Editing Karl May (section)

==== ''Indianertümelei'' ====
{{See also|Native Americans in German popular culture}}
The popularity of May's books sparked a fascination in German popular culture with the [[Indigenous peoples of North America]] that continues to this day. In 1985, the German scholar Hartmut Lutz invented the term ''Deutsche Indianertümelei'' ("German Indian Enthusiasm") for the phenomenon.<ref name="Watchman, Renne p. 12">Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p. 12</ref> The phrase ''Indianertümelei'' is a reference to the German term {{wikt-lang|de|Deutschtümelei}} ("German Enthusiasm") which mockingly describes the phenomenon of celebrating in an excessively nationalistic and romanticized manner ''Deutschtum'' ("Germanness").<ref name="Watchman, Renne p. 12"/> In the English-speaking world, the phenomenon of the German obsession with the First Nations of North America is known as "Indianthusiasm".<ref name="Watchman, Renne p. 12"/> In a 1999 speech delivered in the United States in English, Lutz declared:

{{Blockquote|For over two hundred years Germans have found ''Indianer'' so fascinating that even today an Indian iconography is used in advertising. The most popular image of the ''Indianer'' is provided by Karl May's fictional Apache chief Winnetou...Indian lore is profitable and marketable, as some Native Americans travelling in Germany may attest...There is a marked Indian presence in German everyday culture, even down to the linguistic level, where sentences like ''ein Indianer weint nicht'' (an Indian doesn't cry), ''ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz'' (an Indian braves pain) or figures such as ''der letzte Mohikaner'' (the Last of the Mohicans) have become part of the everyday speech.<ref>Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p. 13</ref>}}

As part of the phenomenon of ''Indianertümelei'' a number of Western and Indian theme parks operate in Germany, the most popular of which are the Pullman City theme park outside of Munich and El Dorado theme park outside of Berlin.<ref name="Watchman, Renne p. 16">Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 p. 16</ref> May's books also inspired hobbyist clubs, where Germans pretend to be cowboys or Indians, the first of which was the Cowboy Club founded in Munich in 1913.<ref name="Watchman, Renne p. 16"/> In 2019, it was estimated that between 40,000 and 100,000 Germans are involved in ''Indianer'' hobbyist clubs at any given moment.<ref name="Watchman, Renne p. 16"/> Interviewed in 2007, one member of an ''Indianer'' club stated: "Our camp is always in summer, in July for two weeks. During this time, we live in tipis, we wear only Indian clothes. We don't use technology and we try to follow Indian traditions. We have those [pretending to be] Lakota, Oglala, Blackfeet, Blood, Siksika, Pawneee... and we go on the warpath against each other day and night, anytime at all. In two weeks, every tribe can fight each other. We don't know when somebody will attack or when they will come to steal our horses. And the battles are always exciting, too. I really enjoy them".<ref>Watchman, Renne, Lutz, Hartmut & Strzelczyk, Florence ''Indianthusiasm'', Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2020 pp. 16–17</ref> 

Regarding the role of Karl May's works, Karl May movies and Karl May stage adaptations for the German image of Native Americans, Rivka Galchen notes in her essay on "Wild West Germany" in 2012:

{{Blockquote|As Americans, we tend to find the German infatuation with Native Americans campy and naïve. But the comfort of Karl May fans with May’s historical inaccuracies surely comes in part from their confident knowledge of the actual history. Whereas we know almost nothing. We do not proclaim our innocence; we do not feel we are on trial.<ref>Galchen, Rivka, Wild West Germany, in: The New Yorker, April 2, 2012</ref>}}