Old Shatterhand is the alter ego of Karl May, and May himself maintained that he experienced all the adventures in person, even though in fact he did not visit America until after he wrote most of his well-known Western stories, and never traveled west of Buffalo, NY. Most of the stories are written from a first person perspective, and Winnetou often calls Old Shatterhand my brother Scharli. May also wrote stories about the same character traveling the Orient, where he is known as Kara Ben Nemsi. May attached the prefix Old to the names of several of his characters, considering it to be typically American and a sign of the characters' great experience. In the stories, Old Shatterhand is given the name by his friend Sam Hawkens, as he was able to knock his opponents unconscious with a single punch from his fist aimed at the head. Old Shatterhand owns two famous rifles, the Bärentöter and the Henrystutzen, both made by a fictional gunsmith called Henry in St. Louis. The Henrystutzen was able to fire 25 shots without reloading, probably a hyperbolic reference to the Henry rifle. Old Shatterhand rode a horse called Hatatitla, which he got from Winnetou, who rode the horse's brother, called Iltschi. The tales may have been an influence on the creation of the Lone Rangermedia franchise.
In some early stories, Im fernen Westen, Der Scout ) there is an anonymous first-person narrator, who was changed to Old Shatterhand in a revision of Winnetou II. In the story Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen IV Kara Ben Nemsi says he was Old Shatterhand.
Movies
The character of Old Shatterhand was played in the German Karl May movies of the 1960s by American actor Lex Barker.
Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi , dir.: Harald Philipp
Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten , dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl
In contrast to the stories in the movies Unter Geiern and Der Ölprinz Old Surehand was the hero instead of Old Shatterhand. Old Surehand is another character created by Karl May. Karl May dedicated three volumes to him, who, like Old Shatterhand, is a renowned Western hero and best friends with the Native Americans. Unlike Old Shatterhand, Old Surehand is a half-blood Native himself, though raised in a white family.
Karl May's works have been translated by Marlies Bugmann
Prose sequels
In the 1990sBritish writer B. J. Holmes produced two prose sequels featuring the character: A Legend Called Shatterhand, and Shatterhand and the People.
