Adaptation as cultural and medial transfer: George Tabori's short story and radio play Weissmann und Rotgesicht.

This article examines the cultural and medial adaptation of George Tabori's short story "Weissmann und Rotgesicht" into a 1978 German radio play, focusing on its exploration of competing minoritized identities—Jewish and Indigenous American—and their respective mechanisms of othering. Originally written in a North American context influenced by Hollywood westerns, the story's narrative and ironic critique of identity politics are transposed into the West German broadcasting environment, where the radio play uses vocal characterization, soundscapes, and language prosody to engage with German "Indianthusiasm"—a fascination with Indigenous American imagery—and the simultaneous erasure of Jewish victimhood post-Holocaust. The adaptation serves as a complex intervention in German popular culture by highlighting the ongoing invisibility of Jewish experiences behind idealized Indigenous representations, while also reflecting Tabori's broader transnational and transmedial career as a Jewish playwright confronting Holocaust memory through diverse media.