In the beginning, German newspapers would translate the name of the exotic guest still as „Büffel-Wilhelm“, and Karl May wrote in 1894 to Carl Jung:

I know Buffalo Bill personally; he was a spy and a good scout, nothing else. He was not in the league of Westerners à la Old Firehand.

It is out of question that May was referring to a meeting in the prairies of North America. He came to know the U.S.A. only fourteen years later — as a tourist. So, did Karl May meet his contemporary, Buffalo Bill, in Germany?

„Buffalo Bill’s tour started in Munich. From there it went on — always via train — to Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Hannover, here to Braunschweig, then on to Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Strasbourg.
In Dresden, his show used the former Turnfestplatz along the Herkulesallee.
The announcement read:
The troupe contains of 200 Indians, cowboy’s, trappers, hunters, Mexican vaqueros, Lasso-throwers, sharpshooters, gun- and pistol-artists, riders on wild horses, buffalos and mules.
When Buffalo Bill undertook his first Europe-tour, Karl May’s work was still limited to German village-stories, humorous sketches, dime novels. One year later, from 1891 onwards, his first pseudo-travel adventures in Indsmen-land were published in greater editions; the author was well known by now.
There is no evidence regarding a get-together of May with the Wild West-rider in the previous year. However, May copied Buffalo Bill’s costumes for photographs he had produced for his own fans in 1896.
The „Karl-May-Annual“ of 1918 publishes a report of May’s second wife, Klara, about a visit at Buffalo Bill’s show in Dresden. This must have been during the second tour in 1906. According to her, May had received an invitation to the show by Buffalo Bill, but he had declined because he saw him as hostile to the Indians. Klara writes, May finally agreed to accompany her and they were received by Buffalo Bill who would have guided them around personally. Her report is, unfortunately, not to be trusted very much since she continues to narrate how fluently her husband conversed with the Indians in their native tongue.
With your permission, I would like to call upon another contemporary of Buffalo Bill and Karl May. Like me, he is an artist and an Austrian.“ …

You want us to invite a circus-artist who has followed in 1959 the „wolf’s silver-track“ to enter the „eternal hunting grounds“? Our history-channels seem to create for you a certain business attraction, Herr Dunkler.

„I do not deny that I would also be interested in his experiences in international circus-business.“

Alright then, we welcome Mr. Patty Frank, trapper-hat, lumberman’s shirt, tobacco-pipe … Attention! Smoking is not allowed on this stage!
Herr Frank, you were born in 1876 in Vienna as Ernst Tobis, how should we call you, perhaps „Häuptling Eisenarm“?

„Hau Kola! That’s how we Indians greet each other ... Well, you know, I was a strong boy and as the boss of a small gang I was called ‚Chief Iron-arm‘. There was a periodical for the youth, ‚Der gute Kamerad‘ (The Good Comrade), which published Karl May‘s serialized story ‚Der Sohn des Bärentöters‘ (The Son of the Bear-Killer). That made me an early Indian-fan. And during the World Exposition of 1873 in the Vienna Rotunda, we had seen for the first time Sioux-Indians.
My sister, Gabriele, was engaged as a singer at the opera in Frankfurt, so my mother and I moved with her. In Frankfurt’s Palm-Garden, I was an apprentice, and this garden was, like the Vienna Rotunda, a location for international events. Soon, ‚Buffalo-Bill’s Wild West Show‘ took place there.
I was already infected by the Indian virus, and whilst I was loitering between the tents of the Indians — my job was, of course, to protect the plants from trampling — I got infected now also by the bacillus Circensis.
One of the Sioux from Buffalo Bill’s troupe translated my nickname as a Chief into ‚Isto Maza‘. I used this name later to sign books and photographs. At that time I signed up secretly as a groom in the horse-shacks and, for a couple of months, I was on tour with Buffalo Bill’s show. It was in Strasbourg where my mother caught me.
One of the Sioux gave me as a farewell-gift a pair of old moccasins; that was end of 1890. And those moccasins were the first piece of my collection.
Alright, I finished my training as a gardener in Frankfurt. But afterwards, I founded, together with those seven friends with whom I had played to be Indians, an athletic club; my goal was clear: I had to become an acrobat; alas, the road to it was not simple: I sang couplets as ‚Ernst Teuber‘, I had also to give a hand as a backstage-worker. From 1895 onwards I called myself ‚Patty Frank‘ and performed in a circus called ‚Montrose‘. Between 1896 and 1897 I formed my own ‚Patty Frank Troupe‘, all of us being tumblers.
Finally, in 1901, I succeeded to cross the Atlantic; from 1904 onwards I travelled through the U.S.A. with the gigantic circus ‚Barnum & Bailey‘.
This type of life brought me together quite often with Indians. As in the case of the ‚last cowboys‘, who, at that time, had started to ride for Hollywood, the Indsmen with their exotic costumes wanted also to be integrated into show business. Sometimes we would perform in an area close to one of the Indian-reserves. That was always an occasion to extend my collection which once had been started with a pair of old moccasins. Soon, I began to do this more seriously, searching for bits and pieces of Indian culture, reading ethnographical literature, targeting more quality than quantity of objects for my collection.
Then, in 1908, I got the information that my old idol Karl May, long time ago already exposed as a daydreamer, would be expected for his first real journey to America. I was in New York at the jetty when his ship arrived from Bremerhaven. But, in the bustle, it was not possible to shake his hand. Four years later, when Karl May had passed away, I started to exchange letters with his widow, Klara.
During the First World War, I travelled with my acrobats through Germany. In 1916, the tent of ‚Circus Hagenbeck‘ was hit in Karlsruhe by an air-bomb — an apprentice of my troupe was among the two hundred and seventy victims.
The war ended, so did my career as an acrobat; I lost all my saving due to the inflation. Then I thought, Patty, salvation may be found in Radebeul, in the ‚Villa Shatterhand‘. I knew that Karl May’s collection — objects from his first and only America-journey — was sparse. On the other hand, my collection of authentic Indian objects was worth a couple of thousand dollars — and Karl May’s publishers had an interest to establish a museum that would be worthy of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand.
Thus, on 31st Jänner 1926, a contract was signed between Klara May and myself which combined both collections. A log-house — to be called later ‚Villa Bärenfett‘ — was erected, following my design, in the back-garden of the ‚Villa Shatterhand‘. When the Karl-May-Museum was opened on 1st December 1928, I received as its director a life-annuity and I was allowed to live in the back of this museum.“

