Dhe Ravensburger publishing house has stopped the delivery of two children’s books that were brought to the market to accompany the children’s film “The Young Chief Winnetou” after clear criticism.
The film “The Young Chief Winnetou” by director Mark Marzuk has been in cinemas since August 11th. Although the film was classified as “particularly valuable” by the German Film and Media Evaluation (FBW), it was previously the subject of controversial discussion within the jury. According to the FBW website, she was “absolutely divided”. There was criticism from jury members that the Karl May literature on which it was based was a “lie” that would “completely ignore the genocide of Native Americans and the injustice inflicted on them by the white settlers’ land grab and destruction of their natural habitat”. However, the majority of the jury found that May’s depictions were “fairy tales” and could also be told as such – as products of fantasy.
The Ravensburger publishing house had published and advertised a “first reading book on the film” for children from the age of seven and a “book on the film” for children from the age of eight to accompany the cinema film. This was followed by fierce criticism on social media. The books, adapted from the film’s script, promoted colonialist and racist ideas; they are about “cultural appropriation”.
In response, the publisher removed the books from the program and announced via Instagram: “Your feedback has clearly shown us that we have hurt the feelings of others with our Winnetou titles. That was never our intention and it is also not compatible with our Ravensburger values. We sincerely apologize for this.” According to the publisher, he “wouldn’t make the decision to publish it like that anymore today”.
Karl May expert Andreas Brenne criticized Ravensburger Verlag’s decision to take the children’s book based on the film “The Young Winnetou” off the market in an interview with the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”: “I don’t think it’s right to only publish a book like this because of one to pull Shitstorms out of circulation.” Before taking this step, the publisher should have sought advice from experts on Karl May’s work and the genre of children’s and youth books. In addition, it is made clear in a preliminary remark that it is to be understood as a fictitious story and not as an objective representation of the life of indigenous peoples. “Here the fear of the publishing house’s marketing department that the house could fall into disrepute dictated the procedure,” says Brenne, who works as a professor for art education and art didactics at the University of Potsdam and works in the Karl May Society on program issues.