Karl May reception from 1933 to 1945

The Karl May reception from 1933 to 1945 was a difficult, double-edged matter. Personal admiration for Karl May on the one hand - ideological adjustment problems, abuse and dubious processing of his writings on the other. How great May's influence on Adolf Hitler was is controversial.

It was a successful time for Karl May Verlag : Sales of May volumes rose to 9.3 million (1945).

The Karl May Festival , which has been taking place with great success on the Rathen rock stage in Saxon Switzerland since 1938, played a major role in the increasing popularity of May's works .

Hitler's enthusiasm for Karl May

When Karl May gave his lecture Up into the realm of noble people! On March 22, 1912 in the Sofiensaal in Vienna . stopped, Hitler lived as an unemployed painter in Vienna . A visit by Hitler to Karl May's lecture is unproven, but is occasionally accepted by biographers of both men.

Hitler's secretary Henry Picker mentions the following incident from Hitler's youth:

“Even in the first year of secondary school, Hitler was 'stuck', some of the other three he only managed to take with repetitive exams. Even 32 strokes of his father's stick did not bring any improvement; he recapitulated Karl May and got his father off the hook by counting the individual blows out loud. "

Hitler's architect and friend, the Armaments Minister Albert Speer , describes a trip to the Linz tank works. Since he still had some time left, Hitler showed Speer the Linz of his youth.

"He showed us a hotel near the Danube in which, as Hitler recalled, Karl May had lived for almost twelve months in 1901."

There is evidence that Hitler's reading material (also) included May's works in his libraries in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin , on Obersalzberg and in his private apartment in Munich . The following applies in particular to Indian and Oriental stories:

"Throughout his life, Hitler was always happy to reach out to Karl May, whose adventures, as he himself said, gave him consolation in tense situations."

In the first few months after his appointment as Reich Chancellor , Hitler fell into a kind of idleness and read almost all (at that time there were 60) volumes that he later claimed during the war that they had opened his eyes to the world.

In 1933 the newspaper reporter Robert Achenbach wrote after a visit to Obersalzberg :

“On a bookshelf are political and political works, a few brochures and books about the care and breeding of the German Shepherd, and then - German boys, listen here! Then there is a whole series of volumes by - Karl May! The Winnetou , Old Surehand , the Schut , all dear friends. "

When preparing the attack on the Dutch fortress of Eben-Emael at the end of October 1939, Hitler suggested to the generals that they set up a defense battalion in Dutch uniforms: “Uniform is always the best camouflage in times of war.” However, it is necessary that the leaders of the raid troop in The language, clothing and behavior of Dutch police officers are indistinguishable. He cursed the generals' inability to develop such thoughts: "You should have read more Karl May!"

The writer Klaus Mann wrote (also on the basis of this quote) in American exile under the title Cowboy - Mentor of the Führer :

“A whole generation grew brutish and run wild - partly through the evil influence of Karl May […] The Third Reich is Karl May's ultimate triumph, the ghastly realization of his dreams.
A whole generation became brutal and freaked out - partly through the evil influence of Karl May [...] The Third Reich is Karl May's ultimate triumph, the horrific realization of his dreams. "

This bizarre misjudgment has been corrected by other exiled writers. Carl Zuckmayer's daughter Maria Winnetou (so called by her father, who was enthusiastic about Karl May), received an “open letter” from the Austrian writer Roda Roda , a friend of the family. She was put on an expatriation list of the National Socialists at the age of twelve . He wrote publicly to the so outlawed: “Or did you write “ Mein Kampf ”? Founded and committed robberies? Then, of course, the eight and the but eight would be deserved. "

May had made negative comments about racism and nationalism in 1906 . In this respect, May critics rightly remembered ideological convictions in his writings that were incompatible with National Socialism . For example, the teacher Wilhelm Fronemann judged in his ten-page letter of July 20, 1938 to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda :

"Karl May is a fanatical opponent of the racial idea [...] If one holds against the fact that May describes mixed marriages again and again [...] and, for example, in ' Und Friede auf Erden ' the rich Englishman Raffle marries a Chinese woman who, through her charm, makes the whole aristocratic Family who were outraged by the miscarriage, enchanted, so you can, without fear of contradiction, state that Karl May's curly world of ideas fits the worldview of the Third Reich like a fist on the eye. "

In 1984 the literary scholar Gunter Scholdt judged: "It is not the May influence on Hitler, but the insufficient May influence that is actually the fatal thing!"

The historian Roman Töppel , when examining the sources for racism in Hitler's Mein Kampf, came to the conclusion that May's influence on Hitler had been "greatly overestimated".

In the play Tumult auf Villa Shatterhand by Daniel Call , which premiered on November 29, 1997 in Dortmund , May and Hitler meet: Cared for by his wife Klara and ex-wife Emma , Karl May spends his last days in the Villa "Shatterhand" . He flees to his dream worlds from the visitors Adolf Hitler and several Radebeulers, until death transports him to the “eternal hunting grounds”.

Cultural political voices for and against Karl May

The takeover of power by the National Socialists in Germany in January 1933 led to drastic changes in the entire social life. In the field of literature , too , it brought "a completely new dimension of state control by destroying lines of cultural tradition, established organizational structures, institutions and associations, and forbidding, driving out and murdering writers and their works" .

For Karl May's work, this new, National Socialist era had to bring with it great difficulties. May's advocacy for peace and international understanding and against racism did not fit the goals of the new rulers. His warm-hearted advocacy for all oppressed peoples, his pacifism in his later work, his friendship with Bertha von Suttner stood in opposition to the new norms and views.

