from the "cruel misrule" of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
not only allowed the authors of these books to portray the Germans as better colonizers than the British, but also allowed them to resolve the dilemma that the "civilizing process" begun by German immigrants and celebrated in these novels also meant the end of the traditional lifestyles of Indigenous Canadians by putting the latter down to the British.
Imagery of Native Americans was appropriated in
Nazi propaganda
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi polici ...
and used both against the US and to promote a "
holistic
Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED On ...
understanding of Nature" among Germans, which gained widespread support from various segments of the political spectrum in Germany. The connection between
anti-American
Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...
sentiment and sympathetic feelings toward the underprivileged but authentic Indians is common in Germany, and it was to be found among both Nazi propagandists such as Goebbels and left-leaning writers such as
Nikolaus Lenau
Nikolaus Lenau was the pen name of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau (13 August 1802 – 22 August 1850), a German-language Austrian poet.
Biography
He was born at Csatád (Schadat), Kingdom of Hungary, now Lenauheim, Banat, then p ...
as well. During the
German Autumn
The German Autumn (german: Deutscher Herbst) was a series of events in Germany in 1977, mostly late in the year, associated with the kidnapping and murder of industrialist, businessman, and former SS member Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of t ...
in 1977, an anonymous text by a leftist '' Göttinger
Mescalero
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
'' spoke "with secret joy" (klammheimliche Freude) of the murder of German attorney general
Siegfried Buback
Siegfried Buback (3 January 1920, Wilsdruff, Saxony – 7 April 1977, Karlsruhe) was the Attorney General of West Germany from 1974 until his murder in 1977.
Life and career
Buback studied at the University of Leipzig. From 1940 to 1945, he w ...
and used the positive image of '' Stadtindianer'' (Urban Indians) within the radical left.
In his book on the topic, ''Indianthusiasm'', scholar Hartmut Lutz states that after the Second World War, Indianthusisam served as a surrogate for guilt about the Holocaust. After 1945, the "Wild West" of the 19th century became a historical zone in German popular imagination where it was the victors in World War II who were committing genocide. The 19th century "Wild West" became for Germans in the 1950s-1960s a "distant, vaguely defined past" where it was the Americans who were perpetuating genocide while German immigrants to the United States like May's hero Old Shatterhand became the ones who were trying to stop the genocide. There was an implicit ''tu quoque'' argument to Indianthusisam in West Germany that
Allied nations
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...
such as the United States had also committed genocide in the 19th century with the obvious conclusion that therefore there was no reason for the Germans to feel especially guilty about the Holocaust. In East Germany, this message was made explicit where policies of the United States government towards Indians in the 19th century were linked to capitalism, and therefore the treatment of American Indians supposedly showed the brutal, rapacious and genocidal nature of American capitalism and imperialism. In East Germany, the frequency of films devoted to the subject of the Indians led to the term ''Indianerfilme'' being coined to describe the genre. In the East German ''Indianerfilme'', the Americans were always the villains while the Indians were always the heroes. More recently, Indianthusiasm has been linked to the rise of environmentalism in Germany, where the traditional lifestyles of the Indians is portrayed in a romantic manner as superior to modern industrial civilization of the West.
Karl May festivals during the Nazi period
In 1938 the first outdoor Karl May festivals took place at the
Rathen Open Air Stage
The Rathen Open Air Stage (german: Felsenbühne Rathen) is a natural stage in Saxon Switzerland in East Germany. It is located in a hollow at the upper end of the Wehlgrund valley between the rocks of ''Kleine Gans'' and ''Großer Wehrturm'' below ...
. The open-air theatre was laid out in 1936, inspired by the ideas of the ''
Thingspiele
A ''Thingspiel'' (plural ''Thingspiele'') was a kind of multi-disciplinary outdoor theatre performance which enjoyed brief popularity in pre-war Nazi Germany during the 1930s. A Thingplatz or Thingstätte was a specially-constructed outdoor am ...
'' movement, which was active in the early stages of the Nazi period. The Thingspiele movement failed in staging neopagan and Nordic mythical aspects of the völkisch movement, while May's all-Christian legends found more approval with the mainstream.
Communist interpretations
The Communist
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
government had major problems with the mixed heritage of May's works: his strong Christian leanings and his broad support, including on the political right. His books were not available for a long time, and "indianistic" reenactors were closely monitored by the security forces. The Communist authorities tried to integrate the movement into the socialist world view. Some prominent communist philosophers, such as
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
' friend and sponsor
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels" '' private property before the Columbian age.Krech, Shepard, ''The Ecological Indian: Myth and History'', Norton, 1999, . Indianerenthusiasm is now also being found in Russia.
