Ludwig Dieter/Biography

The following is Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert/Ludwig Dieter's full biography.

## Early life

Sebastian spent his life obsessed with the mechanisms and puzzles of well-designed locks. As a child he didn't fit in with the other kids, and instead of playing with them would work on developing his skills with safecracking and drawing a comic book about his exploits as master safecracker and adventurer, Ludwig Dieter.

As he got older, he especially took an interest in the work of safe designer Hans Wagner. He worked as a bank teller for PM Kreditbank who made safecracking-related YouTube videos for fun, until one day receiving a mysterious comment on one of his YouTube videos suggesting he test his skills at a Leipziger house.

## Meeting Gwendoline

Arriving at the address, Sebastian found a small crowd gathered around a circle of safes. A safecracking tournament would shortly begin, and Sebastian anxiously questioned his role before joining in and narrowly securing his position in the semifinals. The second round began, and this time he jumped right in. He managed to be the second to open his safe, putting him in the finals against Neo, the reigning champion. Two safe doors were wheeled out for them, and three minutes were set on the clock. Sebastian watched Neo get started with his door and realized that his own victory was assured. He cautiously taunted his opponent, waiting until a mere thirty seconds remained before starting his door. He breezed through the dials and opened his door. The crowd cheered, and among them, Sebastian caught his first glimpse of Gwendoline Starr.

Sebastian returned to his mundane life after the thrill of the tournament, only for Gwendoline to appear before him at his usual morning stop at Kommer. She revealed to him her part in his tournament invite, her mastery of pickpocketing, and the fact that she was a jewelry thief among Interpol's most wanted criminals. She explained that she'd sought Sebastian out because of his knowledge of Hans Wagner's safes, and finding his safecracking skills as impressive as his passion, that she needed him for her quest to crack the master designer's Ring Cycle safes. Sebastian was taken aback, unable to immediately accept the offer, but later comparing the thrill of the tournament to the life he led, he decided to go to the address Gwen had given him.

## Rheingold heist

Sebastian arrived at the door, where Gwen invited him in. She introduced him to Korina Dominguez, their master hacker; Rolph, their getaway driver; and Brad Cage, the so-called action hero. Korina explained the broad plan for the three days of heists that would follow, and the team set out almost immediately. The first target was the Rheingold: Hans Wagner's first Ring Cycle safe, and both the simplest to crack and least guarded. Sebastian was to enter the bathroom of the credit union in Paris where the Rheingold would be found and wait for Gwen to sneak him into the vault. Gwen would ask to see a safe deposit box to allow her deeper into the building after stealing the guard's keys. After the two were in place, Korina created a distraction that allowed Gwen to pick up Sebastian and bring him to the vault where he got to work on his first Wagner. He was able to crack it, so he and Gwen filled their bags with money. Brad entered the building to create a second distraction, and Gwen and Sebastian left with the cash.

Sebastian couldn't believe what they'd done, and had to look into his bag again to let it sink in. They returned to their hideout and had a small party to celebrate. Sebastian was developing a crush on Gwendoline, but quickly realized she was already with Brad, yet when she and Brad had a minor fight, Sebastian checked on her and ended up talking with her all evening. Among other things, Gwen shared with Sebastian her dream of hunting down the Götterdämmerung in Nevada, where it was rumored to be. Rolph and Korina both started to warm to Sebastian, but Brad grew jealous.

## Valkyrie heist

The target for the next day was the Valkyrie, housed in NPIB Prague. This time Korina would support Sebastian and Gwen by electronically guiding them through the bank's security protocols. She led Sebastian through a series of evasive maneuvers to throw off any security that might be watching through the video feeds, though his apparent disappearance between cameras was noted by security all the same. Sebastian and Gwen reunited at the elevator to the Valkyrie vault, and at the bottom they were met with armed guards.

Gwen fought them off and bound them, then Sebastian got to work on the safe. The process was made longer by a minor slipup that put the safe in a warning state, meanwhile the guards continued looking into Sebastian's disappearance in their recordings and noticed he'd merely pretended to unlock a door. They realized someone must be in their system to unlock it for him, indirectly detecting Korina's presence, and issued a soft lockdown until they could investigate.

Seeing this on her computer, Korina relayed the lockdown to Brad, who launched "plan B" - a traditional bank robbery as a distraction. He donned a mask, knocked out several guards with tranquilizer darts, and began to order patrons and tellers around to fill a bag with cash. Sebastian managed to crack the safe, and he and Gwen used the chaos of Brad's robbery to flee with the other bank patrons. Brad made it to the van and Rolph started it up. Gwen and Sebastian were not far behind, so Brad helped Gwen into the moving vehicle. When it was Sebastian's turn, Brad threw him back into the street.

The Czech police were quickly swarming the area, so Sebastian made a run for it. He found a man with a bike and tugged it away from him, using it to evade the police. They gave chase both by car and by foot, but he lost the cars in narrow walkways and the rest with the bike's superior speed, successfully making it onto a moving train. He made his way home, disillusioned at how his new life had ended and the realization that he'd have to return to his old one the next day. Arriving at home, he was surprised to find Gwen and Korina, who had split from Brad and Rolph and broken into his place to wait for him. They convinced him his adventure wasn't over, and the trio planned the final heist without the other two.

