Gojko Mitić

Serbian actor Gojko Mitić (1940) was the most famous Indian in Eastern Europe. The handsome star played in numerous Westerns in East Germany between 1966 and 1984. He also worked as a director, stuntman, and author.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2401, 1966. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Hans-Joachim Kundt. Publicity still for Die Söhne der grossen Bärin / The Sons of Great Bear (Josef Mach, 1966).


German postcard, no. R 5. Photo: Gojko Mitić and Pierre Brice in Winnetou II. Teil / Winnetou: The Red Gentleman (Harald Reinl, 1964). Caption: Winnetou has won the Assiniboins for his plans, and they choose to negotiate with the white in Fort Niobara. This message goes to all chiefs.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2861, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Schwarz.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 9/76. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Armin Mueller-Stahl and Gojko Mitić in Tödlicher Irrtum / Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970). Caption: Two of the oil sharks, which are commissioned by the capital-heavy Mr Allison, are placed. But what is the use of that for Shave Head? His half-brother, the assistant sheriff Chris Howard, has paid with his life. As many chieftains before him, Shave Head had thought that Indians could be partakers of the wealth of the oil wells found on the reservation sites.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43079.

Euro-Westerns

Gojko Mitić (Гojкo Митић) was born in the little village of Leskovac, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 1940. He spent his childhood there, but when he grew up, he went to Belgrade, where he studied at the Sports School.

In the early 1960s, a lot of foreign productions were shot in Belgrade. Mitić was cast as a stuntman for some of these films, often German-French-Yugoslav coproductions. Mitic also started to play small parts in these Euro-Westerns.

Examples are the Karl May adaptations Winnetou - 1. Teil / Apache Gold (Harald Reinl, 1963), Old Shatterhand / Apache's Last Battle (Hugo Fregonese, 1964) and Winnetou - 2. Teil / The Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1964), all starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice.

He had a bigger part in the Western Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) starring Stewart Granger.

Then he was offered the lead role as Tokei-Into in the Western Die Söhne der großen Bärin / The Sons of Great Bear (Josef Mach, 1966), produced by the East German DEFA studios in Babelsberg. The hero was – like Winnetou - a native American, rather than a white settler as in John Ford's Hollywood Westerns. The film was a huge success, and this was the start of a great career in East Germany.


German postcard, no. 10. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Pierre Brice and Stewart Granger. Caption: Winnetou has watched the raid from a hill. Everyone agrees that it can only be the infamous Vultures gang. Wokadeh should also be eliminated because he knew too much about the bandit raid on Baumann's Ranch.


German postcard, no. 33. Photo: Rialto / Constantin. Pierre Brice, Stewart Granger and Gojko Mitić in Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964). Old Surehand and Winnetou release Wolkadeh from his bonds. He is to decide as a free man and lead Old Surehand as a guest to the ‘Council of Elders’ to negotiate Baumann's fate.


German postcard, no. 35. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Pierre Brice and Stewart Granger.


German postcard, no. 38. Photo: Constantin. Stewart Granger as Old Surehand and Gojko Mitić in Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964). Caption: God's judgment has spoken: Old Surehand is free and hurries to the trek.


German postcard, no. 40. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Pierre Brice and Gojko Mitić. Caption: Wokadeh and his warriors, the chief at Winnetou's side, ride into the 'valley of death' to bury Oitka-Peteh. The valley is a place of Desolation. Wokadeh now recognises the true bandits; he lets Baumann free and promises Winnetou to help in the hunt for the Vultures.

American communist film star

Between 1966 and 1984, Gojko Mitić starred in 12 DEFA Westerns in which he always played the leading role of an Indian. His second DEFA film was Chingachgook, die Grosse Schlange / Chingachgook: The Great Snake (Richard Groschopp, 1966) with Rolf Römer. It was an adaptation of a novel by James Fenimore Cooper, and another great success.

It was followed by a long row of Westerns, including Spur des Falken / Trail of the Falcon (Gottfried Kolditz, 1968) with Rolf Hoppe, Weisse Wölfe / White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969) with Barbara Brylska, and Osceola (1971, Konrad Petzold) with Iurie Darie.

