Old Shatterhand

Old Shatterhand is the alter ego of Karl May, and May himself maintained that he experienced all the adventures in person, even though in fact he did not visit America until after he wrote most of his well-known Western stories, and never traveled west of Buffalo, NY. Most of the stories are written from a first person perspective, and Winnetou often calls Old Shatterhand my brother Scharli ('Scharli' being a German phonetic approximation of 'Charlie', and ultimately meaning Karl in German). May also wrote stories about the same character traveling the Orient, where he is known as Kara Ben Nemsi.

May attached the prefix Old to the names of several of his characters, considering it to be typically American and a sign of the characters' great experience. In the stories, Old Shatterhand is given the name by his friend Sam Hawkens (who also originates from Germany but is already an old-timer in the American West), as he was able to knock his opponents unconscious with a single punch from his fist aimed at the head (specifically the temple).

Bärentöter (center), the Henrystutzen (right) and the Silberbüchse (left), in the Karl May Museum.

Old Shatterhand owns two famous rifles, the Bärentöter (Bear Killer) and the Henrystutzen (Henry carbine), both made by a fictional gunsmith called Henry in St. Louis (based on gunsmith Benjamin Tyler Henry 1821–1898). The Henrystutzen was able to fire 25 shots without reloading, probably a hyperbolic reference to the Henry rifle. Old Shatterhand rode a horse called Hatatitla (Lightning), which he got from Winnetou, who rode the horse's brother, called Iltschi (meaning Wind).

The tales may have been an influence on the creation of the Lone Ranger media franchise.[1][2] Christian Tramitz parodied Shatterhand as a character called Ranger in the "Apahachi and Ranger" sketches for Michael Herbig's comedy show Bullyparade and their cinematic adaptation Der Schuh des Manitu.

The character of Old Shatterhand was played in the German Karl May movies of the 1960s by American actor Lex Barker.

• Der Schatz im Silbersee (The Treasure of Silver Lake) (1962), dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl
• Winnetou 1. Teil (Apache Gold) (1963), dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl
• Old Shatterhand (Apaches Last Battle) (1964), dir.: Hugo Fregonese
• Winnetou – 2. Teil (Last of the Renegades) (1964), dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl
• Winnetou – 3. Teil (The Desperado Trail) (1965), dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl
• Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi (Winnetou and the Crossbreed) (1966), dir.: Harald Philipp
• Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten (The Valley of Death) (1968), dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl

In contrast to the stories in the movies Unter Geiern (1964) and Der Ölprinz (1965) Old Surehand (starring Stewart Granger) was the hero instead of Old Shatterhand. Old Surehand is another character created by Karl May. Karl May dedicated three volumes to him, who, like Old Shatterhand, is a renowned Western hero and best friends with the Native Americans. Unlike Old Shatterhand, Old Surehand is a half-blood Native himself, though raised in a white family.

• Karl May's works have been translated by Marlies Bugmann
• Nemsi Books (Publisher of new unabridged translations)

In the 1990s British writer B. J. Holmes produced two prose sequels featuring the character: A Legend Called Shatterhand, and Shatterhand and the People.[3]