Karl May | |
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| Born | Karl Friedrich May (1842-02-25)25 February 1842 |
| Died | 30 March 1912(1912-03-30) (aged 70) Radebeul, Kingdom of Saxony,German Empire |
| Occupation | Writer, author |
| Genre | Western, travel fiction, German homeland novels, adventure novels |
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| Website | |
| www | |
Karl Friedrich May (/maɪ/MY,German:[kaʁlˈmaɪ]ⓘ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author known for writing often infirst-person narrative about travels and adventures, mostly set in theAmerican Old West or theOrient and Middle East, but also in Latin America, China and within Germany. For a time he insisted that he actually had travelled to the West and was calledOld Shatterhand there, while in theOttoman Empire he was calledKara Ben Nemsi, and posed in costumes.
May is one of the best-selling German writers of all time, with about 200 million copies sold worldwide. A series ofKarl May film adaptations was successful in the 1960s.
May was the fifth child of a poor family ofweavers inErnstthal,Schönburgische Rezessherrschaften (then part of theKingdom of Saxony). He had 13 siblings, of whom nine died in infancy. His parents were Heinrich August May and Wilhelmine Christiane Weise. During his school years, he received instruction in music andcomposition. At age twelve, May was making money at askittle alley, where he was exposed to rough language.[2]
In 1856, May commenced teacher training inWaldenburg, but in 1859 was expelled for stealing six candles. After an appeal, he was allowed to continue inPlauen. Shortly after graduation, when his roommate accused him of stealing a watch, May was jailed inChemnitz for six weeks and his license to teach was revoked. After this, May worked with little success as a private tutor, an author of tales, a composer and a public speaker. For four years, from 1865 to 1869, May was jailed in the workhouse atOsterstein Castle,Zwickau. With good behaviour, May became an administrator of the prison library, which gave him the chance to read widely. He made a list of the works he planned to write (Repertorium C. May.)
On his release, May continued his life of crime, impersonating various characters (policemen, doctors etc.) and spinning fantastic tales as a method of fraud. He was arrested, but when he was transported to a crime scene during a judicial investigation, he escaped and fled toBohemia, where he was detained for vagrancy. For another four years, from 1870 to 1874, May was jailed inWaldheim, Saxony. There he met aCatholic Catechist, Johannes Kochta, who assisted May.[3]
After his release in May 1874, May returned to his parents' home in Ernstthal and began to write. In November 1874,Die Rose von Ernstthal ("The Rose from Ernstthal") was published.[4] May then became an editor in the publishing house ofHeinrich Gotthold Münchmeyer inDresden, where he managed entertainment papers such asSchacht und Hütte ("Mine and Mill") and continued to publish his own works such asGeographische Predigten ("Collected Travel Stories") (1876). May resigned in 1876[4] and was employed byBruno Radelli of Dresden.
In 1878, May became afreelance writer. Once again, May was insolvent.[4] In 1882, May returned to the employ of Münchmeyer and began the first of five largecolportage novels. One of these wasDas Waldröschen (1882–1884). From 1879, May was also published inDeutscher Hausschatz ("German House Treasure"), a Catholic weekly journal from thepress of Friedrich Pustet inRegensburg. In 1880, May began theOrient Cycle, which ran, with interruption, until 1888. May was also published in the teenage boys' journalDer Gute Kamerad ("The Good Comrade") ofWilhelm Spemann,Stuttgart. In 1887, it publishedDer Sohn des Bärenjägers ("Son of the Bear Hunter"). In 1891Der Schatz im Silbersee ("The Treasure of Silver Lake") was published. May published in other journals using pseudonyms. In all, he published over one hundred articles. In October 1888, May moved to Kötzschenbroda (a part ofRadebeul) and in 1891 toVilla Agnes in Oberlößnitz. In 1891,Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld offered to print theDeutscher Hausschatz "Son of the Bear Hunter" stories as books. In 1892, the publication ofCarl May's Gesammelte Reiseromane (Collected Travel Accounts orKarl May's Gesammelte Reiseerzählungen) brought financial security and recognition. May became deeply absorbed in the stories he wrote and the lives of his characters. Readers wrote to May, addressing him as theprotagonists of his books. May conducted talking tours in Germany and Austria and allowed autographed cards to be printed and photos in costume to be taken. In December 1895, May moved to the Villa Shatterhand in Alt-Radebeul, which he purchased from the Ziller brothers.[5]
In 1899, May traveled to Egypt thenSumatra with his servant, Sejd Hassan. In 1900, he was joined by Klara and Richard Plöhn. The group returned to Radebeul in July 1900. May demonstrated some emotional instability during his travels.[6]
Hermann Cardauns andRudolf Lebius criticised May for his self-promotion with the Old Shatterhand legend. He was also reproached for his writing for the CatholicDeutscher Hausschatz and severalMarian calendars. There were also charges of unauthorised book publications and the use of an illegal doctoral degree. In 1902, May did receive aDoctor honoris causa from the Universitas Germana-Americana in Chicago forIm Reiche des Silbernen Löwen ("In the Realm of the Silver Lion.")[7] In 1908, Karl and Klara May spent six weeks in North America. They traveled throughAlbany, New York,Buffalo, New York, theNiagara Falls and visited friends inLawrence, Massachusetts. May was inspired to writeWinnetou IV.
