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German History in Documents and Images
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Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand – Filming "Winnetou 3" in Yugoslavia (1965)
The enormous success of the West German-Yugoslavian-French co-production “The Treasure in the Silver Sea” (1962) marked the beginning of a whole series of films based on the popular novels of Karl May. The years 1962-1968 saw the production of seventeen films that reflected German conceptions of the American West. French actor Pierre Brice and American actor Lex Barker, who played the characters Winnetou and Old Shatterhand respectively, became huge stars of West German postwar cinema. Photo by Benno Wundshammer.