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Hauptsturmführer Hans Grosse is the secondary antagonist and final boss of Wolfenstein and appears in the Wolfenstein Graphic Novel videos.

Background[]

An imposing and ruthless German engineer who is admired by his fellow comrades.

Hans Grosse was Deathshead's personal bodyguard and a loyal Nazi.

Hans Grosse Wolf2009 GN

Hans Grosse just before he is defeated for the first time in Castle Wolfenstein

He was once put in charge of Castle Wolfenstein, and was incapacitated by the escaped B.J. Blazkowicz who stabbed him in the back and gave him cervical fracture to the neck, and leaving him on the ground twitching his fingers. He however later recovered (it does not appear they met face to face during that period, and at the time B.J. had 'blonde' hair according to the Krieges, and German records). (Note: this may have actually been his 1st or second encounter with Hans Grosse, see Original Encounter. Note: The Nightmare! memory levels in Wolfenstein: The Old Blood cover the event much in the same way as the original Wolfenstein 3D).

He demonstrates prodigious strength and resilience during a brawl at an Isenstadt tavern. After witnessing a drunk civilian punch a Nazi soldier unconscious, Hans steps in and challenges him to a fight. Though the civilian fights with all his strength, Hans shrugs off his blows and defeats the man with one punch to the face. Satisfied, Hans leaves the tavern, not realizing he brushed past B.J. Blazkowicz (who was wearing civilian or prison uniform disguise at the time).

Hans is seen again holding Kreisau Circle leader Caroline Becker hostage alongside Deathshead in a castle. Strasse orders Hans to shoot Blazkowicz. Caroline tries to free herself and wrestle the gun out of her captor's hands, but Hans shoots her instead of Blazkowicz (failing Strasse's order). Hans and Deathshead escape while Blazkowicz is left to deal with a monstrous being known as the Queen Geist.

During the battle on the zeppelin, Hans executes the traitorous leader of the Golden Dawn, Dr. Leonid Alexandrov, having no more purpose for the man. He then enters the Black Sun Dimension with Deathshead and dons a suit of armor equipped with dual rocket launchers, that also act like dual chainguns strangely, and a similar Thule Medallion. Strasse orders Grosse to kill Blazkowicz again, and this time not to fail him. Using his newfound weapons, Hans eagerly challenges Blazkowicz to a duel. After a prolonged fight, Blazkowicz destroys his foe's medallion, electrocuting Hans to death. His body is then lost when the Black Sun Dimension destabilizes. As B.J. escapes, Hans' final words are "You can't win! DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU. CAN'T. WIN!"

The New Order[]

He is mentioned twice first in the character background card for Caroline and then mentioned by Caroline when she recalled of the event of punching him in the face before she being paralyzed. In particular specific details related to supernatural were left out.

The MachineGames series is a reboot of the series inspired by some of the older material, but taking its own direction. Very little of Wolfenstein was utilized as part of plot of Wolfenstein: The New Order.

"...we asked him if the last Activision Wolfenstein game had any baring on their version to which he replied, "No it does not. We try not to include that game as part of our story."[1]

Hans Grosse in his Wolfenstein 3D version also appears the nightmare flashbacks in The Old Blood, and the events of Wolfenstein 3D are referenced in a newspaper.

Strategy[]

Hans is, like a final boss should be, the most difficult enemy to destroy. The fight comes in 4 stages.

First Stage[]

In the first stage, Hans is protected by a shield, making Empower necessary. There are multiple rotating pillars, all of which have a certain pool of Veil energy on them. This Veil energy is not infinite, but will regenerate after a short bit. The key to defeating Hans is to wait until he's fired a volley of bullets, jump out, blast him with what the player got, and then go back behind a pillar (The player can also walk in front of a moving pillar as these will move you around the arena, temporarily keeping you out of Hans's line of fire). Mire is also a useful power here, as the pillars move slightly faster than B.J. even when sprinting. Another effective but not so useful tactic is to cover to the pillars and use both shield and Empower and firing until it run out of Veil energy and recharge on the wall. However, it drains Veil energy very quickly. After Hans takes a certain amount of damage, he will fall to his knees, and then rise again and destroy a pillar with a surge of energy. He does this twice, and when he goes to his knees the third time, B.J must run up to him, take his Nachtsonne crystal out that gives him Shield, and slam it into Hans' Thule Medallion. This renders them both unable to use Shield. After this, the machine explodes, and the fight moves to a lower level that is laid out like a mini-maze. There are plenty of corridors.