West German interpretations
In
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
May's heritage was less problematic; both the books and the festivals were soon copied and reprinted. The
Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg
The 'Karl May Festival' (german: link=no, Karl-May-Spiele Bad Segeberg,') is a theatre festival in Bad Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Since 1952, Karl May's adventure novels about the Wild West have been put on stage as part of ''Karl Ma ...
overtook its predecessor in Rathen, as the GDR officials discontinued the tradition there. The Federal Republic experienced some aspects of an idealized Indian image during the
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies.
In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
and the related generation and in the founding phase of Die Grünen and NGOs like Greenpeace, which have a strong influence in Germany.
Cultural critic
A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions of ...
s tended to depict Indians positively to criticize Western society while conflicts of and with actual Native Americans over issues such as fur hunting,
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, forest fire triggering, non-sustainable practices such as
buffalo jump
A buffalo jump, or sometimes bison jump, is a cliff formation which Indigenous peoples of North America historically used to hunt and kill plains bison in mass quantities. The broader term game jump refers to a man-made jump or cliff used for hu ...
s,
seal clubbing
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in ten countries: United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Canada, Namibia, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Ice ...
and
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industr ...
were neglected. The positive image, however, also influenced the self-image of actual Indians.
Hobbyists
Native American hobbyism in Germany, also called Indian Hobbyism, or Indianism, is the performance and attempt at
historical reenactment
Historical reenactment (or re-enactment) is an educational or entertainment activity in which mainly amateur hobbyists and history enthusiasts dress in historic uniforms or costumes and follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or ...
of the American Indian culture of the early contact period, rather than the way contemporary
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
Plains Indian
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of ...
cultures, with widely varying degrees of accuracy; influenced by
the stereotypes
The Stereotypes are a production team created in 2003, comprising Jonathan Yip, Ray Romulus, Jeremy Reeves and Ray Charles McCullough II. In June 2010, they were listed among the "Top 10 Songwriters and Producers to Watch" in '' Billboard'' magaz ...
seen in Hollywood
Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
Natives
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
as a hobby and pastime, such as for a weekend retreat, hobbyist pow wow, or summer camp. It exists in several European countries, but is prominent in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, where approximately 40,000 practitioners, known as hobbyists, participate. Response to this by actual Native Americans has been largely negative.Deloria, Philip J. (1998). ''Playing Indian''. Yale University Press. .Eddy, Melissa (2014) “Lost in Translation: Germany’s Fascination With the American Old West” ''The New York Times''.
Background
According to the history laid out in H. Glenn Penny's ''Kindred By Choice'', many Germans identify their roots as tribes that lived independently of one another that were colonized by Romans and forced to become Christians. Because of this distant tribal background and history of colonization, and in fact all ancient Europeans lived tribally at some point in their history, many of these Germans identify with Native Americans more than European nations in contemporary times. This belief in kindred lifestyle is detailed in Penny's in-depth study of German fascination with and performances as their ideas of historical Native American peoples. These Germans are also interested in depiction of Native Americans in art and anthropology. Penny covers this history in ''Kindred By Choice'' and other published writings, chronicling German artists such as Rudolf Cronau,
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George ...
, and
Rudolf Schlichter
Rudolf Schlichter (or Rudolph Schlichter) (December 6, 1890 – May 3, 1955) was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of the ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' (New Objectivity) movement.
Schlichter was born in Calw, Württemberg. A ...
's portrayals of Native Americans. German academics such as
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...
,
Karl von den Steinen
Karl von den Steinen (born March 7, 1855 in Mülheim, died November 4, 1929 in Kronberg im Taunus) was a German physician (with emphasis in psychiatry), ethnologist, explorer, and author of important anthropological work, which is particularly ...
, Paul Ehrenreich, and
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...
all traveled to the United States to learn more about Native Americans. Their documentation of their journeys were regarded positively by the German public and assisted in fostering German fascination with Native Americans. Penny also details how Germans often denounced the violence inflicted upon Native peoples by the United States government.
Another factor in the popularity of Hobbyism in Germany can be attributed to the many
Wild West show
Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of ...
s that toured throughout Germany and featured real Native Americans in stereotypical "cowboy and Indian" performances. One of the most popular Wild West shows was organized by William Frederick " Buffalo Bill" Cody. German Hobbyism is generally believed to have been largely popularized by the dime-store novelist
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...
, whose fictional Apache warrior character,
Winnetou
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ch ...
, and his German blood-brother,
Old Shatterhand
Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May (1842–1912). He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache
The Apache () are a g ...
, adventure throughout the Wild West. In one of the many novels, Winnetou is murdered and Old Shatterhand avenges him and ultimately becomes an Apache chief. The Winnetou novels were first published in the 1890s.
