Wild West in North Germany!

By Rasha Almaqaleh

I’ve never been a fan of Cowboy movies and native American adventures and never been interested in exploring the Old West history. I also didn't expect that my first encounter with this period of American history would be here in North Germany! As a volunteer at the Voluntary Federal Service, I was invited to the company outing of my assignment location  Stadtpark Norderstedt. The outing of this year was a trip to a town called Bad Segeberg to attend Karl May festival and also to visit the cave of the famous chalk mountain ‘Kalkberg’.

I was surprised to know that Bad Segeberg has such lovely attractions. The only thing that this town represente to me is the Ausländerbehörde, ‘the Foreigners’ Office’. This is where foreigners go whenever they have something related to the official papers and stay permits in Germany. Other than that, I didn’t pay the slightest attention to this small town which has only 16,000 inhabitants. However, I was really happy to take part in the outing as it was a good opportunity to see Bad Segeberg from a different perspective.

Bad Segeberg celebrates at this period of the year from June to September Karl May festival which is a theater festival set on the Old West adventures. Therefore, when we arrived in town, all of the outing participants got a lovely cowboy hat as a gift. Well, that is what I call a good start!! Then, we headed towards the Kalkberg to take a guided tour in its famous cave, Kalkberg. This mountain is a rock made of gypsum and is 91 meters high. It has at its lower part a cave which is a home of bats and a rare species of beetles that live only in Bad Segeberg.

Our cave tour took around half an hour. But before going inside the cave, our guide recommended that we put on our jackets. She explained that temperature down there is very much lower than on the ground; the temperature in the cave is constant all year round and it is always 9 degrees. It was really funny that up there we had summertime and the temperature was around 23 Celsius! Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos because photographing is prohibited inside the cave. We weren’t also lucky enough to encounter any bats during our tour as the bats start hibernating in the cave around mid August and our trip took place in July.

Around half past two, we went to the Kalkberg stadium where Karl May plays are annually performed. When we arrived at the stadium, most of the seats were empty as we arrived half an hour earlier. We sat in our seats and drank the drinks we bought from the refreshment kiosk opposite to the theater’s entrance. I took pictures of the place while waiting for the curtains to rise, metaphorically of course as it is an open-air stage and has no curtains!

Kalkberg Stadium

It is such an amazing thing to know that the performance of Karl May adventures has been taking place in this open air theater since 1952, which means that this festival is in its 66^th season .The stadium which was built under the third Reich in the 1930s, has around 7,500 seats.

But who is Karl May whose name has been given to this annual theater festival? Honestly speaking, before this company outing I had never heard of him! When I googled his name, I found out that he was a best-selling German writer ( 1842-1912) who was most famous for his adventure novels set in the American Old West.  

While waiting for the show to kick off, compatible Old West music was coming from the loudspeakers. Each 5 minutes, we would hear an announcement in a theatrical style to inform the audience of how much time left for the show to begin. The audience started coming in large numbers. Everyone settled into their seats and we were prepared for the performance. AT 3 pm, it was Showtime!

The play of this year’s festival is Old Surehand. This is an emotional story of a young white frontiersman who is a great shooter and a strong fighter. He is in search of his family and falls in love with a native Indian girl. As the story progresses, Old Surehand at the end finds out that he has an Indian family, his mother das Schwarze Auge and his Indian half brother Apanatschka! They become united and give up their enmity to fight together General Douglas.  

Winnetou-John Sosniok

When Old Surehand falls into the hands of the young Comanche chief Apanachka and the diabolic medicine man Tibo-taka, Winneto appears and rescues him. The moment Winnetou appeared onstage, the audience burst into applause along with loud cheers and whistles. Winnetou is another fictional Native American hero of Karl May’s novels. However, that was not the only reason behind that hearty greeting but also because the performer is a very popular German actor. His name is Jan Sosniok and was born in 1968.

Old Surehand and das Schwarze Auge

The performance was spectacular! It was impressive how much energy and dedication the actors put in the show. Not only are they very skilled performers, but also great horse riders! The way they handle the horses seems professional and it says a lot about how much time and effort they put in practicing. Moreover, the special effects, the battles, the firework, the clothes, and the other details were just perfect!

Old Surehand with his mother and brother

This was my first time to attend live theater and I hadn’t expected it to be that delightful. The liveliness was fascinating! There were scenes when the performers rode their horses among the audience and also an eagle flew above our heads. Such terrific moments! And when one of the actors accidentally threw a bottle at the audience, he said without changing his acting tone of voice “Sorry!”! This spontaneous scene has generated a good laugh with a strong applause! We don’t experience such an amusing interaction while watching a movie or a play on TV!

Ultimately, I am glad that I had the chance to see the other lovely side of Bad Segeberg, away from its boring bureaucratic face. After that delightful trip, Bad Segeberg is no longer the town where the Foreigners’ Office is, rather it is “the town of firsts”! It is the town where I visited a cave for the first time in my life, where I first attended live theater, and where I had my first encounter with cowboys and Native Americans!