Karl May Friends

... so many connections and parallels - explored and juxtaposed ...

The 'Henrystutzen' designed by Philip Colston from Karl May's descriptions in his novels.
Mr Henry, part of the Story of the 'Magic Rifle'
The connection to Josiah' Gregg's narrative about how he used the gun in the 'Wild West' (Commerce of the Prairies) gets little attention when the 'Magic' Rifle is mentioned; however, it was at the time probably just as relevant to May's development of his own Henrystutzen as the Henry Rifle and the Hawken Rifle were. May 'borrowed' a number of passages from Gregg's publication for use in his own novels, and it stands to reason that Gregg's revolving Colt Carbine, if not in picture then in the way it was used to fend off adversaries, also piqued May's interest.
German website about Samuel Hawken's 'Plain Rifle' that
became Sam Hawkens' 'Liddy', and gave the 'reputation of a St. Louis-made firearm' to Old Shatterhand's Henrystutzen. The'King of the Mountiain'
Last but not least: The Henry Rifle by B.T. Henry
Old Shatterhand's
'Magic' Rifle (Das Zaubergewehr)

Essentially, the rifle, designed in 2011 for the special volume 2012 Anniversary Edition of The Treasure in Silver-Lake, has these raisons d’être:

(1)
It's a gift to Karl May, finally giving him his special rifle—and vindicating his conception.

(2)
It's a proprietary design by Philip Colston that is intended to be featured only on and within English-language Karl May books by Marlies Bugmann, so that the illustrations could be as true to May as possible.

(3)
It's an addition to the living, and constantly expanding, world of Karl May.
Philip Colston
Such is the fame of Karl May's fictional 'Henry Carbine' that it has received its own Wikipedia Page in English...well, almost(*see below); Wikipedia redirects to the 'real' Henry Rifle, because an 'Out Of Universe' reference is required - German or English for the Henrystutzen, ... "For reliability, we'd be looking for something in a fact-checked and editorially controlled or peer reviewed publication, not just posts on websites or blogs. It is very likely that this item is not notable. Most fictional weapons aren't; while there are a few exceptions, they'd be on the order of something like the Batarang or Excalibur, and this weapon doesn't appear to be studied in the same way as those are."
So there you go - the Henrystutzen is almost there, but not quite. If anyone has the required reliable Out Of Universe, fact-checked, and editorially controlled, or peer reviewed publication, please feel free to take the wheel; history/comparison link, for the Wikipedia savvy:
wikipedia PDF below; the link at the bottom of the PDF goes to an online version of the old (PDF) revision.
Henry_carbine.pdf Henry_carbine.pdf
Size : 172.265 Kb
Type : pdf
German karl-may-wiki page for the firearm Henrystutzen
Buffalo Bill Center of the West explaining
Karl May's 'Magic' Rifle beautifully here.
Non-fiction: There once was a famous gunsmith in St. Louis -- Samuel Hawken (1794-1884). His 'Rocky Mountain Rifle' became famous in the Wild West, and any 'Westman' worth his salt, owned a 'Hawken Rifle'.

Fiction: Karl May, aka, Charley the greenhorn, later Old Shatterhand, started his Wild West adventures in St. Louis, where he met an old gunsmith called Mr Henry. They became good friends. When it was time to head off into the unknown, Charley, his host family in St. Louis (German immigrants), Mr Henry, and a 'Westman' by the name of Sam Hawkens, who owned a battered, but reliable old rifle he called 'Liddy', were sitting at the same 'farewell dinner' table. The German immigrant family were the supporting cast of the main event: the splitting of real Samuel Hawken and his Rocky Mountain Rifle into three parts.