In the 20th century
The first such hobbyist club was the Cowboy Club founded in Munich in 1913.Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p.16 As part of the phenomenon of ''Indianertümelei'' a number of Western and Indian theme parks operate in Germany, the most popular of which are the Pullman City theme park outside of Munich and El Dorado theme park outside of Berlin.
Hobbyism was greatly affected by the separation of Germany after World War II. :de:Katrin Sieg, 's ''Ethnic Drag'' discusses the differences between
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
Hobbyism and
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
Hobbyism, saying that while West Germany could continue to openly participate in the hobby, East Germans had to go underground for fear of being targeted as rebels. This translated to a difference in opinion between East and West in how they interacted with real Native Americans; East German hobbyist clubs often interacted with Native Americans and supported them in their issues financially. On the other hand, West Germans often avoided contact with real Native Americans, which Sieg surmises is because they feared being told they are not truly Native American. These patterns continue to be true today. Dakota academic Philip Deloria theorizes in his book
Playing Indian
''Playing Indian'' is a 1998 nonfiction book by Philip J. Deloria, which explores the history of the conflicted relationship white America has with Native American peoples. It explores the common historical and contemporary societal pattern of non ...
that there are two types of Hobbyism—people Hobbyism and item Hobbyism. West Germans would be considered, according to Deloria, as item hobbyists who focus on the objects, and the East Germans would be considered people hobbyists, who also include objects but want to interact with real Native Americans and issues facing Native communities.
The East German interest in having hobbyists start engaging with living Native Americans may be partially attributable to the fact that the East German government began to recognize the propaganda value; criticism of the historical treatment of American Indians could be used as an example of why East Germans citizens should criticize US policies in general.
May's novels featuring Winnetou and Old Shatterhand have been adapted into both theatrical and film productions in German-speaking countries. It is believed that film adaptations of Karl May's characters in the 1960s may have saved the West German film industry. Each summer in Bad Segeberg,
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
, Germany, the
Karl May Festival Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austri ...
(Karl-May-Spiele) hosts stage productions weekly and particularly during the Karl May Festival. The Karl May Festival is an annual event purported to bring the Wild West to northern Germany
In the 21st century
German Hobbyism continues today in the form of festivals, museums, pow wows, theater, and clubs. The Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg continues each year and is a popular attraction to families from all over Germany and Europe. Additionally, there are multiple Wild West Amusement Parks all throughout Germany. The Karl May Museum in Radebeul and other museums that host Native American exhibits continue to be wildly popular. Hobbyists that organize through the means of a club host pow wows and teach each other and communities about Native American culture. The topic of German Hobbyism has become more recently documented by mainstream news sources ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
the Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
, and independent filmmakers such as Howie Summers, who created a short documentary titled Indianer that explores German Hobbyists and their fascinations.
Writer, psychologist and filmmaker Red Haircrow attended the Winter Pow-wow 2014 in Berlin on 15 February. He described the participants as wearing as many "breastplates, bear claw necklaces, feathers and bone jewelry as they seemed able to physically support," and that the attendees also wore Native American costumes in addition to the hobbyist dancers.
In 2019, it was estimated that between 40,000-100,000 Germans are involved in ''Indianer'' hobbyist clubs at any given moment. Interviewed in 2007, one member of an ''Indianer'' club stated: "Our camp is always in summer, in July for two weeks. During this time, we live in tipis, we wear only Indian clothes. We don't use technology and we try to follow Indian traditions. We have those retending to beLakota, Oglala, Blackfeet, Blood, Siksika, Pawneee...and we go on the warpath against each other day and night, anytime at all. In two weeks, every tribe can fight each other. We don't know when somebody will attack or when they will come to steal our horses. And the battles are always exciting, too. I really enjoy them".
Criticism
The main criticism of German Hobbyism by Native American journalists and academics argues on the basis of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of Native American cultures and identities. When it comes to the borrowing of American Indian culture, Philip J. Deloria dubs it "playing Indian," which he defines as the adoption or portrayal of being Native by Anglo-American individuals. These actions are often motivated by hobby and sometimes financial gain. Further, Deloria writes that these individuals and groups who play Indian build a collectivity in their performance of otherness, which in turn defines their own identity through the distinction of playing the national "
other
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
."
Katrin Sieg applies the thoughts and ideas of Deloria to the performance studies field in Germany. Her book ''Ethnic Drag'' discusses the ways in which Germans have historically dressed up as "othered" peoples, which includes
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, Native Americans, and
Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...
. While the portrayals of Jews and Turks were largely negative stereotypes, the portrayal of Native Americans differed in that they were seen as heroic and noble.
