History Literature / Winnetou

* SwornBrothers: Old Shatterhand and Winnetou.

* BloodBrothers: Old Shatterhand and Winnetou.

* DropTheHammer: In "Old Surehand", a blacksmith challenges the head of a gang of bandits to an unusual duel -- using forging hammers. Both men are noted as being uncommonly powerful and Old Shatterhand describes it as a "fight between cyclops" (think Greek mythology giants).

* CoolGuns: Charlie's Bear-slayer and Henry Rifle paired with Winnetou's Silver Rifle.

* HurtingHero: Winnetou after losing his family. Charlie after losing Winnetou.

* {{Bishonen}}: Winnetou. Apanatschka, the young Comanche chief. Young Eagle, who is distantly related to Winnetou.

* BladeOnAStick: In "Satan and Iscariot", one enemy Indian tribe thinks they have finally found a weapon that Old Shatterhand hasn't mastered and challenge him to a spear duel against ''two'' of their best spear throwers at the same time. Their logic was that a spear was an uncommon weapon for a white man. Which, on one hand, at that particular point in history was sort of true. What's more, Old Shatterhand himself wasn't particularly fond of the weapon and gives them points for trying. On the other hand, everyone involved severely underestimated the lengths of Winnetou's patience when it came to teaching Old Shatterhand something that might save his life someday. According to the man himself, "Poor Winnetou went to a lot of pains to teach me how to handle [a spear]." It shows, though by the time they get to the actual duel [[TheTrickster Old Shatterhand]] has already employed enough psychological warfare to make it more of a formality.

* SignatureScene: Winnetou and Old Shatterhand riding side by side across the prairie. Or sneaking up on someone. Alternatively, Old Shatterhand knocking someone out with one punch.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Winnetou, supreme chief of all Apache tribes, and an incredible all-around badass.

%%* WhatAnIdiot

->''"That was Winnetou, the Apache chief, the most glorious of Indians. His name lived in every log cabin and at every campfire. Just, sagacious, true, brave to to point of audacity, guileless, a friend and protector of all who needed aid, be they red or white of hue, so he was known throughout the length and breadth of the United States and beyond their borders."''

* AnAxeToGrind: Tomahawks are the cultural weapon for apparently ''all'' Native American tribes. Also, some of the few times Old Shatterhand is deadly in a fight happens when he uses a tomahawk (during actual battle, not a duel), due to the nature of the weapon not really lending itself much to being used by a TechnicalPacifist.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Most location shots were done in Yugoslavia.

* ''Old Shatterhand'' (1963, produced by a different company, but with the same actors)

->''"That was Winnetou, the Apache chief, the most glorious of Indians. His name lived in every log-cabin and at every camp-fire. Just, sagacious, true, brave to to point of audacity, guileless, a friend and protector of all who needed aid, be they red or white of hue, so he was known throughout the length and breadth of the United States and beyond their borders."''

''Winnetou'' is one of the best known novels written by the German author Creator/KarlMay. His heroes Old Shatterhand and Winnetou are very famous literary characters in Europe and quintessential examples of IdealHero and HeterosexualLifePartners. Although May only travelled to America himself after his novels became successful, the novels are famed for their accuracy in geographic terms. All trips and journeys of the main character can be followed in an atlas. Accuracy of many other things is not to be taken for granted.

RTL made a remake for the 2016 Christmas season as a direct to TV movie.

* AdaptationalComicRelief[=/=]AdaptationalWimp: Old Wabble in the novels ''Old Surehand I'' and ''III'' is a badass frontiersman and Indian fighter; starting out as a companion to Old Shatterhand and Winnetou, he becomes their rival and and then an outright villain who tries to kill them, making him one of May's most interesting characters. In the films ''Old Surehand'' and ''Der Ölprinz'' he is much younger and merely Old Surehand's [[BumblingSidekick clumsy comical sidekick]].

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: As he only disposed of a small sample base of words from Amerindian languages in his reference books, May would sometimes mix up words from unrelated languages when giving his Indians names or having them speak. Most laughable: Apaches speaking among themselves calling a wife with Algonquian word "squaw" ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw#Controversy which raised]] UnfortunateImplications in modern day). Apache language is not even related to Algonquian languages.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Sam Hawkens, Dick Hammerdull, "Aunt" Droll, and most of all, Hobble-Frank, who all throughout ''Der Sohn des Bärenjägers'' plays more one of the comic reliefs than anything else but then [[spoiler]]defeats the main villain of the book in hand-to-hand combat, unarmed.[[/spoiler]]

* {{Brownface}}: In-universe, [[spoiler]]Lothaire Thibaut who poses as the Comanche medicinman[[/spoiler]]

* ''[[Film/TheDesperadoTrail Winnetou III]]'' (''The Desperado Trail'', 1965), in which Winnetou dies. Because of that, the following films were prequels again, the first two with Stewart Granger reprising the role of Old Surehand:

** Inverted with Winnetou, who is ''never'' as breath-takingly drop-dead gorgeous and imposing as he is in the books. No, not even Pierre Brice. (He ''does'' come closest, but he lacks the RapunzelHair.)

* BadassBeard: Old Shatterhand usually sports one when he's been far from civilisation for a while, though most adaptations (and even the novel illustrations) rarely depict him with one. Sam Hawkens, on the other hand, is practically defined by his bushy beard (and his huge beak-like nose).