Books: My Life and My Efforts

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Father Poellmann has written a series of articles against me in
the Catholic magazine "Ueber den Wassern" , and
I have answered them in the magazine "Freistatt" (literally: place of freedom)> from Vienna. This ought to have
settled things between us, and it would have been up to the
readers to decide, whether they would take his or my side. But,
while I, quite naturally, was as factual and polite in my
responses as possible, his articles consisted of almost nothing
else but insults, so that he will have to be inconvenienced to
appear in court. And furthermore, his personal relationship and
the relationship of his writings to Mr. Lebius, the lawyer
Gerlach, and the Muenchmeyers' plan, to "destroy" me in the
newspapers, has to be ascertained. He has denied to be in contact
with Lebius, Gerlach, etc.; but these kinds of relationships of
his are very easily proven. This point has to be clarified. For
even he cannot deny that he had most forcefully taken part in
"destroying" me. His articles in the "Wasser"-magazine are most
eagerly used against me in both trials, the one against Lebius and
the one against Pauline Muenchmeyer. He has even been named by
Lebius as a witness or "expert" and will have to testify in Berlin
in this capacity.

Concerning our trial for gross insult, Father Poellmann adheres to
a tactic, which I cannot approve of. I have to wonder, if it is
part of this tactic of his to deceive the reading audience. At
first, from time to time, certain articles were published in an
ironic and patronising tone, making fun of the fact that I had not
carried out my threat to sue him. And now, as he has to see that
I did keep this promise, certain newspapers hostile to me keep on
pretending that my complaints for gross insult had been dismissed
by this or that court and that I would have to be liable for all
expenses. This is not fair, perhaps even undignified. The
question was only which court had the jurisdiction, nothing else.
When I filed the criminal charges against Father Poellmann, I was
under the jurisdiction of the Inferior Court of Dresden. In the
meantime, the Inferior Court of Koetzschenbroda had been founded,
which is now in charge of my district. Therefore, the question
was raised, whether the matter, as a consequence of this, had to
be tried here or there or elsewhere. Until this has been decided,
is has to be suspended. Whoever portrays it differently, can only
be either ignorant or vicious. I know nothing about any expenses.

The situation concerning my complaint for gross insult against
Father Expeditus Schmidt in Munich is quite similar. It has been
filed in Dresden and the trial started in Koetzschenbroda. Here
also, questions concerning the jurisdiction have been raised, but
not by me. I have no reason at all to prefer the verdict to be
pronounced in one place rather than another, for my cause is just.
I do not need to weigh with subtle reasoning, if I would win or
lose my lawsuit in a certain place, with a certain court, and in a
certain case. I must not cling to such extraneous things, but
rather stick by the matter itself and the truth of it; the rest,
I leave up to the judges.

These transfers were no obstruction, but an advantage, for me.
They have given me an opportunity to see the cards my opponents
were holding. Most of all, it turned out that the two Fathers
Schmidt and Poellmann are closely connected with the name and the
cause of Muenchmeyer. Their lawyer is connected with the lawyer
of Muenchmeyer and Lebius. I will prove this, and then the
connection with the Muenchmeyers' plan to "to destroy me in the
eyes of all of Germany in all the newspapers" will be perfectly
self-evident. To enable my readers to briefly review the current
state of affairs, I am ending this chapter by quoting an article,
which the "Wiener Montags-Journal"
published this year on October the 17th. It reads:

_Karl_May_as_a_novelist._
(A redress.)

We are faced with an impressive series of volumes, the work of an
immensely productive and successful author. But at the same time,
it also constitutes his exoneration. This is because, until now,
there have not been many cases where a person's literary work has
been the reason for such abysmally vicious and underhanded
attacks, as those targeted against Karl May. Before we will turn
to a detailed assessment, recognising the so very rich imagination
of this German novelist, we want to give the defamed author the
opportunity to defend himself, which is now, after the lawsuits
against his spiteful and malicious opponents have been successful,
also a redress. Mr. May has written to us:

The entire so-called "Karl-May-persecution" has been constructed
based on lies. The first one of these lies is, that I was an
author for the youth and had written my traveller's tales for
immature, young people. Most of these tales have been published
by the "Deutscher Hausschatz", which as surely never been a
magazine for boys. And every honest eye will instantly see, when
glancing at the volumes which were published later, that they can
only be understood my mentally grown-up persons. With this, all
accusations of me allegedly "corrupting the youth" lose their
basis. The fact that, nevertheless, young people are reading my
books and even enjoy them very much, still would not prove that I
had targeted them at them, but rather that a youthful soul is
finding in them, what others are depriving it of.

