History WMG / HogansHeroes

* Would also explain why they have the same couple of actors playing numerous Germans. Hogan and his crew got rid of so many German officers and agents that [[{{ButForMeItWasTuesday}} they don't even bother remembering what each one looked like]].

* Working for the man who played him like a for three years?

No one can possibly be as stupid and incompetent as Klink and Schultz. Early in the war, they decided the Allies were sure to win...eventually. When Klink was assigned to Stalag 13, he brought Schultz along; the two collaborated in making life tolerable for the prisoners, in hopes of getting leniency after the war. When Hogan came on the scene, they quickly realized what he was doing, and chose to turn a blind eye. They documented Hogan's activities, though. Once they were sure the Allies were about to take the camp, they brought Hogan into Klink's office and showed him they could have stopped him, but didn't.
** This makes sense. Klink didn't like the Nazis and would probably have had a better life if not for the war. Schultz lost his job and livelihood as the owner of a toy company to piddle around as a POW camp guard. Neither man had any love of the the Nazis or the war and Schultz certainly knew what Hogan was up to. Klink likely had some idea but had to keep up appearances with his superiors and at least pretend to be keeping the prisoners in line. He did see Hogan out and about on a few occasions, after all, and never did anything about it.

[[WMG: Klink and Schultz did not "walk free," and escaped justice only by hiding...comically.]]

Using this, they went back in time to pre-war Germany and built their camp-beneath-the-camp, then returned to their present time and exploited it fully, pulling off the miracles we saw.

It would explain Baker's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Kinch, and the Heroes are mentioned to bring in new men to replace other prisoners that are sent back to England, so nobody appears to escape.

It was apparently in Werner Klemperer's contract that Klink would never win. Based on Klink's "relationship" with her during the series, it is pretty obvious this would be a definite "lose" from his point of view and would thus satisfy the "never win" proviso without a suddenly dark outcome, like [[KickTheDog having him sentenced to life in prison]] or even [[ShootTheDog the Nuremberg gallows.]]

Hogan and his men agreed the money from the recovered bars should go towards war reparations to the surviving widows and children of the men who had given their lives for the cause.

* Fans to prefer to assume Klink or Schultz or even Hilda to be Nimrod, mostly because they like them and the characters were there and clearly have Allied sympathies. But Klink and Schultz are stuck in an unremarkable POW camp, unable to leave for long periods of time often enough, and too low-ranked to reasonably access the information Nimrod does or generally do anything Nimrod does. Schultz certainly has Allied sympathies and helps Hogan by seeing nothing and sometimes acts more directly, but that doesn't automatically make him Nimrod. Klink could be pretending to be dumber than he is and be an AccompliceByInaction to the Heroes, but as said before, cannot actually be Nimrod. Hilda is a female civilian, and while thus able to move around more, she can access even less information than them unless she's a full-on FemmeFatale, and she still needs to be in the Stalag nearly every day. The fans also cite the claim that Klink or Hilda would somehow be able to access sensitive information due to their places as a camp commander and a secretary, which is simply not true. The secret information just won't come within their grasp because they're unimportant.

* It could be Burkhalter. He's in Hitler's inner circle. He's a general. How many generals regularly go to a POW cam during a war? Additionally, he keeps bringing secret plans and weapons to the Stalag or near it, despite knowing the area is rife with sabotage and other underground activity. He definitely has the power to act unquestioned and the access to information, and either cares enough or hates Gestapo enough to stop them from killing Klink. But he has been shown looting art, and is too high-profile to go around unnoticed.
** In the episode "Will the Real Adolf Please Stand Up?" Burkhalter arrives at Stalag 13 while Carter is impersonating Hitler- only leaving when Carter starts blustering about "incompetent generals" to sway Burkhalter into running away before getting close enough to identify "Hitler" is fake. However no later episode brings this up- one would think Burkhalter would have inquired about this unannounced trip only to find it never happened. While Nimrod was written in as a later idea, it does supply something to the idea of Burkhalter being Nimrod. Likewise he never showed much animosity to the prisoners and even when bringing up Jesse Owens and the political ramifications of Kinch beating a German officer in a boxing match, does so only pragmatically(he knows it would royally piss off Hitler and likely others) rather than racially(he doesn't seem to personally care if Kinch wins).
** As for his frequent trips to Stalag 13, he was stated to be the general in charge of all the Luftstalags so his regular inspections of all of them would make sense.

* That leaves Hochstetter. We know absolutely nothing about him except that he's Gestapo and psychotically angry. He's full of hot air and hounds Papa Bear endlessly, but never fails to have his back turned at the key moment. He could arrest Hogan without proof, but doesn't do it. He could have Klink shot when Brkhalter sn't there to stop him, but doesn't do it. He just keeps threatening. As a Gestapo member he can access vast amounts of information, is able to threaten men who outrank him, and can move around, but is low-ranked enough to not draw attention when he does. In the Nimrod episode, he acted extremely suspiciously. Out of all recurring characters, he's honestly the most plausible one to be Nimrod.

[[WMG: When an actor plays several side characters, the characters are actually one same character in disguise for whatever reason.]]