## Siegfried heist

The final safe that the trio would face was the Siegfried, located in the St. Moritz Bly. This was the final day: the day the safes were to be taken to Geneva, so the plan involved stealing the entire safe instead of breaking into the casino. Korina called the bank posing as an Interpol agent to inform them that the safe might be in jeopardy. The casino agreed to move up the time of departure to 3:30 A.M. to throw off any criminal plans, for which the heist team was prepared. Sebastian and Gwen stole the armored truck that was going to pick up the safe and picked it up themselves. They headed toward their escape route while Korina stayed behind to mislead Vincent Delacroix's Interpol team. When she was captured, she sent one final text to Gwen, telling her to run. Gwen sped up the truck while Sebastian worked on the safe in the back, and he eventually managed to crack it. They stopped the truck and began loading the cash into bags, when Brad and Rolph pulled up behind them. Brad held them at gunpoint in a misguided attempt to get Gwen back, then attempted to shoot Sebastian. Gwen had already removed the firing pin, so she pulled one of the truck guard's guns on Brad and Rolph and tethered the two of them to the truck, taking their car for their getaway.

They arrived at the pier where their boat was waiting, and Sebastian told Gwen of his feelings for her. She reciprocated, and they prepared the boat, when suddenly Delacroix appeared behind them. He pointed his gun at them, while Gwen pointed hers at him. She offered him one of their backpacks of cash to let them walk away, but Delacroix was only interested in arresting her. Realizing there was no way out for her, she instead told him that she would allow herself to be arrested if Sebastian was set free. Neither Delacroix nor Sebastian were up for this, but Gwen convinced Sebastian by asking him to wait for her, and they could find the Götterdämmerung, the final safe in Hans Wagner's Ring Cycle, together after her eventual release. Meanwhile, she convinced Delacroix by pointing out that she was the wanted criminal; she was the one he'd been hunting for so long, and his best case scenario was letting Sebastian go. So he did. Sebastian took the boat out, with the single bag of cash that they'd already thrown into the boat. It had a fake passport and a plane ticket to America, where the Götterdämmerung was rumored to be. His new passport gave him the name of Ludwig Dieter, his childhood comic book character, and he used it to move to the United States of America, where he used his Siegfried money to launch Gwendoline's Safe & Lock Co. in Victor Valley, California.

## Götterdämmerung heist

His expertise in safecracking and specialty in Hans Wagner's safes in particular made Dieter a prime candidate to crack the Götterdämmerung, where the targeted $200 million waited. That combined with Dieter's passion for cracking Wagner's safes assured that he would participate in the greatest heist the world had ever seen. When approached at his place of work, Gwendoline's Safe & Lock Co., the Götterdämmerung blueprints in hand, Dieter jumped at the chance to join the mission. He met with the full group and took an immediate liking to Vanderohe, who initially brushed him off. Van gave Dieter some quick gun training in preparation for entering the zombie-run city, and the group headed beyond the wall.

A bit jumpy in the face of danger, Dieter made it safely to Bly's Casino with the rest of the group. He, Vanderohe, and Mikey Guzman branched off toward the basement where the safe was kept, while others continued onto their own tasks. Faced with a small pack of zombies, Dieter managed to dispatch his first shambler: the bride. The group found the remains of another safecracking team, which had tried to cut their way to the vault, damaging the card reader. Instead of using Dieter's entry card, Van blew it up, and they moved forward. The final hallway was rigged with "non-lethal" deterrents, which Van triggered by sending shamblers down the hall. Not all deterrents were non-lethal. Finally able to approach the safe, Dieter got to work. Their other tasks complete, the other members started joining the safecracking team, and Scott Ward interrupted Dieter's delicate operation, forcing him to start over. He demanded absolute silence for the next thirty minutes so he could start over from scratch, and asked Van to make sure it was so. Some time later, he was in. He offered Van the honor of releasing the hatch, and they opened the Götterdämmerung.

Impressed with Dieter's skill set, Vanderohe finally treated Dieter as a full equal. They began to gather the money when the chamber was attacked by the Las Vegas horde. The others filtered out, up into the lobby, but Dieter and Van stayed behind to collect the last of the money before the alphas could break through. As they finished, they were too late, and the zombies began to come in. The two fired on them as they approached, clearing a path to the elevator, until Zeus stood in their way. Zeus' helmet protected him from their gunfire, and Van was stuck trading blows with the enhanced strength of the zombie king. Dieter spotted an opportunity to strike Zeus' head, then he pushed Vanderohe into the safe and closed the door to save him from Zeus. Dieter was last seen in the hands of Zeus, who was out for blood.

***Return to Ludwig Dieter***
## References

Shay Hatten (writer) & Matthias Schweighöfer (director) (October 29, 2021). *Army of Thieves*.
Shay Hatten, Zack Snyder, Joby Harold (writers) & Zack Snyder (director) (May 14, 2021). *Army of the Dead*.