Then followed Ulzana (Gottfried Kolditz, 1974) opposite Renate Blume, Blutsbruder / Blood Brothers (Werner W. Wallroth, 1975) with the American communist film star Dean Reed, and Severino (Claus Dobberke, 1978).

They all achieved success, but Mitic was always dubbed because of his accent. These films showed the life of the Indians, their suffering and adventures, and became popular even in the USA, according to V. Dorbomir at IMDb.

The muscled Mitic was an idol in the communist countries, and many women were attracted to the glamorous star. He had a love affair with the popular German actress Renate Blume, but they split up.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2930, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Pathenheimer / DEFA.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 118/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Bläsig. Gojko Mitić in Weisse Wölfe / White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 194/71, 1971. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Schwarz.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 92/73, 1973. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Schwarz.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 65/74, 1974. Photo: DEFA / Dassdorf. Gojko Mitić and Renate Blume in Ulzana (Gottfried Kolditz, 1974).

Spartacus

In an attempt to move away from his fame as an Indian, Gojko Mitić increasingly sought to appear in other genres, as the comedy Der lange Ritt zur Schule / The Long Ride to School (Rolf Losansky, 1982). In his later career, he appeared mainly on stage and on TV. He made the popular television series Archiv des Todes / Archives of death (Rudi Kurz, 1980) with Leon Niemczyk. On stage, he played Spartacus.

After the end of the GDR, Gojko Mitic was still very popular. He presented several TV shows and played a role in an episode of the series Schloss Einstein. He also played Winnetou in seasons at the Karl-May-Festspiele in Bad Segeberg near Hamburg, Germany, till 2006. These performances were also filmed for TV.

His later film appearances were supporting parts in such films as Der Kinoerzähler / The Film Narrator (Bernhard Sinkel, 1993) starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Burning Life (Peter Welz, 1994) with Maria Schrader, and the Horror film The Antman (Christoph Gampl, 2002).

He appeared as Intschu Tschuna in Winnetou & Old Shatterhand (Philipp Stölzl, 2016). Ma Cortes at IMDb: "This agreeable saga benefits from marvellous scenarios, shootouts, and larger-than-life roles. The film displays colourful and rousing cinematography with wonderful outdoor scenes. Being shot in similar Yugoslav landscapes from the Lex Barker / Pierre Brice series, it pays a nice tribute to the vintage movies. Gojko Mitić's most recent film is the family comedy Alfons Zitterbacke - Endlich Klassenfahrt! / Alfons Jitterbit - Class Trip Chaos! (Mark Schlichter, 2022).

Bulgarian punk rock & ska group Hipodil has a song, 'Bate Goiko', dedicated to and speaking about Gojko Mitić. Neither the song nor the name of Gojko Mitić is widely known in modern Serbia. Moreover, had Mitić not been the recipient of the Brothers Karić Award in 2010, most of the people in Serbia would have never heard his name. His adult life and career are based in Germany. He lives in Berlin, and continues to be one of the most vivid memories from the former East Germany.


German postcard, no. 31 (of 64). Photo: Constantin. Stewart Granger as Old Surehand and Gojko Mitić as Wokadeh in Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964). Caption: The bound Baumann sits opposite the dead chief as Wokadeh takes over the guard. Old Surehand silently approaches the tent, overpowers the sentry, binds Wokadeh, and kidnaps him.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 89/69. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Gojko Mitić in Weisse Wölfe / White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969).


Trailer for Unter Geiern / Among Vultures (1964). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).


American trailer for three 'Westerns from the East'. Source: Leona 1940 (YouTube).

Sources: V. Dobromir (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 29 September 2025.

Weisse Wölfe (1969)

Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969) is an East German-Yugoslav 'Ostern' (Red Western or Eastern) about the time after the last Indian wars. Weiße Wölfe is a sequel of Spur des Falken/Trail of the Falcon (1968). The DEFA production stars Gojko Mitic and when released in 1969, sold 4,601,516 tickets.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 89/69. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Gojko Mitic in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 29/70. Photo: DEFA. Rolf Hoppe in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969).


