Radebeul (dpa/sn) - An exhibition in the adventure writer's former home in Radebeul traces the less popular oriental stories by Karl May. According to the Karl May Museum, it combines items from its own collection that have never been shown before as well as rarities from film and stage to form German Orientalism.
Some of the stereotypes that still prevail today about the Arab region, how the image of the Orient was processed in his work and life at the time, and the effects of his stories on the world of literature, film and theater are highlighted. The "Karl Mays Orient" show will run until the beginning of June 2023.
According to the background of the show on the museum homepage, May is mostly noticed with his Wild West stories about the fictional Indian character Winnetou. It is almost forgotten that the Orient exerted a very special fascination on him. "The impact of Karl May's Orient stories is comparable to the popularity of his Winnetou volumes." Whole generations of readers got to know the Arab world and the Islamic religion through these books.
In his stories, May's alter ego Kara Ben Nemsi and his faithful companion Hajji Halef Omar rode through German Orientalism and the Arabic world of the late 19th century. Despite the sense of the superiority of Christian European culture in it, the author managed to arouse interest and curiosity about this alien world.
Adventure writer May was born in Hohenstein-Ernstthal in 1842 and died in Radebeul in 1912. There he wrote from 1888 essential parts of his complete works. In 1895 he had bought the property and named it "Villa Shatterhand".
