How teenagers lived through the *real* Wild West experience on German television

By Anne-Katrin Lacher

The American West is often depicted as the land where the cowboys and Indians live, where coyotes and crickets wish each other goodnight, and where once was the Great American Desert. While I was combing through the German television network to find an artifact of this American West in German popular culture, I found another group of temporary inhabitants whose stay had been documented by the German broadcasting station RTL:

The TV-show called “Teenager außer Kontrolle – Letzter Ausweg Wilder Westen” [translation: Teenagers out of control – last resort wild West; UK original: “Brat Camp”] is a reality show format that accompanies a group of chosen adolescents on its way through a wilderness therapy, lasting eight weeks, in the desert of Utah in the United States of America. Four seasons were broadcasted in German television from 2007 through 2010. The teenagers were looked after by therapist Annegret Noble and her team of helpers while they were challenged by weather and nature, camping outdoors all length of their stay.

The boys and girls often originated from financially weak family backgrounds and shared their missing social skills and bad behavior. Most of them had mounted a plane for the first time in their lives and arrived in the United States of America in the smoldering heat of a Utah airport, received by their therapist and her team. In addition to their arriving in an unknown country with a totally unfamiliar landscape, they were also forbidden to drink and smoke, which most of them did regularly at home. They were picked up by SUV’s or minivans and taken directly into the great outdoors, seeing for the first time the completely unacquainted terrain of their new surroundings. Therapist Noble explains on her website that the adolescents could leave all their daily troubles and bad customs behind in this foreign environment. In the TV-show the vastness and beauty of the landscape of the American West was many times used to make the group of youngsters forget about their problems back at home in Germany. In this new space, where mainstream civilization was allegedly absent, they were left on their own a lot in the early days of the therapy to learn more about themselves and to approach their own inner self again.

While there would have probably been some ranches or small country towns available, where the therapy could have been lodged at, the therapists chose to locate it in the middle of nowhere. That way they let the teenagers experience the hardships of this inconsequential nature and environment, sometimes being surprised by a sudden and heavy shower at night, washing away their campsite.

For reasons unknown, many members of the therapist’s team often also wore cowboy hats during the shootings. If that was to represent the good old cowboy country or only to protect themselves from the burning sunlight, will never be known but the stereotype of cowboys “watching their herd (of juveniles)” in the American West was nonetheless brought back to the audience’s minds.

The adolescents were subsequently engaged into group challenges and adventures to show them how vulnerable they were in this rough landscape all on their own. These kinds of lessons could be compared with the hardships of the early settlers’ families that made their ways out into the uninhabited regions of the West such as the Shimerdas in Willa Cather’s novel My Àntonia. Though if that is a real American experience, could probably be questioned since troubles like that are not lived to see happen on a daily basis in the West anymore.

The means of therapeutic handiwork might be as effective as they are but a true American experience cannot be generated by cowboy hats and hot weather. The originality of this undertaking, created by the astonishing landscape, was counterbalanced by bluntly celebrated stereotypes. The so called “last resort wild West” is nothing but an empty image of past heroic days, sending villains to the American West, and could have also been enacted in the Sahara Desert, if it would not be for the difficult climatic circumstances in that particular region.

Source: http://www.annegret-noble.com/teenager.php

An Indian braves pain: Native American Stereotyping in German Advertisement

By Tobias Nurr, Nils Selke & Beatrice Acherberg

Our artifact for looking into ideas of the American West in German popular culture was quickly found when clicking through television commercials online. The short video clip of a pain-relieving salve seemed perfect for a closer examination of how a typical image of an Indian is portrayed in our visual mindset. As an extra it seemed dead easy to describe a TV ad and come to some conclusion about stereotyping Indians, as we have discussed this at length in the last weeks of our course. Just until we discovered that in fact – without knowing it, only Germans can catch the meaning of this ad.

The advertisement shows a seemingly Indian man in wild scenery. He is running along a lively river and collecting herbs and roots on his way. His whole appearance, the clothes and the background flute music make it clear he is supposed to be a Native American. When he tries to climb a rock he is struck by a pain in his back but by applying Kytta salve he immediately gets well again. We can then see him following the bank of the river light- footed and pain free. Finally he is shown holding the salve and uttering into the camera, “An Indian doesn’t know any pain” in his deep manly voice.

