A Separation of Sameness: (East) German Indianthusiasm, Ostalgie, and Kent Monkman’s Intervention

This chapterPerry, Nicole investigates the role and function of the I-Häuptling/Ind**nerInd**ner in (East) GermanGermany culture and compares it to both its contemporary and historical uses in Germanic culture in general. By using Hartmut Lutz’s concept of IndianthusiasmIndianthusiasm to trace both the similarities and the differences of the Ind**ner in postwar German cultures, this chapter shows how the different cultural understandings of North American Indigeneity can be called a separation of sameness. A point of departure is the provocative and gender bending oeuvre of the celebrated CreeCree artist Kent MonkmanMonkman, Kent. Monkman’s 2011 painting East vs. West contextualizes Indianthusiasm and highlights the cultural struggle between the two Germanies by incorporating Old ShatterhandOld Shatterhand, WinnetouWinnetou, and signifiers of both East and West Germany into his repainting of an American WestAmerican West landscape scene by the nineteenth century landscape painter Albert BierstadtBierstadt, Albert.