007's German Villains

The 21st James Bond movie "Casino Royale" premiered in Berlin this week and so far the reviews are pretty positive. Although the action is set in the summer of 2006, the new movie is actually based on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel which tells of secret agent's 007's debut. His first mission sets him against a banker who launders money for international terrorism.

"Exciting, new and totally different!" Or is it?

But while some called the movie "exciting, new and totally different," it does have some familiar elements. By now the Bond formula is well-known -- there should be a good-looking lead with a poker-face, one or two stunning Bond Girls, some fast cars, state-of-the-art gadgets, and in more cases than not an evil-looking German rogue. "Casino Royale" is no exception.

Clemens Schick's German villain is not the main rogue in this latest film. The actor has admitted his role is only minor with only four lines. However, he hopes this role will propel him to international acclaim. The 34-year-old has already made a name for himself on the Berlin and Hanover stages and in small television roles.

A catalogue of German villains

The movie's big baddy Le Chiffre is played by the Danish actor Mads Mikkelson, who has roles in several releases this year. Schick plays Mikkelson's right-hand. As such he is an essential element and joins a long list of German villains.

The most despicable Bond villain has to be Goldfinger who was played by the German actor Gert Fröbe. Apparently reluctant to take the role at first, his wife spurred him on. He shot to fame.

In 1977, Roger Moore's Bond was pitted against Curd Jürgens' underwater patriarch Karl Stromberg in "The Spy Who Loved Me." And in the 1983 movie "Never Say Never Again", Bond's foe was the German-accented Maximilian Largo, played by Austrian Klaus Maria Brandauer.

Female Germans also got to play evil characters. Karin Dor as Helga Brandt in "You Only Live Twice" died a particularly gruesome death when her infamous boss, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, dropped her into a tank of piranhas. And Ilse Steppat played this latter's right-hand, Irma Blunt, in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service."

Out of 21 Bond movies, about 10 of the scoundrels have been played by German or Austrian actors. Others have not been played by Germans but have implied German evil nonetheless, such as Dr. Carl Mortner in "A View to a Kill," a former concentration camp doctor whose real name is revealed to be Hans Glau.

Glamorous villains

These Bond villains are arguably a continuation of the tradition begun by the actor/director Erich von Strohheim, who exploited his role of the hostile German to the point of caricature. For a while after the World War II, German actors in Hollywood could only get roles as Nazis or Wehrmacht soldiers in war films.

This seemed feasible as long as the actors were exiles from the Nazi regime with their own agenda. But gradually, German actors chose not to take on these roles. Nonetheless, they did not seem to mind incarnating German evil as Bond villains -- perhaps because 007 movies are associated more with glamour, adventure and excitement than with war and the burden of history.