Interesting swastika article

smithsonian magazine,dated 4-6-17,titled “the man who brought the swastika to Germany,and how the nazis stole it”

Do you have a link or photos of the article? Sounds interesting.

shoot…it just popped up on my “device” cuz I’ve read that sort of stuff & I remembered that it was in that magazine & told this machine to go hunt
lol
smithsonian magazine,swastika…magic machinary

I’d read about the guy before in connection w/Troy. seem to recall a pic of his wife(?) wearing some jewelry they’ve dug up.

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I would say that’s because it is still being used quite frequently for evil (the swastika).

sigh…I was planning on decorating a vest I’d made & was looking for something a little different. told the machine to show me some NA petroglyphs & pictographs
clicked on a choice & the list looked pretty decent until the twit who put it together added the blanking “end of the trail”!
REALLY???

Germans have been fascinated with Native American culture since Karl May, a German novelist wrote a series of books about Native American and Cowboy culture at the end of the 1800’s. Sort of a German Tony Hillerman. His books were wildly popular right up until present day. His primary NA character was an Apache Warrior named Winnetou, who had a Cowboy sidekick named “Old Shatterhand”.

These books were so culturally significant to Germans, that they spawned western towns. passion plays, tribal re-enactor clubs, feature length films, and even Pow Wows with full costume, and traditional NA dancing.

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That’s true, and I think that to this day there is more interest in Native Americans and Native American culture (including jewelry) in Germany than in other European countries. Here’s an article about the Winnetou stories and their impact in Germany:

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Here are a couple of links with photos form the Karl May passion plays in Elspe, in the rolling hills of the German Sauerland, just a bit south of Cologne. This is an entire amusement park and western town, with an amazing, and absolutely enormous natural stage carved out of a hillside, and transformed into a piece of the American Southwest, with amazing landscape and scenery. The stage was so large that the event owner actually had a full sized steam locomotive driven train that rolled through it and was a part of the passion plays featuring Winnetou (played by Pierre Brice), and Old Shatterhand (played by venue owner Heinz Bludau). One of the major actors in the Winnetou movies (Nicky Nichols -“Buffalo Child” - Cherokee/Choctaw) along with his wife Lisalotte were my good friends and customers in the 80’s and 90’s. I visited them often in Elspe to resupply them with Jewelry in their summer season.

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I’ll have to read these articles when I have a little more time. But very interesting! And I feel like I remember my husband talking about reading an article in Outside Magazine about how country western bars are huge in Germany, and how they love to dress up in cowboy hats and boots when they go there. I know whenever we hike out west, Germans are usually (pre-covid anyway) everywhere, and we say they’re hikin’ fools, meaning that in the best way. But boy, they don’t like to move out of your way on the trail.

There’s also an interesting connection with the Buffalo Bill Wild West show, England, and Queen Elizabeth. She gave him the huge ornate cherry bar at the Irma Bar and Grill in Cody, WY. My husband read a fascinating book on Buffalo Bill and his show.

On a funny note, years ago my husband and I camped at Monument Valley in September. I swear every single person there spoke German except us. My husband wanted to use the shower in the morning, and it needed four quarters which we didn’t have. He asked a German lady if she had quarters for a dollar, and she was horrified. Then all of a sudden it dawned on her that he didn’t mean a place to stay, he meant four 25 cent pieces! :laughing::laughing:

My family is mostly German descent, so this has all been very interesting. My husband’s are French so that’s a whole other ball game…

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