Castle Wolfenstein (MachineGames)

Wolfenstein has other meanings. See Wolfenstein (disambiguation) for other uses.

Castle Wolfenstein is a giant and highly guarded castle located in the Bavarian Alps near an annexed Austria. The fortress was constructed around a millennium ago by King Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor, and at the time of the events of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, it became the property of Otto's descendant, Helga von Schabbs, who made the castle her archaeology and occult research center.

Castle Wolfenstein borders with Paderborn Village and the only way to get into the castle is by Cable Car.

The fortress itself is a re-imagined version of the iconic Castle Wolfenstein seen in the many previous games in the Wolfenstein series and also as the setting of the first half of Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

History[]

Castle Wolfenstein was built not earlier than in 946 in Paderborn on the highest mountain in the German Alps on the order of King Otto's I, who wanted the fortress to be grandiose, impressive and terrifying to his enemies. It was a huge technical achievement back then and high mountains and deep valleys surrounding the structure made it almost impregnable. Despite the Castle's greatness, it is unknown whether it was built before or after the death of King Otto's wife Eadgyth and his trip to Constantinople where he found ancient parchments that are assumed to be from Da'at Yichud which allowed him to create incredible machines and to alchemical research. Otto's wife Eadgyth has been buried in the catacombs beneath the Castle.

Entrance to the Keep — Old entrance to the Keep, which is now used for transporting prisoners, guards, and supplies to the Prison complex.

In 1846 Paderborn Bridge was built in front of Castle Wolfenstein, which from an unknown time is connected to the Stronghold with a cable car system. The cable car had become the new and only path to access the Castle, replacing the old main entrance in the back of the Keep, which later became an entrance to little harbour to transport supplies to Wolfenstein Prison.

The Nightmare! levels suggests that B.J. Blazkowicz had already once escaped the Castle before the events of The Old Blood and had a fight with Hans Grösse there. Also, one of the newspapers found in the game says that on 3rd January, 1946 Hitler had hanged "The Castle Wolfenstein Terrorist" in Berlin, who attempted to kill the Führer. This is a nod to the Wolfenstein 3D Timeline, where B.J. after escaping from Castle Wolfenstein and killing Hans Grösse, fought Hitler in a bunker underneath Berlin. Furthermore, the official poster of Hitler's movie in The New Colossus depicts the Führer in a mech standing over a defeated B.J. Blazkowicz next to Castle Wolfenstein. What can imply is that the Führer also had a fight with him in or around Castle Wolfenstein, which can be a nod to a different storyline of some ports of Wolfenstein 3D, a prequel to the original game. Despite that, it's not exactly known if Hitler had only one or more encounters with B.J. before Germany won World War II and where did they take place.

From at least 1945 to 1946 Castle Wolfenstein was the priority of King's Otto I's descendant Helga von Schabbs, who inherited the keys to the castle following her mother's death. In the keep (and later in Wulfburg, she, her assistants and the SS Paranormal Division, did a research on King Otto and his secrets. The castle's second-in-command at that time was Rudi Jäger, the former trainer of Wilhelm Strasse's dogs and warden of the Wolfenstein Prison. The Fortress itself in some places was modernized with advanced technology (the cable car station, cannons seen in some places or docks behind the castle with electric cables for trolley-barges) and suggesting by bags with cement found in some areas, fortified with Über Concrete.

In 12th January, 1946, Adolf Hitler had revisited Paderborn Village and Castle Wolfenstein. He had a meeting with General William Strasse and his lieutenant Helga von Schabbs to discuss the German war effort and the success of General Strasse's research into advanced war technology. Hitler also commended Helga for her archaeological research, illuminating the great history of King Otto and his legacy to the German people.

The Old Blood[]

In 16 March 1946 Office of Secret Actions (during Operation: Wolfstone) sent two of their agents: William "B.J." Blazkowicz and Richard "Agent One" Wesley to steal the folder that holds the location of Deathshead's Compound from Helga's Office in Castle Wolfenstein. Both agents were disguised as Nazi Commanders, with B.J. being "SS Commander Franz from Frankfurt". Their Kreisau Circle contact in Paderborn Village during this mission was Ludwig Kessler. After arriving at the castle via cable car, they failed to find the folder and after raising the alarm in an attempt to escape from Helga's office, were caught by Rudi Jäger and then imprisoned by him in Wolfenstein Prison.

Rudi brought back Richard Wesley to Castle Wolfenstein for interrogation and Blazkowicz escaped the Prison to try to save him, going through the castle's cellblocks, kennels, asylum section and then escaping by trolley-barge to the castle's docks. While trying to find a way to get to the inside of Castle Wolfenstein, he went through the its Catacombs.

