Karl May's lifetime ended in 1912. I'm not an expert on German history, but I can't imagine he was the very first German author to have fanciful tales, nor does

Karl May's lifetime ended in 1912. I'm not an expert on German history, but I can't imagine he was the very first German author to have fanciful tales, nor does it mean that Germany has a journalistic tradition of wholesale fabrication, compared to other countries/cultures. Joseph Pulitzer lived that same timespan and he was one of the main creators of "yellow journalism". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Pulitzer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Pulitzer