Talk:Der Kaiser von Kalifornien

Mistakes in interpretation & content
Especially the fourth paragraph has obviously been written by somebody who has not seen the film first-hand. Suter's fate in the film has no relation whatsoever with the suppression of "Volksdeutsche" in Heimkehr, which portrays an entirely different situation. Also the statement that "the injustices and bad turns of luck that Sutter endures are portrayed as semi-official acts of the American government" has no grounding in the actual film itself. Suter's downfall is merely due to the greed for gold, when golddiggers overrun the country site and destroy his belongings. The easy money of gold-digging is opposed to the wealth and values created by hard work. The film ends with the impoverished Sutter in Washington having a vision of the modern (1930s) USA, proudly enlightened about his contribution. This can hardly be called "taking aim against the United States".

The point the film makes about Suter being German is justified by him being born in Germany and being ethnic german - there is no such thing as a "swiss-German" in opposition to "purely german". The völkish idea is hardly stressed in the movie: Suter's men are immigrants who come from all over the world (even an Asian man is shown).

The downplaying of Suter's Swiss nationality is also probably connected to the german Karl-May-tradition of Western stories, whose characters such as "Old Shatterhand" often were shown as german immigrants thus allowing stronger identification for german audiences. The May tradition is also reflected in the sympathetic portrayal of the Indians whom Suter respectfully befriends. In respect to the villainous stereotypes in the American Western at that time this is especially interesting.

There is at least one other film produced in Nazi Germany which is partly set in the USA: Der verlorene Sohn (The Lost Son, 1934), also directed by Trenker, about an alpine immigrant in New York.--- Wilutzky 02:55, 2008 Dec 27 (CET) —Preceding undated comment was added at 01:43, 27 December 2008 (UTC).

Move request

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Moved to Der Kaiser von Kalifornien Mike Cline (talk) 19:09, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

The Kaiser of California → The Emperor of California – The current title sounds like a self translation, and I can't find it used like this. --The Evil IP address (talk) 12:58, 30 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Comment: Whenever you see a Wikipedia article start with "X, better known as Y", it's worth considering whether Y would be a better title for the article. Jafeluv (talk) 20:27, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Rename but to Der Kaiser von Kalifornien. This is a German language film (according to its category) and should thus have a German title.  However the target is a plausible search term and should be created as a redirect.  Peterkingiron (talk) 11:17, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I support a move in principle, but to the suggested name only if this was the name the movie was presented under on cinemas in English speaking countries. It shouldn't be moved to that title because it is just "better known" (by whom and since when?) under this title. If not, I support Peterkingiron's renaming suggestion. Paved with good intentions (talk) 13:45, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Don't mind a move to the German title as long as it's away from this apparent self translation. --The Evil IP address (talk) 20:22, 1 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

"Nazi" Germany?
I fully agree that this film falls in the time when the Nazis were in power. On the other hand, Trenker was a personality on his own. --Hellsepp (talk) 21:51, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

This is getting ridiculous.
"In this it follows the Karl May tradition of German Western stories, which often featured noble Native Americans and German immigrants turned pioneers and gunmen.[citation needed]"

Citation needed? Seriously? Do the books of Karl May count? Soulman (talk) 18:20, 19 May 2023 (UTC)