A second lie is that I was fibbing in these traveller's tales of
mine. Whoever says so surely does not even suspect what a bad
testimony he is giving to his own intelligence. After all, it
only takes the analytic powers of an eighth-grader to realize that
all of my narratives only have their roots in real live, but
otherwise extend upwards into regions which are not so
commonplace. Every reader who understands me knows that I
describe countries and peoples which, up to this day, exist almost
exclusively in fairy-tales, but have to move, by and by, into
the realm of absolute reality for us. When I envision and
describe as reality what is still a fairy-tale to others, only for
ignorant or malicious people, this can be a reason to maintain
that I was fibbing.

In the past, nobody would have thought of judging me in this
insulting manner. Whoever had not understood me would not have
said more than that I had a very extensive imagination. Only
after the biggest of all lies which exist about me had been
spread, this is the lie that I had written "abysmally indecent
trashy novels", they dared to talk to me in such a tone. This
untrue statement has its source with a bookseller of colportage,
who had an interest in spreading it around, in order to make as
much money as possible by exploiting my name. In the person of
Mr. Cardauns, who used to be the editor in chief of the newspaper
called "Koelnische Volkszeitung" at that time, this lie found the
man who, by means of his publications, did more than much to
further its distribution and even took it on himself to produce
"evidence" that the indecencies in question could be the product
of nobody else's but my pen. Quite naturally, the true,
irrefutable proof would only have been possible by presenting the
original manuscripts, I had written. All other evidence could
only be based on intentional deception or self-delusion and
finally had come out as a bombastic illusion.

What kind of evidence was it which Mr. Cardauns presented? He
came forth with one unproven allegation after another. He listed
quite a number of "inner reasons", to conceal the lack of real
reasons. He talked about proofs, evidence, indisputable official
documents and such. The "Neuigkeits-Weltblatt" of News> from Vienna even proves that he had stated that he would
own the original document, undoubtedly proving May's guilt.
Everyone had to presume based on this that he would have my
original manuscripts in his possession, and therefore, he was
believed, especially since those papers in which he had made his
assertions persistently refused to print my responses. With his
self-delusion he started a trend: others deluded themselves as
well, until in due time they came to see the facts as they are by
themselves. Today, only a few still believe in his elaborations.
Others accept them, because they benefit from them in a lawsuit or
for similar reasons. Whether Father Expeditus Schmidt and Father
Ansgar Poellmann, my two newest opponents, truly believe in their
friend Cardauns, I do not know; I could only guess. What they
assert is, from my point of view, far removed from any kind of a
proof. But all they do against me, they base on the old
foundation laid out by Cardauns, and they really seem to be
convinced that I will soon collapse under the accusations they and
their allies make.

These allies are: The former colporteuse Mrs. Pauline
Muenchmeyer, publisher of the notorious "Temple of Venus", which
had been confiscated by the police. Furthermore, there is the
lawyer of that woman, Dr. Gerlach in Dresden, who, by now, has
incessantly waged his war against me for entire nine years. And
finally, there is this well-known Mr. Rudolf Lebius in
Charlottenburg, the socialist, who has seceded from the Christian
church, who had proposed that he would be willing to praise and
laud me in his paper, if I only gave him between 3000 and 6000
marks, and in the end even 10.000 marks. I gave him nothing. In
response, he changed over to the Muenchmeyers' side and was the
most unrelenting one of my opponents ever since. I want to state
explicitly that he also has the advocate Mr. Gerlach for a lawyer.
And when I am now adding that the Muenchmeyers' Mr. Gerlach is
also the lawyer and advisor of Father Expeditus Schmidt and Father
Ansgar Poellmann, this results in the following drastic picture of
of the chase: I am completely surrounded. I am encircled by Mr.
Cardauns, the colporteuse Mrs. Pauline Muenchmeyer, the advocate
Mr. Gerlach, Father Schmidt, Mr. Lebius, and Father Poellmann.
Every one of them is ready to gun for me at any time. Though they
deny being in contact with each other, they call upon one another
as witnesses and experts in their lawsuits and assist each other
in the collection of evidence against me and by producing
petitions and legal statements for the courts. But the most
prominent one of them all is this advocate of the Muenchmeyers',
who directs everything and all of them, even the two Fathers. The
most harmless and amusing one, on the other hand, is Mr. Cardauns,
who, as far as I know, could never made to confess that he did not
possess my original manuscripts, until recently in Bonn he had to
admit in my presence, being interrogated by the judge in charge as
a witness, that he had never even seen them.

