Friedrich Wilhelm Mader’s surreal fantasies
It’s rather hard to believe now, but Friedrich Wilhelm Mader introduced his intended audience to what are now young adult fantasy stories featuring characters in exciting situations. Being from a Pietistic Lutheran family, he was also a sci-fi pioneer in the vein of Jules Verne, as his enchanting fantasy adventure novels thrilled audiences throughout the late 1890s-early 1930s. His South American masterpiece is a rather old novel generically named El Dorado, also known as The Incas’ Treasure. In fact, it seems to feature characters from actual Amerindian groups like the Napo Kichua, the Guahibos and others. Despite the stereotypes, the story is still an enchanting inspiration for various other novels and comics, plus films and tv shows. The fact that even though he’s a Franconian, a majority of his characters are Swabians, which is still making Germanic audiences confused even today.