Irene Engel

Irene Engel, also known as Frau Engel, is a character from the Wolfenstein series.
== Charactah Account ==
Irene is the head of a forced labor camp B.J. encounters on a train to Berlin, then in her camp itself. From there B.J. and Engel trade violent acts as their mutual animosity builds. In New Colossus, Irene has been promoted to general in charge of the American territories.
A truly evil woman, Irene is the darkest ideal in a world ruled by the Third Reich; a sadistic, fanatical and ruthless military officer, and like so many of her fellow Nazis, ran high on her own ego and power. She wholeheartedly follows the Party line of maintaining racial and physical purity and considers other races and religions as unworthy of life. Her behaviour around B.J. (before she even knows his identity) and her conduct at Camp Belica shows she delights in holding the power of life and death over people no matter who they are - the 'racial purity' test she performs on B.J. she happily admits is a farce, and both Bubi and her bodyguard Bernhardt disclose she plays sadistic games with strangers as a hobby. She promises salvation and reintegration to society for the inmates at her camp, presenting herself as a figure of reverence and worship - but in reality, like in all such camps created by the Nazis, they are simply there to work until they perish, unworthy to be a part of the New Order.
Irene is intensely cruel, reveling in the bloody killing, pain and suffering she inflicts on others, as shown with her camp inmates, Caroline, Fergus/Wyatt, Super Spesh and B.J. Engel rarely, if ever, demonstrates compassion or consideration for others, even her own daughter, whom she treats with utter contempt due to her good nature and obesity. The only person Irene seems to have real care and respect for is Bubi; his death apparently moving Engel to spend months hunting for B.J. However, whether or not Engel truly cared for Bubi is questionable; despite her aghast reaction to his death, she never mentions him again, even to B.J. Similarly, her presumed ex-husband with which she had her six children is never mentioned either, and it is unknown if he is even still alive. The deaths of her allies and soldiers are personal affronts, not likely because she truely cares for them, but because they are extensions of her power and self. Engel almost appears intoxicated whenever she has B.J. or other Resistance characters under her thumb - she is on a perpetual power trip, and is never more at home than when torturing those she is given licence to torture, often with an emphasis on cruel spectacle than any pragmatism. In a way, she embodies the most disturbing aspect of the Nazis real-world legacy - that the ideology she claims to follow is merely an excuse, and she would hurt, control and destroy anybody she could, simply because her professed beliefs justify the impulse, similar to how Deathshead experiments on people he dismisses as subhuman.
== Appearance ==
=== Video Games ===
* Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
* Wolfenstein: The New Order
== Trivia ==
* In real life, women were barred from politics and combat-related military positions in Nazi Germany. Some exceptions include those in charge of state organizations with female-only membership and the wives of high-ranking Nazi officals.
* Frau Irene Engel carries a gold Handgun 1946 that can be collected as a treasure during the chapter 8 Camp Belica level.
* Her first name, Irene, is the Greek word for "peace", and her surname translates to "Angel", which is ironic, given her position as commander of a concentration camp, along with her violent tendencies. Another irony is that her surname also translates to "barrier", "obstacle" or "difficulty" in Turkish.
* Because she is not physically present during the final assault on Deathshead's compound, Frau Engel is the only surviving antagonist of The New Order.
* According to the prisoners at Camp Belica, Irene is known there as the "Angel of Death", both referencing her surname and merciless attitude. This nickname is also shared by the infamous Nazi scientist, Josef Mengele. This connection is strengthened by the fact that Mengele's wife was also named Irene.
* Frau Irene Engel's cruel and inhumane treatment of her camp's prisoners might have been based on Ilse Koch, the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, warden of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Similar to Engel, Koch was also noted for her lascivious behavior towards prisoners and was known to have exploited them for personal gain, although their motivation differs, since it was purely for power for Engel and financial in Koch's case.
* Engel is likely Catholic, since prisoners at Camp Belica warn that she does not tolerate the practice of any other belief system in her camp. This is notable due to her hailing from the northern part of Germany, which was predominantly Protestant at the time.
** In real life, the Third Reich's relationship with Christian churches was varied, since there was no universal agreement on the matter, although churches were generally strongly limited, since many high-ranking Nazi officials believed that the Nazi ideology and Christianity were irreconcilible, since most sects found value in all human life, regardless of race, physical ability or mental state. Adolf Hitler strove for a non-Christian Germany, with at most German Paganism or the state approved variants of "neutral" non-denominational Christianity (Gottgläubigkeit) such as Positive Christianity, which remove its Semitic roots and embraces Aryanism, as religions. The Roman Catholic church prominently resisted against many of the regime's policies and were frequent subject to persecution. Of note is that while there was a sizable majority of Nazi members with a Protestant background, core leaders such as Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were raised Catholic, but shirked their religion a few years after coming to power, believing that it hindered progress and.
** In Wolfenstein: The New Order, there is a letter from 1955 by Father Erdmann Krueger of "The Berlin Church of the Third Reich" in Ayacucho, Peru, who openly objected to a state-sanctioned mass murder of Quechuan people practicing shaman rituals, for which Krueger was treated with disdain by the soldiers in question and even battered for attempting to save his indigenous guide. This implies that although Christian services were, at least for a time, allowed to continue, presumably as officially gottgläubig rather than Catholic or Protestant, and even operate freely in annexed territory, they were still under an unspoken amount of scrutiny by the Nazi Party.
* After extensive surgery, a team of medical experts, led by Deathshead himself managed to recreate most of Frau Engel's face. However, severe scars still remain.
* Irene is the mother of Sigrun Engel. Her abusive treatment of her daughter backfires, since Sigrun reveals every military secret of the Nazis to B.J. and the Resistance. Her demise is similar to Rip Blazkowicz; they both mistreated their own children and are similarly murdered with a hatchet.
* Frau Engel has 6 children, including Adalwardus and Sigrun.
** In Nazi Germany, ethnic German women who gave birth to at least four children were praised by the government and awarded with an honorary Mutterkreuz. In Engel's case, she would have been eligible for a silver Mutterkreuz, the second highest class. This could indicate that Frau Engel was at least partially motivated to prove her worth to the Nazi cause and advance her career rather than for personal reasons.
* Frau Engel has served in the Nazi Party for 29 years.
* Irene's rank on the killing board is General, despite her different collar insignia.
* In Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, during B.J.'s execution, Frau Engel says to B.J. "We would have been... so good together. Darling... you're breaking my heart." This may imply that Frau Engel may be envious of B.J.'s aptitude and affinity for violence. Frau Engel also refers to B.J. as "Darling" in earlier scenes, and even puts her gold Handgun 1946 in his mouth with obvious BDSM inferences. It can be roughly implied, with this kind of behaviour, that Frau Engel has a hidden sexual attraction to Blazkowicz. It may also simply be her insanity seeping through, however.
* Engel’s attraction towards B.J. is further implied in an image released by Bethesda, which depicts her licking the left side of B.J.’s face while he remains incapacitated.
* Engel's blood type is O- , according to the killing board.
* If the player attempts to draw a firearm in the rafters of the Jimmy Carver Show set, B.J will flippantly remark that Engel's death, from his perspective, absolutely must be up close and personal whilst firmly gripping his hatchet, on account of being enraged at Caroline's death.
== Gallery ==
File:Irene Engel Render 01.png
File:Irene Engel 01.png
File:Irene Engel 02.png
File:Irene Engel 03.png
File:Irene Engel 04.png
== External Links ==
* Irene Engel at Wolfenstein Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Wolfenstein