The question, whether that Muenchmeyer lady will be able to bring
me down with the assistance of her five secular and clerical
comrades, has long since been decided. Nobody who knows how
matters are would continue asking it. - -

Radebeul-Dresden, October 1910.
Karl May.

IX. Conclusion

Just as my "traveller's tales" are only sketches, this work before
you is also just a sketch. It could not be anything else, because
what I am telling you has not ended yet and because numerous
lawsuits, which have been forced upon me, are taking aim at me
like menacing revolvers. Furthermore, brutal physical pain
prevents me from writing as I would like to. To receive, during a
time of ten years, four times a day, entire stacks of letters and
newspapers, overflowing with venom, mockery, and gloating, is more
than any Samson or Hercules could endure. Mind and soul have
remained strong. Not the slightest part of my inner self has
changed. My confidence in God and my love for mankind have not
been shaken. But in the end, it has still got the best of my
body, which used to seem so indestructible in the past. It is on
the verge of collapse. For one year, I lack natural sleep.
Whenever I want to rest for a few hours, I must resort to
artificial means, to sleeping powders, which only numb the senses
and are not harmless in their effect. I also cannot eat. Just a
few bites a day, my poor, dear wife forces me to take. But
instead, I am in pain, an incessant, terrible neuralgic pain,
which forces me up from my bed at night and rips the pen out of my
hand a hundred times during the day! I feel, as if I had to
scream all of the time, to shout for help. I cannot lie down,
cannot sit, cannot walk, and cannot stand up, and yet I have to do
all of these things. Most of all, I would like to die, die, die,
and yet I do not want to die and may not die, because my time is
not up yet. I have to solve my task.

My task? Yes, my task! I have finally, finally realized what it
is. It is just what I had thought, and yet so very, very
different. I have already said: The Karl-May-problem is, like
every other mortal's problem, an individual example of a problem
which concerns all of mankind. But while most people are only
called upon to represent to their small, immediate surroundings
certain phases of the great problem, there are also others who
have been given the hard task to serve as a representation of it,
though also just on a small scale, but not just representing an
individual detail, but rather the whole. The many represent parts
of mankind, while the few represent images of mankind. The many
can keep their narrow surroundings clean; people like this exist
by the dozens; they can even appear as exemplary people. But the
few are assigned the virtue and the sin, the purity and the filth
of the entire mankind in a representative ratio; they can become
famous generals or crude murderers, great diplomats or notorious
swindlers, philanthropic financial geniuses or despicable
pickpockets, but never exemplary people. They have not been
granted the enjoyable fortune of unconscious mediocrity. If the
forces around them are more powerful than they, they are torn
between virtue and vice, between height and depth, between cheer
and desperation, until they dissolve above the clouds or plunge
into the abyss. If they are the stronger ones and if they are
born into fortunate surroundings, they will proudly and calmly go
on their shining course; but if they came into this world where
baseness, poverty, and want rule, they will still reach their
goal, because they have to, but the resistance they will have to
overcome will be brutal and unrelenting, and, once they have
ascended to this top, before they will be able to sound their cry
of victory, they will collapse with exhaustion, to close their
eyes to this word.

One would think that everyone knew which of these types of people
he would belong to, or at leat, everyone should feel obliged to
think about this. I have done this and have arrived at the
conclusion that I had no right to expect a simple, averagely happy
life, but that I had to get acquainted with mankind's misery in
its deepest depths, in order to work myself up from this misery
just as persistently and just as exhaustingly as mankind requires
floods of sweat and blood as well as millenia of time to rise from
its. Likewise, I am convinced that I had been destined to meet
with this unrelenting resistance, which opposes me up to this day,
and that I have no right to complain about it, because I have
brought it upon myself just as all of mankind would progress
faster, if they would finally stop blocking their own path with
obstacles. It is plain to see that I do not accuse anybody but
myself.