So it was actually very lucky that May's works did not end up at the stake in the book burning in May 1933. Because unexpectedly Adolf Hitler was associated with Karl May. On April 23, 1933, Oskar Robert Achenbach wrote in the Munich NSDAP party newspaper Sonntag-Morgenpost about a visit to Hitler's "Berghof" on the Obersalzberg :

“On a bookshelf are political and political works, a few brochures and books about the care and breeding of the German Shepherd, and then - German boys, listen here! then there will be a whole series of volumes by - Karl May! "

With this publication, Karl May was “exposed” as Hitler's favorite writer and at the same time became an official matter in the new state.

Double-edged praise

In March 1934, Bernhard Scheer repeated Achenbach's report in the local party organ National-Zeitung (Siegerland edition) and expanded it into an appeal to the German boys:

“What our Führer read in his youth must inspire every German boy and, above all, every Hitler Youth . What real boys like to read is always good, lazy and bad things turn themselves off in our healthy German Hitler Youth. And in every fresh Hitler Youth there is a piece of Old Shatterhand and Kara Ben Nemsi!

Bravery, nobleness, sense of duty, determination, courage, inner cleanliness, readiness for social help, belief in God and fatherland, feeling of home, strength of blood, love for parents, trust in one's own strength, belief in the authenticity of one's own being, loyalty and obedience the Führer are the great virtues that distinguish May's heroes. ... Karl May created such noble German figures in his works as our Führer wants to see them in every national comrade. ... Karl May is the reading of the rough reality as we are experiencing it today. Fight, no fear ... until a great and certain victory! "

On September 8, 1933, the magazine Der Beamtenbund, published in Berlin, said:

“... Even from the bitter hostility and the, in contrast, enthusiastic crushes for Karl May, one recognizes that there must be something big in him - the mediocre is also read a lot, but not praised or criticized and quickly forgotten. And truly, something very big, strong and important and valuable for the German youth means Karl May's work. One could almost say that the German youth has only now grown into him. He wrote ahead of his time and already a generation ago proclaimed the National Socialist German people of the future, or rather: he shaped the eternal German in his books, who first had to be disenchanted from the disguise as German Michel by the Führer Adolf Hitler, to become a National Socialist to create the Third Reich of heroes and noble men ... "

The Bavarian Minister of Education and Reichsleiter of the National Socialist Teachers' Union (NSLB) Hans Schemm said at a training conference in January 1934:

"There is more to the German boy and girl than the so-called school bravery, namely courage, initiative, guts, a thirst for adventure and a Karl May attitude!"

In the “Kampf- und Werbeblatt der SS” Das Schwarze Korps , an article between the lines was printed in the New Year's 1936 edition, which placed May and Hitler side by side in some aspects of their biography. Above all, it was about the journalistic "character assassination" that was practiced on May and attempted on Hitler.

On the 25th anniversary of Karl May's death on March 30, 1937, two articles appeared in the Black Corps with a Börsenblatt advertisement from Karl May Verlag and - a quarter of a year later - with an anonymously written commemorative article "Who was Old Shatterhand?" Both because of their content (against Freemasonry and Marxism , for “healthy nationalism ”), as well as because of their context, were considered ethically questionable, but at that time they served the defense of Karl May, who was repeatedly attacked.

For the 25th anniversary of Karl May Verlag in 1938, a "Confession to Karl May" was published, written by Heinrich Zerkaulen :

“... From the moment when Karl May at Radebeul in the villa 'Shatterhand' at the side of his brave and understanding partner Klara found the goal and rest of earthly wandering - from that moment on there was only one desire to make amends in his actions as if during his lifetime he had wanted to break off the tip of all subsequent attacks by his enemies.

His actual trips to the formerly dreamed-of countries of his imagination testify to this just as much as the thoroughness with which he scientifically supported his travel descriptions on the basis of his library, which is still documented today with his own entries.

This alone explains the magic that emanates from the designer Karl May to this day: this man came from the people and not from literature. His studies were life, his college was struggle. He was a priest beyond theology, a general without an army, a believer without dogma, a lover by calling, not an end in himself.

The life of Karl May was shone with large and small lamps; there was nothing that was not accused of him. He remained lonely throughout his life, only to be carried by the love of the people after his death. He was the first to be given the name of a folk writer in order to belittle him and his work.

Those who did this did not suspect that they were giving him an immortal honorary title. "

- Heinrich Zerkaulen

Ambivalent criticism

The fact that Karl May's writings were gaining increasing recognition again inevitably had to call Wilhelm Fronemann back on the scene as the sharpest May critic of the time. On April 15, 1933, he wrote a 13-page memorandum to the Bavarian Minister of Education, Schemm. In it he acknowledged the political goals of the National Socialists and demanded "detailed ... cleaning and reconstruction of the student libraries, state censorship, official youth literature directories, harmonization of the teacher examination committees for youth publications" , etc. He wants the 'trash literature' with an 'enabling law' get over. But Fronemann's efforts were initially in vain.

On August 3, 1933, the government of the NSLB decided to “include Karl May in the catalog of good youth publications” . Thereupon Fronemann wrote to the NSLB on November 16, 1933, "May was 1. a 'passionate advocate of an extensive racial mixture for very sentimental reasons of humanity' and 2. a 'passionate defender of a blurred pacifism'" .

Fronemann wrote to Schemm on February 22, 1934: "This Karl May was a Marxist and collaborator of the ' Vorwärts ', pacifist and enthusiastic supporter of Bertha von Suttner, he advocated any racial mixture ..." Fronemann put Schemms utterance of the "Karl- May-ethos ”as his opinion: “ Karl May fits National Socialism like a fist on the eye! ”

In an article in the Kölnische Zeitung of September 1, 1934, Fronemann finally went too far by publicly criticizing the National Socialists' enthusiasm for May. The NSLB took this as a political matter and warned Fronemann on November 19, 1934: "We cannot remember that you fought Karl May for these reasons before the National Socialist Revolution ..." Fronemann made only a few attempts afterwards, Criticize May's reputation.

