15-Nov-2019: Fundraising event

On November 15, 2019 the musical The Speech of Chief Seattle was performed by Michael-Gemeinschaft in Schweigmatt, Baden-Wuerttemberg (Germany) Jean-Marc Birkholz, the popular performing actor of Winnetou at the Karl-May-Festival in Elspe, read the words of Chief Seattle's speech. Christopher Barker, son of the late legendary Old Shatterhand Lex Barker held the prologue.

Amongst others Barker said "... together with our children all of us can relearn to appreciate and maintain our Good Mother Earth. We can show our children that as adults, we too, believe in the future. Let's give our children the space and the time that they need. If needed, let's donate some of our time to people – parents, friends, colleagues. If we don't do so, Chief Seattle's speech will still remain valid but won't it be ourselves who will be lost?" An unforgettable evening, especially for all the visitors of the subsequent Meet & Greet fundraiser who were awarded the musical bonus of Christopher Barker singing two songs.

08-May-2019: Lex Barker would have been 100 today

"They say there was snow that day, that the flowers in the garden were killed by frost.“ That’s what many years later, Lex is supposed to have said about his birthday. He was named after his father Alexander Crichlow Barker. His place of birth is the sleepy town of Rye, NYS. Right in the middle of a park, you can find a sturdy brick building, the house where Lex was born.

At the early age of 54, Lex Barker died of a heart attack in the streets of New York. One hundred years after the day he was born he may be gone but not forgotten. Although there are only about 30 miles between the two places of Rye and New York, Barker was a cosmopolitan and left a special impression worldwide.

For more information click here.

27-Apr-2019: Martin Boettcher (1927 to 2019), Father of the Old Shatterhand Theme

When Old Shatterhand in the shape of Lex Barker enters the screen, Martin Boettcher writes taylor-made themes for him. A synthesis which to this day has an overwhelming effect on the audience. Listening to these melodies you are instantly and very happily reminded of this particular hero of your youth.

Martin Boettcher passed away on Saturday after Good Friday 2019. Lex Barker's son Christopher said "Sad news, yes ... but together with all the many people who loved him I would like to celebrate his life and his work. I can only repeat what I have already recently said at an event in Berlin 'What would these movies have been without the music of Martin Boettcher?!' A fantastic composer, conductor and real gentleman is not with us anymore. I hope he will take his music to paradise and carry on there. My deepest sympathies to his family."

02-Apr-2019: Specials for 100th birthday of Lex Barker

Celebrating Lex Barker's 100th birthday, there will be some surprises for fans:

• A commemorative coin honoring Lex Barker's 100th birthday! After a time-consuming process of selecting the right image for this coin as well as setting up a productive network, Christopher Barker was presented with the no. 1 coin of this limited mintage. The coin is issued by the renowned company Euromint. Some of the proceeds will be donated to Kinderkrebshilfe (Children's Cancer Aid). more infos on presentation...
  
• The Lex Barker Tarzan Collection. Pidax presents the five long-sought-after Tarzan movies (1949 to 1953) in one DVD box. .
  
• The Making of The Treasure of Silverlake: Berlin Movie Company Rialto-Film have opened their archives and are presenting over 600 mostly unpublished pictures in an amazing illustrated book about this legendary movie. See Lex Barker as you have never seen him before.

31-Mar-2019: Lex Barker and Berlin

On March 30, 2019 an event, organized by KMFF, the Berliner Karl-May-Freunde (Berlin Friends of Karl May), took place at the Intercontinental Hotel. Within the frame of this event, there was this very special function commemorating Lex Barker, the former performing actor of Old Shatterhand. In May, it would have been his one hundredth birthday.

The event had been organized in cooperation with Rialto-Film. Taking place at the Intercontinental (formerly Hilton) Hotel where Lex Barker used to stay when he was working in Berlin, the event held some nice surprises in store for its visitors.

For more information click here.

01-Feb-2019: New Interview with Companion

The conversation with Andrea King, born in 1919, like Lex Barker, will be the first interview contribution to the 100th anniversary of Lex Barker’s birth. The actress was among Barker’s closest circle of friends during the 'Golden Years of the Cinema' in Hollywood. Andrea King would have celebrated her 100th birthday this 1st February 2019.

31-Jan-2019: News about Lex Barker

The preparations for the English-language biography about the American actor, Lex Barker, are progressing well; his German fans can look forward to new content about their idol (working title: Lex Barker — The Film Book).

02-Jun-2018: Lex Barker in 'Wild West made in Germany'

The German western productions of the 1960s are 'classics' nowadays. The cinema and television audience has retained the movies in its cultural memory. The new handbook about the German western, Wild West made in Germany, describes this very special phenomenon based on the movies and the actors of this genre.

Author Reiner Boller conducted research for many years, visited archives and filming locations, and spoke with many people involved in making German westerns, especially the Karl-May movies. During the exhaustive work, two people in particular extended much appreciated assistance to Reiner; Matthias Wendlandt, whose father produced the famous Winnetou film series of the 1960s, and Christian Becker, the producer of RTL's new filmization based on May's famous tale. Of course, the new handbook, Wild West made in Germany, will also present to the reader previously unpublished details about Lex Barker and the production of his famous Winnetou movies.