The weapon found most useful was the fully upgraded Particle cannon, but can prefer a different weapon, experiment if the player want such as the Leichenfaust 44

Second Stage[]

The second stage takes place beneath the top of the machine, in the inner workings. Gears provide barriers that cannot be walked through, but can be shot through. In this stage, Hans uses Mire to run at incredible speeds, making him just as dangerous as before. The key to fighting him is to use Mire as well. With it, B.J can dodge Hans' hail of bullets (Hans stands still to fire), and retaliate. Combining it with Empower is very helpful, but will drain Veil energy extremely quickly. Keep running and refilling energy, and when Hans is spotted, open fire, preferably with Mire on. Again, he drops to his knees 3 times. After each time, Hans will jump up and fire a volley of rockets down at B.J. Before the first time, Hans seems more likely to engage B.J and will not run away nearly as much. After the first time, he seems much more likely to run away after a little bit of damage. At the third time, B.J must run up and again take his Nachtsonne crystal that gives him the Mire ability out of his medallion and slam it into Hans', causing another explosion. Right now you only have Veil and Empower left.

Again, the weapon found most useful was the fully upgraded Particle Cannon. The Leichenfaust 44 is a great choice too, but beware it destroying cover. If your heavier weapons are running low, conventional firearms should serve you well, though it will take a while to beat him down. Save Flammenwefer or Tesla Gun ammo if you can, it can come in handy later.

Third Stage[]

The third stage is different. B.J does not fight Hans in any real area, but rather, follows him along a stone path leading back up to the top. When B.J hits the ground, he will have the chance to stock up on much needed supplies. Following the stone path, Hans will fire volleys of rockets at B.J until he destroys a section of rocks highlighted in red. The Panzerschreck does the job very nicely. Continuing on, Hans appears far away from B.J and will fire volleys of bullets from his chain guns, but using Empower and the Kar98 works out with minimal loss of health. Keep going, and B.J will find a Veil ladder to climb, but be ready, Sniffers are at the top. Before climbing, it is a good idea to throw a couple of grenades up there, to take out a few before making your way up. A good weapon to kill any remaining Sniffers is the Tesla gun, it can also track and damage multiple sniffers at once, but the battery runs dry very rapidly. Beware, some sniffers are equipped with explosives, which detonates upon death. Due to this, keep distance. There are about 5 at the top, and more will come pouring down the path, so be patient. Flamethrowers will incinerate them from a safe distance, so if you have it, use it. After they are all dead, continue, and Hans will be at the edge of floating Veil energy. Deal with him as seen fit, and move into the portal, and get ready for the final stage of the fight.

Fourth Stage[]

The fourth and final stage takes place in the same place as stage 2. He really isn't very difficult at this part, as there are less obstructions (the gears are gone, along with most of the ruin walls), and he doesn't possess the veil powers he used to. He still does possess the dual chain guns, though, so be very careful not to get overconfident. As soon as B.J reaches the top, aim at the center platform of the center tower. Hans will yell "I will kill you for this, Blazkowicz!", and land on the center platform. At this point, Hans is a sitting duck until the platform lowers to the same level BJ stands on. Use Empower and fire away with the Particle Cannon or any strong weapon of your choice, using cover when needed. You can also combine Empower with the Leichenfaust.44. If you risk losing some more health to fire some more shots you may have defeated him when the platform reaches the level you are. Once Hans falls for the final time, B.J approaches, pulls out his Empower Nachtsonne crystal, and jams it into Hans' medallion, destroying the Black Sun machine, and Hans along with it. B.J is ejected back into the real realm, seeing Deathshead fleeing, yelling "Damn you Blazkowicz!", and he follows, as the zeppelin explodes. B.J escapes, seeing the Zeppelin crash into the Castle. The destruction of the zeppelin and the portal renders his Thule Medallion useless and so he throws it as far as he can. Spoil the entire Nazi plan for world domination once more.

Where He's Found[]

Hans is found at the cutscene in the beginning of the Tavern mission, and at the end of the Castle mission. The fight is at the end of the Black Sun mission, where Hans sports armor similar to the one he used in Wolfenstein 3D.