On June 25, 1938 ordered Goebbels Propaganda Ministry on, "that attacks on the books of Karl May were not wanted" . There was one more energetic attempt by Fronemann to eliminate May, then this critic was silent - for a few years.

After the war he turned his argument against May and found that “the subtle tortures that Karl May often describes are not innocent of the torture methods used by the SS” . Elsewhere he stated: "God knows, the SS has sufficiently demonstrated their Karl May convictions on the way of their deeds and their teachers were also worthy of their hero Karl May."

Voices from exile

The recognition that May's work found in Germany during the National Socialist era resulted in an almost unanimous rejection among German writers living in exile . In spite of all understandable criticism, the judgments here were mostly improper and tendentious. By equating the criticism of Karl May and criticism of fascism, Karl May was completely exaggerated and falsely labeled as the ideological pioneer of National Socialism and the Second World War . Sally Grosshut wrote in the exile magazine Orient in 1942:

“He undoubtedly worked in the German people ... Will the youth after this war be just as enthusiastic when they hear that the SS , Gestapo , fifth column , ... were just varieties of the Apaches , Sioux of German stamping? ... Hitler understood how he had to interpret Karl May in a folk way ... "

As early as 1940, Klaus Mann had said in the USA about Hitler's relationship to May's works that Hitler "felt completely at home in this questionable labyrinth of a sick and infantile brain" , he "most admired Old Shatterhand's mixture of brutality and hypocrisy" and "won the conviction: Yes, that's how you have to be." Klaus Mann concluded: "It is hardly an exaggeration to claim that Karl May's childish and criminal fantasies have indeed influenced the course of world history, albeit indirectly."

Johannes R. Becher wrote in 1943 "that none of us should object to Hitler ... having appointed Karl May his Berghof writer" . And 1945: "Hitler's preference for Karl May is no coincidence either." These statements in particular were clear signs for the assessment of May after 1945 in eastern Germany.

→ Main article : Karl May reception in the GDR

On the other hand, Ernst Bloch , who already considered Karl May "one of the best German storytellers" in 1929, in his sensational book against National Socialism Inheritance of this time 1935, written from his exile in Zurich :

“A longing philistine who was a boy himself broke through the must of his time. He did not spread the ideals of the bourgeoisie (fine people, salon glamor), nor the stories of knights from the Biedermeier period. Instead, he once again spread the Indian novel from Cooper's time, the revolutionary ideals (when the savages were even better people). The tinsel of the fair was added, the real booth-oriented, as it belongs to the Kolportage, so that the freedom of movement is not exhausted in crude nature, but colors and is reflected in dream layers. Almost everything is an external dream of the oppressed creature who wants to have a great life ... "

National Socialist May Reception

Due to the personal preferences of some political greats such as Hitler, Schemm, Goebbels and Mutschmann , the Nazi ideologues tried to abuse May for their own ends. Even if May was conservative on some points, he was not politically zealous and certainly not fascist . His works could not be totally annexed either. Karl May was already too much a part of the cultural tradition and was too popular to be suppressed. The only thing that was left for the new rulers was to direct May's reception in their favor.

In 1935, the Börsenblatt for the German book trade held a fundamental discussion about the new entertainment literature to be created . In a review of adventure literature , Karl May was specially mentioned. With the exclusion of his life story, May's work was accepted, with certain restrictions:

“The irrepressible pleasure in telling stories often seduces May into impossible exaggerations and fantastic exaggerations. Behind the numerous adventures ... there is not always a serious goal, an understandable meaning. Also May is by no means free from morality ... "

Overall, the lack of a new, National Socialist entertainment literature was lamented.

A correspondence between the publisher's director and representatives of the Reich Youth Library shows the difficult cultural-political waters in which a company like Karl May Verlag (KMV) had to navigate during this National Socialist era. Its director Fritz Helke and the curator Karl Hobrecker thanked Euchar Albrecht Schmid in a letter dated June 29, 1939 for sending the KMV commemorative publication on the 25th anniversary of the publishing house. Admonishing words are also mixed in with the thank you lines:

“With such an extensive literary oeuvre like Karl Mays, it goes without saying that the individual volumes are qualitatively at different levels. Yes, we believe that only a relatively small number of these volumes will be of importance for all time, provided that they are carefully edited. A further meritorious task seems to be to us to gradually clean the extensive oeuvre, under strict inspection, of all the dross that must necessarily adhere to it. We believe that we have to tell you this critical view of ours on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the publishing house and that for the sake of the cultural and political responsibility that we have towards the future. "

On September 8, 1939, EA Schmid replied with thoughtful, but also self-confident words:

“Well, I do what I can, and what you encourage with your kind letter has been going on for decades. Karl May's literature is constantly being freed of all 'waste', as far as this is within my naturally somewhat worn-out power. The complete works of Karl May, like that of any other literary creator, cannot be judged uniformly, but I believe that most of the volumes and even all of them can hold their own. Proof seems to me the fact that more and more new translations are being carried out in all cultural languages ​​and that the new German editions have for years been more than double, sometimes three times, what they reached at the height of his own life. "

In a contribution by Wilhelm Stölting to Bücherkunde in 1943, May's reception of the Third Reich was once again clear in all its scope and with all its problems: May was criticized for a “neglect of style” . "May's work is therefore not poetry, in the sense of the ennobling compression of the material content, but epic description using means of colloquial language." Stölting stated:

“Books ... which only remain edible for us after further liberation from unnecessary ballast ... / ... we perceive smaller confessional works as well as his poems as evidence of a time and attitude that are very far from ours. The village stories also seem strange to us ... / The thought of wanting to improve a poet's work after his death is far from us ... / Karl May is not a poet ... / ... we are right. .. to the processing and see in it another reason to appreciate the ... volumes of May. "

These statements represent the whole demagogic nature of the National Socialist May reception: What absolutely did not fit the ideology was simply left out, the rest was processed accordingly, abused and misinterpreted!