This is accompanied by the following text:

Die Natur ist voll faszinierender Kraft und Vielfalt und sie hilft uns, wenn wir Schmerzen haben. Kytta-Salbe mit dem hochwirksamen Extrakt der Beinwellwurzel wirkt schnell und stark bei Muskel-, Gelenk- und Rückenschmerzen. Ein Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz. Kytta- Salbe : Die pflanzliche Schmerzsalbe.

Translation:

Nature is full of fascinating power and diversity, and it helps us when we are in pain. Kytta- salve with the highly effective extract of the comfrey-root acts fast and strong during muscle-, joint-, and back-pains. An Indian doesn't know any pain. Kytta-salve: The herbal pain-relief salve.

The phrase “An Indian doesn't know any pain.” is a somewhat outdated expression that is most likely told to children when they hurt themselves playing. Parents use this saying since every child knows and likes Indians and wants to be brave just like them; and they can be just like a real Indian when they suppress the pain. It is enrooted even in little kids that Indians with their rituals and wild, martial way of living are nearly immune to worldly pain, they sure wouldn’t cry and scream because of a little knee bruise?! Is this the secret of the comfrey root?

When researching the phrase it appeared that this actually does go back to German’s favorite Wild West story teller Karl May. Growing up our parents and grand-parents have read and absorbed the vivid and romantic tales of May, who without any access to the original American West constructed the West for his readers who reproduce this fantasy image of Old Shatterhand and Winnetou until today.

Facing the different aspects there are to this commercial, we are dealing with a very blunt and unelaborated manifestation of the stereotypical imagery of indigenous Northern American people that is still maintained within German society. A cliché that was formed during the early to mid-twentieth-century and is still used in the year of 2012 very successfully as the campaign even won a prize for effective advertisement.

At first glance this advertisement does not appear to be racist in any way. It’s just an Indian in his natural environment right? The target audience of people older than 49 will most likely not feel repelled by this depiction of a cliché Indian and the commercials outdated tone. It meets the stereotypical image they grew up with and even if they know about the history of Native Americans by now, they most likely won’t mind.

As already mentioned this saying is somewhat old-fashioned, but when trying to sell a pain relief salve the target group doesn’t consist of teenagers and college students, but rather elderly folks who might have to struggle with back problems and joint paints. People that age for sure know that saying and have probably told it their kids. The fact that the commercial was mostly broadcasted on TV-stations ARD and ZDF in the early evenings might also underline this theory, since this is exactly the peer group that is watching at this time.

But is it okay to use the idea of the stoic brave Indian to sell a pain relieving salve? Of course Native Americans do feel pain just like any other group of people. This clearly gets dismissed when the company uses the idea to promote their product.

Unfortunately advertising is somehow ideally suited for constructing and displaying stereotypical images and neglecting all context and truth. It is horrifying to look at the deeply sexist commercials of the 1960’s and realize that people thought it was acceptable to patronize women.

It is therefore important to take the time and reflect on what has been shown to you. This particular campaign admittedly used this figure of speech in a very clever way to appeal to our childhood remembrance. One could even argue that in the video it is admitted that Indians do feel pain. The company probably decided for this image to underline the natural ingredients of the product , after all Native Americans are – in our minds – in touch with nature.

To put it in a nut shell we feel that it’s very interesting to dissect the image that is displayed in the video and analyze its actual meaning – which you normally wouldn’t spend much time thinking about, but when you do it becomes clear that this particular commercial could be criticized for reproducing an antiquated stereotype and therefore contributes to that ignorant mindset of classifying Native Americans as these wild spirits somewhere across the world rather than seeing them as an equal group of people. At the same time it doesn’t degrade Indians as much as the original idiom does since the man in the commercial is actually suffers from pain and has to rely on medical help just like everybody else.

