Karl May (1992)
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Karl May |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| year | 1992 |
| Production company |
cat-music-verlags-gmbh |
| length | 52 minutes |
| Episodes | 6th |
| genre | History series |
| Director | Klaus Everywhere |
| script | Manfred Stahnke , Klaus Everywhere |
| music | Roger Janotta |
| camera | Axel Leist |
| First broadcast | March 7, 1992 on ZDF |
| occupation | |
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Main actor:
Supporting cast:
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Karl May is a six-part German television series (miniseries) that was broadcast on Second German Television ( ZDF ) in1992. It is based on Karl May's autobiography "Ich", which appeared as volume 34 inKarl May's collected works . Directed by Klaus Überall .
action
The life of Karl May (as a child: Florian Knorn ; as a teenager: André Wiedner; as an adult: Henry Hübchen ), who grew up in great poverty, was blind until he was 5 and had to accept many setbacks before he wrote his first adventure novel released. His family includes his father Heinrich August ( Hanns-Jörn Weber ), his mother Christiane Wilhelmine ( Petra Kelling ) and his grandmother ( Evamaria Bath ). Emma ( Ulrike Mai ) is Karl's first wife, after the divorce he marries her friend Klara (Anne-Kathrein Kretzschmar).
The series with three quarters of an hour episodes was filmed on the occasion of the 150th birthday of the poet. It ran on Saturday the night before.
Episode 1: Childhood (1842–1856)
In March 1912, shortly before his death, Karl May reported to a journalist about his life in his “ Villa Shatterhand ” in Radebeul . In flashbacks one learns that the most popular German-speaking author was born in poor circumstances in 1842 as the son of a weaver and a midwife in the small town of Ernstthal (Hohenstein-Ernstthal) near Chemnitz . He is blind until he is five years old , and nine of his 13 siblings die in infancy; only three sisters grow up with him. The strict father wants his only son to become “something better”. It is not uncommon for him to forcefully force the knowledge into him. He has to earn private lessons as a bowling boy . During the breaks in the back room of the tavern, he reads adventure novels . His already blossoming imagination is also inspired by the fairy tales his grandmother tells and anecdotes about bloodthirsty Indians and vengeful Bedouins .
For the role of the complex character Karl May, the choice fell on Henry Hübchen , an actor at the East Berlin Volksbühne when shooting began in 1990 . The 40-year-old was particularly attracted by the task of embodying both young Karl May and old Karl May.
The shooting took place in the locations that shaped May's life: in the Erzgebirge , where he was born and spent his youth, and in Dresden and the surrounding area, where he later moved.
Episode 2: Seminar and apprenticeship period (1856–1862)
At the age of 14, after graduating from school, his parents send Karl May to a seminar in Waldenburg . Teachers should be the only son, "something better" than the poor weavers . As a poor child, Karl is immediately the great outsider at the strictly managed seminar. He is bullied by classmates and teachers and withdraws into the world of his imagination, writes first stories. His first job as an assistant teacher at the girls' school in Glauchau hardly takes 14 days, then his landlord catches him with his young wife. The result: kicked out - even at school. The next job at a factory school is already taking place with reservations. He soon comes into conflict with the law under very mysterious circumstances. His journey into crime begins.
Episode 3: Vagabond and imprisonment (1862–1874)
Karl May spent six weeks in the Chemnitz prison because he allegedly used the pocket watch of a roommate illegally. He is then forbidden to continue teaching as a teacher. At first he made his way through the recitation of his own poems and as a choir director , but soon he began to pile up and steal . As a fake doctor, he examines a sick person and writes out a (correct) prescription, in Chemnitz he swindles furs , and when he tries to steal an expensive fur coat with a simple trick in Leipzig , he is caught and sentenced to four years in the workhouse he is released early because of good conduct.