The first Native American women's theater troupe known as
Spiderwoman Theater
Spiderwoman Theater is an American, Indigenous women's performance troupe that blends traditional art forms with Western theater. Their mission was to present exceptional theater performance, and to provide theatrical training and education in an ...
traveled to Germany and Europe in order to perform a satire of the European and particularly German fascination with Native Americans. According to Spiderwoman Theater, it was an act of resistance meant to reclaim their identity as real Native Americans. Their show is titled ''Winnetou's Snake Oil Show from Wigwam City'', and parodied Karl May's characters,
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
ism, and individuals who pretend to be Native American.
In 1982, a Canadian Ojibwe painter Ahmoo Allen Angeconeb visited West Germany where he discovered his paintings were selling better than in Canada, looking for a chance to exhibit his work.Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p.25 Angeconeb soon discovered that most Germans were interested in the traditional culture of the Plains Indian peoples and had no interest in the Eastern Woodslands peoples such as the Ojibewe or in the modern First Nations peoples. His attempts to argue that there was more to the Indians of North America than the lifestyle of the Plains Indians in the 18th and 19th centuries did not meet with much success as he recalled in an interview: "Actually most of these Indian clubs were interested in Plains Indians. So when they found out I was Ojibewe they had no idea who the Ojibewe were. We weren't Plains Indians, so therefore we weren't "real Indians"...And then, they seem to have this romantic view that they didn't want to have altered. I was too "real" an Indian for them. They wanted to keep their romantic view; they didn't want to hear about the modern way of living for Ojibewe people here. That we lived in wooden-structure homes, that we drove cars".
Red Haircrow has written articles from
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, where he resides, regarding the controversial aspects of Hobbyism from the perspective of a real Native American. Haircrow has traveled to pow wows and reported to
Indian Country Today Media Network
''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations.
It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...
about his experience as a Native American at an event in which Germans performed Native American identity. He reported the premiere of the blockbuster remake ''
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in ...
'', in which Hobbyists were hired to perform as Native Americans in Berlin. Haircrow also covered a controversy at the
Karl May Museum
The Karl May Museum is a museum in Radebeul, Germany named after the German author Karl May, containing artifacts from May's life as well as from life on the American frontier and Native Americans in the United States, Native American life of that ...
, when the owners of the museum in
Radebeul
Radebeul ( hsb, Radobyle) is a town (''große Kreisstadt'') in the Elbe valley in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany, a suburb of Dresden. It is well known for its viticulture, a museum dedicated to writer Karl May, and a narrow gaug ...
refused to return Native American scalps to the tribes from which they are claimed to have come. As an act of protest, Native American singer Jana Mashonee chose not to perform at the Karl May Fest in
Radebeul
Radebeul ( hsb, Radobyle) is a town (''große Kreisstadt'') in the Elbe valley in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany, a suburb of Dresden. It is well known for its viticulture, a museum dedicated to writer Karl May, and a narrow gaug ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
and released an official statement denigrating the refusal of the Karl May Museum to return the Native American scalps. The scalps were not returned to the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
nation as requested, but they were removed from display.
Haircrow also notes that not every Native American has a negative view of the German fascination with their culture. Comanche Laura Kerchee, who was stationed in Germany with the
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
, told him that "she was impressed with how enthralled the Germans there were by Native Americans." Haircrow adds that "some tribes in North America rereaching out to their fans in Europe. They realize that this is an opportunity to promote understanding and education and a way to market Native culture to a highly sympathetic audience."
Red Haircrow's 2018 documentary "Forget Winnetou! Loving in the Wrong Way" focuses more Native perspectives on Indian hobbyism, cultural appropriation and the connection to racism and continuing colonial practices in Germany, won the Audience Award at the Refugees Welcome Film Festival in Berlin, Germany in 2018.
In the United States, there is a widespread criticism from Native Americans about the
misappropriation
In law, misappropriation is the unauthorized use of another's name, likeness, identity, property, discoveries, inventions, etc without that person's permission, resulting in harm to that person.
Another use of the word refers to intentional a ...
and
misrepresentation
In common law jurisdictions, a misrepresentation is a false or misleading '' R v Kylsant'' 931/ref> statement of fact made during negotiations by one party to another, the statement then inducing that other party to enter into a contract. The ...
of Native American identity and culture. Examples include the
Native American mascot controversy
Since the 1960s, the issue of Native American and First Nations names and images being used by sports teams as mascots has been the subject of increasing public controversy in the United States and Canada. This has been a period of rising ...
, backlash against artists such as Gwen Stefani and
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent r ...
who have performed in feather
war bonnets
A modern-day dog soldier wearing a feathered headdress during a pow wow at the Indian Summer festival in Henry Maier Festival Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2008.
War bonnets (also called warbonnets or headdresses) are featherwork, feathered headge ...