If I ever spoke too tough or harsh in this book, if I have been
unfair or stubborn, then this has, by no means, been intentional
or deliberate, but it has been the still not quite overcome anima,
dictating this to me. As long as a person moves in the low realm,
and this is what I had to do in this description of my life to a
more than large extent, the low matters have some power over him,
and I was not allowed to be untrue; I had to write as my social
surroundings required. But now, that I am reaching the end and am
starting to breathe a better, cleaner air, I am also cleaner and
freer in what I am writing and am regaining the strength to
overcome everything which seeks to embitter me.

And there has been more than enough reason for me to be
embittered. In this, I am only talking about the last ten years
and what has happened as a consequence of the lawsuit against the
Muenchmeyers. This lawsuit has been conducted by my opponents, or
rather by their lawyer Gerlach, in a manner which I had thought
entirely impossible before. I had no idea to what an extent the
law protects a lawyer in this respect. For the purpose of
degrading the opposing party before the judge, he is at liberty to
use means which nobody else is permitted to use. He is under the
protection of article 193, because he is acting in his client's
interests. I am going to list a selection of sample expressions,
I had to put up with from the Muenchmeyers' advocate Dr. Gerlach,
because he employed them in his capacity as a lawyer:

He accused me of "imprudent extortions", "unjustified demands",
numerous "audacities", and "mumbo jumbo". He called me "cunning",
"fresh", "audacious", "slandering", "pathologically provoking
untruthfulness", "liar", "lying May", "show-off", "Muenchhausen",
"boaster", "fraud", "scoundrel", "swindler", "commonplace
swindler", "burglar", "imposter", "convict", etc. etc. I am
asking you: Are these kinds of offensive statements, even if
there was some truth in them, permitted in everyday life? Would a
truly well-educated man want to move in the same circles as
someone who has made them? Well, in the circles of the court they
are permitted, for I have sued this lawyer on account of them for
gross insult and have been rejected. But there is even more: In
response to this complaint of mine, he filed counter-charges
against me, and this was not rejected. The judge is perfectly
innocent in this; he could not act any other way; the law
proscribes it like this! One day, when the testimonies of the
witnesses had turned out to be unfavourable for the Muenchmeyers'
party, this lawyer said to the judge: "But in any case, it is
entirely impossible that a person with prior convictions, like
May, could win this trial!" "You'll just have to wait and see,"
the judge answered to him. I was right there and had to put up
with this insult, because the law allowed him to make it. For
almost ten years, this has been going on like this and is still
going on up to this day in the same tone and in the same manner.
A very high-ranking judge said, regarding this, to my lawyer:
"Never in all of my long time on the bench, a case has touched me
so deeply like the that of Karl May. How much must this poor, old
man have suffered!" He might very well have added: "How much is
he still suffering, and how much more will he suffer!" This judge
knew my prison record very well; he had studied the files which
existed on it. Nevertheless and in spite of the verbal abuse of
my opponents, I won the trial and all appeals, surely an
expressive proof that German judges are not influenced by
invectives on the lawyers' part; but nevertheless, I had to
listen to them without being able to speak up and I still have to
do so up to this day. And they work their effect, though not on
the verdict, but definitely into another direction. They
introduce a cruel rudeness into the way the parties interact with
each other and extent beyond the courtroom, out into the public
and even into the private life. All those insulting expressions
about me, which I have listed above, one would already have read
in the newspapers and would likewise also have come across them in
private conversations. This is the necessary consequence of those
liberties which every malicious, unscrupulous lawyer is allowed to
take, once he sees that crude rudeness will get him further than
humaneness. He writes these rude statements into his legal
documents, and from there, he arranges it for them to appear as
official files proving his case in the newspapers. Or he might
first sent them to the newspapers and then submit them in printed
form to the court as evidence, without saying that they originally
came from him. If such a lawyer has several like-minded, or by
him persuaded, newspapers or small papers on his side, it is easy
for him to shatter, or possibly even to destroy, within a short
time, every existence, no matter how firm it might stand. "To
destroy in the newspapers of all of Germany", this is called. And
the law encourages this practice!