For this reason, some volumes of the collected works ( Ardistan and Dschinnistan , Lichte Heights ) were no longer available from the publisher for years. Fortunately, with the exception of a few but significant interventions, May's works were spared a continuous fascist treatment due to the imminent end of the Third Reich.

Other events

Last yearbook contributions

With the year 1933, the publication of the Karl May yearbooks was discontinued “in order to keep the subject of Karl May out of ideological discussions as much as possible” . Only in 2008 and 2011 did the two “nostalgia yearbooks” 1934 and 1935 appear, which contain selected contributions from the volumes that were no longer produced in the 1930s. Notable contributions to the 1933, 1934 and 1935 yearbooks include:

Otto Eicke

• 1933: Again Klara May's America Book , p. 18 ff.
• 1933: Des Baues Kuppel , p. 205 ff.
• 1934: Ausklang , p. 111 ff.
• 1934: Karl May as herald of modern history , p. 352 ff.
• 1934: "Because whoever did enough for the best of his time ..." , p. 422 ff.
• 1934: Klara May 70 years old , p. 460 ff.
• 1935: The educational value of Karl May's writings , p. 356 ff.
• 1935: The Proletarian , p. 404 ff.

Ludwig Gurlitt

• 1933: Karl Mays Volkstümlichkeit , p. 352 ff.
• 1935: The human question , p. 385 ff.

Bernhard Scheer

• 1934: Karl May and the German boys , p. 431 ff.

Wolfgang Hermesmeier / Stefan Schmatz

• 1934/2008: A pirated print without an audience? News from the "Father of the Saber" , p. 374 ff.
• 1935/2011: Karl May in the calendar , p. 423 ff.

Premieres

First exhibition

The first Karl May exhibition took place in 1935 in Vienna's Urania . Exhibits from the Karl May Museum in Radebeul were shown , including the silver rifle and the Henrystutzen.

First sound film

In 1935, “ Through the Desert ” was shot in Egypt as the first Karl May sound film under the direction of Johann Alexander Hübler-Kahla . Fred Raupach played the main role of Kara Ben Nemsi . The film premiered on February 20, 1936 in the “Prinzes” cinema in Dresden .

The reactions were rather critical: "The lengthy prose is rich in flowers of oriental rhetoric, but poor in dramaturgically usable action." Shortly after the premiere, the production company Lothar-Stark-Film had to file for bankruptcy. Thea von Harbou wrote to Klara May on April 4, 1936 :

“I haven't got the heart to watch the film yet. I was aware of the catastrophe as soon as I read the manuscript and I wrote a very official letter in this warning to the director of the rental company. Unfortunately without success. It's a shame about the wonderful book and the missed opportunity, because it is still my firm conviction that Karl May films, well and carefully made by real experts, have to guarantee global success. Now, of course, the audience is frightened, and I think that it will be very difficult to scratch the hole. "

First dissertation

The year 1936 brought the first academic recognition of Karl May's writings. The Philosophical Faculty of the University of Jena accepted the dissertation The Folk Writer Karl May. Contribution to literary folklore by Heinz Stolte . The PhD student wrote:

“Karl May has become a great intellectual power. ... It is this meaning ... just only in the fact that his work so much the immediate sensation and desire corresponds to the mass ... His limit position enabled Karl May, ... a highly tense ethos into the depths of our national life to wear."

However, this doctoral thesis did not involve May in the Nazi ideology.

First Karl May Festival

In the summer of 1938, the health resort of Rathen in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains organized the Karl May Festival for the first time with great success . On May 28, the premiere of the play "Winnetou", arranged by Richard Thalheim, took place on the Felsenbühne . Klara May attended the premiere. There were 43 events. A total of 350,000 spectators attended the Rathener Karl May Games this year and the following year.

From May to August 1940 the Karl May Games were held again in Rathen. “The Treasure in the Silver Lake” was performed. The organization was carried out by the Stosch- Sarrasani circus in Dresden . The KMV published the illustrated book "Winnetou lives!" From 1939 in the second edition. At the same time a festival newspaper appeared in Rathen with the title “Wild-West-Echo”. EA Schmid wrote about both writings:

"The book, Winnetou is alive ...!" has been very well received, and the impressive circulation of 15,000 is now nearing its end; Fortunately, a printing company was able to provide us with the perfect paper we needed so that we can produce the same second edition. But the magazine-like advertising font 'Wild-West-Echo' is even more successful. In 5 weeks we (so far) only sold over 50,000 copies in Saxony and Sudetengau, and here, too, a book printing company was able to serve us up to a circulation of 100,000 copies. "

Intervention in the design of the grave

In the summer of 1939, Klara May gave the order to remove the inscriptions “Familie Plöhn” and “Familie May”, as well as the names and dates of birth of her first husband Richard Plöhn and her mother Wilhelmine Beibler on the left side from the family grave .

In 1942 - during the preparations for the 100th anniversary celebration at Karl May's tomb - the rumor surfaced that Richard Plöhn was a " half-Jew ". Klara May felt compelled to investigate and to have her first husband exhumed. His coffin - together with that of Klara's mother - was removed from the grave at the end of April. Klara May said:

"Richard Plöhn has now been transferred to this crypt and he should now leave this place again, with my will, because, through his mother, who comes from a Jewish family, he is only a half-Arab."

Both exhumed persons were cremated in Dresden. The remains found their final resting place in the Tolkewitz urn grove . The grave site was not given a tombstone.

Karl May exhibition in Vienna

From February 25, 1942, a three-month Karl May memorial exhibition took place in the “Kaufhaus der Wiener - Ludwig & Co.” in Vienna . Indian objects as well as letters and memorabilia were shown. 60,000 visitors saw this exhibition.