East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 53/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Barbara Brylska in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 56/69. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Rolf Hoppe in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969).

The Shooting of Chief Farseeing Hawk

A group of four Dakota Indians led by Chief Farseeing Hawk (Gojko Mitic), travels through the Black Hills in winter. They want to join the Cheyenne tribal group under Chief Little Wolf who has fled their Indian reservation.

At the same time, the transport of trader Sam Blake (Helmut Schreiber) arrives at Fort Robinson. Blake has the gold trade in the Black Hills in his hands, which prevents Harrington (Horst Schulze), a mining boss travelling with them, from expanding his business. Blake also transports the money for the mining company GMI.

In order to get Blake into payment difficulties, Bashan's gang robs the cash transports several times. Bashan (Rolf Hoppe) is the head of the gold mine's guard and acts on Harrington's behalf. On his way back from a robbery, he shoots Blue Hair (Lali Meschi), the chief's wife. Falcon unsuccessfully tries to kill Bashan at the mine.

Due to these events, Harrington enforces the appointment of his employee Sleek (Karl Zugowski) as the deputy sheriff. The sheriff is the former prospector Pat Patterson (Holger Mahlich). Together with Peter Hille (Fred Delmare), he wants to keep law and order in Tanglewood. When Patterson himself runs a money transport, Bashan takes control of Tanglewood with Sleek's help.

Now Harrington can easily put pressure on Blake and demand payment of the looted funds. Meanwhile, Hille finds out that Harrington himself is behind the robberies. When Bashan also wants to rob Patterson of the money, Falcon comes to his aid and the robbery fails. Together they ride to Tanglewood and barricade themselves in the sheriff's office.

Patterson, however, is no longer able to take action against Harrington because Blake has defected to Harrington and the justice of the peace is being held by Harrington's men. Farseeing Hawk is able to leave the office and kill his wife's murderer but is shot himself in the process.


East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 89/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Scene from Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 118/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Bläsig. Gojko Mitic in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 130/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: DEFA. Holger Mahlich and Karl Zugowksi in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 132/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Fred Delmare, Holger Mahlich and Karl Zugowksi in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).

The breakout of the Cheyenne from their reservation

Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (1969) is the sequel to Spur des Falken/Trail of the Falcon (Gottfried Kolditz, 1968). The 'Ostern', an Eastern-German sub-genre of Western, depicts the situation in the USA after 1879. Power struggles between newly founded companies are characteristic of this period.

Historically documented is the breakout of the Cheyenne from their reservation. Weisse Wölfe tells its story in a much darker mood than contemporary Karl-May films of the West German cinema, showing at the beginning how the natives are forced to go into reservations and struggle for survival, an attempt which seems doomed.

The dramatic music of the film, often led by powerful brass instruments, does well to enhance its effect. Filming took place in the High Tatras in former Yugoslavia, in the Dinaric Mountains, in a limestone quarry near Halle and near Langerwisch.

The majority of the 'Easterns' by DEFA studio, was filmed in Yugoslavia, where nature is very similar to North America with Mountains, prairies, rivers, waterfalls, and typical towns of the Wild West. The buildings of the film town of Tanglewood near Langerwisch had to be guarded because the mahogany wood used could also be used to build dachas.