There is also another, most interesting example I care about,
which, if anything, will sound less than favourable for me. But I
am mentioning it nevertheless, because, intending to write for the
benefit of the general public, I must not ask whether I might harm
my own interests by this. My first wife had insulted the wife of
an author from Dresden, who had been told by the Muenchmeyers that
I had been previously convicted. He got even by informing against
me with a German sovereign and told him that his relatives were
reading my books and also visited me in person. The sovereign
gave no reply. Then came a second letter with accusations, and
now the sovereign was compelled to turn to Dresden, in order to
find out what my prior convictions were all about. He received
detailed information. An official was sent to Radebeul, to
conduct on-the-spot investigations. He found out that my marriage
had not been a happy one, which was the reason why I had not
stayed at home in me free time, and that I had written in my books
about countries where I had never been; everything I reported in
them was not true. Therefore, the files of the police of Dresden
record about me that I was leading an unsteady life and was an
imposter by means of my literature. The sovereign was informed of
this, and one of those relatives, he matter was concerned with,
passed it on to me at the next opportunity in all the details. He
knew very well how much there was to this matter, but asked me to
be discrete, so that I had been compelled to keep silent about
this. I also believed that I could keep silent, because I
presumed that these kinds of police records were among the most
secretive things in the administration. But now, they are being
published by Lebius to my astonishment and are being exploited
accordingly by my opponents. How does a former social democrat,
who has seceded from the church, get hold of these secret records
of the police of Dresden? The law permits it! Quite naturally, I
now no longer feel obliged to be discrete and will insist that
these records will be revised and corrected.

Another case brings me to Leipzig, where I, as I have reported on
page 119 [a], have been apprehended forty-five years ago by
unlawful means. This was such a long time ago that the court
records about this have long since been destroyed, because
humaneness demands that such traces shall only last for a very
specific time, and this time is up. Who has now considered the
possibility that the police of Leipzig might also have made notes
about this, which might still be in existence? Mr. Lebius has
recently published them! How does a man like he now also get hold
of the police records of Leipzig? The law permits it!

[a] Fifth chapter, second half of the 13th paragraph.

Likewise, has published the records of my divorce. These are most
certainly of a nature which requires discretion and are none of
his business at all. But the law permits him to do so!

He is informed about everything relating to my lawsuits. Who
gives him that permission, and who makes it possible for him? The
law and the Muenchmeyers' lawyer, who is his lawyer as well. Both
are working hand in hand. At one time, Lebius even persuaded my
ex-wife in Berlin to sign a blank power of attorney, but sent this
to Dresden to the Muenchmeyers' lawyer, who then filled in the
blanks as he saw fit for his particular purposes. These are only
a few examples from my rich, personal experience with the fact
that the law does not just permit, but even encourages, things
which it ought to prohibit most strictly. Even the most judicious
and humane judge is powerless against this, and this was what I
was thinking of when I said before that I had finally, finally
realised what my task was. About forty to fifty years ago, I have
involuntarily descended to that place where the despised people
dwell, for whom regaining the respect, which had been robbed from
them, is made so very difficult. I have come to know them, and I
know that they are worth no less than all those who only never
fell because they either had never been on a high level or did not
possess the necessary inner freedom to be able to fall. I want to
descent back down to them, now being almost seventy years old, not
being forced, but voluntarily, as my own decision. I want to tell
them what nobody dared to tell them before, this is that nobody
can help them, if they do not know how to help themselves; that
they are doomed, unless they save themselves using their own
power; by sticking most closely together among themselves. I
want to present them with my example, my life and my efforts. I
want to show them what will become of all of their good intentions
and all of their hard efforts, if others lack these good
intentions. I want to show them that a single unfair lawyer or
that single article 193 are enough to destroy even the most
beautiful and best achievements of their strength of mind, of
Christian love, and of humaneness in one blow. I want to tell
them that it is a sin of mankind to conceal their share in the
guilt of the guilty ones; but that it is also a mistake for the
latter ones to keep their past guilt a secret. Our lives, my
life, their lives shall be spread out openly before the eyes of
God, but in particular also openly before our own eyes. Then, we
will not bear a grudge, and then, we will not be resentful.
Because then, we will realise why it was possible for us to fall:
We made ourselves fall. And once we realise this, we are able to
forgive ourselves; and he who may forgive himself, will be
forgiven. So, do away with the inappropriate feeling of being
ashamed, and bring out openness! Only the secret we veil
ourselves in gives that article and every unscrupulous person the
power to think himself higher and better than us and still to be
our - - - executioner!

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