[OPENING MONTAGE] NYT (in German): “Why are Germans so interested in American Indians?” Winnetou/Jan Sosniok (in German): “Well, Indians are pretty sweet. I mean, just look at me. Pretty cool.” JAN SOSNIOK IS A TELEVISION STAR IN GERMANY, Winnetou/Jan Sosniok (in German): “Yeah, awesome!” BUT THIS SUMMER SOME 300,000 PEOPLE WILL SEE HIM PERFORM IN PERSON IN BAD SEGEBERG, A SMALL TOWN 3 HOURS NORTH OF BERLIN. IN A THEATRE PRODUCTION THAT HAS DRAWN LARGE CROWDS FOR MORE THAN 60 YEARS, THE ACTOR PLAYS THE ROLE OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST FOLK HEROS GERMANY HAS EVER SEEN: THE FICTIONAL APACHE, CHIEF WINNETOU. NAT//Winnetou in the play (in German): “Winnetou has never seen hoof prints like these.” Winnetou/Jan Sosniok (in German): “He represents things we long for. An understanding of Mother Earth. The type of friendships he cultivates. NAT//Winnetou in the play (in German): “What should Winnetou do?” Winnetou/Jan Sosniok (in German): How he treats people. His idea of peace.” NAT//Winnetou in the play (in German): “Schiba-Bigk, be a brother of the Apaches.” Ute Thienel, Director, Karl-May-Spiele Bad Segeberg (in German): “Winnetou is the Chief of the Apaches. He is a creation of Karl May.” H. Glenn Penny, Author, ‘Kindred By Choice: Germans and American Indians since 1800’: “Karl May, I believe, is the author who sold the most books in Germany. That means he sold more books than Goethe, more books than Thomas Mann. Basically, everybody read his books. The closest thing I could get to this in contemporary American culture is people who grew up reading the Harry Potter books. And everybody would know a particular character in the book. Same is true with Winnetou. And to this day, you could play the theme song to a Winnetou film and everyone would recognize it. NAT//Opening shot to Winnetou 1 film, music Christian Kohlund, Actor: “I think the first one I saw, I was 12 or 13, I saw it about 20 times. We were just running to the cinema. The music was so great and the landscape and the horses. Dreams, just dream.” NAT//Winnetou (in scene from Winnetou movie, in German): My brother. NAT//Old Shatterhand (in scene from Winnetou movie, in German): My brother. WINNETOU RIDES THROUGH THROUGH KARL MAY’S ADVENTURES ALONGSIDE HIS GERMAN BLOOD BROTHER, BOTH IN THE MOVIES AND IN BAD SEGEBERG. NAT//Old Shatterhand in the play (in German): “I am glad we are once again riding side-by-side, my brother.” Old Shatterhand/Wayne Carpendale, Actor: “I am Old Shatterhand. I am an author coming to America, and there I get to meet Winnetou, and from there I fight for tolerance, for responsibility, for loyalty, and for values like that. NAT//Old Shatterhand in the play (in German): “I fight at the side of every man who stands for what is just.” Old Shatterhand/Wayne Carpendale, Actor: “Karl May wrote a character, basically his alter ego, who is good in, 15, 16, 20 languages. He is good in astronomy, zoology, physics. He is good at everything.” KARL MAY TOLD HIS FANS HE EXPERIENCED THE ADVENTURES HE WROTE ABOUT FIRSTHAND. BUT IN FACT HE NEVER TRAVELED TO NORTH AMERICA UNTIL AFTER HE HAD WRITTEN MOST OF HIS WINNETOU STORIES. BEFORE HE BECAME FAMOUS, HIS IMAGINATION GOT HIM INTO TROUBLE WITH THE LAW. Hans Grunert, Curator, Karl May Museum (in German): “The main crimes were theft, meaning he stole pelts and pawned them. The next offense was impersonating a public servant. He pretended to be a police officer. And all of this put him behind bars for a total of seven years.” H. Glenn Penny, Author, ‘Kindred By Choice’: “The books are very much German literature. The heroes in them are largely German characters out in the American West. The other characters that are quite critical are the Indians themselves. And the interesting thing about these stories is that through most of these stories, it’s the Indians who are the good guys. And this is a big difference between the way Americans engage with playing Indian and way Germans would engage with playing Indian. You know, most of the time in Germany, the kids would want to be the Indian, not the cavalry who are going to win the battle at the end.” Jürgen Michaelis, Hobbyist: “My Indian name is Lonely Man. I come from the city of Chemnitz. I was born here in Saxony, but most of the time of the year I live like an Indian.” JÜRGEN MICHAELIS USED TO LIVE IN A TEEPEE MUCH OF THE YEAR. AT THE KARL MAY MUSEUM NEAR DRESDEN, HE SHARES WHAT HE HAS LEARNED ABOUT THE LAKOTA SIOUX, WEARING CLOTHING AND SHOWING ARTIFACTS HE MADE HIMSELF. NAT//Jürgen Michaelis into camera (in English): “And some people ask me, how do you make this, and we speak over them.” HE HAS NEVER BEEN TO NORTH AMERICA, BUT HE SAYS HIS 5-DECADE-LONG ENGAGEMENT WITH NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE HAS CHANGED HIS LIFE. Jürgen Michaelis, Hobbyist: “It’s a simple life for me. Every day I see what I... [switches to German:] Again and again, I realize how little I actually need.” H. Glenn Penny, Author, ‘Kindred By Choice’: “To this day there are groups of hobbyists, that meet, sometimes a thousand will gather in a particular field, near a forest, where they will live in teepee encampments and dress like 19th century Native Americans.” Jürgen Michaelis, Hobbyist (in German): “If I am a real Indian? Children always ask this question. I tell them, you have to decide for yourselves. For some you are a bit unusual, because you live in a teepee. For others you are not accurate enough. Visitors have to decide for themselves. Native Americans welcomed people. There were plenty of white and black people who lived with Native Americans. And those people became part of their community.” NAT//Gerd Brandt singing and beating on drum. Gerd