Karl May

May, Karl Friedrich, writer, * 25.02.1842 Ernstthal in the Ore Mountains, 30.03.1912 Radebeul.

After training as an elementary school teacher, the son of a weaver from a poor background led an unsettled life and had to serve a total of seven and a half years in prison between 1862 and 1874 for various theft and fraud offences. From 1875, M. worked as an editor for family magazines and developed a lively literary productivity as an author of Erzgebirge village tales and colportage novels. After 1890, his adventurous travel stories quickly made him one of the most popular and widely read German youth writers of his time. Coming from Dresden, M. settled in Lößnitz in October 1888, where he wrote all his major works (including Winnetou, 3 vols. 1893ff., Der Schatz im Silbersee 1894, Mein Leben und Streben, autobiography, 1910). M. first rented the "Villa Idylle" in Kötzschenbroda, Schützenstr. 6 (today Wilhelm-Eichler-Str. 8), in spring 1890 he lived in Niederlößnitz, Lößnitzstr. 11, a year later he moved to the "Villa Agnes" in Oberlößnitz, Nizzastr. 13 (today Lößnitzgrundstr.2). The great success of his Collected Works, published from 1892 onwards, enabled M. to buy the house at Kirchstr. (now Karl-May-Str.) 5 in Radebeul (-> Villa Shatterhand) in December 1895, where he lived until his death. After 1900, M. increasingly turned to religious-symbolic, pacifist poetry (Himmelsgedanken, Gedichte, 1900, Und Friede auf Erden, 1904, Ardistan und Dschinnistan, 2 vols., 1909) and became involved in the ethical movement. The last years of his life were overshadowed by several lawsuits concerning publishing rights and the authenticity of his works.

The -> Karl May Museum of the -> Karl May Foundation, founded by his widow Klara May in 1928, the street named after him in 1932, the -> Karl May Grove and the -> Radebeul Karl May Festival, which has been held annually since 1992, honour his memory in Radebeul.

(From the Radebeul city encyclopaedia)