On his return, May began work on complexallegorical texts. He considered the "question of mankind",pacifism and the raising of humans from evil to good.Sascha Schneider providedsymbolist covers for the Fehsenfeld edition. On 22 March 1912, May was invited by the Academic Society for Literature and Music inVienna to present a lecture entitledEmpor ins Reich der Edelmenschen ("Upward to the Realm of Noble Men"). There, he met pacifist and Nobel LaureateBertha von Suttner.
May died in his own Villa Shatterhand on 30 March 1912.[8] According to the register of deaths, the cause wascardiac arrest,acute bronchitis andasthma, but according to Ralf Harder from the Karl-May-Stiftung, May's death certificate does not include the cause of death.[9] Scientists examining the remains of May in 2014 found excessive quantities oflead and otherheavy metals, and concluded that his death was probably due to a long-timeexposure to lead in water as well as tobacco.[10] May was buried in Radebeul East. His tomb was inspired by theTemple of Athena Nike.[9]
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In 1880, May married Emma Pollmer. They divorced in 1903 and had no children. May subsequently married Klara Plöhn, who was widowed.
May used many pseudonyms, including "Capitan Ramon Diaz de la Escosura", "D. Jam", "Emma Pollmer", "Ernst von Linden", "Hobble-Frank", "Karl Hohenthal", "M. Gisela", "P. van der Löwen", "Prinz Muhamel Lautréamont" and "Richard Plöhn". Most pseudonymously or anonymously published works have been identified.
For the novels set in America, May created the characters ofWinnetou, the wisechief of theApaches, andOld Shatterhand, Winnetou's whiteblood brother. Another series of novels were set in theOttoman Empire. In these, the narrator-protagonist,Kara Ben Nemsi, travels with his local guide and servantHadschi Halef Omar through theSahara desert to theNear East, experiencing many exciting adventures.
May's writing developed from the anonymousfirst-person observer-narrator (for exampleDer Gitano, 1875) to a narrator with heroic skills and equipment, to a fully formed first-person narrator-hero.[11]
With few exceptions, May had not visited the places he described, but he compensated successfully for his lack of direct experience through a combination of creativity, imagination, and documentary sources including maps, travel accounts and guidebooks, as well as anthropological and linguistic studies. The work of writers such asJames Fenimore Cooper,Gabriel Ferry,Friedrich Gerstäcker,Balduin Möllhausen andMayne Reid served as his models.[12][13]
Non-dogmatic Christian values play an important role in May's works. Some of the characters are described as being of German, particularlySaxon, origins.
In a letter to a young Jew who intended to become a Christian after reading May's books, May advised him first to understand his own religion, which he described as holy and exalted, until he was experienced enough to choose.[14]
In his later works (after 1900) May left the adventure fiction genre to writesymbolic novels with religious and pacifistic content. The change is best shown inIm Reiche des silbernen Löwen, where the first two parts are adventurous and the last two parts belong to the mature work.[15]
In his early work, May wrote in a variety of genres until he showed his proficiency in travel stories.[16] During his time as an editor, he published many of these works within the periodicals for which he was responsible.
