Dieter Hellstrom

**Dieter Hellstrom** was the tertiary antagonist in Quentin Tarantino's 6th film, *Inglourious Basterds*. He was a clever and deceitful Gestapo Major who was stationed in France during WWII and served under Joseph Goebbels.

## Biography

### Background informations

Dieter Hellstrom was born in Germany, and appears to be in his late 30s. He is a Major in the Gestapo, serving in the Third Reich, and if his claims are to be taken seriously, he's responsible for all the officers currently stationed in France, knowing all the officers and Staff Sergeants stationed there. He is also responsible for organizing the security detail for the movie premiere of the Nation's Pride along with col. Hans Landa.

### Chapter Three - GERMAN NIGHT IN PARIS

Hellstrom is first seen arriving at Le Gamaar Cinema in a German car. He rudely demands Emmanuelle Mimieux to come with him. Emmanuelle, who was actually Shosanna Dreyfus, entered the car with Hellstrom, thinking that her cover might have been blown. Instead, the Gestapo Major took her to a restaurant, where Fredrick Zoller was waiting for her, along with Joseph Goebbels and Francesca Mondino. Here, he introduces himself to Shosanna, completely changing his attitude towards her, and smilingly invites her to have a seat. He also pours her some champagne. Afterwards, he sits at the table, at her left. Hellstrom later lights a cigarette, as Goebbels informs him that he hasn't agreed to change the cinema for his film premiere. When Hans Landa arrives at their table, he stands up. He, Goebbels, Mondino and Zoller depart, leaving Landa with Shosanna at the table.

### Chapter Four - OPERATION KINO

He is seen at the La Louisiane tavern, in a room behind the bar. When he hears Archie Hicox's strange accent, he comes out to question the undercover British officer. He buys Hicox's story about his accent and asks Wilhelm to return to his mates. He then joins their table and asks them what are they doing in France, as he knows every German stationed in France (except Hugo Stiglitz, not recognizing him). Hearing the soldier's card game from the other table, he says that he hasn't joined them because, as Hicox said, an officer does not fraternize with enlisted men. But as they're all officers (and a sophisticated lady friend of officers), they could play the game. Bridget von Hammersmark agrees, and Hellstrom goes to the soldiers table, asking for a few cards. He returns at the table, and splits the cards to the Basterds, telling them the rules of the game. He then shouts at the bartender Eric to bring them pencils. He takes Stiglitz's card and sticks it on his forehead. It reads "King Kong". Using his deductive skills, he manages to learn what is written on the card. When Hicox politely tells him that he's intruding, Hellstrom asks Bridget if he's intruding, to which she says no, so he concludes that the captain is immune to his charms. He immediately starts to laugh, and tells him he was joking. He tells them that he's indeed intruding and offers to give them some 33 year old whiskey that Eric has. He asks Eric to bring them the whiskey, but he'll not drink as he still has some beer. When Hicox asks for 3 glasses, Hellstrom sees that he's using the wrong fingers. The Major raises his glass and toasts. After he drinks the beer, he cocks his Walther P38 sidearm and informs the captain that he's pointing it at his testicles. Hicox tells him that he also has a pistol pointed at his testicles, as well as Stiglitz. Hellstrom refuses the offer to come with him, and tells him that no matter what will happen in the room, the two will never leave it alive, and that they'll have to shoot Wilhelm and his friends as well. When Hicox asks the Major if he can go out speaking English, he allows him. Hicox then says that there's a special rung in hell for people for waste good scotch. After finishing his scotch, he says there is now only one thing left to be done, and signals Stiglitz to shoot the Major. Stiglitz says "Say Auf Wiedersehen to your Nazi balls!" then shoots Hellstrom in the testicles, who in turn shoots Hicox in the testicles, who also fires at Hellstrom's testicles. Immediately, Hugo jumps out of his chair and stabs him in the back of his neck with his knife, killing him for good.

## Awards

* Germanic Proficiency Runes
* SA Sports Badge (Bronze)

## Personality

Hellstrom often appears to be something of a counter-ego to the courteous Hans Landa, acting like a stereotype Nazi officer in foreigners' perception. Unlike the Colonel, Hellstrom behaves brashly, as when he rudely orders Emmanuelle Mimieux to enter the car, before rudely shoving her into it. However, after arriving at the restaurant, he pours her champagne, pretentiously, to appear well-mannered in front of Goebbels.

Later at the tavern, he abused his rank as a Major to take Hugo Stiglitz's seat at Bridget von Hammersmark's table. When cpt. Hicox confronted him on his intrusion, Hellstrom quickly dismissed Hicox's objection, stating that he only intruded if the Fraulein (Hammersmark) said so.

Hellstrom is very perspicacious, as he quickly noticed cpt. Hicox's unusual German accent and questioned it. He appeared to accept the Captain’s made-up story for a while before picking up on the latter's identity as a spy. When Hellstrom did realize the truth, his attitude turned completely, calling Hammersmark a "slut" when she tried to cover for Hicox.

Dieter Hellstrom seems to enjoy music, reading and solitude, as it was seen when Wilhelm was enjoying his celebrations, he was sitting in silence in a private booth, drinking beer, reading a book and listening to a gramophone record.

## Behind the scenes

Dieter Hellstrom was portrayed by August Diehl.

August Diehl, who plays Burger, a Jew in *The Counterfeiters* (2007), says the line "I would never put myself in the place of an SS-Criminal".

## Trivia

* The name of Dieter Hellstrom is a reference to the Marvel Comics character Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan (also known as Hellstorm).
* In the script his name is spelt **Deiter**.
* Despite being in the Gestapo, he has the SS lightning bolts when uniformed Gestapo officers had blank black collar patches.
* When Major Hellstrom reasons out that his card says King Kong, he is giving Quentin Tarantino's analysis of the movie as an allegory of the American slave trade. He explained this analysis in an interview on NPR with Terry Gross.
* In the La Louisiane tavern, Hellstrom has a beer mug shaped like a boot. This same type of mug was featured on the tables of the Texas Chili Parlor in *Death Proof*.
* Hellstrom is shown wearing the famous black uniform, more specifically, a Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler -uniform, despite being in the Gestapo. A Gestapo member would have worn a different set of insignia on the uniform. This is either a mistake by the producers or Hellstrom also held a rank in the Leibstandarte while serving in Gestapo.
* The level of beer in Hellstrom's boot-shaped glass changes between shots.
* In the tavern, the Gestapo major demonstrates his knowledge of German accents as if he had a superior talent for it. However, this isn't impressive at all, once you consider that the English language equivalent would be the ability to distinguish between accents from places such as Cornwall, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh etc. German dialects and accents differ from region to region and, for German speakers, are quite distinguishable, although Hellstrom was able to correctly pinpoint Stiglitz' home town of Frankfurt, for example.