Kara Ben Nemsi
Kara Ben Nemsi (Turkish Kara: "black", phonetic reference to "Karl"; Ben Nemsi: Arabic-sounding name meaning "son of the Germans") is the name of the first-person narrator in Karl May's Orient novels .
He embodies a young German, who mostly travels through North Africa , Sudan , the Middle East and the Balkans together with companions such as his servant and guide Hajji Halef Omar or the English Lord Sir David Lindsay and in his fight for peace and justice all kinds of adventures experienced. For Kara Ben Nemsi, external characteristics are his horse Rih and his western firearms , the power of which is largely unknown in the areas he travels.
Old Shatterhand
Kara Ben Nemsi and Old Shatterhand , who roams America , are one and the same person, created by the first-person narrator Karl May and influenced by autobiography. This becomes clear, among other things, in the novel Im Reiche des Silber Löwen I (now also under the title The Lion of Blood Vengeance ), where the narrator is as Old Shatterhand in the USA and there meets an acquaintance from the Orient, the Old Shatterhand as "Kara Ben Nemsi", or in Satan and Ischariot II (now also under the title Krüger Bei ), where Old Shatterhand travels to Tunis . Old Shatterhand got the name "Kara Ben Nemsi" from his constant companion and friend Hajji Halef Omar .
Development of the name and interpretation of the term "Nemsi"
May introduces the terms “Nemsi” and “Nemsistan” in his third oriental story, Die Rose von Sokna , published in 1878 . There he translates the words used by a caravan leader or the Arab servant of the as yet unnamed first-person narrator with "German" and "Germany". The naming "Kara Ben Nemsi" takes place in the 1880/81 "Travel Memories from the Turkish Empire by Karl May" Giölgeda padishanün (later Through the Desert ) by the servant Hajji Halef Omar, who spontaneously invents this name during a performance:
“The good person asked me my name once and really remembered the word Karl. But since he was unable to pronounce it, he quickly made a kara out of it and added Ben Nemsi, descendant of the Germans. "
From a later passage in the story, where he uses Nemtsche-schimakler ("Northern Germans") and Nemtsche-memleketler ("Austrians"), it emerges that May with the pair of terms "nemsi / deutscher" is more of an affiliation to a German state Meaning of the German Confederation as meaning the German Reich , which was only a few years old at the time .
When it is not about the name and in later works, May likes to use the terms Almani and Belad el Alman / Almanja for "German" and "Germany" in his stories about the Orient :
“The country is called Belad el Alman; So I'm an almani or, if you should have heard the word, a Nemsi and my name is Kara Ben Nemsi. My fatherland is far over the sea. "
Belad el Alman ("Land of the Germans") is also directly associated with Kaiser Wilhelm I and thus with the German Empire:
“I heard about the Belad el Alman. There is a great sultan, who is called Wi-hel (Wilhelm) and who has defeated the French. These are our enemies; therefore every almani is our friend, and my people will be happy to see you. Of course you are a warrior too? "
In old Turkish and Ottoman, nemse or nemçe was used as a designation for German or more specifically Austria. In modern Arabic, Nimsa (نمسا) means “Austria” and Nimsawi (نمساوي) means “Austrian”; a German is called Almani (ألماني) and Germany Almanya (ألمانيا). See also Polish Niemcy for Germany and Niemiec for German and corresponding forms in the other Slavic languages.
In later works, May apparently prefers the direct derivation of Kara from his beard color instead of his first name:
“As far as my name is concerned, I was not called Kara Ben Nemsi on my actual trip but, as on my previous trips. Kara means "black" and Ben Nemsi means "son of the Germans". I had a dark beard and was a German; hence this name. "
Kara Ben Nemsi in the works of Karl May
In the following table, in addition to the original titles, the current numbers of the volume and the story from Karl May's Gesammelte Werken (titles may differ), the title of the corresponding reprint of the Karl May Society as well as the department and volume number of the historical-critical edition of Karl May Works (if already published) indicated.