The shorter stories of the early work can be grouped as follows, although in some works genres overlap. Some of the shorter stories were later published in anthologies, for example,Der Karawanenwürger und andere Erzählungen (1894),Humoresken und Erzählungen (1902) andErzgebirgische Dorfgeschichten (1903).
May wrote five large (many thousands of pages)colportage novels, which he published either anonymously or under pseudonyms between 1882 and 1888.
From 1900 to 1906, Münchmeyer's successor Adalbert Fischer published the first book editions. These were revised by third hand and published under May's real name instead of pseudonyms. This edition was not authorized by May and he tried to stop its publication.[17]
Thirty-three volumes ofCarl May's Gesammelte Reiseromane, (Karl May's Gesammelte Reiseerzählungen) were published from 1892 to 1910 byFriedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld. Most had been previously published inDeutscher Hausschatz, but some were new. The best known titles are theOrient Cycle (volumes 1–6) and theWinnetou-Trilogy (volumes 7–9). Beyond these shorter cycles, the works are troubled by chronological inconsistencies arising when original articles were revised for book editions.
May'soeuvre includes some shorter travel stories that were not published within this series (for example,Eine Befreiung inDie Rose von Kaïrwan, 1894). After the founding of the Karl May Press in 1913, works inGesammelte Werke were revised (sometimes extensively) and many received new titles. Texts (other than those from Fehsenfeld Press) were also added to the new series.
These stories were written from 1887 to 1897 for the magazineDer Gute Kamerad. Most of the stories are set in theWild West, but Old Shatterhand is just a figure and not the first-person narrator as he is in the travel stories. The best-known volume isDer Schatz im Silbersee. In the broadest sense, the early worksIm fernen Westen andDer Waldläufer belong in this category.
May's mature work dates to 1900, after his travels to the East.[18] Many of them were published by Fehsenfeld.
May was a member of the "Lyra" choir in about 1864 and composed musical works, including a version ofAve Maria andVergiss mich nicht withinErnste Klänge, 1899.[19]
During his last years, May lectured on hisphilosophical ideas.
Furthermore, there are posthumous publications of fragments of stories and dramas, lyrics, musical compositions, letters and the library catalog.
According to an encyclopedia dedicated to May, he is the "most read writer of the German tongue". The total number of copies published is about 200 million, half of them in German.[20]
May's first translated work is considered to have been the first half of theOrient Cycle into a Frenchdaily newspaper in 1881.[21] Hans Dieter Steinmet (of dKarl May Museum) said thatCroatian writerNikola Tordinac published a translation of May's novelTree carde monte in the magazine Sriemski Hrvat in 1880.[22] Tordinac's translation became a part of the permanent exhibition of the Karl May Museum in 2017.[22] Since that time, May's work has been translated into more than 30 languages, includingLatin andEsperanto. In the 1960s,UNESCO indicated that May was the most frequently translated German writer.[20] His most popular translations are inBulgarian,Czech,Hungarian and Dutch.[21] Seabury Press, New York, began publishing English translations by Michael Shaw in 1977.[23]
May had a substantial influence on a number of well-known German-speaking people and on the German population itself.[24] The popularity of his writing, and his (generally German) protagonists, are seen as having filled a lack in the German psyche, which had few popular heroes until the 19th century.[25] His readers longed to escape from an industrialised, capitalist society, an escape which May offered.[26] May "helped shape the collective German dream of feats far beyond middle-class bounds."[25] and contributed to thepopular image of Native Americans in German-speaking countries, which has been described by many as racist and harmful.[27]
The nameWinnetou has an entry in the German dictionary,Duden. The wider influence on the populace also surprised US occupation troops after World War II, who realised that thanks to May, "Cowboys and Indians" were familiar concepts to local children (though fantastic and removed from reality).[24]
Many well-known German-speaking people used May's heroes as models in their childhood.[28]Albert Einstein enjoyed May's books and said, "My whole adolescence stood under his sign. Indeed, even today, he has been dear to me in many a desperate hour..."[25]
Adolf Hitler was an admirer of May's writings. He noted that the novels "overwhelmed" him as a boy, going as far as to ensure "a noticeable decline" in his school grades.[29] In his adult life, Hitler had a shelf of honor built in his library to hold his precious collection of works by May, which were specially bound in vellum.[30]
According to an anonymous friend, Hitler attended the lecture given by May in Vienna in March 1912 and was enthusiastic about the event.[31] The lecture was an appeal for peace, also heard byNobel Peace Prize laureateBertha von Suttner. May died suddenly only ten days after the lecture, leaving the young Hitler deeply upset.[32]Claus Roxin noted that he doubts the anonymous description, because Hitler had said much about May, but not that he had seen him.[33]
Hitler defended May against critics in themen's hostel where he lived in Vienna, as the evidence of May's earlier time in jail had come to light; although it was true, Hitler confessed that May had never visited the sites of his American adventure stories. This made him a greater writer in Hitler's view since it showed the author's powers of imagination.