Establishment and prohibition of the Karl May Association

On September 20, 1942, Gerhard Henniger founded the German Karl May Bund (DKMB) , which felt particularly committed to May's retirement work . Its purpose was to bring the “real” Karl May (in contrast to the superficial Karl May of National Socialism, stamped as a Nordic warrior) closer to the people. For this reason, especially the symbolic works of the poet with their pacifist and humanist ideas, which have been frowned upon since 1933, were cultivated in the federal work. Groups in Berlin, Vienna, Silesia, Thuringia, the Sudetenland, Styria, the Rhine-Palatinate, Baden and the Rhineland quickly joined the Bund, of which the widow of the poet Klara May became an honorary member in 1943.

After the German Karl-May-Bund started publishing the hectographed magazine Karl-May-Post in January 1944 , further activities were prohibited by the Gestapo .

In January the German Karl-May-Bund was dissolved as "subversive" by the Erfurt office of the Gestapo. The reason given was the "pacifist tendencies that degrade the military force that prevail in May's works and that the DKMB also pursues", which are not compatible with the "aspirations of National Socialism". Since work continued in different groups after the dissolution, some members were exposed to persecution by the Gestapo.

Planned censorship

In 1944, the Propaganda Ministry demanded that the KMV should change the ideas of peace and religious attitudes in the Karl May volumes. The former elementary school teacher Georg Szulmistrat was therefore commissioned by the Ministry with the censorship in the spring of 1944 . The newly appointed censor saw May's novels as a raw material that had to be reshaped with contemporary authors who were compliant with the regime in the spirit of National Socialism. The first processing plans were drawn up, but before they could be implemented, Szulmistrat suddenly died in September. Fortunately, there was no more successor on the scene.

Questionable friendship

Klara May celebrated her 80th birthday on July 4, 1944. In the run-up to this event, one of her friends, Hitler's half-sister Angela Hammitzsch , suggested that the city of Dresden grant the writer's widow honorary citizenship of Radebeul. While the city administration did not seem averse to this wish at first, it met with little approval from the local NSDAP functionaries. To them, Karl May's pacifist and peoples-unifying attitude towards the Nazi philosophy seemed too contrary. Since the events in February 1942 (cancellation of the celebrations for Karl May's 100th birthday because of the Plöhn affair), Klara May no longer had the goodwill of the National Socialist authorities. The Gauleiter and Reich Governor Martin Mutschmann - a hardliner of the Nazi regime - intervened personally, which is why the proposal was rejected.

The friendship between Klara May and Angela Hammitzsch gave and continues to give rise to speculation as to whether it could have had an impact on the publishing work in Radebeul when processing certain passages in Karl May's works. It is assumed that Klara May also had a decisive influence on the image that the public should have of "her Karl" in other ways and before. After all, as a widow, universal heir and executor of wills, she was not without influence from the founding of Karl May Verlag on July 1, 1913 until her death on December 31, 1944.

Bomb night, surrender and destruction

On the night of February 13-14, 1945, Dresden was the target of heavy Allied air raids, which caused an inferno with many deaths. The night of the bombing also fell victim to all of the KMV's remaining printing documents.

On May 8, 1945, the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht came into force. This ended the Second World War in Europe and at the same time the Nazi dictatorship in Germany. After the surrender, the Radebeul district, in which Roonstrasse is also located, had to be evacuated for the Soviet occupation forces for some time. During this time, many archive documents and evaluation work on Karl May research fell victim to destruction.

Examiner intrigue

In August 1944, KMV employee Fritz Prüfer lived for a few days at Villa Shatterhand to write down Klara May's memoirs. The project was not pursued further. In August 1945, Prüfer brought himself into play - unsuccessfully - in relation to the Karl May Foundation as administrators of the estate of Karl and Klara Mays and suitable head of the Karl May publishing house, claiming that he was the only long-standing friend of Karl May who as Socialist and anti-militarist and anti-fascist could bring out the real image of Karl May in the future. However, Klara May left no corresponding wishes, although Prüfer referred to it.

swell

• Entry in the Karl May Wiki about Adolf Hitler
• Entry in the Karl May Wiki about the reception (1933–1945)
• Entry in the Karl May Wiki about Richard Plöhn