In addition to the Serbian Gojko Mitić, Polish Barbara Brylska, Czech Milan Jablonský, Serbian Slobodan Dimitrijević and Serbian Slobodan Velimirović, the cast includes such DEFA stars as Horst Schulze, Holger Mahlich, Fred Delmare, Rolf Hoppe and Karl Zugowski from East-Germany.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 152/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Fred Delmare in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 188/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: DEFA / Rambo. Barbara Brylska and Fred Ludwig in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


Large East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 209/69, 1969. Retail price: 0,40 MDN. Photo: DEFA. Holger Mahlich in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Bosko Boskovic, Konrad Petzold, 1969).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 8/76. Photo: DEFA / Rambo(w). Milan Jablonsky, Karl Zugowski and Holger Mahlich in Weisse Wölfe/White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969). Caption: Blauhaar, Hawk's wife, has been shot by the Mining Corporation's bandit chief. Together with the incorruptible Sheriff Patterson, the chief comes to Tanglewood to atone for the crime. In the meantime, the white man's economic power struggle in the town has clearly gone in favour of the mining boss Harrington. There is no way back for Hawk.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

Tödlicher Irrtum (1970)

Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) is a typical Ostern (or Eastern), a Western produced in socialist East-Germany. Although all the characters of the film are fictitious, production company DEFA's fifth Ostern is based on real events that took place in the USA in 1898. The film is based on studies of the history and struggle of the Native Americans.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 56/70. Photo: DEFA / Blümel Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) with Armin Mueller-Stahl.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 9/76. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Gojko Mitić. Caption: Two of the oil sharks, which are commissioned by the capital-heavy Mr. Allison, are placed. But what is the use of that for Shave Head? His half brother, the assistant sheriff Chris Howard, has paid with his life. As many chieftains before him, Shave Head had thought that Indians could be partakers of the wealth of the oil wells found on the reservation sites.

An act of revenge

At the end of the 19th century, the Wyoming Oil Company has established itself in the vicinity of Wind River City at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where they have been illegally pumping oil from Native American territory.

One of the company's greedy agents, Mike Allison (Rolf Hoppe), kicks out both his white partners and the Native Americans. He has his some of his associates secretly murdered and blames it on the Native Americans, who are then killed when they get in the way of his plans.

Five chiefs with lifelong shares in the Oil Company die mysteriously as a result. The young chief Shave Head (Gojko Mitić) asks his a half-blooded brother Chris Howard (Armin Mueller-Stahl) for help. Chris assumes the post of deputy sheriff and tries to expose Allison and the murderers.

When a representative of the Oil Company turns up in Wind River City and exposes Allison's plot, the white inhabitants begin to take sides. Allison does his utmost to defend himself and finally has the oil camp set on fire, passing it off as an act of revenge...


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 65/70. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) with Armin Mueller-Stahl, Rolf Hoppe and Bruno O'Ya.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 85/70a. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 85/70d. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970).

The Sauerkraut Western

The Ostern (Eastern) was the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries' take on the Western. According to Wikipedia, the term Ostern refers to two related genres: to proper Red Westerns, set in America's 'Wild West' and mostly produced in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and to Easterns, set usually on the steppes or Asian parts of the USSR, especially during the Russian Revolution or the following Civil War.

Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) is a typical Red Western and one of a total of 14 Osterns produced by the DEFA. The DEFA Osterns were directed by nine different directors, but they all had the same main actor: Yugoslav actor Gojko Mitić.

Mitic's career as the DEFA-chief of the Indians started in 1966 with Die Söhne der großen Bärin/The Sons of Great Bear (Josef Mach, 1966), based on the novel series of the same name by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich and with Gojko Mitić in the leading role of Tokei-ihto. The film started a series of 'Indian films' by the DEFA studios which were very successful in Eastern Europe.

The DEFA Osterns are often compared to the Spaghetti Westerns, in that they use local scenery to double up for the American West. Favourite location for the 'Sauerkraut Western' (including the West-German Karl May films) was Yugoslavia.

Like the Karl May Westerns, Osterns like Die Söhne der großen Bärin/The Sons of Great Bear (1966) and Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (1970) turned the traditional American 'Cowboy and Indian' conventions on their head, casting the Native Americans as the heroes and the American Army as the villains.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 85/70f. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) with Rolf Ludwig.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 85/70h. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 121/70. Photo: DEFA / Blümel Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970) with Armin Mueller-Stahl.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 123/70. Photo: DEFA / Blümel. Publicity still for Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (1970) with Stefan Lisewski.

Source: Zweitausendeins.de Filmlexicon (German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.