, and campaigns to educate the public about not wearing Native American costumes for Halloween and themed parties, such as My Culture Is Not a Costume. This same sentiment was expressed by Haircrow's son, who claimed that "they are stealing from others, but don't want to admit it. That's why they didn't want us there, because they know we know what they are doing is wrong." In a ''New York Times'' short documentary titled ''Lost in Translation: Germany's Fascination with the American Old West'', the actor portraying Winnetou,
Jan Sosniok
Jan Sosniok (born 14 March 1968 in Gummersbach) is a German actor.
His career began with a role in the German TV soap opera '' Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten''. Sosniok plays in TV-films and sometimes takes theatre-roles.
He is well known for his ...
, is asked if he thinks that real Native Americans would take offense to the portrayal of Native Americans. The actor responds that he does not believe they would be offended. The video also portrays a German man who studied at the
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...
in New Mexico. This person shares his discomfort with seeing a burial dance take place in the Bad Segeberg performance, and calls it grotesque and claims that it perpetuates a stereotypical image of the Native American.
Journalist James Hagengruber discussed German hobbyists in an article for Salon's website, describing the occasional clashes between the German fantasists and actual Native Americans. Visiting Native American dancers were shocked when German hobbyists protested their use of microphones and details of their costumes (to which they counter-protested). A hobbyist profiled in the article defended the German tendency to focus on Indian culture before 1880, instead of engaging with issues that affect contemporary tribes, comparing it to studying "the ncientRomans." Some Germans have been surprised and irritated when real Native Americans don't act the way they do in the German imagination. On the other hand, Hagengruber comments that "some dying Indian languages may end up being preserved by German hobbyists." Dick Littlebear, "a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and the president of Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, MT," told Hagengruber "he doesn't worry about Germans fixating on his culture," as long as they do not copy sacred ceremonies, and pointed out that he had learned "lost Northern Cheyenne stitching methods from the 1850s" from German hobbyists.
Journalist Noemi Lopinto in her article for UTNE reports that an Ojibwe man named David Redbird Baker found the performance of sacred ceremonies in Germany to be offensive: "They take the social and religious ceremonies and change them beyond recognition." Lopinto paraphrases Baker as adding, "They've held dances where anyone in modern dress is barred from attending—even visiting Natives." Both Lopinto and Hagengruber quote Carmen Kwasny, who works with the Native American Association of Germany, as saying the Germans need to learn to view Native Americans as people, rather than idealized cultural fantasy characters.
Literature and art
The specific image of Indians originated earlier than May's writings. Already in the 18th century a specific German view on the fate of Native Americans can be found in various travel reports and scientific excursions.
Philipp Georg Friedrich von Reck (1710–1798) traveled to
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...
and still are among the German youth literature classics. In 1815–18, the poet
Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso (; 30 January 178121 August 1838) was a German poet and botanist, author of ''Peter Schlemihl'', a famous story about a man who sold his shadow. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso (or Chamissot) de Bonc ...
took part in a tour around the world led by
Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue (russian: О́тто Евста́фьевич Коцебу́, tr. ; – ) was a Russian officer and navigator in the Imperial Russian Navy. He was born in Reval. He was known for his explorations of Oceania.
Early life ...
and met native people in Latin and Northern America.
Christian Gottlieb Prieber, a lawyer and political utopian from
Zittau
Zittau ( hsb, Žitawa, dsb, Žytawa, pl, Żytawa, cs, Žitava, Upper Lusatian Dialect: ''Sitte''; from Slavic "'' rye''" (Upper Sorbian and Czech: ''žito'', Lower Sorbian: ''žyto'', Polish: ''żyto'')) is the southeasternmost city in the Ge ...
, emigrated to North America in 1735 and lived with the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
in Tennessee. He tried to build a society based on his ideals but was imprisoned in 1743 and died in prison in 1745.
Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied
Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (23 September 1782 – 3 February 1867) was a German explorer, ethnologist and naturalist. He led a pioneering expedition to southeast Brazil between 1815–1817, from which the album ''Reise na ...
, a nobleman and scientist, traveled from 1815 to 1817 to Brazil and from 1832 to 1834 to North America, accompanied by the Swiss painter
Karl Bodmer
Johann Carl Bodmer (11 February 1809 – 30 October 1893) was a Swiss-French printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator and hunter. Known as Karl Bodmer in literature and paintings, as a Swiss and French c ...
. Bodmer's portraits of
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, and
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...
. Karl Postl (1793–1864) wrote various novels about his experiences in the US between 1823 and 1831, using the pseudonym Charles Sealsfield. Similarly to Friedrich Gerstäcker, he wrote about Tecumseh and provided a more realistic picture than previous authors.
Fritz Steuben
Erhard Wittek (3 December 1898 – 4 June 1981), better known for his pen name Fritz Steuben, was a German author who wrote war novels and stories depicting American Indians (particularly the life of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh). Steuben wrote ...
