Gerhard Wagner

Gerhard Wagner is the main antagonist of Atlantic Connection, the third chapter in the first part of the Murder in the Alps game. He is a member of the Sturmabteilung who uses Hotel Reger for smuggling and tries to keep it that way.

Background
Gerhard Wagner became a member of a Nazi paramilitary organization known the Sturmabteilung (also known as the Brownshirts) in 1923. He lived for several years in Argentina where he established contacts for cheap explosives and military equipment. He also met and befriended Otto Regel in 1923, supporting him through the grief born out of World War I.

Otto owned the small Hotel Regel in the Swiss Alps, while Gerhard owned a bar in the closest town to it. Taking advantage of the secluded area and Otto's friendship, Gerhard started a smuggling operation with him and a Swiss priest Father Hans Lenz. The hotel was used to store smuggled goods (such as cigarettes and alcohol), while the bar and the connections of Father Lenz were used in selling them. Gerhard also used his ability to sneak across the German border unnoticed. However, this was all Gerhard allowed Otto and Father Lenz to know about the operation.

What only Gerhard knew was that people and contraband (including explosives) travelled from South America to the Italian port city of Genoa. Pretending to be tourists and passers-by, Gerhard's Browshirt allies moved the goods to Hotel Regel. From there, the goods were transported across the German border with Gerhard's help. This continued for ten years without Otto or Father Lenz being any wiser, even though there were sometimes rumors of small groups of uniformed people passing in the night toward Germany.

Smuggling operation compromised
In December 1932, five murders are committed in Hotel Regel by one of the guests. Before the murderer is exposed by the journalist Anna Myers, she discovers the smuggling operation run by Otto and Father Lenz. She promises to stay quiet about it, but advices the two men to stop it before they get caught. They decide to heed Anna's advice. Gerhard tries to talk them out of it, but he eventually pretends to relent. However, in January 1933, he sets in motion a plan to keep the smuggling operation running.

Gerhard disappeares, leaving for Otto and Father Lenz a note. He says in it that their operation was aided by a group of powerful and ruthless people whom Gerhard helped to slip across the German border in exchange for their help. When the smuggling operation was shut down, Gerhard stopped helping them across the border, so they decided to eliminate the witnesses, forcing Gerhard to go hiding. He hid in the hotel a journal of the people who crossed the border, telling Otto and Father Lenz to find it and discover from it his advice on how to proceed.

The next week, in 28th January, Otto phones Anna Myers, asking for her help. She arrives at Hotel Regel that same evening. The next day, Otto and Anna search for Gerhard's journal in a cabin near the mountains, while Father Lenz searches the cellar. Gerhard kills him there with one fatal stab from a dagger that has a Sturmabteilung insignia. He also leaves at the cellar door a note for Otto: "Consider this your final warning." When Anna and Otto find the body of Father Lenz as well as the murder weapon, they realize they are dealing with the Brownshirts. They find Gerhard's journal in his room that same evening and discover that some Brownshirts stayed in the hotel on their way to the German border. In a note hidden in the journal, Gerhard advices Otto to search the hotel thoroughly to discover all he can about these guests.

In the morning of 30th, just as Anna explains to Otto the logic of smuggling contraband from Genoa to Germany through his hotel, Gerhard appears. He says he has been running from the Brownshirts for days before shaking them off in the woods. He tells that the Brownshirts want to take over Hotel Regel and that Otto should not fight back if he wants to stay alive. When Anna protests, Gerhard tells that the Brownshirts ransacked his bar last night. Anna goes to check the bar and finds it raided. She afterwards shows Otto and Gerhard a coat of arms she found from the bar yesterday. Otto shows a similar flag he found under one of the hotel beds. Gerhard explains the Brownshirts use these flags (what they call the Black Spot) to mark the places they claim as their property. He once again tries to tell Otto to submit to them, saying his bar was ransacked because he refused to give it to them.

Anna and Otto discover a fuse hidden in one of the guest rooms the Brownshirts used. They then search the room of the Brownshirts' likely leader and find a notebook that reveals that a shipment of explosives from Buenos Aires are stored in the cellar, waiting to be retrieved in 5th March. Gerhard then accompanies Otto and Anna on their way to the cellar. The backyard's warehouse explodes from the explosives Gerhard set there. After the fire is put out, Gerhard once again tells Otto to surrender his hotel to the Brownshirts. After Anna finds and defuses a ticking bomb in the cellar, the cabin is inspected. The shaken up Otto is at this point ready to tell everything to the police. Gerhard leaves, promising to notify the police and take the punishment.

Anna has her suspicions about Gerhard, so after she helps Otto back to the hotel, she searches Gerhard's room. She discovers Gerhard's ID card which reveals his membership to the Brownshirts. Anna attempts to use the reception phone to call the police, only to discover that Gerhard has cut the phone lines. After arming herself with a gun, she finds a radio. Before she can send an emergency message, however, Gerhard takes her by surprise. Threatening her with a rifle, he confesses that he murdered Father Lenz and takes Anna's gun before forcing her to walk to Otto in the fireplace room. There he expresses how fed up he is with pretending to be Otto's friend. Knowing the police are on their way to the hotel because of the explosion of the warehouse, Gerhard attempts to shoot Anna. Otto takes the bullet for her. Reacting quickly, Anna throws a vase at Gerhard's head, knocking him unconscious.

After Anna gives Otto first aid and ties up Gerhard, the police arrives. Gerhard wakes up only after Anna and Otto have presented their evidence against Gerhard. He blurts out that if he had killed Anna in the beginning, Otto would have submitted to his threatening. He is then taken away by the police who promises the other Brownshirts will face punishment. He also thinks that Otto will get a pardon for coming clean and helping in exposing the smuggling ring. The dagger that was used to kill Father Lenz is also connected to other murders, promising for Gerhard a longer time in prison.

Trivia

 * The hotel room Gerhard uses (room number 4) is the same where Claudia Perret, the villain of Deadly Snowstorm, resided in. Like Gerhard, Claudia was also a member of the Nazi Party.