When he was already inside the Keep, getting across Rudi Jäger's room and a library, he got to the Anatomical Theater, where he found Agent One, who was barely alive. he had been tortured during interrogation, as he didn't tell anything about his and B.J.'s mission to Rudi Jäger. After a short talk with Wesley, Blazkowicz was electrocuted to unconsciousness by Jäger and then set on the electric chair, where Wesley (who is now dead) had sat, and his corpse was being eaten by Rudi's dog Greta. Jäger didn't get any information from B.J. on who is his contact in the Village. Angered. he tries to kill B.J. by electrocuting him, only for Blazkowicz to put Jäger into the chair and electrify him before killing Greta. Rudi managed to escape and he sends forces against Blazkowicz.

B.J. took the elevator to the Cable Car Station, where he escaped with Cable Car. During his escape by tram, the railway power had been disabled twice and WESPE drones and Horten Ho 229 units were sent to kill him. Under pressure from the attack had fallen to river the cable car falls into the river with B.J., who found an entrance to its cave system. Going through caverns and then through Paderborn Bridge, he got to Paderborn Village, where a curfew was announced, due B.J.'s escape from the castle In a tavern, he met his contact, Ludwig Kessler, with his assistant Annette Krause, but was then found by the Nazis. Shortly after B.J. fought them off, Rudi Jäger, wearing formidable power armor, arrives to kill him as revenge for his killing of Greta. Despite the durability of his armor, he was nevertheless killed by B.J., who escaped with Kessler and Annette by boat through a secret cave beneath Wulfburg.

That night, on 17th March, 1946 (a day after Blazkowicz's escape) Helga Von Schabbs was killed by King Otto I's creation, the Monstrosity, in the catacombs beneath Wulfburg.

Layout[]

Castle Wolfenstein is a big keep with four walls on the sides (two faced west and two east) with towers at the ends. The most common profile of the Fortress is its look from the south, where is facing a deep valley where flows Paderborn River from the Castle and with Paderborn Bridge above it, which is connected to the keep with the cable car system. On the left side of the keep is Paderborn Village, which citizens who want to get into the castle must pass the military checkpoints on the bridge. The erosion caused by water from the mountains formed a cave system around the Village and Castle. The Paderborn River flows out at southeast of Castle Wolfenstein into the big alpine lake Wulfsee where the Wulburg is placed abutting the Austrian border.

Look of Castle Wolfenstein from the opposite direction is similar to that one from the south. Where was an original entrance to the fortress (before the cable railway was built) is a docks area where is loaded and unloaded cargo for located on the north and connected with castle by canal Wolfenstein Prison, where prisoners and patients of prison's asylum are kept. Between Castle Wolfenstein and the Prison are two separate towers from the Castle and number of Nazi patrol structures.

The most of space inside the castle showed in Wolfenstein: The Old Blood are a standard medieval interiors, with such rooms like the foyer, kitchen, halls, storage rooms, corridors and library. In the castle also can be found the Rudi Jäger's room (with little secret chamber in it) and the former anatomical theater with electric chair, which is used for the interrogation. In the same hall are seen schematics of Übersoldaten and others Nazi biological experiments.

Some rooms are decorated with stained glasses (many with King Otto), paintings of presumably queens, knights, kings and ecclesiastics from the medieval and with sculptures of boars or King Otto I. Also, there are some decorations that were made by Third Reich, like Nazi eagles, pictures of Nazi officers and a Nazi flags everywhere.

From the text in the game in known that the castle also has King Otto's secret study chamber with research papers, alchemical texts, maps and King's diary which was found by Helga von Schabbs' research assistant in 5 January 1945. Is not completely clear if this is the area never seen in The Old Blood or it is the little hidden room in the library to which we can get into in the game. Another in-game texts, Note from research assistant Lang, tells that in the Castle are several spaces with no entrance to, suggesting that there is some hidden opening device.

The only fully modern part of the Castle is the heavily fortified Cable Car Station, which has many platforms, heavy machinery, elevators to other rooms and big, opened metal gate. The room also contains Helga's archeology research center, where ancient relics, her souvenirs and documents are kept.

Trivia[]

As a nod to RtCW, and Where Eagles Dare, it is still accessed via a hanging tram line across a deep valley. The tram at this point goes only as far as a station high in the mountains, and is reached via a long road drive.
Like, RTCW, the castle is built above the nearby villages of Wulfburg and Paderborn.
In Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the castle was property of Heinrich Himmler. This version of the castle is owned by Helga von Schabbs

Wolfenstein: The Deep[]

New Wolfenstein (aka New Castle Wolfenstein)

Gallery[]

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