Celebrate Christmas with Winnetou & Co.

Himmel & Erde

By Jil Blume-Amosu

December 25, 2024

Winnetou, Old Shatterhand, Kara Ben Nemsi – the heroes that Karl May created in his books are world-famous. Less well known is the writer's great Christian sense of mission. For him, Christmas, among other things, played a major role.

"I proclaim the great joy that has come to you." This is how Karl May begins his great Christmas poem, which runs as a red thread through his novel »Christmas«. Here, the narrator celebrates Christmas first in the Ore Mountains and later in the Wild West as Old Shatterhand – and Winnetou gives nuggets. But Christmas is also celebrated in the Orient: In Ardistan, Kara Ben Nemsi and Haji Halef Omar even set up a Christmas tree manufactory. Christmas was always a very special time not only for his hero, but also for Karl May himself: Many catastrophes in Karl May's life always happened at Christmas. And yet hardly any other author celebrates Christmas in his work so gladly and dazzlingly.

Karl May (1842-1912), who was born in Hohenstein-Ernsttal in Saxony, is still one of the most widely circulated and widely read German writers. In Germany alone, his books have sold 100 million copies to date, and the worldwide circulation is estimated at 200 million. It was not until the age of 32 that Karl May began to write at all. By then, the author, who came from a poor background, had a failed career as a teacher and a total of eight years in prison behind him. This is probably one of the reasons why May repeatedly tells of captivity, escape and daring liberation actions in his novels and travel stories.

In the 38 years of his career, May wrote articles, travel stories, youth literature, novels, poems and even a drama. Among the best-known works to this day are the "Oriental Tales" about the hero Kara Ben Nemsi and the North American novels with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. Both were initially published as serial stories, especially in the Catholic family magazine "Deutscher Hausschatz". It was not until 1880 that they were also published in book form. Today, Karl May's complete works comprise almost 100 volumes.

A second motif that runs like a red thread through almost all of Karl May's stories is the Christian faith: "As Kara Ben Nemsi or Old Shatterhand, he (...) had many a profound conversation with his companions – (...) downright pastorally" – this is how Rainer Buck judges Karl May in his biography. In fact, May's "alter ego" Old Shatterhand is characterized by charity, peacefulness and mercy in many situations - even towards the worst villains. His blood brother Winnetou confesses Christ on his deathbed. And during his trips to the Orient, May lets his characters Kara Ben Nemsi and Haji Halef Omar argue about Christianity and Islam more than once.

Nevertheless, Karl May's great Christian sense of mission never seems intrusive. Rainer Buck writes about this in his biography: "May packs his 'sermons ́ into exciting plots and dialogues. In this way, he manages to avoid the usual pious terms. (…) The Christian readership thus finds itself in his stories, and the dissenters are at least not repelled by the way May brings in his religious convictions."