's Tecumseh novels were bestsellers in the 1930s. After some Nazi allegations had been erased, the novels were reprinted – and sold well again – in the 1950s.
Painter and ice skater Julius Seyler (1873–1955) lived in
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
and depicted Blackfeet (''Three Bear'', ''Eagle Calf'', ''Bear Pipe Man'', etc.) and sacred locations such as the
Chief Mountain
Chief Mountain ('' Blackfoot: Ninaistako'') () is located in the U.S. state of Montana on the eastern border of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The mountain is one of the most prominent peaks and rock formations alon ...
Max Slevogt
Max Slevogt (8 October 1868 – 20 September 1932) was a German Impressionist painter and illustrator, best known for his landscapes. He was, together with Lovis Corinth and Max Liebermann, one of the foremost representatives in Germany of t ...
and
Rudolf Schlichter
Rudolf Schlichter (or Rudolph Schlichter) (December 6, 1890 – May 3, 1955) was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of the ''Neue Sachlichkeit'' (New Objectivity) movement.
Schlichter was born in Calw, Württemberg. A ...
.Klaus Dill (1922–2000) was a well known illustrator of German books about Native Americans.
Bavarian musician Willy Michl describes himself as an " Isar Indian".
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
In a 1999 speech delivered in the United States in English, Lutz declared: "For over two hundred years Germans have found ''Indianer'' so fascinating that even today an Indian iconography is used in advertising. The most popular image of the ''Indianer'' is provided by Karl May's fictional Apache chief Winnetou...Indian lore is profitable and marketable, as some Native Americans travelling in Germany may attest...There is a marked Indian presence in German everyday culture, even down to the linguistic level, where sentences like ''ein Indianer weint nicht'' (an Indian doesn't cry), ''ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz'' (an Indian braves pain) or figures such as ''der letzte Mohikaner'' (the Last of the Mohicans) have become part of the everyday speech". Other examples include:
German-American heritage
The descendants of the founders of
New Braunfels
New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas known for its German Texan heritage. It is the seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a population of 90,403 as of the 2020 Census. A suburb just north ...
and Fredericksburg in Texas claim that their peace treaty with the local natives, the
Meusebach–Comanche Treaty
The Meusebach–Comanche Treaty was a treaty made on May 9, 1847 between the private citizens of the Fisher–Miller Land Grant in Texas (United States), who were predominantly German in nationality, and the Penateka Comanche Tribe. The treaty ...
of 1847, has never been broken. However, German immigrants underwent less of a close synthesis and interaction than, for example,
Scottish Americans
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, d ...
,Hunter, James, ''A Dance Called America: Scottish Highlands, the United States and Canada'', Mainstream Publishing, 1995, . with some notable exceptions such as
Ben Reifel
Benjamin Reifel, also known as Lone Feather (September 19, 1906 – January 2, 1990) was a Lakota Sioux public administrator and politician. He had a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, retiring as area administrator. He ran for the US Co ...
.
Prominent German-Americans with a certain role in the image-building of Native Americans include the painters
Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not ...
(1830–1902) and
Louis Maurer
Louis Maurer (February 21, 1832 – July 19, 1932) was a German-born American lithographer, and the father of the American painter Alfred Henry Maurer. He was the last surviving artist known to have been employed by Currier and Ives. Prior ...
(1832–1932). Important contribution in the humanities include anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) and
Native American Renaissance The Native American Renaissance is a term originally coined by critic Kenneth Lincoln in the 1983 book ''Native American Renaissance'' to categorise the significant increase in production of literary works by Native Americans in the United States in ...
writer
Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...
(born 1954).
Germans still have an easygoing approach to using blackface or redface; there is a varied and continuing tradition of temporarily immersing oneself in different customs that is part of Carnival. ''Indianerhobby'' reenactment or
living history
Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to ree ...
is in effect part of German folklore. The "cult" goes beyond Karl May and aims at a high level of authenticity. This sort of "second-hand folklore" is an alternative way of dealing with
Americanization
Americanization or Americanisation (see spelling differences) is the influence of American culture and business on other countries outside the United States of America, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, te ...
, "anti-Imperialism", and popular ethnology.Wilczek, Gabriele, "Volkskultur aus fremder Hand - Indianer- und Westernhobby in Deutschland zwischen Amerikanisierung, 'Anti-Imperialismus' und popularisierter Ethnologie", doctoral dissertation,
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...
, 1997
The background in
human zoos
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were public displays of people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays sometimes emphasized the sup ...
(Völkerschau in German) and the first Western movies is still vivid as well in "Cowboy and Indianer" children games. Americans have e.g. harshly criticized photoshoot of (predominantly white) candidates dressed in Native American garb in Heidi Klum's ''
Germany's Next Topmodel
''Germany's Next Topmodel'' (often abbreviated as ''GNTM'') is a German reality television series, based on a concept introduced by Tyra Banks with ''America's Next Top Model''. The competition is hosted by Heidi Klum who also serves as the lea ...