literature

• Christian Adam : Reading under Hitler. Authors, bestsellers, readers in the Third Reich . Galiani-Verlag, Berlin 2010.
• Siegfried Augustin , Thomas Ostwald (eds.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1978 , Bamberg / Braunschweig: Karl-May-Verlag / Verlag A. Graff 1978.
• Wolf-Dieter Bach: Hitler's shadow between Klaus Mann and Karl May. In: Mitteilungen der Karl-May-Gesellschaft No. 27/1976, pp. 14-17 ( online version ).
• Dirk Bavendamm : Karl May. In: The young Adolf Hitler. Ares Verlag Vienna 2009, pp. 359–376. ISBN 978-3-902475-73-2
• Lothar Bembenek: The "Marxist" Karl May, Hitler's favorite writer and role model for young people? The Karl May reception in the “Third Reich”. In: Uwe Naumann (Ed.): Collection. Yearbook 4 for anti-fascist literature and art . 1981, pp. 147-155.
• Ernst Bloch : Inheritance of this time , Zurich: Verl. Oprecht & Helbing, 1st ed. 1935; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1962.
• Hans Christoph Buch : How Karl May met Adolf Hitler and other true stories , 2003.
• Rainer Buck: Karl May in National Socialism , in: ders .: Karl May. The Winnetou author and the Christian faith. With a foreword by Jens Böttcher , Moers: Brendow 2012, p. 166 ff.
• Helga Geyer-Ryan: Karl May in the Third Reich. In: Harald Eggebrecht (Ed.): The Saxon Fantast. 1987, pp. 250-263.
• Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen: Karl May and Adolf Hitler - The "Hitler Library" in the USA. In: M-KMG No. 142/2004, pp. 45–50 ( online version ).
• Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen: “The treasure in the Silbersee” as a bestseller in the “Third Reich” . In: M-KMG No. 143/2005 (online version) , pp. 34–39.
• Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen: Karl May in the press of the "Third Reich". “Völkischer Beobachter” and “BZ am Mittag” , in: M-KMG No. 198/2018, pp. 47–60.
• Konrad Guenther , Euchar A. Schmid (Hrsg.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1933. 16th year , Radebeul near Dresden: Karl-May-Verlag 1933 [1935] (online version) .
• Erich Heinemann : "Karl May fits National Socialism like a fist on the eye". The fight of the teacher Wilhelm Fronemann , in: Jb-KMG 1982, p. 234 ff. (Online version) .
• Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz (eds.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1934. 17th year , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 2008.
• Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz (eds.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1935. 18th year , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 2011.
• Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz: Karl May Bibliography 1913–1945 . Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul 2000. ISBN 3780201577 .
• Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz: Karl May in the Third Reich , in: Karl May & Co .:
  • (I) 300,000 Winnetou volumes for the front - a legend . No. 116/2009, pp. 30-38.
  • (II) Karl May on the Obersalzberg . No. 123/2011, pp. 46-54.
  • (III) Karl May at the stake . No. 125/2011, pp. 66-73.
  • (IV) Karl May in the "Black Corps" . No. 143/2016, pp. 26–33.
• Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz: Dr. jur. Bernhard Scheer - A phantom of the Karl May history . In: Karl May & Co. No. 127/2012, 129/2012, 130/2012.
• Gerhard Linkemeyer: What does Hitler have to do with Karl May? Attempt at clarification. Materials for Karl May Research Volume 11. Ubstadt 1987.
• Christoph F. Lorenz (Ed.): Between heaven and hell. Karl May und die Religion , Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul, second, revised and expanded edition 2013
• Klaus Mann : Cowboy - Mentor of the Führer. In: The Living Age 359. USA 1940, pp. 217-222. Excerpt translated by Walther Ilmer with the title Cowboy - Mentor des Führers in: Helmut Schmiedt (Ed.): Karl May. Suhrkamp -materialband. 1983, pp. 32-34.
• Klaus Mann: Karl May, Hitler's Literary Mentor . In: The Kenyon Review , Autumn 1940, pp. 399f. The first third of this article is reproduced in the translation by Walther Ilmer in: Karl May . Edited by Helmut Schmiedt. Frankfurt a. M. 1983, pp. 32-34.
• Ulrich Neumann: "Karl May game as valuable popular entertainment". 80 years ago: "Winnetou's heroic life and death" on the Rathen rock stage between Wild West romanticism and Nazi propaganda ,
  • Part 1: Karl May Games Rathen 1938 , in: Karl May & Co. No. 152, June 2018.
  • Part 2: Karl May Games Rathen 1939/1940 , in: Karl May & Co. No. 153, July 2018.
  • Part 3: Karl May Games Rathen 1940 , in: Karl May & Co. No. 155, February 2019.
  • Part 4: Karl May Games Rathen 1940/1941 , in: Karl May & Co. No. 156, May 2019.
• Léon Poliakov , Josef Wulf : The Third Reich and its thinkers. Documents , Berlin-Grunewald: Arani-Verlag 1959.
• Timothy W. Ryback : Hitler's Books. His library - his thinking . Fackelträger-Verlag, Cologne 2010. (The original edition was published in 2008 under the title Hitler's Private Library. The Books That Shaped His Life .)
• Bernhard Scheer: Karl May and the German boys , in: Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz (eds.): Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1934. 17th year , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 2008, pp. 431–439.
• Lothar Schmid : 90 years of publishing work for Karl May . In: The cut diamond. Special volume on the collected works. Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg-Radebeul 2003. ISBN 978-3-7802-0160-7 , pp. 5-88.
• Helmut Schmiedt : Klaus Mann, Pierre Brice and the Enlightenment. Karl May's Nachleben , in: ders .: Karl May or The Power of Fantasy. Eine Biographie , Munich: CH Beck 2011, 2nd edition 2017, pp. 285–328.
• Günter Scholdt : Hitler, Karl May and the emigrants . In: Jb-KMG 1984, pp. 60–91 (online version) .
• Jürgen Seul : 100 years of Karl May Verlag . In: 100 years of Karl May Verlag. Publishing work for Karl May and his work (1913–2013) (together with Bernhard Schmid as editor). Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul 2013.
• Hannes Stein : The books in which Adolf Hitler liked to browse , in: Welt Kultur from January 8, 2009 (online version) .
• Hans-Dieter Steinmetz : Karl May's tomb in Radebeul . In: Jb-KMG 1995 ( online version ).
• Heinz Stolte : The folk writer Karl May. Contribution to literary folklore. Karl-May-Verlag, Radebeul near Dresden 1936 (also: Jena, University, dissertation, 1936); 2nd edition, reprint of the first edition from 1936. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg 1979, ISBN 3-7802-3070-4 .
• Richard Thalheim: Winnetou is alive ...! Sequence of images from the Karl May Games. Introductory words by EA Schmid and G. Görner . Karl-May-Verlag Radebeul / Dresden. 1st edition (1st to 15th thousand) 1939, 2nd edition (16th to 30th thousand) 1940. [Photo book with black and white photos from the performances of "Winnetou" at the Rathen rock stage in 1939]
• Richard Thalheim: The Legacy of the Old Indian. Verlag Felsenbühne Rathen 1941 . [Photo book with black and white photos from the performances of “The Treasure in Silbersee” at the Felsenbühne Rathen and a foreword by Mayor Erich Winkler]
• Karl-May-Verlag (Ed.): 25 years of creating on Karl May's works [Festschrift] , Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 1938; including:
  • Heinrich Zerkaulen : Confession to Karl May , p. 6
  • Otto Eicke : The guardian of the "Villa Shatterhand" , p. 7
  • Euchar Albrecht Schmid : “On the apparent intentionality in the fate of the individual” , p. 8 ff.
  • Käthe Schmid, b. Barthel: At the side of the publishing director , p. 12 ff.
  • Konrad Guenther : In the wigwam of the Karl-May-Verlegers , p. 16 ff.
  • Arthur Graefe : Also the Karl May Foundation 25 years old , p. 19
  • Fritz Prüfer: What do the editions of the Karl May volumes tell us? , P. 26 f.
  • Horst Kliemann: The Buyers and Readers Karl Mays , p. 28 ff.
  • Franz Kandolf : In what order do I read the Green Volumes? , P. 31 f.
  • Johanna Wächtler: The travel stories in foreign languages , p. 33 f.
  • Ludwig Patsch: Greetings from Vienna , p. 35
  • Rudolf Voigt: Advertisement for Karl May , p. 38
  • Otto Eicke: Stranger Freights, Message in a Bottle and Driftwood , p. 39 ff.
  • Johannes Nixdorf: Karl May in the mirror of the press , p. 42 f.
  • Johanna Wächtler: “Karl May, we remain loyal to you!” Children's letters received by Karl May Verlag , p. 44 ff.
  • Patty Frank : Blockhaus-Zauber , p. 47 f.
• Reinhold Wolff : Address on the occasion of the unveiling of a memorial plaque for Richard Plöhn and Wilhelmine Beibler at Karl May's tomb on May 22, 1998 at the cemetery in Radebeul ( online version ).

