Kara Ben Nemsi

Kara Ben Nemsi ( Turkish Kara: "black", phonetic reference to " Charles "; Ben Nemsi: Arabic -sounding name, meaning " son of the Germans" ) is the name of the narrator in the Orient novels of Karl May

He embodies a young German who usually moves in with companions as his servant and leader Hajji Halef Omar or the English lord Sir David Lindsay through North Africa, the Middle East, Sudan and the Balkans and in his struggle for peace and justice all kinds of adventures experienced. External marking are for Kara Ben Nemsi his horse Rih and its Western firearms, their power is largely unknown in the areas he visited.

Old Shatterhand

Kara Ben Nemsi and both parts of the Americas roaming Old Shatterhand are one and the same, created by the narrator Karl May and autobiographical affected person. This is evident, among other things in the novel In the Realms of the Silver Lion I ( now also under the title The Lion of blood feuds ), where the narrator is as Old Shatterhand in the U.S. and there a friend from the Orient meets, where Old Shatterhand are recognized as " Kara Ben Nemsi ", or Satan and Iscariot II (now also under the title: in Kruger ), where Old Shatterhand travels to Tunis. The name " Kara Ben Nemsi " Old Shatterhand got from his constant companion and friend Hajji Halef Omar.

Development of the name and meaning of the term " Nemsi "

May introduces the terms " Nemsi " and " Nemsistan " published in his 1878 third Orient story The Rose of Sokna one. There he translated the words used by a caravan leader or the Arab servant of there yet unnamed narrator with " German " and " Germany ". The name " Kara Ben Nemsi " takes place in the 1880/81 published (later Through the Desert ) held by the servants Hajji Halef Omar " travel memories from the Turks kingdoms of Karl May " Giölgeda padishanün, who spontaneously invented this name at a presentation:

" The brave man once asked me my name and really kept the word of Karl in memories. Since he could but it does not speak, he quickly made a determined Kara thereof, and put Ben Nemsi, descendant of the German added. "

From a later point of the story where he used Nemtshe -shih broker ( " Northern German " ) and Nemtshe - memleketler ( "Austrian" ), it appears that May with the terms' Nemsi / German " rather one belonging to a German state in the meaning of the German than to the time only a few years old German Reich said.

If it's not about the name, and in later works, May uses in his Oriental tales like the names Almani and Belad el Alman / Almanja for " German " and " Germany ":

"The country is called Belad el Alman; so I'm a Almani or if you may have heard the word should a Nemsi and hot Kara Ben Nemsi. My Country is over far above the sea. "

Belad el Alman ( "Land of the Germans" ) is also associated directly with Kaiser Wilhelm I and thus the German Reich:

"I have heard of the Belad el Alman. It ruled as a great Sultan, which Wi- hel ( Wilhelm ) is called and the French defeated. These are our enemies; why is everyone Almani our friend, and my people are happy to see you. Of course, you 're a warrior? "

In today's Arabic means Nimsa ( نمسا ) " Austria " and Nimsawi ( نمساوي ) "Austrian"; a German called Almani ( ألماني ) and Germany Almanya " ( ألمانيا ).

In later works, May obviously preferred the direct discharge of Kara from his beard color instead of his first name:

" As for my name, I was not at my actual, but, as mentioned on my previous trips, Kara Ben Nemsi. Kara is called " black" and Ben Nemsi " son of the Germans". I wore a dark beard and was a German; hence this name. "

Kara Ben Nemsi in the works of Karl May

• Through Desert and Harem (1892, 1895 and d T. Through the Desert )
• Through the wilde Kurdistan (1892 )
• From Baghdad to Istanbul (1892 )
• In the Gorges of the Balkans ( 1892)
• Through the land of Skipetars (1892 )
• The Schut (1892 )
• Oranges and dates (1893, anthology )
• An exemption ( in The Rose of Kairwan, 1894)
• In the Land of the Mahdi I ( 1896)
• In the Land of the Mahdi II ( 1896)
• In the Land of the Mahdi III (1896 )
• Satan and Iscariot II ( 1897)
• On strange roads (1897, anthology ):

• He Raml el Helahk
• Vendetta
• The Kutb
• The Kys - Kaptschiji
• Mary or Fatima

• In the Realm of the Silver Lion I ( 1898)
• The " Umm ed Dschamahl " ( 1898)
• In the Realm of the Silver Lion II ( 1898)
• On Beyond (1899 )
• In the Realm of the Silver Lion III (1902 )
• In the Realm of the Silver Lion IV (1903 )
• When the leper (1907 )
• Abdahn Effendi (1908 )
• Merhameh (1909 )
• Ardistan and Dschinnistan I ( 1909)
• Ardistan and Dschinnistan II ( 1909)

In the story on the Tiger Bridge in the band at the Pacific Ocean (1894 ), the narrator back to his identity with Kara Ben Nemsi and Old Shatterhand.

As part of the Collected Works Kara Ben Nemsi immersed in two further volumes on:

• " In Mecca " (1923 ), sequel to On Beyond Franz Kandolf
• "! Allah il Allah" (1931 ), an adaptation of the popular fiction novel German hearts - German heroes ( 1885-87 ). This Kara Ben Nemsi is in the original, the main character Oskar Steinbach. The mentions in " The Dervish " (1933 ), a further processing of this novel, also not from Mays spring.

In the novel The slave caravan (1893 ) comes Kara Ben Nemsi, in contrast to the eponymous film, not before.

Quotes

• Who does not want to offend, should not always say what he thinks. Kara Ben Nemsi in Karl May, Through the Desert, p 73

Karl May movies with Kara Ben Nemsi

In various works based on Karl May films that are often not much more than the pick Mayschen people and motives, the figure also occurs:

• On the ruins of Paradise (1920 ) with Carl de Vogt
• The Caravan of Death (1920 ) with Carl de Vogt
• The Devil Worshippers ( 1921) with Carl de Vogt
• Through the Desert (1936 ) with Fred Raupach
• The slave caravan (1958 ) by Viktor Staal
• The Lion of Babylon ( 1959) by Helmuth Schneider
• The Schut (1964 ) with Lex Barker
• Through the wilde Kurdistan (1965 ) with Lex Barker
• In the Realm of the Silver Lion (1965 ) with Lex Barker

In ZDF - test program during the radio show in 1963, some half-hour episodes of a six - part series entitled were broadcast with Karl May in the Orient. Kara Ben Nemsi was here played by Harry Walter, a cast member of the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg, Hajji Halef Omar Osman Ragheb. The quality of the episodes is said to be so bad that you did without a recurrence after the opening of regular television broadcasts of the ZDF.

On television ( ZDF) was entitled Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi 1973-1975 a 26-part series. Protagonist was Karl -Michael Vogler, the Hajji Halef Omar played Heinz Schubert. The music of the series comes from Martin Böttcher, who composed the music for ten Karl May movies. In the movies of the 1960s, Kara Ben Nemsi was played by the American actor Lex Barker.