Where fact and fiction meld: Mr Henry the fictional gunsmith, Sam Hawkens the 'Westman', and Samuel Hawken the real gunsmith had one thing in common - they were one and the same. At that dinner table, Samuel Hawken morphed into Mr Henry, and his name was carried west by the 'Westman' called Sam Hawkens, whose gun, 'Liddy', was undoubtedly (meant to be) a Hawken Rifle. Fictional Mr Henry designed and built the fictional 'Henrystutzen' -- in the fictional Wild West of Karl May's making, that 'Henrystutzen' became the most famous gun in the West, a fame borrowed from the real Henry Rifle; the reputation of reliability was borrowed from the real Hawken rifles.
Years before Philip's inception of the wonderful 'Magic' Rifle design for 'Silver-Lake', when I designed the artwork for the Winnetou Trilogy hard-cover, I wanted to give Old Shatterhand his 25-shot Henrystutzen; Winnetou was holding his precious 'Silver Rifle'; therefore, Old Shatterhand ought to have his special rifle as well. (Winnetou and Old Shatterhand were the first 'riders' of my hard-cover designs.) (Left)

By dint of artistic licence, I managed to show 25 cartridges in Old Shatterhand's Henrystutzen - 24 in the magazine that runs along the bottom of the barrel, and one in the chamber. I'm sure it confused firearms' experts to some degree if they were able to count the tiny painting detail on the cover art of The Complete Winnetou Trilogy.
Old Shatterhand’s ‘Magic’ Rifle with its peculiar, ball-shaped bullet magazine is described in detail in the adventure novel 2012 Anniversary Edition of The Treasure In Silver-Lake; the publication contains a large section about the 2011 design that is featured on the back cover (above right). Karl May's original of 1890/91 is the famous novel that inspired the first Karl May film of the most successful movie series in German cinematographic history: The Treasure Of Silverlake, 1963. Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand wields a prop that is designed to approximate the Henrystutzen with 25 rounds—the imfdb database has an image with description.
Borrowed images - all images below are linked to the images on their respective owners' websites, with text link to the websites, and mention of the images' origin. Most firearms aficionados will be happy to see their photographs utilized to promote a wider understanding of the development of Karl May's Henrystutzen. Having said that, if anyone is offended to see their image here, please contact me (contact page) and I’ll remove it immediately.
Other reincarnations of Old Shatterhand's 'Magic' Rifle, or 25-rounds Henry Carbine, or Henrystutzen as movie props include this one in the movie Winnetou and the Crossbreed * (Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi) (1966), with the Henrystutzen isolated (left image), and in the hands of Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker) (right image). Source: imdb - the link to Winnetou and the Crossbreed also featues 3 versions of Winnetou's Silver-Rifle, and Sam Hawkens' 'Liddy'. (*Released with Half-breed in the title in some versions.)
One of many, and varied, props used in the '60s Karl-May movies.
German language only: wonderful article about Old Shatterhand's Henrystutzen, and the 'real world' weapons that could have inspired Karl May to think of a 'spherical' mechanism.
Porter Turret  (by American Firearms)

Postscript:
During the many years of legal wrangles in his old age, which lasted beyond his passing, Karl May wrote a number of articles, even books, in his defence. One such article appeared in the Dresdner Anzeiger (Newspaper in Dresden at the time) on 12 November 1904. Page 131 of transcript.

In it, May refers back to the time when he had a disagreement with the army officer (an official in the artillery workshops) about his Henrystutzen (see free PDF download), and in his retort, he writes: [...] Every expert knows that such a multi-shot rifle can not be a magazin rifle, but only a paternoster loader. [...]
(Jeder Sachverstaendige weiss dass ein so vielschuessiges Gewehr kein Magazingewehr, sondern nur ein Paternosterlader sein kann.)

There has never been such a thing as a 'paternoster loader'; it is a 'May'ism; he invented the term ultimately to ensure that he was the only expert of the mechanism in his Henrystutzen / Henry Carbine. Somehow he succeeded, because the Henrystutzen keeps enthralling new generations with its mystery into the 21st century.

The only 19th century firearm that comes close to a 'paternoster loader' is the Treeby Chain Gun, UK, 1854/55 - details in the Shipwreck Library.
The author of the article linked in 'details' mentions that only two such guns were ever made - how about that? This would make a 'paternoster loader' (a chain such as this operates on the paternoster principle) just as scarce as Old Shatterhand's Henrystutzen. Or not quite, perhaps, as at least the one pictured left is in existence.
(* Note to Wikipedia entry). As of 31 May 2019 not even the redirect is still in existence, and all that remains of Karl May's 'Magic' Rifle, or the 'Henry Carbine' on the English Wikipedia are the above links to the now-hidden text. The information will remain on this website, as it tracks Karl May's development of the fictional firearm within his works.
 
 
 

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