print, translated into 28 different languages (Zantop Encounters” 4). The power of the “Close narrative and its Winnetou figure is in large part driven by the consistent recycling of the for new purposes within German culture and subcultures. A long-term scholar of “Indianer” German Hartmut Lutz observes that identification with American Indian “Indianthusiasm,” nations continues to be reinforced depending on the German community and time in question, and is still frequently tied to German national identity. He defines this ever-shifting [“Indianthusiasm”] as yearning for all things Indian, a fascination with “Indianertümelei” “a American Indians, a romanticizing about a supposed Indian essence…[it] is racialized in that it refers to Indianness…as an essentializing bioracial and, concomitantly, cultural ethnic identity that ossifies into stereotype…Relatively seldom does focus on contemporary Indianertümelei Native American realities” (169, his italics). The stereotypes derived from Indianthusiasm are used as a way for Germans to critique their own culture and history, and in identifying empathetically with Native American histories and causes, Indianthusiasts furthermore create an and guilt-free ideological realm, far “ahistorical removed from the more depressing aspects of German reality past and present. Morever, it allows Germans to identify with the victims of history, rather than with the victimizers” (Lutz 169). Lutz traces the history of this tendency, from Hitler’s lauding of Winnetou as the ultimate company commander, to American Indian Movement support groups in East and West Germany before reunification in 1990, to cultural appropriation by New Age culture. Katrin Sieg further explores contemporary Indian” in Germany, or drag” as she terms it, finding “playing “ethnic that East and West German Indianer hobbyist groups had different motivations for their research and play-acting depending on location and generational attitude; for East Germans, there was a strong identification with American Indians because of a perceived alliance against the American
print, translated into 28 different languages (Zantop “Close Encounters” 4). The power of the narrative and its Winnetou figure is in large part driven by the consistent recycling of the “Indianer” for new purposes within German culture and subcultures. A long-term scholar of German “Indianthusiasm,” Hartmut Lutz observes that identification with American Indian nations continues to be reinforced depending on the German community and time in question, and is still frequently tied to German national identity. He defines this ever-shifting “Indianertümelei” [“Indianthusiasm”] as “a yearning for all things Indian, a fascination with American Indians, a romanticizing about a supposed Indian essence…[it] is racialized in that it refers to Indianness…as an essentializing bioracial and, concomitantly, cultural ethnic identity that ossifies into stereotype…Relatively seldom does Indianertümelei focus on contemporary Native American realities” (169, his italics). The stereotypes derived from Indianthusiasm are used as a way for Germans to critique their own culture and history, and in identifying empathetically with Native American histories and causes, Indianthusiasts furthermore create an “ahistorical and guilt-free ideological realm, far removed from the more depressing aspects of German reality past and present. Morever, it allows Germans to identify with the victims of history, rather than with the victimizers” (Lutz 169). Lutz traces the history of this tendency, from Hitler’s lauding of Winnetou as the ultimate company commander, to American Indian Movement support groups in East and West Germany before reunification in 1990, to cultural appropriation by New Age culture. Katrin Sieg further explores contemporary “playing Indian” in Germany, or “ethnic drag” as she terms it, finding that East and West German Indianer hobbyist groups had different motivations for their research and play-acting depending on location and generational attitude; for East Germans, there was a strong identification with American Indians because of a perceived alliance against the American
revisiting_winnetou_and_the_karl_may_museum_2.docx