The characters Old Shatterhand, Winnetou, and Kara Ben Nemsi are very famous in Central Europe.
In most of the film versions the novels were reworked to a great extent, some movies using only the names of characters invented by Karl May.
For example, in the book Der Schatz im Silbersee (The Treasure of Silver Lake) the main character was called "Old Firehand" – in the movie he was renamed "Old Shatterhand" (played by American actor Lex Barker) after the more famous character.
The movies Old Shatterhand (Apaches' Last Battle) and Winnetou and Old Firehand (Thunder at the Border) are not based on any of May's works, but were completely invented by the screenwriters.
Several TV productions, such as Das Buschgespenst and Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi, were much closer to the novels.