By Miriam Krekel
The Ravensburger publishing house has taken the modern Winnetou books off the market again. But this story also embodies many positive virtues. A comment from BZ editor-in-chief Miriam Krekel.
Do you remember reading Winnetou? We have the very old editions of Karl May from the grandparents on my sons’ shelves. We didn’t even read them all because parts of the language seemed so foreign to the children.
My big one has devoured all of Percy Jackson’s legendary novels, a youthful demigod who lives in today’s world. He learned a lot about gods from it. And he knows it’s not all true. There are, of course, no demigods. He learns the rest in history classes, which he loves thanks in part to Percy Jackson.
Ravensburger has now taken the new books on the Winnetou film (i.e. the ones with the modern language) off the market. Because the story is too “romanticizing”, serves racist stereotypes and there have been complaints.
But that’s crazy. It’s obviously a novel. And if this extraordinary friendship teaches the reader, and especially our children, it is that courage, friendship and love can overcome the greatest obstacles. If you stick together, you can achieve anything.
On the other hand, if children only grow up with the image of destruction, divisions in society and war, the likelihood that they will advocate peace in the future decreases. But to be honest, that’s my best hope.