Hitler later recommended the books to his generals and had special editions distributed to soldiers at the front, praising Winnetou as an example of "tactical finesse and circumspection",[34] though some note that the latter claims of using the books as military guidance are not substantiated.[25] However, as told byAlbert Speer, "when faced by seemingly hopeless situations, he [Hitler] would still reach for these stories," because "they gave him courage like works of philosophy for others or the Bible for elderly people."[34]
Hitler's admiration for May led the German writerKlaus Mann to accuse May of having been a form of "mentor" for Hitler.[24] In his admiration, Hitler ignored May's Christian and humanitarian approach and views completely. TheNational Socialists in particular tried to use May's popularity and his work for their purposes.[25]
The popularity of May's books sparked a fascination in German popular culture with theIndigenous peoples of North America that continues to this day. In 1985, the German scholar Hartmut Lutz invented the termDeutsche Indianertümelei ("German Indian Enthusiasm") for the phenomenon.[35] The phraseIndianertümelei is a reference to the German termDeutschtümelei ("German Enthusiasm") which mockingly describes the phenomenon of celebrating in an excessively nationalistic and romanticized mannerDeutschtum ("Germanness").[35] In the English-speaking world, the phenomenon of the German obsession with the First Nations of North America is known as "Indianthusiasm".[35] In a 1999 speech delivered in the United States in English, Lutz declared:
For over two hundred years Germans have foundIndianer so fascinating that even today an Indian iconography is used in advertising. The most popular image of theIndianer 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 likeein Indianer weint nicht (an Indian doesn't cry),ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz (an Indian braves pain) or figures such asder letzte Mohikaner (the Last of the Mohicans) have become part of the everyday speech.[36]
As part of the phenomenon ofIndianertümelei 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.[37] 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.[37] In 2019, it was estimated that between 40,000 and 100,000 Germans are involved inIndianer hobbyist clubs at any given moment.[37] Interviewed in 2007, one member of anIndianer 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".[38]
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:
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.[39]
The German writerCarl Zuckmayer was intrigued by May's Apache chief and named his daughterMaria Winnetou.[20]Max von der Grün said he read May as a young boy. When asked whether reading May's books had given him anything, he answered, "No. It took something away from me. The fear of bulky books, that is."[40]Heinz Werner Höber, the twofoldGlauser prize winner, was a follower of May. He said, "When I was about 12 years old I wrote my first novel on Native Americans which was, of course, from the beginning to the end completely stolen from Karl May." He had pleaded with friends to get him to Radebeul "because Radebeul meant Karl May". There, he was deeply impressed by the museum and said, "My great fellow countryman from Hohenstein-Ernstthal and his immortal heroes have never left me ever since."[41]
Asteroids348 May and15728 Karlmay are named in May's honour.[42]
May's poemAve Maria (1896) was set to music in at least 19 versions. Other poems, especially from the collectionHimmelsgedanken were also set to music.Carl Ball wroteHarp Clangs for the dramaBabel und Bibel for May. The Swiss composerOthmar Schoeck adaptedDer Schatz im Silbersee for opera. May's concepts, such as Winnetou's death, inspired musical works.[43]
The first stage adaptation of May's work wasWinnetou (1919) byHermann Dimmler. Dimmler andLudwig Körner made revised editions of the play. Different novel revisions have been played on outdoor stages since the 1940s. TheKarl May Festival in Bad Segeberg has been held every summer since 1952 and inLennestadt-Elspe since 1958. At some of these festivals,Pierre Brice has played Winnetou. Another festival has been conducted on a rock stage inRathen, inSaxon Switzerland near Radebeul in 1940 and then since 1984.[44]
In 1920, May's friendMarie Luise Droop, her husbandAdolf Droop and theKarl May Press founded Ustad-Film, aproduction company. Ustad-Film made threesilent movies (Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses,Die Todeskarawane andDie Teufelsanbeter) after theOrientcycle. The company became bankrupt in 1921 and the films are lost.[20] In 1936 a firstsound movieDurch die Wüste was shown.Die Sklavenkarawane [de] (1958) and its sequelDer Löwe von Babylon [de] (1959) were the first colour movies.
