The Vengeance of Rome

We were feted. Kitty was pleased to be seen on my arm wherever we went in fashionable Munich. People mistook her for a film star and indeed I did get her a test. She proved to be a poor candidate. Zoyea also begged me to put her in a film, but her father said she was too young. He did not want her corrupted by such things. I fully understood. Mrs Cornelius became an instant sex symbol, a rival to Lilian Harvey. Unfortunately, the May firm were dismayed at Ingram’s minor changes and claimed they worked against the true meaning of the books, which was of course outrageous nonsense. The result was that while the first three films appeared contractually as ‘Winnetou’ films, by the time we came to plan the next three (Doctor Hugenberg’s budgeting cut many unnecessary costs) we had been forced to change our characters to Hawkeye and Cochise of the Fenimore Cooper tales. The two still defended a sacred land, but it was now further to the North-West, allowing us to make better use of local terrain, though in 1933 we were once again filming scenes around Split.

Our team spirit remained high. We had become rather adept at our parts, and only the schedules themselves exhausted us. The work was rather enjoyable. The stories did not vary a great deal from film to film, but the same good values were hammered home.

Mrs Cornelius, separated from her lover, spent a great deal of her time in Mr Mix’s undemanding company. She did not wish her name to be linked with mine or Reid’s, and I must say I could not blame her. Reid had made himself available to every village maiden between Split and Zagreb, not to mention his many mistresses in Germany. As a matter of pride he never spent more than one night with any girl.

Doctor Hugenberg decided to save money by making a permanent set, so by now Hawkeye and his bride had built a homestead and were thinking of having children. The stories revolved more around the ranch than the Indian village and the wilderness, allowing us to work within the tighter budget Doctor Hugenberg had given us. We found an attractive exotic Jewess, Myra Friedmann, to play the Indian maiden to whom the Apache prince loses his heart.

City slickers from the East were still our enemies, and we defended our territory in a dozen ingenious ways as they became equally inventive in devising ways of stealing our wild paradise. Our philosophy remained faithful to the ideas of Karl May. The public understood who our characters really were. They did not mind what we were called. What was important were the manly virtues of courage, steadfastness, loyalty and honour we represented. No doubt we lit the flame of idealism in many a German boy.

I still have one poster with Reid, Mrs Cornelius and myself dramatically posed against a violent backdrop. ‘Greed, violence and savagery lay the land to waste,’ runs the banner for Apache Gold. We knew all too well what we were defending! With the departure of Chaney, an Austrian character actor played Bowie, and then Seryozha was replaced entirely. He said he was very upset about it, though he was glad to be going. He had grown tired of compromising his artistic principles and would give himself back to the ballet. Sulking, he offered his notice and returned to Berlin.

At last I felt free to move into an apartment of my own in a more fashionable district. The flat in Wurzerstrasse had a good view and was decorated to my own taste. I was photographed in it for publicity articles. The magazines called it ‘Winnetou’s New Ranch’ and other fanciful names.

To my fans I was still ‘Winnetou’; that became my nickname when I made public appearances holding my famous silver rifle. Politicians, of course, now flocked to be photographed in the company of ‘Winnetou’ Peters. We opened drugstores and groceries, municipal works and cinemas, railway stations and road developments all over Germany, Austria and Bohemia. We were on the covers of every kind of magazine from children’s journals to sophisticated picture weeklies. Our appearances were recorded for the newsreels. We were constantly interviewed on the radio. Our off-screen lives were the subjects of ecstatic examination. Doctor Hugenberg was delighted to hint at a relationship between Gloria Cornish and Desmond Reid, since I gathered his wife had discovered some compromising letters. He expressed dismay when Ingram left after the fourth picture claiming that his professionalism had been attacked, but the formula had been thoroughly established, and we had no trouble finding a new and cheaper director in Willi Frisch, though we missed Ingram‘s genial, sardonic company.

The NSDAP came to full power in February 1933 and almost immediately a sense of peace and purpose settled on the land. Doctor Hugenberg had played a crucial part in the NSDAP success, throwing the weight and authority of his Nationalists behind the ‘brown tide’. Mrs Cornelius told me that her Huggy Bear and his friends believed they had control of Hitler. The morning before Hitler took the full reins of power, Hugenberg had held out his fist to her and told her that he had Hitler like that! As a tribute to his authority and integrity he now became Agriculture Minister in the new government and, rather reluctantly, joined the party.