'' show.
The harsh condemnation by Marta Carlson, a Native American activist, of Germans for getting pleasure from "something their whiteness has participated in destroying", is not shared by others.Boeck, Brian J. review of her short essay in Colin G. Calloway ''et al.'', ''Germans and Indians: Fantasies, Encounters, Projections''. As with Irish or Scottish immigrants, the " whiteness" of German immigrants was not a given for
WASP
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...
Americans. Both Germans and Native Americans had to regain some of their customs, as a direct heritage tradition was no longer in place. It is however still somewhat disturbing for both sides when German hobby Indians meet Native German enthusiasts. There are allegations of plastic shamanism versus mockery about Native Americans excluding non-Indians and banning alcohol at their events. German (and
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
) hobbyists' concept of
multiculturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
includes the inaleniable right to keep and drink beer in their tipis or
kohte
The Kohte is the typical tent of German Scouting and the German Youth Movement. Based on the Sami goahti and lavvu and developed in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it is an open-topped tent assembled on-site from four characteristically shaped ...
s.
Notable collections and museums
The Indian department of the
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin (german: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin) is one of the Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in ...
Tagesspiegel
''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, ...
'', 18 June 2011.
Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied
Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (23 September 1782 – 3 February 1867) was a German explorer, ethnologist and naturalist. He led a pioneering expedition to southeast Brazil between 1815–1817, from which the album ''Reise na ...
, sketches and paintings are part of Prince Maximilian's travel report book ''Reise im Inneren von Nordamerika'' (1844) and can be seen at the Nordamerika Native Museum (NONAM) in Zurich and in the
Joslyn Art Museum
The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States. Located in Omaha, it was opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. It is the only m ...
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
.
Villa Shatterhand in
Radebeul
Radebeul ( hsb, Radobyle) is a town (''große Kreisstadt'') in the Elbe valley in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany, a suburb of Dresden. It is well known for its viticulture, a museum dedicated to writer Karl May, and a narrow gaug ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', 9 April 2012. Author, adventurer, artist, curator and acrobat Ernst Tobis alias Patty Frank (1876–1959) founded this leading collection of Native American artifacts in Germany and took care of them till his death. He led hundreds of thousands of visitors through the collection.
The
Museum Five Continents
The Museum Five Continents or Five Continents Museum (german: Museum Fünf Kontinente), located in Munich, Germany, is a museum for non-European artworks and objects of cultural value. Its name until 9 September 2014 was Bavarian State Museum of E ...
in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
contains the collection of Indian artefacts and art of
Princess Theresa of Bavaria
Princess Therese of Bavaria (german: Therese Charlotte Marianne Auguste von Bayern; 12 November 1850 – 19 December 1925) was an ethnologist, zoologist, botanist, travel writer and leader in social care.
Therese was the third child and only da ...
, a natural scientist and eager traveler."Princess Therese", ''The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century'', ed.
Marilyn Ogilvie
Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie (born 1936) is an American historian of science known especially for her work on the history of women in science. She taught at Oklahoma Baptist University before becoming curator of the History of Science Collections and ...
,
Joy Harvey
Joy Dorothy Harvey (born 1934) is an American historian of science.
Life
Harvey gained a PhD from Harvard University in 1983. She has been an associate editor of the Darwin Correspondence Project, and written a biography of Clémence Royer, Dar ...
, New York: Routledge, 2000, p. 197.
See also
*
List of fictional Native Americans
This is the list of fictional Native Americans from notable works of fiction (literatures, films, television shows, video games, etc.). It is organized by the examples of the fictional indigenous peoples of North America: the Native Americans in ...
Ostern
The Ostern (Eastern; , ''Istern''; or остерн) or Red Western was a film genre created in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc as a variation of the Western films that originated in the United States. The word "Ostern" is a portmanteau derived ...
, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
.
*
Pretendian
A pretendian (portmanteau of ''pretend'' and ''Indian'') is a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by claiming to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation, or to be descended from Native ancestors. Th ...
*Chandler, Daniel and Rod Munday (2011). ''A Dictionary of Media and Communication''. Oxford University Press.
*Deloria, Philip J. (1998). ''Playing Indian''. Yale University Press. .