Remarkable, across three political systems — Weimar Republic, NS-State and GDR-Communism — you were able to excite with your „Westman“-costume young and old greenhorns, introduced them to the life of prairie-Indians, were even recognized by ethnologists as some expert. But, you obviously did not forget your special Vienna charme when it came to your fan’s education …

„Well, once I showed a Canadian snow-shoe and there is such a greenhorn asking whether this would be a tennis-racket and another chief of idiots even thinks one catches fish with it. So I asked them how they thought fish could be caught with it, perhaps just fried fish.“

We were also told; good friends had even access to your saloon ‚Zum Grinsenden Präriehund“ (At the Grinning Prairie-Dog) which was styled like a gold digger’s place including a cave for a moon shiner. Greenhorn May would have liked it, perhaps, to walk over from his ‚Villa Shatterhand‘ for chatter with an Old Hand about the Wild West … later to be used in one of his books … Yes, please, Herr Dunkler?

„The man whose work was copied in part by Karl May, grabbing from him descriptions of landscapes, whole scenes of narrations, subjects and characters, this man has been mentioned already. He did lead a similar adventurous life like our Patty Frank — but three generations before him. I found his name in this Braunschweig newspaper that paid tribute to him on the occasion of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West-Show.
Eighteen years before Buffalo Bill’s entry in Braunschweig this author, Friedrich Gerstäcker, had died there. He had been witness of the reality in the American Wild West along the borders of civilization; and he described the harsh life of the settlers, as he had experienced it, in his novels and narrations, without any romantic embellishment. In 1837, he had travelled for the first time to the U.S.A.; he worked as a stoker, as a sailor, as a farmer, as cook, silversmith, lumberjack, chocolate producer, hotelkeeper. Since he was no fan of city-life, he finally enjoyed the exciting life of a hunter.
He would mail his diary-notes back to his mother who forwarded them to friends. After six adventurous years, which led him from Canada to Texas, from Arkansas to Louisiana, he returned to Germany in 1843, full of urge. He settled in Dresden where he translated works of renown authors from English and learned, thereby, to handle the feather-pen may be even better than the hunting gun. Thus, he started to have published some of his early stories in different periodicals.
His first novel, ‚Die Regulatoren in Arkansas‘, appeared in three volumes in 1845, and ‚Die beiden Sträflinge‘ in 1857. The latter obtained its local colour of Australia from Gerstäcker’s visit to that country during his tour around the world in 1849 to 1852 an unusual event in those days. On this trip, he visited Argentina, rode across that country and Chile, and then embarked for California during the gold rush. He then visited the South Sea Islands, Tahiti, Maiao, Emao, further Australia and Java. On his return to Germany, he continued to write, and other novels and books of travel, many of which have been translated into English and other languages, appeared in rapid succession. In 1860 to 61, he again went to South America, and in 1862, he accompanied Duke Ernst von Koburg to Egypt and Abyssinia. In 1867 to 68, he went to Mexico, the West Indies, Ecuador, Venezuela, and a second time to the United States.
That is, I dare to say, a more adventurous life compared with Karl May’s.“ …