Although this article is based on canonical information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.
Please see the reasons for this title in the "Behind the scenes" section below, and/or the relevant discussion on the talk page.
A Nazi Lieutenant was present at the Tanis digsite for the Ark of the Covenant outside Cairo, Egypt in 1936, under the orders of Colonel Dietrich and Major Gobler, and after the Ark was found he was among the men who prepared to defend the convoy transporting the relic. After the Ark was loaded onto a cargo truck, the Lieutenant, a gunner and Major Gobler boarded a troop car in order to defend the Ark from American archaeologist Indiana Jones and his comrades. During a chase which ensued as a result of the arrival of Jones, the Lieutenant, Gobler and the gunner all ended up falling over a cliff after the truck was hijacked by the American.
Biography[]
Tanis, Egypt[]
Major Gobler, the Lieutenant and the gunner boarding the Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car.
In 1936, this German Lieutenant was among the men who made up the Nazi party who attempted to unearth the Ark of the Covenant from the Well of the Souls at Tanis outside Cairo, Egypt under the orders of Colonel Herman Dietrich, Major Gobler, French archaeologist René Emile Belloq and Gestapo agent Major Arnold Ernst Toht. The Ark was secretly dug up overnight by American archaeologist Indiana Jones and his associates, including Arab excavator Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir, but Dietrich and Belloq confronted them, took the Ark, arrested Sallah and his men and sealed Jones and Marion Ravenwood inside the cave. However, the two soon managed to escape, and ended up blowing up the Flying Wing, the jet plane meant to transport the Ark to Berlin, Germany.[1]
The three men driving forwards.
Following the Flying Wing's destruction, Colonel Dietrich decided that the Ark would instead be transported from Tanis to Cairo by truck. With Jones' location unknown, this Lieutenant watched as four of his fellow men carried the Ark into the back of a Mercedes-Benz LG3000 cargo truck, before getting inside themselves to protect the relic along with two other men and a Sergeant, with two other men in the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was protected by a Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car driven by Major Gobler, containing the Lieutenant who sat in the passenger seat and the gunner in the back, behind which was a motorcycle and sidecar helmed by a driver and his passenger. As he entered the troop car, the Lieutenant put on his goggles.[1]
The Desert Chase[]
The desert convoy on the move.
Soon, the truck, jeep and sidecar began moving, following a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 320 carrying Colonel Dietrich, Major Toht, Belloq and their driver. All seemed to be going well as the convoy's journey through the desert began, but Indiana Jones promptly appeared behind the truck riding an Arabian stallion. Gobler's gunner began peppering Jones with gunfire, but both he and his horse made it to the truck and the American leapt onto the vehicle. Opening the door at the front of the truck, he hurled its front passenger out into the desert, before hopping inside and wrestling the driver. Their brawl caused one soldier to fall out from the back of the truck into the troop carrier's windshield, smashing it. The soldiers in the back struggled to remain inside the truck as it rocked back and forth from the fight, even going right through a construction site and destroying it, which provided a distraction allowing Jones to toss the driver out of the vehicle and over a cliffside.[1]
The Mercedes-Benz G5 falling to its destruction and the deaths of its passengers.
As this Lieutenant was inside, the troop carrier drove forwards to level with the truck in an effort to allow their gunner to shoot the archaeologist, who was now driving the vehicle. However, Jones rammed into the jeep and knocked it off course into a forest. When the motorcycle and sidecar did the same thing, the truck swiftly knocked the vehicle fully over easily, but as he did the troop carrier stumbled back onto the road and made another attempt to shoot Jones, only to be bashed into and knocked over a cliff to its destruction and the deaths of its passengers. As the jeep fell, the gunner and Lieutenant each went toppling out of the vehicle, leaving Gobler to tumble about inside it and be the first to die as it landed on the rocky ground below.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
The Nazi Lieutenant was portrayed uncredited by the late stuntman Reg Harding in Raiders of the Lost Ark.[1] Harding later performed stunts in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[2]
In Lawrence Kasdan's third draft of the film's script, this character doesn't exist. Instead, Major Arnold Ernst Toht is the one in the troop car with Gobler, and dies alongside him after falling down the cliff during the desert chase.[3] This was cut from the final film,[1] but Campbell Black's novelization, Marvel Comics' comic book and storybook adaptations still depict this version of events.[4][5][6]
Although the character's rank is never mentioned in the film, his epaulettes indicate that he is a Second Lieutenant.[1]
In the LEGO Indiana Jones playset Race for the Stolen Treasure, the truck and troop car both appear, but aside that Gobler is replaced by a mustachioed soldier, the Lieutenant is absent given how the troop car only has one seat instead of two.[7]
Appearances[]
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (First appearance)