Web links

• http://www.karl-may-stiftung.de/forschung/voelkerverstaendigung/index.html
• http://www.karl-may-stiftung.de/forschung/voelkerverstaendigung/kulturbörse.html
• http://www.karl-may-stiftung.de/forschung/voelkerverstaendigung/missblassung.html

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on abused at karl-may-stiftung.de
2. ↑ Entry on processing at karl-may-wiki.de
3. ↑ “Among the most sold German-language works between 1933 and 1944, Der Schatz im Silbersee was ranked in 1935 with 186,000 copies; in the period from 1933 to 1944 a total circulation of 300,000 was determined. During this period the work was ranked 38th among the bestsellers of the time. ”(Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen: Mitteilungen der Karl-May-Gesellschaft (M-KMG) No. 143/2005, p. 35).
4. ↑ The relevant literature on this topic can be found online in the Karl May Wiki.
5. ↑ Henry Picker: Hitler's table talks in the Führer Headquarters 1941–1942 , VMA Wiesbaden 1983, p. 121.
6. ^ Albert Speer: Spandauer Tagebücher , Propylaen Verlag 1975, p. 259.
7. ^ Georg Stefan Troller : Self-description , Hamburg 1988.
8. ↑ Timothy W. Ryback : Hitler's Private Library. The Books That Shaped His Life.
9. ↑ Joachim Fest : Hitler. Eine Biographie , Propylaeen Verlag 1973, p. 615, writes that he has read “all approximately seventy volumes”.
10. ↑ Sonntag-Morgenpost , Munich, April 23, 1933.
11. ^ David Irving : Adolf Hitler. Führer and Reich Chancellor 1933–1945 , Dresden 2013, p. 232.
12. ↑ Klaus Mann: Cowboy - Mentor of the Führer.
13. ↑ Roda Roda: Open letter to Miss Winnetou Zuckmayer. In: Paris daily newspaper , 2./3. July 1939.
14. ^ Karl May: To Princess Marie Therese of Bavaria, September 26, 1906 . Quoted in: Christoph F. Lorenz (Ed.): Between Heaven and Hell. Karl May und die Religion , Karl-May-Verlag Bamberg / Radebeul, second, revised and expanded edition 2013, p. 502 f.
15. ^ Lothar Schmid: The polished diamond , Bamberg / Radebeul 2003, p. 52 f.
16. ↑ Gunter Scholdt: Hitler, Karl May and the emigrants. In: Jb-KMG 1984, p. 85.
17. ↑ Roman Töppel: "People and Race". Tracking down Hitler's sources. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 64 (2016), issue 1, pp. 1–35, here p. 32 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
18. ↑ http://karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Tumult_auf_Villa_Shatterhand
19. ↑ Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen describes a differentiated picture of the literature in the time of National Socialism in M-KMG No. 143/2005, p. 37 ff.
20. ↑ Sonntag-Morgenpost , Munich, April 23, 1933. The Karl-May-Verlag spontaneously used this positive report for advertising purposes in two leaflets and came across an advertisement for the 60-title collected works in the 1933 literary Christmas catalog of the Creutzer assortment Bookstore, Aachen, in doubtful proximity to National Socialist hymns of praise for the writings of Karl May. Hermesmeier / Schmatz report critically on this: Karl May auf dem Obersalzberg ... , 2011, p. 50 ff.
21. ↑ Bernhard Scheer, born in 1901 and with a doctorate in law, wrote the newspaper article Karl May and the German Boys , published in the Siegerländer National-Zeitung on March 2, 1934, which exists in at least three versions. At the same time Scheer also claimed to have prevented a book burning on May 10, 1933 in Göttingen. However, there is no objective evidence of this (Hermesmeier / Schmatz: Dr. jur. Bernhard Scheer ... , No. 127/2012, p. 32). He also wrote the - anonymously published - afterwords in the edition of the Collected Works , which were published by Globus Verlagsgesellschaft from 1948 (Hermesmeier / Schmatz: Dr. jur. Bernhard Scheer ... , No. 127/2012, p. 30). He was a member of the Karl May Biography Working Group founded in 1963 and became the founding chairman of the Karl May Society in 1969 . (Source: Entry on Bernhard Scheer in the Karl May Wiki)
22. ↑ Quoted from Hermesmeier, Schmatz (ed.): Karl May auf dem Scheiterhaufen ... , 2011, p. 69. See the poem by Max Barthel : Karl May (on the 25th return of the day of his death on March 30, 1937) , quoted in: Karl May's traces in literature. Fifth collection , special issue of the Karl May Society 98/1993, p. 20 (online version) .
23. ↑ Interestingly enough, this quote followed in the 1933 literary Christmas catalog of the Creutzer'schen Assortment bookshop, Aachen, on page 93 of an advertisement by Karl May Verlag on the 60 titles of the collected works . Hermesmeier / Schmatz: Karl May auf dem Obersalzberg ... , 2011, p. 51 point out this critically .
24. ↑ Nürnberger Zeitung from 27./28. January 1934. Quoted by Erich Heinemann: Der Kampf des Lehrers ... , 1982, p. 234, and (with somewhat different wording) by Johannes Nixdorf: Karl May im Spiegel der Presse ... , 1938, p. 42 f.
