Even on public holidays: ZDF shows "Winnetou"

Is "Winnetou" still contemporary? This debate recently got heated.

Even on public holidays: ZDF shows "Winnetou"

Is "Winnetou" still contemporary? This debate recently got heated. An alleged boycott of the Karl May films by public broadcasters also boiled over. But lo and behold: "Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi" is still on ZDF's programme, and on German Unity Day at that.

Is "Winnetou" actually "canceled"? No: On the Day of German Unity (3 October) at 11:30 a.m., ZDF will show one of the classic Karl May films with Pierre Brice and Lex Barker: "Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi". Uschi Glas plays the settler's daughter "Apanatschi", who gets her father's secret gold mine for her birthday and is kidnapped by greedy prospectors.

Generations in Germany were influenced by the Karl May film adaptations from the 1960s with Pierre Brice as "Winnetou". These films were often shown on ARD stations. However, they can no longer show the first and third, because according to the ARD program directorate, the license rights expired in 2020.

The film was last shown on linear television on November 1st on the private channel Kabel Eins, before that in August and April 2021 on Sat.1 Gold. Before that, Kabel Eins showed it on November 1, 2019 and in June 2019. The last ARD broadcasters to broadcast were BR Fernsehen (New Year's Eve 2018) and MDR Fernsehen (July 2018).

The now 78-year-old Glas appeared on the screen as Ursula Glas in "Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi". She was 22 when the film hit theaters in the summer of 1966. It was one of her first leading roles before her breakthrough came in 1968 with the tragic comedy "Zur Sache, Schätzchen". Götz George also played alongside her.

The prominent TV broadcast on the national holiday is actually only noteworthy because a sometimes heated debate about cultural appropriation and racism surrounding "Winnetou" raged in the summer. She flared up after Ravensburger Verlag withdrew two companion books to a new "Winnetou" film for children. Some then sensed exaggerated criticism of traditional materials.

ZDF writes about the broadcast of the "Apanatschi" film: "After the great success of the previous Karl May films in the 1960s, the successful producer Horst Wendlandt remained true to the tried and tested approach: the template of the famous author, in this case the story ' Half-Blood', was altered and rewritten almost beyond recognition; only basic motifs remained."

The character of "Apanatschi" does not come from Karl May, but is fictitious, explains ZDF. Her voice cannot be heard from Uschi Glas. "However, almost 50 years later, in an interview, she contradicted the persistent rumor that she had been dubbed because of her Bavarian accent."