Helene Winter

Helene Winter
Country of Origin	Germany
Hair	Brown
Eyes	Brown
Sex	Female
Nationality	German
Race	Caucasian
Occupation	Director and Film Instructor Adolf Hitler's Caretaker
Fate	Alive
Portrayer	Kristina Klebe
Appearance(s)	Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

"Welcome. Welcome to the audition, Mr. Redfield. Now that you're all here I ask you to prepare yourselves. You must be off book for this audition, so be sure to memorize your lines before the producer gets here. He has a volatile disposition. So, be careful what you say and do in his presence. Mr. Redfield, I can't stress enough how important it is you learn these lines by heart. Your script is on the chair. I will be with you shortly."

―Lady Helene to Redfield (B.J.) and the other actors.

Frau (Lady) Helene Winter was a noted German director of propaganda films produced for distribution by the Nazis and appears as a minor antagonist in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

Background

Helene is known to have directed various movies used as Nazi propaganda, such as America: The New Order, a film shown in theaters in the American Territories in 1961. The public face of the Reich's attempts at cultural outreach, her name is often used as a byword for the film industry in general.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

"Mr. Redfield? Mr. Jules Redfield?"
"Oh, uh. Yeah, yeah. That's me."
"I'm Helene. The director of this film. Apologies for the long journey, but... my producer favors a safe location, and has a affinity for dramatic settings. Come"
"Oh, eh. My, my luggage?"
"Someone will bring it for you. Come, come."

―Helene and Redfield (B.J.) on Venus.

Lady Helene during Hitler's presentation.

Lady Helene is mentioned by Irene Engel after she killed Norman Caldwell with the help of Zimmermann, telling him he should go into acting for Helene. She is later mentioned after Blazkowicz collects the New Orleans dossier, she is referenced by an anchor on television that she will be interviewed later that night on her film as Sigrun Engel and Bombate watch.

By 1961, Lady Helene is stationed onboard the Nazi aerostat habitat on Venus, working as the director of a propaganda film (known as Das Ende Alles Bosen) produced by an ailing, insane, Adolf Hitler. As part of the film's production, several American actors were sourced to be cast as the main antagonist of the movie, BJ Blazkowicz. During the auditions, the real Blazkowicz, disguised as actor Jules Redfield, is forced to perform at gunpoint in front of both Hitler and Helene after Hitler kills the other two actors in a fit of rage with a Luger Pistol. Lady Helene does her lines with Johnny Anderson, who impresses Adolf with his ability and discuss on who B.J. Blazkowicz was. After B.J. brutally killed a Nazi guard in the performance room as part of the "act", Hitler decides that "Jules Redfield" is best suited to play Blazkowicz for his upcoming film, and shoots the last remaining actor.

Her movie is completely ruined after the capture of the Ausmerzer by the American Resistance and Irene Engel execution by B.J. on live television, signaling the Second American Revolution. Her movie is also ruined by Übercommander Erich Eberhardt and his men, who, in charge of the security of the film set, are killed by B.J. This caused her and the studio to lose money due to them re-doing the Blazkowicz estate to be authentic. Furthermore, B.J.'s rampages on the entire Venus base for four times to successfully get the Ausmerzer override code and killing three Übercommanders will cause a paranoid Hitler to fend for himself rather than continuing to make the movie.

Personality

While it is hard to describe Lady Helene as a true Nazi, her position as Adolf Hitler's pet director and her role in realizing an artistic vision so saturated in her Führer's increasingly detached view of reality shows she is at a minimum a complicit enabler. While Helene might like to think of herself as an apolitical auteur, in truth she serves as the Nazi's most prominent and gifted propagandist. It is likely that she has very little artistic freedom in her work, given her master's exacting sense of 'perfection', but she takes pride as the executor of his vision, and takes great inspiration from him, and Hitler himself considers her a valuable confidant - at least when he is capable of recognising her. She is clearly experienced in dealing with the mercurial Hitler and is completely desensitised to his "volatile disposition", though she does make an effort to warn the auditioning actors to spare them execution. Outwardly, she is passionate, generous and (relatively) nonjudgemental - though she was actively involved in the background checks on her candidate actors, indicating Helene has considerable access to the Nazi internal security infrastructure. It is clear that she is somewhat conflicted about her position - she is shown to be genuinely enraptured when Hitler is lucid and employing the insidious charisma and rhetoric that seduced her fellow Germans in the first place, but is shown to be embarrassed and deeply uncomfortable when he lapses back into delusion, indicating a degree of willful denial that her master and by extension the regime he created has descended into madness. It is possible that Helene, given how involved she is in his affairs, is the ailing Führer's only tether to reality. That said, she treats the 'dead' B.J. character in her film with no antagonism - when Johnny Anderson does a pitch-perfect impersonation of Blazkowicz, she is clearly entranced by his performance, and describes B.J. dramatically as "a man of action!".

Given her fame and the fact her films heavily involve the glorification of the German military, many soldiers are attracted to the idea of auditioning for her films - the prospect of recognition of these would be actors is suspect, since all Nazi soldiers wear faceplates while on duty.

Gallery

Collection bonus.

Ditto.

Helene with B.J. disguised as Jules Redfield.

Helene speaking with Hitler.

Helene with Hitler.

Helene with Hitler and actors.

Helene watches Hitler kill Ronald Reagan.

Helene waiting for Hitler to either kill Redfield or not.

Helene witnesses Hitler kill Ewing.

Trivia

• It is heavily implied that Lady Helene is or is based off on Helene "Leni" Riefenstahl, the German film director. Though she is undeniably responsible for lasting innovations and revolutionary techniques that are a mainstay of modern cinema, the extent to her complicity with Nazi ideology has long been controversial, as her most (in)famous works are Nazi propaganda, including Olympia: Festival of the Nations, and Triumph of the Will, still considered one of the most powerful and terrifying propaganda films of all time.
  • As part of censorship regarding Nazi-related imagery and content, the German version of the game changed Helene's name to "Heidelinde", presumably to avoid connotations with Riefenstahl.
• Should B.J. kill Hitler with a kick to the head at the Venus auditions, Helene will avenge him by ordering the Zitadelle unit in the office to fire, killing B.J. instantly.
• Lady Helene is played by German American actress Kristina Klebe.