25. ↑ Printed in Hermesmeier / Schmatz: Karl May im “Schwarzen Korps” ... , 2016, p. 31 ff. (Online version) . An excerpt from this text (from "... She [the youth] was his consolation in the hardest hours ..." to "... the savages that we want to rule ..." ) served the Karl May publishing house as an advertising message in a Börsenblatt advertisement and in a separate advertising leaflet on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Karl May's death.
26. ↑ ^{a b} Hermesmeier / Schmatz: Karl May in the "Black Corps" ... , 2016, p. 28.
27. ↑ Confession to Karl May , 1938; Printed in: Karl-May-Verlag (Hrsg.): 25 years of creating in Karl May's works [Festschrift] , Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 1938, p. 6.
28. ↑ http://karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Wilhelm_Fronemann
29. ↑ This quote and the other Fronemann quotes based on Erich Heinemann, 1982.
30. ^ Heinemann: Yearbook of the Karl May Society (Jb-KMG) 1982, p. 237.
31. ↑ Heinemann: Jb-KMG 1982, p. 238.
32. ↑ Quoted from Heermann: Old Shatterhand did not ride on behalf of the working class ... , 1995, p. 146.
33. ↑ Sally Gros Shut: Pensive to Karl May . In: Orient , Haifa, 3 (1942), No. 10, pp. 9-11.
34. ↑ Klaus Mann: Karl May, Hitler's Literary Mentor , p. 392.
35. ↑ Johannes R. Becher: German teaching . In: IL , H. 4 (1943), p. 34; also in: ders .: Publizistik , II, Berlin-Weimar, 1978, p. 278.
36. ↑ Quote from Ernst Bloch in the Frankfurter Zeitung of March 31, 1929: "Karl May is one of the best German storytellers, and he would perhaps be the best, if he hadn't been a poor, confused proletarian ..."
37. ^ Ernst Bloch: Inheritance of this time , Zurich: Verl. Oprecht & Helbing, 1st ed. 1935; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1962, p. 172.
38. ^ Fritz Helke in the Börsenblatt for the German book trade of July 25, 1935; quoted by Jürgen Seul : 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 61.
39. ↑ On this topic see the explanations by Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen in M-KMG No. 143/2005, p. 37 ff.
40. ↑ http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/25_Jahre_Karl-May-Verlag
41. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 65 f.
42. ^ Wilhelm Stölting, b. on March 25, 1903, joined the NSDAP in 1930 under number 216 794. From 1931 to 1937 he worked as a journalist for the Oldenburger Nachrichten and wrote Low German plays and other poems. He completed a course of study that he was able to take up after passing a gifted examination with the dissertation Germanic Doctrine of Faith in Lower Saxony's Folk Customs . From 1941 he was active in the office for the maintenance of literature (see curriculum vitae of November 2, 1941 and index card of the office Rosenberg, Berlin Document Center ). Compiled from entries on Wilhelm Stölting at 1) Monika Estermann, Reinhard Wittmann (Red.): Archive for the history of the book industry. Volume 44 , Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 106, note 221, and 2) Léon Poliakov, Josef Wulf: Das Third Reich ... , 1959, p. 381 f.
43. ↑ The Bücherkunde the principal organ of was from 1934 until November 1944. Department Rosenberg "to German literature care".
44. ↑ The editor Otto Eicke was a staunch National Socialist. His adaptations of the May texts are anti-Semitic and tendentious (Hermesmeier / Schmatz, emergence ... , pp. 332, 452). After 1945 the Eickean arrangements were successively reworked by Karl May Verlag. In 1930 Eicke wrote the much-noticed (and negatively meant) article: The break in construction (online version) . Only since Arno Schmidt's enthusiastic praise of the late work has there been a rethink in reception.
45. ↑ https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/seklit/kmjb/karl-may-jahrbuch_1933.pdf
46. ↑ Augustin / Ostwald: Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1978 , p. 3: Foreword by the editor .
47. ↑ http://karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Karl-May-jahrbuch_1934
48. ↑ http://karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Karl-May-jahrbuch_1935
49. ↑ http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Karl-May-Ausstellung_in_der_Wiener_Urania
50. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 62.
51. ↑ Stolte: Der Volksschriftsteller ... , 1936, p. 156.
52. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 64.
53. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 67.
54. ↑ Quoted from Steinmetz: Karl Mays Grabmal in Radebeul , p. 58.
55. ↑ http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Ausstellung_(Wien_1942)
56. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 71.
57. ^ Wilhelm Brauneder : The first and only "Karl-May-Post" . In: Wiener Karl May Brief 4/2005.
58. ↑ ^{a b c} Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 73.
59. ↑ http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Georg_Szulmistrat
60. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 76.
61. ↑ http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Fritz_Prüfer
62. ↑ Seul: 100 years KMV , 2013, p. 77 f. and p. 84 ff.
63. ↑ http://karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Karl-May-jahrbuch_1978