On the other side of the Atlantic, people widen their eyes in amazement at the Germans' love of American cowboys, and what is likely the greatest number of hobby cowboys outside the USA. A brief look at what is probably Germany's oldest live role-playing game. Walking into the Hammer Ranch in Frankfurt-Seckbach is like immersing yourself in a strange, bygone era. Even the buildings seem to come from another time.
In between, fires burn, steaks the size of bathmats sizzle, plenty of beer flows, and musicians play the banjo, fiddle and piano. There are quite a few places in Germany visitors can take this kind of leap back in time, with hundreds of groups working hard to preserve traditions. Not German traditions though. These are the customs of the American West from the mid to late 19th century. Founded in , the Frankfurt Western Club, for example, was inspired by a family that had emigrated to Arizona.
The Hammer Ranch owned by distant relatives in the Wild West served as a model for the replica set among allotments and industrial estates. In the forests of the Bergisches Land, not far from Cologne, German enthusiasts of Native Americans regularly camp on a riverbank.
Fake Iroquois and Crow cavort around pointed tipis. In the vast expanse of North America, these tribes would never have met.
Here near Bergisch-Gladbach, they live side by side. A look at the website shows how important the culture of indigenous peoples is to members of the association, as it is for other organisers. Clothing, drums and weapons are manufactured as authentically as possible, and participants learn about the traditions in depth. He spun a tale for all he was worth and created two of the most iconographic figures of the 20th century in Winnetou and Old Shatterhand: Karl May.
