Wilhelm Strasse
Wilhelm Strasse is a male video game character who features in Wolfenstein.
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Biography
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Wilhelm Strasse
Holding the rank of SS-Oberführer, Wilhelm Strasse was the head of the SS Special Projects Division on March 1943, reporting directly to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Under his leadership, the division made advances into multiple areas, including developments such as the Kobra rocket plane, the Venom and Tesla guns, and chemical warheads for the V2 rocket. Deathshead's magnum opus, however, was Project Übersoldat; towering cyborg soldiers that were heavily armed and armored, towards which Strasse had directed his energy for nearly a decade. While Strasse would have preferred to focus on arming the Nazi war machine with this advanced technology, Himmler ordered Strasse to provide his creations to the SS Paranormal Division for Operation Resurrection. Deathshead held Operation Resurrection and the occult – along with Paranormal Division commanders Marianna Blavatsky and Helga von Bulow – in scarcely concealed contempt, but nevertheless obliged by putting several Übersoldaten and staff such as Professor Zemph at their disposal. Strasse declined Himmler's invitation to the resurrection ceremony in Paderborn, opting to remain at his Secret Weapons Facility (SWF) in Kugelstadt. The OSA sent Blazkowicz into the SWF to uncover the link between Strasse and Operation Resurrection, facilitating the defection of one of Strasse's scientists and discovering the Lopers, byproducts of Project Übersoldat. Deathshead himself left the SWF for his X-Labs in Norway mere minutes before Blazkowicz caught up with him. Blazkowicz followed Strasse to Norway and launched an assault on the X-Labs, devastating the facility, its staff and its research. Deathshead confronted Blazkowicz with a completed Übersoldat, and taunted the OSA operative with the perceived superiority of his creation. However, he was aghast when his Übersoldat was defeated by Blazkowicz, and narrowly escaped the X-Labs in a Kobra rocket plane. Strasse went into hiding, and reported to Himmler via telegram, relaying the fall of the X-Labs and destruction of his life's work. He further warned the Reichsführer-SS not to underestimate the American agent who had turned his sights towards the ceremony at Paderborn.
Wilhelm Strasse was promoted to Oberstgruppenführer where many believed he had been summoned from Berlin to replace the deceased Oberstgruppenführer Viktor Zetta, as it was apparent that Deathshead had immediately resumed the latter's research into Veil technology in order to create new weaponry. Employing the formidable Hans Grosse as his bodyguard, Deathshead orchestrated the capture of Kreisau Circle leader Caroline Becker and held her hostage at his castle base. While constructing a Veil Portal, Deathshead had the opportunity to exact revenge on Blazkowicz as he arrived to save Caroline. Unfortunately, he missed out on it as Caroline's interference destroyed his portal, forcing him and Hans to flee the area while Blazkowicz is busy dealing with the Queen Geist. Having done enough work on Veil technology, Deathshead constructed a Veil weapon on his large zeppelin and planned to test it on Isenstadt before unleashing it on the Allied Powers. With Hans behind him, Deathshead entered the Black Sun Dimension where the weapon was installed and is greeted by Blazkowicz. Already expecting the American to follow him, Deathshead revealed to Blazkowicz an armored and Veil-empowered Hans and returned to the zeppelin to oversee the weapons test, ordering Hans to kill Blazkowicz. To his shock, not only did he see an alive Blazkowicz emerge from the portal, Deathshead noticed that his enemy had also destroyed the Veil weapon and severely damaged the zeppelin causing it to crash into the castle base in a fiery wreck. While Blazkowicz hoped his archenemy had perished, he had a feeling that the mad doctor survived. Unbeknownst to him, a battered and bruised Deathshead emerged from the zeppelin wreckage and screamed in anger at his failure.
New Blood
General Wilhelm Strasse is a native of Germany, born in 1860. A scientific genius and devoted researcher, Strasse combines his intellectual acumen with an absolute lack of anything resembling traditional morality. He is a firm believer in German superiority and the imposition of its order upon the world by any means necessary. Little is known of his life prior to Hitler's rise to power. What is known is that Strasse caught the eye of someone powerful and was put in a position to harness his talents for the benefit of the Nazi war machine, especially after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Although his career was endangered on at least two separate occasions, primarily by Captain William J. Blazkowicz, when he infiltrated the X-Labs to dismantle Strasse's first super-soldier project[3][4] and crashed a zeppelin with Strasse onboard, the near-death experiences only provided him with a new outlook on life.
Nicknamed Totenkopf or Deathshead, Strasse committed himself to research with renewed fervor, focusing on Jewish artifacts such as Da'at Yichud. Utterly pragmatic, Strasse saw beyond the Nazis' primitive anti-Semitism, harnessing the incredible technology for the benefit of the regime and to the detriment of the world-- new technology which, by 1944, gave the Nazi war machine the edge it needed to win the war and force the world into submission, repulsing the Allied landings in Normandy, capturing or killing 156,000 soldiers while losing less than a hundred, and allowed Germany to defeat the Red Army at Stalingrad and break the RAF's back at Liverpool in 1945, as he neared his 85th birthday.
Overview
Personality and attributes
He came to be known by the name of Deathshead (German: Totenkopf).
Powers and abilities
Reichminister Strasse is a bona fide genius, a polymath who has single-handedly revolutionised many fields of science, including biology, chemistry, physics, computing, warfare, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and many more. His aptitude is married to complete amorality and zero concern for his fellow humans. In fact, Strasse views compassion as nothing more than a compromising human instinct that should be ignored whenever it gets in the way of scientific investigation and inquiry. The Reich's domination of the world and beyond is almost entirely thanks to his achievements.
Notes
- Wilhelm Strasse was created by Steve Goldberg where he featured in the Wolfenstein universe.
Appearances
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein:
- Wolfenstein: The New Order:
External Link
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