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German Westerns: Popularity, Reception, Heroines, Miscegenation, Race, and Landscape

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Book cover Cold War Rivalry and the Perception of the American West

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series ((PMSTH))

Abstract

Not only did Karl May films prove to be the most successful film series in West German history, but they also revived the German film industry. Kölnische Rundschau, a West German newspaper, even headlined its review of Old Shatterhand, the third in the series of Karl May films, with: “Scriptwriter Karl May saves German film.”1 Indianerfilme, the East German response to West German Karl May films, became the most successful movie series in East Germany. Based on the popularity of the Indianerfilme in East Germany, as well as the fact that DEFA created Indianerfilme as a response to the popularity of Karl May Westerns, one might conclude that Karl May’s heroes, Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, not only saved West German cinema, but also contributed to the growth of cinema in East Germany. Furthermore, Karl May films triggered a wave of interest in Westerns across the European continent on a scale previously unknown. Some of them, Italian “Spaghetti” Westerns in particular, became very successful internationally.

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Notes

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  1. Department of History, University of Texas at Arlington, USA

    Pawel Goral

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© 2014 Pawel Goral

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Goral, P. (2014). German Westerns: Popularity, Reception, Heroines, Miscegenation, Race, and Landscape. In: Cold War Rivalry and the Perception of the American West. Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137364302_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137364302_4

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47324-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-36430-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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