For the German release, the story was altered: You fight against the “Wolf-Sekte” (Cult of the Wolf), which is very dangerous to the freedom of the country because of their dark experiments.
That’s it. Nothing else. No word of Himmler and his dark plans, no Nazis at all. It is clear that this “background” was made up for the only purpose of getting the game past the German feds – the word “Nazi” is a red sheet for them. They altered some of the names, too: Himmler is now called “Holler” and Oberst von Bülow has been renamed too. With this new storyline, the game makes absolutely no sense.
The funniest thing about this is the packaging which shows Doktor Zan (appearing at the very beginning of the game when he fries our comrade) – and on his jacket, you can clearly see the Nazi emblem (an eagle sitting on a circle in which is a swastika).
Even more changes to the German version, most of them regarding speech:
•The “Horst-Wessel-Lied” (a Nazi song) was changed to a classical piece – the same is being played on a record player in the first outdoor mission. Seems they put it together in a hurry. •A picture of the “Führer” (Hitler) was changed to an odd-looking guy without beard but with the well-known army cap. Found in a more-or-less secret room in the village (accessible via the rooftops). •a speech of Hitler about the Reichstag (map: dam) was deleted and replaced by classical music •The speech “Wie geht’s, Willie?” (How are you, Willie?) has been replaced by “Was ist passiert, Willie?” (What happened, Willie?), removing any sense from this talk. •A drunk soldier in the wine cellar under the cafe (map: village1) babbles: “Shut up you slowenian swine”. In the German version, the word “slowenian” was removed. •In the labs, someone asks “What are your orders, Herr Oberführer?”. This was changed to “What are your orders, pack leader?”. •A voice of the generic German soldier was changed: In US, he said “Halt, Schweinehund!” (Stop, you pig!) – in Germany, he says “Halt, Verräter!” (Stop, traitor!), removing the profanity. Anti-Semitic video game In March 2008, the United States Department of State published a report to Congress, “Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism”, that described Return to Castle Wolfenstein as an “anti-Semitic video game” with no qualifications. The report picked up on an article originally written in 2002 by Jonathan Kay of the New York Times regarding the recent introduction of “Nazi protagonists” in the online gaming market (referring specifically to Day of Defeat and Wolfenstein). The article was published just 19 days before Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was released which shares many similar features, and the Nazi protagonists in multiplayer.
Todd Hollenshead, chief executive of id Software at the time of the original article stated:
“The trend you’re seeing with new games is, to some extent, a reflection of what’s going in the culture … For instance, you’ve now got games with terrorists and counterterrorists. And World War II games such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Day of Defeat reflect what you see in popular movies… I don’t doubt there are going to be people that go out and distort what the multiplayer gaming experience is and say, ‘Oh, I can’t believe you guys did this.’ There are a lot of critics of the game industry, and they look for things to criticize.”
For the German release, the story was altered: You fight against the “Wolf-Sekte” (Cult of the Wolf), which is very dangerous to the freedom of the country because of their dark experiments.
That’s it. Nothing else. No word of Himmler and his dark plans, no Nazis at all. It is clear that this “background” was made up for the only purpose of getting the game past the German feds – the word “Nazi” is a red sheet for them. They altered some of the names, too: Himmler is now called “Holler” and Oberst von Bülow has been renamed too. With this new storyline, the game makes absolutely no sense.
The funniest thing about this is the packaging which shows Doktor Zan (appearing at the very beginning of the game when he fries our comrade) – and on his jacket, you can clearly see the Nazi emblem (an eagle sitting on a circle in which is a swastika).
Even more changes to the German version, most of them regarding speech:
•The “Horst-Wessel-Lied” (a Nazi song) was changed to a classical piece – the same is being played on a record player in the first outdoor mission. Seems they put it together in a hurry. •A picture of the “Führer” (Hitler) was changed to an odd-looking guy without beard but with the well-known army cap. Found in a more-or-less secret room in the village (accessible via the rooftops). •a speech of Hitler about the Reichstag (map: dam) was deleted and replaced by classical music •The speech “Wie geht’s, Willie?” (How are you, Willie?) has been replaced by “Was ist passiert, Willie?” (What happened, Willie?), removing any sense from this talk. •A drunk soldier in the wine cellar under the cafe (map: village1) babbles: “Shut up you slowenian swine”. In the German version, the word “slowenian” was removed. •In the labs, someone asks “What are your orders, Herr Oberführer?”. This was changed to “What are your orders, pack leader?”. •A voice of the generic German soldier was changed: In US, he said “Halt, Schweinehund!” (Stop, you pig!) – in Germany, he says “Halt, Verräter!” (Stop, traitor!), removing the profanity. Anti-Semitic video game In March 2008, the United States Department of State published a report to Congress, “Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism”, that described Return to Castle Wolfenstein as an “anti-Semitic video game” with no qualifications. The report picked up on an article originally written in 2002 by Jonathan Kay of the New York Times regarding the recent introduction of “Nazi protagonists” in the online gaming market (referring specifically to Day of Defeat and Wolfenstein). The article was published just 19 days before Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was released which shares many similar features, and the Nazi protagonists in multiplayer.
Todd Hollenshead, chief executive of id Software at the time of the original article stated:
“The trend you’re seeing with new games is, to some extent, a reflection of what’s going in the culture … For instance, you’ve now got games with terrorists and counterterrorists. And World War II games such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Day of Defeat reflect what you see in popular movies… I don’t doubt there are going to be people that go out and distort what the multiplayer gaming experience is and say, ‘Oh, I can’t believe you guys did this.’ There are a lot of critics of the game industry, and they look for things to criticize.”
Thanks for sharing, Vicpas. I think that the English version of Rtcw is the best, and the German version is the worst. The German voices sound bad compared to the English voices. Aidendemon used the German voices in his mod Castle Gothicstein, which was not a good idea, in my opinion. It must be unfortunate to own the German version of Rtcw.