*Eddy, Melissa (2014). "Lost in Translation: Germany's Fascination With the American Old West". ''The New York Times''. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/world/europe/germanys-fascination-with-american-old-west-native-american-scalps-human-remains.html?_r=0
*Friedrich von Borries / Jens-Uwe Fischer: ''Sozialistische Cowboys. Der Wilde Westen Ostdeutschlands''. Frankfurt/ Main: Suhrkamp, 2008, (www.sozialistische-cowboys.de about the 'socialist cowboys' in the GDR)
*Galchen, Rivka (2012). "Wild West Germany: Why do cowboys and Indians so captivate the country?". ''The New Yorker''. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/09/wild-west-germany
*Gerd Gemunden, Colin G. Calloway, Susanne Zantop: Germans and Indians: Fantasies, Encounters, Projections,
University of Nebraska Press
The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Unive ...
, Lincoln, NE 2002,
*Gilders, Adam (2003). "Ich Bin Ein Indianer: Germany's Obsession with a past it never had". ''The Walrus ''. http://thewalrus.ca/2003-10-feature-2/
*Hagengruber, James (2002). "Sitting Bull: Bush-hating Germans might not sing 'Hail to the Chief,' but they're infatuated with the first Americans". ''Salon''. http://www.salon.com/2002/11/27/indians/
*Haircrow, Red (2013). "Ich Bin Ein Tonto: Johnny Depp at 'Lone Ranger' Premiere in Berlin". ''Indian Country Today Media Network''. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/gallery/photo/ich-bin-ein-tonto-johnny-depp-lone-ranger-premiere-berlin-150589
*Haircrow, Red (2014). "A Star Trek Convention for Native Enthusiasts: Inside a German Pow Wow". ''Indian Country Today Media Network''. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/24/star-trek-convention-native-enthusiasts-inside-german-pow-wow-153712
*Haircrow, Red (2014). "An Agreement Is Reached Regarding Scalps at the Karl May Museum". ''Indian Country Today Media Network''. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/06/14/agreement-reached-regarding-scalps-karl-may-museum-155307
*Ulrich van der Heyden: Eine unentdeckte Nische der DDR-Gesellschaft: Die "Indianistikszene" zwischen "antiimperialistischer Solidarität" und Verweigerung, in: Kultursoziologie. Aspekte – Analysen – Argumente, Nr. 2, Leipzig 2002, S. 153–174, about the GDR Indianistik scene
* Pamela Kort and Max Hollein (ed.): ''I like America. Fiktionen des Wilden Westens'' (The title is a pun on
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
' '' I Like America and America Likes Me''). Katalog der Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. München: Prestel, 2006 dnb entry and catalogue
*Levine, Carole Quattro (2008). "'Indianer': A glimpse inside the world of German Hobby Indians". ''Scene4 Magazine''. http://www.scene4.com/archivesqv6/may-2008/html/carolelevine0508.html
*Lopinto, Noemi (2009). "Der Indianer: Why Do 40,000 Germans spend their weekends dressed as Native Americans?". ''Utne.com ''. http://www.utne.com/mind-and-body/germans-weekends-native-americans-indian-culture.aspx#axzz3Iclt4HSK
*Penny, H. Glenn (2011). "The German Love Affair with American Indians: Rudolf Cronau's Epiphany". ''Common-Place.org''. http://www.common-place.org/vol-11/no-04/reading/
*Penny, H. Glenn (2013). ''Kindred By Choice ''. The University of North Carolina Press. .
* Hans-Peter Rodenberg: ''Der imaginierte Indianer. Zur Dynamik von Kulturkonflikt und Vergesellschaftung des Fremden,'' Frankfurt/ Main: Suhrkamp, 1994. (The imaginated Indian)
*Sieg, Katrin (2002). ''Ethnic Drag''. University of Michigan Press. .
*Spiderwoman Theatre (1999). . ''Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library''.
*Stetler, Julia Simone (2012). "Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Germany. A Transnational History". University of Nevada, Las Vegas Theses/Dissertations/Professional Papers/Capstones. Paper 1634.
* Frank Usbeck
** ''Fellow Tribesmen: The Image of Native Americans, National Identity, and Nazi Ideology in Germany.'' New York: Berghahn, 2015.
** "Fighting Like Indians. The Indian Scout Syndrome in American and German War Reports of World War II," in: Fitz, Karsten (ed.): ''Visual Representations of Native Americans: Transnational Contexts and Perspectives.'' Heidelberg: Winter. 2012. 125-43.
** "Learning from Tribal Ancestors: How the Nazis Used Indian Imagery to Promote a Holistic Understanding of Nature among Germans." ''Elohi. Peuples Indigènes et Environnement,'' Vol. 4. 2014. 45-60.
Utne Reader
''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...
Indian Country Today Media Network
''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations.
It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...
Mother Jones magazine
''Mother Jones'' (abbreviated ''MoJo'') is an American progressive magazine that focuses on news, commentary, and investigative journalism on topics including politics, environment, human rights, health and culture. Clara Jeffery serves as edi ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane- Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from se ...