Trivia[]

  • Despite being German, he speaks using a West Country British accent, although he does use typical Nazi mannerisms.
  • Hans is voiced by Kyle Hebert in the English version, who also provides the voice for the Heavy Trooper, as well as Ryu in Street Fighter and Gohan from the FUNimation dub of the Dragon Ball franchise.
  • It is still unknown why his eyes appeared to be red on the Black Sun Dimension (many of the lesser Nazis appear to have glowing blue eyes when viewed through the veil powers).
  • In Castle, an intel can be found showing a blueprint for a handheld minigun, presumably a concept sketch for the Hans Grosse boss. However, in the actual boss fight he uses the same quad rocket launcher model as the Rocket Trooper, which he can fire both rockets and bullets out of.
    • The minigun itself could be developed from the Venom Gun from the previous title, which is used by boss-type enemies.
  • It's possible to witness Hans dragging Caroline Becker to castle top, but he's scripted to be invincible, even Empower cannot damage him.
  • Unlike in Wolfenstein 3D, Hans has a shaved head in Wolfenstein.
    • Adding to that, Hans' armor mostly resembles the green armor of brother Trans, instead of his original blue armor from mentioned game.
  • Hans' weapons include dual chainguns and (now) rocket launchers, making the attacks that of the Death Knight.
  • Hans appearance in this game seem to best resemble his concept art from Wolfenstein 3D as shown in the hint manual.
  • In Mac Family ports (MAC/Jaguar/3D0) Hans Grosse is in a castle near Dresden. In the 3rd Encounter its suggested that B.J. defeated Hans Grosse twice (as he appears in both the Dresden mission, and the Castle Wolfenstein mission of the original game). The storylines of both 2nd and 3rd encounters are not the same, nor do they take place in the same order of locations.
  • When first seen in the cutscene, he says "Guten Tag," this is obviously a reference to how in Wolfenstein 3D when as soon as you encounter him he says "Guten Tag!", where "Guten Tag" means "Good day."
  • The video graphic novels place the events of Wolfenstein as a direct sequel to Wolfenstein 3D & Spear of Destiny (RTCW is treated as a prequel to Wolfenstein 3D), showing the 2009 design of BJ defeating the redesigned Hans in the original game. However, when they meet in Wolfenstein, despite Hans looking directly at BJ, neither make any comment that would indicate they recognise each other (however in the cutscene version of his 'defeat' neither actually saw each other's faces, as B.J. sneaked up and took him out from behind. Secondly, B.J. was in disguise his hair a different color. In addition Wolfenstein only makes two references to the events of the two games (and only Spear of Destiny specifically), however there is no indication that Hitler is supposed to be dead during Wolfenstein. The comics are mixed on if Hitler was killed or not (translating the text of the file folder at the beginning of Kodename: Wolfenstein states he was 'murdered', and also English portions talk about "...who killed the Fuhrer" ). However the game also states that the Führer had suffered a 'major defeat' (though the Führer could be a different person and the title "Führer could simply be referring to the next leader). There are however problems with the graphic novels getting details severely wrong, such as claiming the dig at the Defiled Church was to get the Dagger of Warding when in reality this was not even part of the plan (as Zemph stated directly). However, it is possible that the Nazis' records were simply wrong on certain details.
    • Hans hands are shown to be still moving in the animated film this is to indicate he is actually still alive.
    • Deathshead makes a comment to Hans before the fight stating, "Don't fail me again". This however is a reference to the failure to kill B.J. at Isenstadt castle previously in the game, rather than a reference to his failure at Castle Wolfenstein.
    • There is a reference to Blazkowicz being described as "tall, blond" in the Reich's descriptions of him in the game, which is a nod to his appearance in Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny.
    • There is a direct nod to Spear of Destiny (after Anton Kriege looks into B.J. Blazkowicz' past with the OSA). He wonders how much the Spear would fetch on the black market.
    • The New Order has an Easter Egg in which B.J. has a nightmare concerning his escape from Castle Wolfenstein in Wolfenstein 3D. The Old Blood takes it further all the way to the boss fight with Hans.
  • In the final fight with him he makes a clanking sound when he walks, much like (chronologically) the last boss in Wolfenstein 3D, Hitler made clanking sounds while moving in his Mecha-Armor.
  • Regardless of being the secondary antagonist in the game, he serves as the final boss.
  • This is the second boss that needs to be dealt with again, after beating the Queen Geist who was defeated twice.
  • In the reboot series, The New Order, Hans Grosse is mentioned in Caroline Becker's bio. Grosse was responsible for paralyzing Caroline. Classic Hans Grosse appears as the boss of the Nightmare levels in The Old Blood.

References[]

Gallery[]

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