Horror, tears, threatening phone calls: The day when Winnetou died

Winnetou was Claudia Roth's first love. And his death shook her. "He was so gallant, he was beautiful, he had a horse, I knew that Nscho-Tschi died in the first band, but when Winnetou died in the third band, that was really bad," said the Green politician in an interview the "FAZ". At that time she was fifth grader and became "really sick, I cried the whole bed wet".

And that only after reading the book. But when Winnetou's death came on the big screen almost melodramatically exactly 50 years ago, the reactions were even more drastic. The premiere of the film was on 14 October 1965 in Essen's Lichtburg, a traditional cinema with the largest cinema hall in Germany for 1250 spectators, according to self-promotion of the "Colossus of the light games".

Surprisingly, the death of the noble redskin could not have been. Winnetou had long been the favorite chieftain of the Germans; Karl May had already invented the figure in 1878 and in 1893 published the novel "Winnetou III", which was devoured by generations. So the dying scene had a good 70 years run-up. And yet she seemed to put half Germany in a state of bewilderment.

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"People probably did not expect it," said Matthias Wendlandt, son of producer Horst Wendlandt, many years later in a television documentary. "We were covered here with threatening phone calls, threatening letters, it was terrible."

The Italian actor Rik Battaglia, who died this year as a villain to Rollin's lethal shot on the Apache chief, experienced it similarly: "That was awful, really terrible," he said as an old man. He had a lot of German fans back then, having previously made a film with Hans Albers. "Everyone wrote to me asking for photos and autographs, then I killed Winnetou, and then came the big stop - no one ever wrote me more, nor did I have a single wish for a photo or autograph."

Winnetou sacrificed himself for his blood brother

In the film, Old Shatterhand, Sam Hawkens and Winnetou fight together against bandits, as Oberfiesling sneaks up on Rollins from behind and fires a shot at Old Shatterhand. Winnetou heroically intervenes, the deadly bullet catches him, the end is near.

Many older people still have the scene in mind today: The dying Winnetou (Pierre Brice) on one of those Croatian karst mountains, which was mainly filmed, supported by Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker). His thoughts wander into the past: he sees them both rowing in a canoe over the Silver Lake again, remembering how Winnetou's sister Nscho-chi died in his arms or how the blood brother of his unfulfilled love Ribanna looked deep into his eyes.

Then Iltschi gallops up, Winnetou's faithful black horse, and neighs in farewell. From afar, the bells of Santa Fe sound, followed by the last words in the third person: "Winnetou's soul must go, Winnetou is ready, farewell, my faithful, my ..." - see video:

Michael Petzel, author of several film books as Karl May expert, was 13 at the time. "I thought that was a bit cheesy as a child," he says. "This pathetic exaggeration has something of the twilight of the gods."

With "Winnetou, Part 3", the sensationally successful Karl May series, which has lasted since 1962, had reached or even slightly exceeded its peak, as Petzel says. Winnetou actor Pierre Brice reported in a conversation with SPIEGEL ONLINE from the reactions of the audience: "An uprising was the result, almost a French Revolution.Wendlandt was threatened, angry fans smeared hate speech, and we knew: 'Winnetou must not die . ' "

Old Surehand found "Sauerkraut Western" cranky

And so Winnetou appeared in the hurriedly nachgeschobenen next film "Old Surehand", also in 1965 in the cinemas, again, as if nothing had been. But it was a failure and reached the first time no longer the Golden Screen, the price of box office hit. Surehand actor Stewart Granger found the German "Sauerkraut Western" curious and expressed it on screen, holding his rifle like a baby or patronizing Winnetou's shoulder.

Granger and Brice were so cross that the shooting was almost a fiasco. Pierre Brice has permanently angered his colleague's capricious appearances, as he wrote in his biography "Winnetou and I". He knew that a mythological heroic story can only work with a detached detachment. "Irony is not suitable for fairy tales," says Karl-May-Kenner Petzel.

In retrospect, Winnetou's entry into the eternal hunting grounds marks not only the great turning point in the Karl May series, but also a decisive moment in the socialization of the first (West) German postwar generation. "Winnetou's death was the departure of a German childhood for the grandsons of Adolf Hitler, who were also children of Coca-Cola," writes the film critic Georg Seeßlen, author of "History and Mythology of Western Film". Three years later, the students were already rebelling.

"Winnetous Tod" is also the title of the third and final part of the remake of the material currently being produced by RTL. Wotan Wilke Möhring is to play Old Shatterhand ("A childhood dream comes true") and Nik Xhelilaj, 32, who take over Winnetou's role. Many of the former fans are skeptical of whether the Albanian actor can slip into the moccasins of the late Pierre Brice. Expert Petzel, however, wants to give him and the film a chance: "Let's wait and see."