Hochstetter firmly believes that Hogan is Papa Bear, but knows that the other people think he's crazy. Hogan is still alive because Hochstetter wants to be able to prove to his fellow nazis that he's not delusional, and just having Hogan killed, while the easiest way, would prove nothing. So he keeps hunting for proof and lets Hogan live until he has it, believing that knowing/proving Hogan's guilt will make the torture/execution more satisfying and look less like an insane man's whim.

As to why they have different surnames, they may have been born out of wedlock and given their mother's surname. Either their father showed up later or their mother married somebody else, at which point the other twin adopted the man's surname but the other twin refused for whatever reason.

Hochstetter firmly believes that Hogan is Papa Bear, but knows that the other people think he's crazy. Hogan is still alive because Hochstetter wants to be able to prove to his fellow nazis that he's not delusional, and just having Hogan killed, while the easiest way, would prove nothing. So he keeps hunting for proof and

** It's actually a pretty solid fancanon that Nimrod was Klink - there's more than a few hints here and there that he was actually in even deeper than Hogan and his men

* Working for the man who played him like a flugelhorn for three years?

* Fans to prefer to assume Klink or Schultz or even Hilda to be Nimrod, mostly because they like them and the characters were there and clearly have Allied sympathies. But Klink and Schultz are stuck in an unremarkable POW camp, unable to leave for long periods of time often enough, and too low-ranked to reasonably access the information Nimrod does or generally do anything Nimrod does. Schultz certainly has Allied sympathies and helps Hogan by seeing nothing and sometimes acts more directly, but that doesn't automatically make him Nimrod. Klink could be pretending to be dumber than he is and be an AccompliceByInaction to the Heroes, but as said before, cannot actually be Nimrod. Hilda is a female civilian, and while thus able to move around more, she can access even less information than them unless she's a full-on FemmeFatale, and she still needs to be in the Stalag nearly every day.

Fans to prefer to assume Klink or Schultz or even Hilda to be Nimrod, mostly because they like them and the characters were there and clearly have Allied sympathies. But Klink and Schultz are stuck in an unremarkable POW camp, unable to leave for long periods of time often enough, and too low-ranked to reasonably access the information Nimrod does or generally do anything Nimrod does. Schultz certainly has Allied sympathies and helps Hogan by seeing nothing and sometimes acts more directly, but that doesn't automatically make him Nimrod. Klink could be pretending to be dumber than he is and be an AccompliceByInaction to the Heroes, but as said before, cannot actually be Nimrod. Hilda is a female civilian, and while thus able to move around more, she can access even less information than them unless she's a full-on FemmeFatale, and she still needs to be in the Stalag nearly every day.

Nimrod is also unlikely to be one of the Heroes, because they have to be there too. Besides, it wouldn't make any sense for London to put all their eggs in the same basnet, when they could spread their resources. Nimrod is known to operate all over Germany, which leaves a few options from amongst the recurring characters. Namely, two.

It could be Burkhalter. He's in Hitler's inner circle. He's a general. How many generals regularly go to a POW cam during a war? Additionally, he keeps bringing secret plans and weapons to the Stalag or near it, despite knowing the area is rife with sabotage and other underground activity. He definitely has the power to act unquestioned and the access to information, and either cares enough or hates Gestapo enough to stop them from killing Klink. But he has been shown looting art, and is too high-profile to go around unnoticed.

That leaves Hochstetter. We know absolutely nothing about him except that he's Gestapo and psychotically angry. He's full of hot air and hounds Papa Bear endlessly, but never fails to have his back turned at the key moment. He could arrest Hogan without proof, but doesn't do it. He could have Klink shot when Brkhalter sn't there to stop him, but doesn't do it. He just keeps threatening. As a Gestapo member he can access vast amounts of information, is able to threaten men who outrank him, and can move around, but is low-ranked enough to not draw attention when he does. In the Nimrod episode, he acted extremely suspiciously. Out of all recurring characters, he's honestly the most plausible one to be Nimrod.

* Would also explain why they have the same couple of actors playing numerous Germans. Hogan and his crew got rid of so many German officers and agents that they don't even bother remembering what each one looked like.

"Sometimes I have to be on our side," he says one time when cracking down on Hogan. It's not because he's a loyal German soldier; it's because he's preserving his cover. The times when he is overtly "on the Nazi side" are when Nazis other then Klink are in camp, such as Hochstetter (who's actively looking for spies).

[[WMG: In the present day of that 'verse, the Heroes have their own long section on Wiki/TVTropes' CrowningMomentOfAwesome page for Awesome/WorldWarII.]]
Self-explanatory, really.

[[WMG: By the war's end, [[{{Hell}} von Kattenhorn and Feldkamp were locked in an eternal fight with each other]], but could no longer remember what the fight was about.]]

* Would also explain why they have the same couple of actors playing numerous Germans. Hogan and his crew got rid of so many German officers and agents that they don't even bothering remember what each one looked like.

[[WMG: In the present day of that 'verse, the Heroes have their own long section on [[TVTropes TV Tropes']] CrowningMomentOfAwesome page for Awesome/WorldWarII.]]