| title | year | Remarks | Karl May’s Collected Works |
Reprints of the Karl May Society |
Historical-critical edition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Through the desert and the harem | 1892 | since 1895 under the title Through the Desert |
1 | Giölgeda padiśhanün - travel adventure in Kurdistan |
IV.1 |
| Through wild Kurdistan | 1892 | 2 | Giölgeda padiśhanün - travel adventure in Kurdistan |
IV.2 | |
| From Baghdad to Stambul | 1892 | 3 | The death caravan - In Damascus and Baalbeck - Stambul - The last ride | IV.3 | |
| In the gorges of the Balkans | 1892 | 4th |
The death caravan - In Damascus and Baalbeck - Stambul - The last ride and through the land of the Skipetaren |
IV.4 | |
| Through the land of the Skipetars | 1892 | 5 | Through the land of the Skipetars | IV.5 | |
| The Schut | 1892 | 6th | Through the land of the Skipetars | ||
| Oranges and dates | 1893 | ||||
| • The gum | original title: Unter Strangern revision of Die Gum (1877) and Die Rose von Sokna (1878) |
10 , 01 | ( Smaller house treasure stories ) | IV.24 | |
| • Christ or Muhammad | 10.02 | Christ or Muhammad | IV.24 | ||
| • The Krumir | 10.03 | The Krumir | IV.24 | ||
| • A Ghasuah | 10.05 | Christ or Muhammad | IV.24 | ||
| • Nûr es Semâ - heavenly light | 48 , 11 | Christ or Muhammad | IV.24 | ||
| • Christ's blood and righteousness | 48.08 | Christ or Muhammad | IV.24 | ||
| • Mater dolorosa | 48.07 | Christ or Muhammad | IV.24 | ||
| • The cursed one | 48.12 | Christ or Muhammad | IV.24 | ||
| A release | 1894 | in The Rose of Kaïrwan | 38 , 04 | ||
| In the land of Mahdi I. | 1896 | 16 | The Mahdi - In Sudan | IV.9 | |
| In the land of Mahdi II | 1896 | 17th | The Mahdi - In Sudan | ||
| In the land of Mahdi III | 1896 | 18th | The Mahdi - In Sudan | ||
| Satan and Iscariot II | 1897 | 21st | Krüger Bei - The hunt for the millionaire |
||
| On foreign paths | 1897 | ||||
| • He Raml el Helahk | 10.04 | Christ or Muhammad | |||
| • Blood revenge | 23 , 03 | Christ or Muhammad | |||
| • The Kutb | 23.04 | Christ or Muhammad | |||
| • The Kys-Kapchiji | 23.05 | Christ or Muhammad | |||
| • Mary or Fatima | 23.06 | Christ or Muhammad | |||
| In the realm of the silver lion I. | 1898 | 26th | In the realm of the silver lion | ||
| The "Umm ed Jamahl" | 1898 | later heavily reworked into the realm of the Silver Lion II integrated |
48.13 | Christ or Muhammad | |
| In the realm of the silver lion II | 1898 | 27 | In the realm of the silver lion | ||
| On the afterlife | 1899 | 25th | |||
| In the realm of the silver lion III | 1902 | 28 | At death | ||
| In the realm of the silver lion IV | 1903 | 29 | |||
| With the lepers | 1907 | 81 , 04 | Christ or Muhammad | ||
| Abdahn Effendi | 1908 | 81.01 | The Krumir | ||
| Merhameh | 1909 | Title illustration incorrectly reads Marhameh |
81.02 | Christ or Muhammad | |
| Ardistan and Jinnistan I | 1909 | 31 , chapters 1-14 | The Mir of Jinnistan | V.5 | |
| Ardistan and Jinnistan II | 1909 | 31, chapters 15-16 and 32 |
The Mir of Jinnistan | V.6 |
In the chapter At the Tiger Bridge in the volume Am Stillen Ocean (1894), the first-person narrator points out his identity with Kara Ben Nemsi and Old Shatterhand.
As part of the collected works , Kara Ben Nemsi appears in two other volumes:
- In Mekka (1923), continuation of Am Jenseits by Franz Kandolf
- Allah il Allah! (1931), an adaptation of the gossip novel German Hearts - German Heroes (1885–87). This Kara Ben Nemsi is in the original the main character Oskar Steinbach. The mentions in Dervish (1933), another adaptation of this novel, are also not from May's pen.
In the youth story Die Sklavenkarawane (1893) Kara Ben Nemsi does not appear , in contrast to the film of the same name .
Karl May films with Kara Ben Nemsi
The figure also appears in various films based on Karl May's work , which often do not take up much more than May's characters and motifs:
- On the ruins of paradise (1920) with Carl de Vogt
- The Caravan of Death (1920) with Carl de Vogt
- The Devil Worshipers (1921) with Carl de Vogt
- Through the desert (1936) with Fred Raupach
- The slave caravan (1958) with Viktor Staal
- The Lion of Babylon (1959) with Helmuth Schneider
- The Schut (1964) with Lex Barker
- Through wild Kurdistan (1965) with Lex Barker
- In the Realm of the Silver Lion (1965) with Lex Barker
In the ZDF trial program during the radio exhibition in 1963, some half-hour episodes of a 6-part series with the title With Karl May in the Orient were broadcast. Kara Ben Nemsi was played by Harry Walther , an actor in the Karl May Games Bad Segeberg , and Hajji Halef Omar by Osman Ragheb. The quality of the episodes is said to have been so bad that they were not repeated after the regular broadcasting operations of ZDF began.
On television (ZDF) ran a 26-part series under the title Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi from 1973 to 1975. The main actor was Karl-Michael Vogler , the Hajji Halef Omar played by Heinz Schubert . The music for the series comes from Martin Böttcher , who also composed the music for ten Karl May films. In the movies of the 1960s Kara Ben Nemsi was played by the American actor Lex Barker.
Web links
- Kara Ben Nemsi in the Karl May Wiki
- Christoph F. Lorenz, Bernhard Kosciuszko: Kara Ben Nemsi . In: Yearbook of the Karl May Society 1991 . ( karl-may-gesellschaft.de [accessed on December 6, 2010]).
- Helmut Lieblang: "Ben Nemsi, descendant of the Germans ..." Karl May and Gerhard Rohlfs . In: Yearbook of the Karl May Society 1998 . Hansa Verlag, Husum 1998 ( karl-may-gesellschaft.de [accessed on December 1, 2010]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Since Unter Würgern was written before the Orient cycle , the first-person narrator is not identical with Kara Ben Nemsi; the equation only took place through inclusion in the anthology oranges and dates .