Lox and Loaded

The town of Radebeul, a suburb of Dresden, is perhaps best known as the home of the Karl May Museum. May, who died in 1912, wrote adventure tales of the American West, potboilers about the Apache chief Winnetou and his German friend Old Shatterhand — a kind of Teutonic Lone Ranger. His seventy books have sold over 200 million copies. From these tales, an “Indianer” sub­culture grew that still persists. In Bad Segeberg, in the north, a Karl May Festival gives fans the chance to play the cowboys and Indians game — complete with the Pony Express, the sheriff’s office, and the saloon. Kids in face paint sit in teepees or pan for gold. Like Wagner, May is a cultural icon.

Hitler was a fan. “On his bookshelf there are political and government publications, brochures and books about health and breeding German shepherds,” a 1933 newspaper report claimed. “And then — listen up, German...