Websites and additional sources:
Kytta domain: http://www.kytta.de/informationen/index.php

Feedback on the campaign: http://www.dasauge.de/aktuell/werbung/e1429?bild=2086

Background information on Karl May: Germans and Indians: Fantasies, Encounters, Projections (Google eBook) p. 169

Article on said idiom: http://www.noz.de/artikel/40748303/ein-indianer-kennt-keinen-schmerz-ein-dummer-spruch-der-wehtut

On advertising: http://womeninads.weebly.com/history.html

Deutsch-Amerikanisches Volksfest

By Julian Kircher & Benjamin Stramm

We have chosen the topic of the German-American public festival because it embodies the old idealized images of the United States of America, especially those of the Wild West. It has become a constant in German festival culture and the public affairs office of the United States Armed Forces considers this event as one of the most important columns of the German-American friendship. The festival was settled in the ex-American sector of Berlin, district Zehlendorf. In 2010, due to constructions at the former event location “Truman-Plaza”, the event has been moved near the central station of Berlin. The first event took place in 1961 and since 1962 the overall theme of the festival changes every year. In 1971, for instance, there was a topic called “The Wild West” while in 2002 we had “Florida – The Sunshine State”. Besides the main street on which all shacks and huts line up to present their food, beverages, collectibles and other stuff from the U.S., there is a rodeo barn with a mechanic bull, a stage for live acts, a fair with several rides and a casting for future country stars.  

On first glance this festival seems to serve as a fair for amusement only. It is merely cliché-ridden, the cliché of cowboys and the Wild West, the unknown land and the rough territory as well as the cliché of bull riding. The festival shows to its visitors that this is how the United States, in particular the West, is like. The event managers choose titles like “The Wild West”, “North-West Wilderness” and “California – Land of Contrasts” so that the West is depicted as something great and something far away from the German society and life. In the first place this event is made to preserve the image of the West which Hollywood’s film industry engraved in our heads. To be fair and despite those facts, the German-American public festival offers also attractions or shacks where you can buy contemporary food and drinks and also modern stuff from the United States like shirts.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that has any educational value. In class we read “Brokeback Mountain” which deals with the topics of romanticism among cowboys. On the festival you have cowboy and western shows where the old images are brought up: Cowboys fighting against Indians, shooting, drinking and, of course, the cowboy as an asexual guy who does not need any love or women in their life. But in our opinion that is it what the Germans want to see. They don’t want to be entertained by some gay cowboys kissing around but by that image Karl May once created.

In addition, we read a story of Proulx “The Mud Below” which deals with the overall topic of rodeo and bull riding. When you spend your time on the festival, you want to ride a bull because it is fun. You cannot get seriously injured by the mechanic bull and you might impress your friends because you are tough and keep up a long time. From Diamond, the protagonist in “The Mud Below”, we have learned that rodeo is not that easy like on the fairs. You can get harmed, break your bones or you get pierced by the bull’s horns. In most of the times, bull riders do their job a couple of years and then have to retire because of their injuries. Besides the rodeo is not a job with a good wage so the bull riders head from town to town, from event to event to get some pennies and make their life. In the rodeo barns on our festival it does not work like this. Here you get seated on the mechanic bull and it starts slowly accompanied by a moderator who tries to heat up the barn and make a little bit a party out of it. Since the visitors pay for such events, they want to stay a while on that bull. Otherwise the ride was not worth the money. So one is tumbling slowly and relaxed on the bull and the moderator gives advices to hold tight and press the knees together. Nobody in this shack knows that a normal bull ride is just a matter of seconds. Here you go slowly and easy until after 2 minutes or so you get smoothly kicked off and everybody congratulates you for your success.

In conclusion, the German-American public festival exists to entertain people. There are certain themes from the United States of America attached to the events to vary it a bit from other festivals in Berlin. We do not think it brings Americans and Germans together nor serves it for a cultural exchange or intercultural communication. The event deals with the topics of the idealized rodeo and the cowboy image that we know from TV productions. Nevertheless, the festival conveys a little bit of the American lifestyle with country music, exhibitions of American chopper bikes like Harley Davidson and all the American food and beverages, like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, waffles and pancakes, barbecue steaks, Mountain Dew, Root Beer, etc.