Episode 4: Editor and Writer (1874–1882)
Karl May spent four years in prison as a repeat offender because of fraud, which today would be better described as Köpenickiaden . He is 32 years old when he is released. He spent seven and a half of them behind bars. The first attempts at writing were made during this time, and Heinrich Münchmeyer , a Dresden Kolportage publisher, became aware of him. He offers to work for him as an editor ; May happily takes hold and goes to the Saxon capital. However, since he is under police supervision in his hometown of Ernstthal, he has to go back there, but continues his business from his parents' house. He falls in love with Emma Pollmer , 14 years his junior , who lives with her grandfather, a barber in Ernstthal. Against his will, the local beauty moves to his home in Dresden, where she enjoys the big city life to the fullest, while May has to struggle to get the necessary money through writing . When Emma's grandfather died in 1880, May married her - a step that he would often regret.
Episode 5: Years of Success (1882–1899)
From 1882 Karl May wrote several colportage novels. In the next few years he laid the foundation for his fame through travel stories in first-person form, in which he created his famous heroes Winnetou , Hajji Halef Omar and others. He owes his final breakthrough to the initiative of the Freiburg publisher Fehsenfeld . He publishes the stories that have appeared in sequels as "Gesammelte Reiseromane". 27 volumes were published by the turn of the century. In 1896 May bought a house in Radebeul near Dresden, called it "Villa Shatterhand" and furnished it with exotic furniture. Fame comes to prosperity. Readers and press consider him a well-traveled, learned citizen of the world . His enormous popularity is the beginning of Karl May's downfall, because he is now being examined more closely. So the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Sachsenstimme", Rudolf Lebius , begins to research May's past.
Episode 6: The "Trash and Dirty Literature" (1899–1912)
Karl and Emma May's marriage is in crisis. The widow of a friend, Klara Plöhn , moves into the “Villa Shatterhand” and conducts the writer's extensive correspondence. On a trip to Tyrol with the two women , Karl finally separates from Emma. May was divorced on January 14, 1903. Two weeks later, he married Klara. He has become someone else, much to the displeasure of his publisher Fehsenfeld, who is desperate that May no longer wants to write adventure novels. For this purpose, a volume of poetry is to be brought out under the title " Heavenly Thoughts ". At Christmas 1904, the editor Lebius began to publicize May's criminal record. The Catholic press in particular takes up these revelations. For the last seven years of his life, he was mainly occupied with limiting the damage that he suffered from the slander and revelations through trials and counter-statements. He experiences, such as the origin and past, which he seemed to have escaped with difficulty, catch up with him and his became bourgeois threaten to destroy.
criticism
- "Carefully selected the locations and props, consistent the biography of Shatterhand ." - Listen
- "With this production, ZDF placed something unusual on the previous evening: a not only careful, but also coherent biographical story, in original locations." - stern TV
- “A successful production! The ZDF really went out of their way to present Karl May's life in detail in over 5 hours, but proceeded very neutrally. Unlike in other productions, Karl May is not only portrayed as the victim, but also as the perpetrator, who was not entirely innocent in the course of his life. "(Bk)
- “'Karl May' - The most successful German writer of all time. Karl May's private and professional life is presented here chronologically in six parts. The key question now is: How closely does the entire film correspond to actual reality? This question remains unanswered ... Still a fascinating series and therefore very recommendable. "(Sk)
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3505511/
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927319/
- ↑ http://www.anja-stange.de/index.html
- ↑ https://www.filmeule.com/schauspieler/584-anne-kathrein-kretzschmar/
- ↑ http://www.theaterkonstanz.de/tkn/theater_und_menschen/gaeste/04706/index.htm
- ↑ https://www.fernsehserien.de/karl-may-1992
- ↑ a b https://www.amazon.de/Karl-May-Grosse-Geschichten-DVDs/dp/B009YYUQP2/ref
- ↑ a b http://www.karl-may-filme.de/fern/tv-11.html
literature
- Michael Petzel: Karl-May-Filmbuch , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 1998, 2nd, modified edition, 1999, ISBN 9783780201539 .