bavarikon4UDescription
The showman Ernst Malferteiner presented the attraction "The Holy Bull of Benares" at the Oktoberfest in Munich in 1905. Malferteiner advertised his show with a two-part poster containing a defamatory and stereotyping depiction of the "Other".
The animal at the centre of the menagerie was a dwarf, tattooed albino bull. In order to create an "authentic" experience for the paying audience, the figure from Hindu mythology was accompanied by an "Indian troupe, temple servant[s] and priestesses" and offered a ritual framework programme, according to the advertising text. The staging strongly resembles the so-called "Völkerschauen", which appeared in Germany after the founding of the German Reich in 1871 and became popular at more and more festivals.
The aim of the poster's presentation was to immediately evoke certain associations among the festival's audience and thus, above all, to attract a paying public. The festival guests were to be quickly and clearly made aware of a certain "people" and their "culture". At the same time, the appearance of the mystical element of an "incantation" aroused curiosity to visit this show.
The poster picks up on the increased desire for the "exotic" and "extraordinary" for the time of colonialism and imperialism. The city of Benares (also Varanasi), also known as the "holy city of Hinduism", was part of the so-called princely states of British India and thus stands in the context of British colonial rule in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The human extras in these productions, which were marked by racism, became dependent on their underprivileged position and the existing colonial power structure. Often, financial motives led to entire groups from the colonial territories being recruited for the shows in Europe and finding themselves at the mercy of inhumane conditions on site. No further information can be reconstructed about the origin and motivation of the performers of the menagerie shown here.