From 1962 to 1968, a series of May movies were made.[45] While most of the seventeen movies of this series wereWild West movies (beginning withDer Schatz im Silbersee), three were based on theOrientcycle and two onDas Waldröschen. Most of these movies were made separately by the two competitorsHorst Wendlandt andArtur Brauner. Several actors were employed, includingLex Barker (Old Shatterhand, Kara Ben Nemsi, Karl Sternau),Pierre Brice (Winnetou),Gojko Mitić (Winnetou),Stewart Granger (Old Surehand),Milan Srdoč (Old Wabble) andRalf Wolter (Sam Hawkens, Hadschi Halef Omar, André Hasenpfeffer). Thefilm score byMartin Böttcher and the landscape ofYugoslavia are associated with the movies. Other movies such asDie Spur führt zum Silbersee (1990) and TV productions such asDas Buschgespenst (1986) and the television seriesKara Ben Nemsi Effendi (1973) were produced. The productions vary from the original written works.[45]
In 2016, German RTL Television premiered three-part television movies based on Winnetou, directed byPhilipp Stölzl.[46] In the part "Winnetou and Old Shatterhand",Gojko Mitić, one of the actors who played Winnetou in the '60s movies, portrayed Intschu Tschuna, Winnetou's father.
May's works (about 300) have been adapted foraudio dramas, particularly in the 1960s.[20][47] The first,Der Schatz im Silbersee, was written byGünther Bibo in 1929.[20] There are also Czech and Danish versions of the audio dramas.[47] In 1988,Der Schatz im Silbersee was read byGert Westphal and published as anaudiobook.Wann sehe ich dich wieder, du lieber, lieber Winnetou? (1995) is a compendium of Karl May texts read byHermann Wiedenroth.[47]
In the 1950sCroatiancomic book artistWalter Neugebauer finished his 1930s comic book adaptation of Karl May's stories.[48]Serbian artistAleksandar Hecl also drew one.[49] In the 1960s and 1970s, May's works were adapted for German comics including an eight-issue series based onWinnetou and a further nine-issue series titledKarl May (1963–1965). The series was drawn byHelmut Nickel andHarry Ehrt and published by Walter Lehning Verlag. Belgian comics artistWilly Vandersteen created a whole series of comics based on May's stories, simply titledKarl May (1962–1977).[50] Eighty-seven issues ofKarl May were published byStandaard Uitgeverij from 1962 to 1987. Comics based on May's novels were also produced inCzechoslovakia, Denmark, France,Mexico, Spain and Sweden.[51]
May's life has been the subject of screen works, novels and a stage play, including
May wascopied orparodied during his lifetime. Some wrote similar Wild West stories. Others, such asFranz Treller, published under May's name.[52] Novelizations of May's characters include
In his will, May made his second wife, Klara, his sole heiress. He instructed that after her death all of his property and any future earnings from his work should go to afoundation. This foundation should support the education of the gifted poor including writers, journalists, and editors. One year after May's death, on 5 March 1913, Klara May established the "Karl May Foundation" ("Karl-May-Stiftung"). Contributions have been made since 1917. Klara and Karl May's estate went to the foundation. The foundation established theKarl May Museum to maintain the Villa Shatterhand, the estates, the collections and May's tomb.[53][54] In 1960, the Karl May Foundation received the Karl May Press.[54]
On 1 July 1913, Klara May, Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld (May's main publisher) and thejurist Euchar Albrecht Schmid established the "Foundation Press Fehsenfeld & Co." ("Stiftungs-Verlag Fehsenfeld & Co.") in Radebeul. In 1915, the name changed to "Karl May Press" ("Karl-May-Verlag" (KMV)). The KMV consolidated the rights to May's works from internal discord and from other publishers.[55] Third-hand revisions of these texts were added to the seriesKarl May's Gesammelte Reiseerzählungen, which was renamed toKarl May's Gesammelte Werke (und Briefe). The existing 33 volumes of the original series were also revised, some extensively. By 1945 there were 65 volumes. The press is exclusive to May's work and subsidiary literature. Besides theGesammelte Werke (the classical "green volumes"), which have 91 volumes today, the press has a huge reprint programme.
