Why Russian?
Anyway, it was explicit that Schultz knew that Hogan & crew were up to no good (from the Nazi point of view), left camp at will, and frequently acted against his government’s interests. Usually he didn’t want to know, but on at least one occasion he actively assisted them.
I never understood why Shultz was not an officer. Had they not had that one episode, where he mentions that he is the owner of a toy factory, I would have been fine with him being a noncom.
But a factory owner/manager would have been a direct officer entry, I would think.
Declan
He spent his career playing German characters, not surprising since he was born Vienna. I have some vague memory that he played the character much like Schultz in some other movie he was in. I can’t really remember what my father related about the German Army soldiers and officers, but I think he said something about many of the regular army personnel being members of some German version of our Army Reserves, and that Schultz represented that kind of soldier.
That movie might have been 36 Hours with James Garner.
I don’t think it was a dumb-ass idea, but it sure was ballsy. I would have loved to have been in the room to listen to the pitch, and just 20 years after the end of the war: “Now we have this Nazi concentration camp, see? And the Nazis are all these lovable goofballs.”
When Werner Klemperer died, I recall reading that he had been a talented concert violinist and that that had been his main career. But that to his dying day, he absolutely was delighted whenever someone came up to him and recalled his role as Colonel Klink.
The camp in Hogan’s Heroes was a prisoner of war camp, not a concentration camp. All the inmates were military men, not civilians (certainly not women & children); there was very little forced labor, and what there was was quite light (they made LeBeau cook at fine dinners, and the other enlisted men had to wait tables); there was regular communication from the Red Cross; and nobody was getting massacred.
Okay, fine. POW camp. I still say it was a ballsy idea to pitch that soon after the war.
Although the story of it’s origins is not clear, it does seem to have been borrowed heavily from the movie Stalag 17, which included some a healthy dose of comedy. It raised a few eyebrows, but since it portrayed Nazis and Germans as fools, and the protaganists as actual heroes remaining in a prison camp voluntarily, it didn’t really bother many people. And it was more a couple of decades after the war. The Germans were our allies (half of them anyway), and the Russians, our ally from the war, had become our enemy.
The series started in 1965, exactly two decades after the war (it ran from 1965-71), and the idea must have been pitched even earlier.
Stalag 17 is an excellent film – we have it on DVD – but despite the comic moments, it was still more of a drama, certainly not in the same comedic league as Hogan’s Heroes.
I find it a ballsy move that the series was pitched but am fine with others not thinking so.
It sidesteps any questions about why Hogan would have never been informed (yeah, there would be reasons not to in any case, but not that would work well to explain in a sitcom format), would be a good final contrast to the over-the-top Russian spy lady that is seen in various episodes, and I thought it would be more generally amusing.
Both Klink and Schultz were typical second-string soldiers assigned to prison camp duty. Neither was physically or mentally suited for front-line duty, though the possibility of being sent to the Russian Front would always be hanging over their heads.
Schultz was a typical reserve soldier, called up and made a noncom because all the young and fit soldiers were fighting in the East (and on other fronts).
Klink may have been an aviator in WWI, but he couldn’t have been very skilled or have had any experience flying state-of-the-art aircraft. The best he and Schultz could probably have hoped for was to be assigned to a Luftwaffe flak unit.
Actually, the Abwehr, under Admiral Canaris, did actively aid the Allies.
Stalag 13 was a camp for captured airmen. Hence, the Luftwaffe (Col. Klink) was the CO of the camp. Why did he report to an army general (Gen. Buchalter)?
I don’t really disagree with you. Ballsy could be a way to describe it. It just turns out in the end their was no great controversy for various reasons.
Good question. Burkhalter might have been the overall military commander for his district?
I had always figured that Hogan’s Heroes was supposed to be a dumbed down Stalag 17. It surprised me to see that supposedly they were totally separate. Both had a NCO named Schultz that had the same job. Both used the line “I know nothing.” But when Schultz said it in Stalg 17 it was chilling.
He even showed up on Batman.
How’s this for irony: Werner Klemperer played Adolf Eichman in a sort of quickie-made-after-he-was-captured B-movie in 1961. The film flashes back to the war and Klemperer portrayed him as a ruthless, evil, unrepentant Nazi (by today’s standards his performance is a bit over the top). John Banner was in the film too, he played Rudolf Höss the commandant of Auschwitz!
In regards to the continuity errors in the show, you guys are way over-thinking it. Like I said above shows back then had very little to no regard for off-screen story logic or continuity. I can guarantee you there was no ‘writer’s bible’ for Hogan’s Heroes!
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried used to do a short bit about pitching the idea for the show. He imagined some producer saying to network execs, “It’s a comedy, set in a Nazi prison camp!! They’re surrounded by barbed wire, and if they try to escape, they’ll be machine-gunned! IT’S HILARIOUS!!”
oh, well - it’s fun!
what I want to know is why Hogan (and the rest) had dress uniforms with them. now, obviously they needed them for formal occasions (and dating) but should assume they packed to be POWs?
Anyone remember the episode where Klink and Hogan go to England? iirc Hogan had convinced them that he could get plans for a bomber. Naturally Klink wouldn’t trust Schultz to go. There’s some great scenes of Klink trying to pass as an American. He keeps using German phrases. 
They fly back to Germany at the end. One of the better Klink episodes.