WILD WEST DEUTSCHLAND: ITS IN THEIR JEANS

 There's a well established fascination with American Indians in Germany, where we are currently staying. It may have peaked in the Fifties and Sixties but it was there alright.

There's evidence of this love-affair just under the surface here. Scratch a bit and you'll find it at flohmarkten (car boots) and in second hand shops for sure.

One of the many firms which released Wild West plastic figures was Jean Höffler, with toys simply marked as JEAN. I saw lots of loose Jeans recently when I found my Rrrumbler. Brightly coloured cowboys and Indians along with knights in armour.

Jean sets appeared in many forms of packaging: big bags, cards and boxes.

Here's a blister card of painted Indianer. 

Only this week I found further evidence of this erstwhile romance for all things Wild West: three lovely LP records on the Mandolino label narrating three of the many stories of Karl May (pictures courtesy of Discogs).

Karl May was a German author from Saxony. He wrote countless adventures, in the late 1800's and early 1900's, for children, about places and people he'd never seen, but with a passion and level of detail that they would never have known. His books were collected avidly by kids and parents bought them willingly. Most famous of all are his characters Winnetou the Indian brave and his 'white' brother Old Surehand.

My late Father-in-Law often explained how he looked at his friend's Karl May book collection in the early 1940's with envy, as like everything else, they were hard to come by during World War Two when they were boys.

In the 1960's Winnetou and Old Surehand hit the big screen and Stewart Granger, playing another character, Old Shatterhand, helped make them huge hits with German kids and parents.

The wild west was now firmly part of postwar  pop-culture in Germany and it's hardly any wonder; besides the many films, two hundred million copies of Karl May's stories have been sold around the world!

Have you come across Karl May?

Woodsy