The Karl May Press aims to rehabilitate May from literary criticism and to support the Karl May Foundation. In 1921, Fehsenfeld left and in 1960, the foundation fell to Klara May's estate, and thus the Press is owned by the Schmid family. In 1959, due to censorship in theSoviet occupation zone andEast Germany, the Press moved toBamberg (Germany). In 1963, when copyright ended, the Press began commercialising May's works. AfterGerman reunification, in 1996, the Press took a second office in Radebeul. The name "Karl May" is aregistered trade mark of the "Karl May Verwaltungs- und Vertriebs-GmbH", which belongs to the Karl May Press.[55]
TheKarl May Museum is in the Villa Shatterhand in Radebeul and contains artifacts from May's life as well as from life on theAmerican frontier andNative American life of that era.[56] It was founded in 1928 by May's widow and an eccentric Austrian namedErnst Tobis.[57] When theNazis took over Germany, they appropriated the museum and the image of May, and were especially focused onswastikas that appeared in some of the Native American artwork. Hitler Youth were encouraged to visit the museum and hear stories from Tobis.[58] After World War II, the original museum remained inEast Germany and a replica was built inBamberg inWest Germany.[59]: 73 From 1956 to 1984, the museum in Radebeul was called the "Indianer Museum", because May's books were suppressed by the East German government; its original name was restored in 1986.[56] Around 2010, controversy arose overscalps, some of them from Native Americans, that were in the museum's collection.[57]
The "Karl May House" ("Karl-May-Haus") is the three-centuries-oldweaver house where May was born. Since 12 March 1985, it has been a memorial and museum. It shows an original weaving room and non-German book editions. The garden has been arranged according to May's description in his memoirs.
Opposite the house is the International Karl May Heritage Center ("Karl-May-Begegnungsstätte"), which is used for events and special exhibitions. InHohenstein-Ernstthal, called "Karl May Home Town" since 1992, every May-related place has acommemorative plaque. These places are connected by a "Karl May Path" ("Karl-May-Wanderweg"). Outside the city lies the "Karl May Cave" ("Karl-May-Höhle"), where May found shelter during his criminal times.[60]
In the 1890s, there were Karl May clubs.[61] Today, various entities focus on research about the author.[62] These organisations exist in German-speaking regions, the Netherlands, Australia andIndonesia. While such societies are responsible for the release of most May-related periodicals, for example,Der Beobachter an der Elbe,Karl-May-Haus Information,Wiener Karl-May-Brief, andKarl May in Leipzig, the magazineKarl May & Co. is published independently.
The "Karl May Society" (KMG), founded on 22 March 1969, is the largest organisation, with approximately 1800 members.[63] The KMG publishesJahrbuch,Mitteilungen,Sonderhefte der Karl-May-Gesellschaft, andKMG-Nachrichten and reprints. Since 2008 and in cooperation with the Karl May Foundation and the Karl May Press, the KMG has published thecritiqued edition of "Karl Mays Werke". This project was initiated byHans Wollschläger and Hermann Wiedenroth in 1987.[17][64]
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