Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Uschi Glas as half-blood Apanatschi: On the day of unity in the ZDF program
Photo: dpa/ picture alliance/ dpa
In view of the current Winnetou debate, ZDF is sticking to the classic Karl May films with Pierre Brice and Lex Barker and will soon be showing one of them on German Unity Day.
"ZDF has broadcasting rights for various Karl May films that will be broadcast in the next few years," said a spokeswoman for the German Press Agency on Friday.
»'Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi', for example, will be broadcast on October 3rd.
aired at 11:30," she said.
The film - a German-Italian-Yugoslavian co-production from 1966 - also stars Uschi Glas and Götz George.
At the moment there is a sometimes heated debate about cultural appropriation and racism.
It came about after the withdrawal of two companion books to a new Winnetou film for children.
The Karl May films from the 1960s with Pierre Brice as Winnetou are particularly influential for generations in Germany.
"Bild" had reported in a strange twist that ARD no longer shows Winnetou films.
The ARD program management said on Friday that ARD could not currently broadcast "Winnetou" films because the license rights had already expired in 2020.
"Economic reasons"
The subsidiary Degeto is centrally responsible for license purchases in the ARD.
When asked by SPIEGEL, a spokeswoman for Degeto confirmed that the licenses had expired and, according to the current status, are not freely available.
The films were therefore part of a license package, but the licenses were negotiated individually for each title.
There were no substantive reasons why the "Winnetou" license was allowed to expire in 2020, Degeto said: "The non-extension had economic reasons."
The times in the 1990s when ZDF had audience numbers of over 5 million by repeating »Winnetou« films are long gone.
Despite this, the works produced by Horst Wendlandt's Rialto Film can still be seen regularly on television.
At Kabel Eins, for example, on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 1.18 million people watched »Schatz im Silbersee« – a market share of 3.6 percent.
With Amazon Prime Video and other video-on-demand providers, the classics are always on offer anyway.
Cinemas can also continue showing the »Winnetou« films.
Croco Film distribution & distribution from Berlin, which specializes in the re-release of film classics, re-released the »Winnetou« trilogy;
on December 14, the 60th anniversary of »Der Schatz im Silbersee« will be celebrated with a re-release of the film.
feb/dpa