Brandt, Educator: “What I think what really is important for humanity is keeping in contact to the spirits of nature. To the spirits of the world. NAT//Gerd Brandt in teepee talking to children (in German): “No. A lynx is a cat. I am not cat, come on.” Gerd Brandt, Educator: “I share with the children wisdom which has been shared with me by Native American Indians.” GERD BRANDT TOURS GERMANY WITH HIS TEEPEE AND THE STORIES AND RITUALS HE HAS LEARNED FROM LAKOTA INDIANS. Gerd Brandt, Educator: “I choose this culture, because it helped myself in my living. In my life. I was asking what is the meaning of life. NAT//Gerd Brandt in teepee starting a prayer (in German): “Thank you very much for everything.” Gerd Brandt, Educator: “Through the people I met, and through the ceremonies especially, I really got in contact to something, which just made me feel better. And slowly, step-by-step, I become more loving to myself. More accepting of myself. I even used drugs, and, well, it’s gone.” Winnetou/Jan Sosniok: “The ideas of Native Americans are not foreign to me. Ten years ago I took a seminar with a Native American, and he showed us what tools they use. Feelings play a big part, calling the spirits of the individual elements: fire, wind, water, air. All of that is real, and you can work with them, if you buy into it. Of course, some people think it’s nuts. But when you try it, and you see that it works, it’s really remarkable.” ON THE DAY OF THIS YEAR’S PREMIERE IN BAD SEGEBERG WE ASKED SOSNIOK HOW HE THINKS NATIVE AMERICANS MIGHT PERCEIVE THE PRODUCTION. NYT (in German): “Do you think there are American Indians who are upset about the fact that you or that other Germans put on red paint and play Native Americans?” Winnetou/Jan Sosniok (in German): “Do we play with red paint?” NYT (in German): “Well, make up and things like that.” Winnetou/Jan Sosniok (in German): “I see. Well, that’s necessary, because... Well, not for me, because I am pretty tan already [laughs] but... Mmh. I am not sure. I don’t think so. No, I don’t think so. We portray them in a positive way, and there is really no reason for Native Americans to see this with anything but goodwill.” [MICHIGAN] Cecil E. Pavlat Sr., Cultural Repatriation Specialist, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians: “Before March of this year, I had never heard of Karl May. I understand that he was a German author, who wrote about Native American culture, belief. I understand that he was very much enamored. The books that he wrote are very much romanticized, very much fantasy in his own mind. And I don’t look at that with being offended or totally negative. He opened the door for some to understand who we are as a people. And I don’t think he had a bad intent in mind when he wrote those books. But they have had an impact.” Cecil E. Pavlat Sr., Cultural Repatriation Specialist, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians: “We became very concerned, when we learned that the Karl May Museum in Radebeul, Germany, had scalps and what we refer to as ancestral remains, ancestral human remains. AFTER A FACE-TO-FACE MEETING WITH MR. PAVLAT, THE MUSEUM STOPPED DISPLAYING SCALPS. BUT WHETHER OR NOT IT WILL RETURN THE ARTIFACT IN QUESTION IS UNCLEAR. Hans Grunert, Curator, Karl May Museum (in German): “Naturally, we don’t want to have any confrontation with Native Americans. That’s a fact. On the other hand, a museum has the mission to safeguard historic artifacts. We can’t just destroy these items, if it their origin hasn’t been determined. Cecil E. Pavlat Sr. (standing on burial ground): “We are standing on TK, a sacred burial ground, which we believe to have been here for thousands of years.” “We understand and believe not only the physical but also the spiritual world. So when one scalp is taken from that physical shell, that human body, then that person that spirit becomes incomplete and that journey is interrupted.” NYT (in German): “If it turns out that the scalp belongs to the tribe, you would return it?” Hans Grunert, Curator, Karl May Museum (in German): “If that’s clear and there are no other claims, yes, well, then we can talk about it.” Cecil E. Pavlat Sr., Cultural Repatriation Specialist, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians: “I really don’t understand how another being can think or believe that it’s ok to hold parts of another human basically hostage, or how they can display those in a conscious way without knowing that it’s offensive and inappropriate or unacceptable.” THE EXTENT TO WHICH KARL MAY’S WORK LACKS AUTHENTICITY IS NOT LOST ON GERMANS LIKE JENS KALLE. HE GREW UP WATCHING THE PERFORMANCES IN BAD SEGEBERG AND LATER STUDIED AT THE INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ART IN NEW MEXICO. Jens Kalle, Artist (at the performance): “The burial dance is something I really don’t like to see? [NYT: Why not?] Because I don’t have any words for this kind of grotesque scenery.” Jens Kalle, Artist (at his home): “The dances, the choreography of the dances, and stuff like that. Because that’s got nothing to do with real Native Americans. The Apaches didn’t live in pueblos, the Plains Indians didn’t have totem poles. What they show is Karl May’s work. 500 different cultures, and he was putting it all into a big pot and making his Indian stereotype, which most Germans still believe is true today.” AUTHENTIC OR NOT, THE GERMANS CONTINUE TO LOVE KARL MAY. Winnetou on a horse sitting next to Old Shatterhand (in German): “Only the ghosts we believe in are truly alive.” IN BAD SEGEBERG, WINNETOU AND OLD SHATTERHAND MADE PEACE WITH THE COMANCHES AND DEFEATED THE VILLAINS—ONCE AGAIN. THEY WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR.