- "With the Spear, my son will accomplish what Hitler could not. We will turn the tide of the war and restore the German race to its former glory!"
- ―Standartenführer Dieterhoffmann[src]
Dieterhoffmann was a German military leader who led an effort to reclaim the Spear of Longinus for Nazi Germany in 1945.
Biography[]
In March 1945, he and his son, Seigfried, and several colleagues went to Glastonbury in the United Kingdom to attend the annual conference on Holy Grail lore. He consulted Professor Henry Jones about what he knew about the Spear of Longinus. Realizing that these men were probably Nazis, Jones contacted his son, Indiana Jones, working on a dig in Ireland, about the potential threat. Dieterhoffmann was already having the young Jones monitored by his contacts among the Blueshirts, and ordered that the younger Jones be killed.
Dieterhoffmann had already acquired the tip of the spear of Longinus, which had been taken from the Weltliche Schatzkammer in Vienna, but still needed to find the wood of the Holy Thorn to make the correct shaft for the spear.
When Professor Jones attempted to meet with his son to exchange information at the Chalice Well one evening, Dieterhoffmann followed, and arrived to get his son released from Indiana Jones and Brendan O'Neal. Using Kurt and his other men acting as muscle, Dieterhoffmann captured the Joneses and O'Neal, and revealed that he had the spear head, carried by Otto Nehrkorn, and would use it to win the war with his son, who had been kept intentionally naive and "pure" of the Nazi's darker secrets, as the spear-holder. Having revealed his plan, he intended to have his captives killed, but the arrival of a botany teacher guiding a pack of schoolgirls on a garden tour forced him and his men to hide their weapons. Distracted by the teacher's pestering, Dieterhoffmann let Indiana Jones escape. When Jones rushed Dieterhoffmann to grab the spear, the German's pistol went off, breaking the spear tip into two - one half falling into his son's hands, and the other landing in the hands of a freed O'Neal. With panicking schoolgirls around, Dieterhoffmann and his men lost their captives.
Dieterhoffmann in 1945.
Later in the night, they caught sight of Jones and his group getting into a car driven by Rebecca Stein, and gave chase all the way into Wales. Dieterhoffmann eventually caught up to his prey when they hit a flat tire. Capturing the Joneses and Stein, he had Indiana bound to a stone and dropped into a lake, then set off for the ferry landing at Holyhead to leave for Ireland. At the ferry pier, he ordered Kurt and Jorge to help hijack the vessel. Indiana Jones and O'Neal appeared, and managed to free the senior Jones, and regain one half of the spear, before being forced to flee into the water.
Regrouping at Connely's Inn and free to wear their Nazi uniforms in neutral Ireland, Dieterhoffmann was furious - he needed Jones to reclaim half of the spear head, and find the piece of the Holy Thorn. Stein goaded him, and he struck her, much to the surprise of his son, who felt that their Jewish hostage was no danger. Jones appeared at the top of the staircase, taking one of the Blueshirts hostage in trade for Stein. Dieterhoffman refused to trade, claiming that the young man was not one of his. Connely objected to the Nazi's lack of protection, but Dieterhoffman angrily claimed that he'd rather work with the English, and then sent Kurt to grab Dr. Jones. In the scuffle, Kurt callously but accidentally killed Bobby, which caused Pete and Connely to fight Kurt. Hoping to regain control of the situation, Dieterhoffmann shot Connely after the old innkeeper knocked Kurt out with a club. In the confusion, Jones and Stein escaped, with the half of the spear tip kept by Seigfried. The Nazis chased them by car into a bog, where all were forced to go on foot through the wet lands to the dig site.
He caught up to Jones at the mound, and revealed that the half that they had stolen from Seig was not the real piece. As Kurt moved into grab the partially assembled spear from O'Neal, the genuine spear tip half flew from Dieterhoffmann's breast pocket and united with the rest of the spear in O'Neal's hand. The spear then flew around the cavern, killing Kurt, and nearly impaling O'Neal who had stepped on the Stone of Fal and could command the spear. As Henry Jones took the spear to save O'Neal, the sunlight of the equinox came into the mound, illuminating the spear and causing it to miraculously bleed. While the younger Jones did not see the act, Dieterhoffmann, a believer in the spear's power, witnessed the spectacle, then his own nose began bleeding profusely. Begging for his son to help him, the older Nazi collapsed dead. As the cave began to collapse, his body was left behind in the rubble.
Behind the scenes[]
Dieterhoffmann bears similarities to Klaus Kerner from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Though he appears in all four issues of Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny, his name is mentioned just once — notably with no space between Dieter and Hoffmann — in the final issue, possibly indicating a typo. At other times he is usually referred to by rank: Standartenführer by his men and allies, and Colonel by Indiana Jones.