At 1.25 of Die kleine Hexe (the book chapter is called "Wollen wir wetten"), the little witch gets involved with a group of kids in the nearby town who are dressed up in costumes for Carnival/Fastnacht. This section does not come across well today, since the among the costumes are "an African," "a Chinamen," "various Orientals," and "an Indian," all hanging out with ... "a cannibal."
The first time we read the story and listened to the Hörspiel, I made no comment, but this time I paused the story and explained at some length that these kinds of costumes are mostly not—and in my view should not be—worn anymore today because people from Africa and China and Asia, as well as Native Americans, find them offensive. When the author wrote the book more than 50 years ago (1957), there were not many people from these countries living in Germany, and so the Germans didn't know them very well and didn't realize they might be insulted, but that's not the case anymore.
The illustrations in the modern edition of the book does avoid the most offensive figures:
Germans' strange—and from my perspective rather distasteful—fascination with Native Americans is also something we've run into on numerous occasions. There's a Kokosnuss story with an Indian main character, the only one we haven't read. There's been a good bit of press about this lately.
Total audio 2015: 10:08
Total video 2015: 13:18
Age 5.3.24
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