Heinrich von Garten is the main antagonist of the 2004 film Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of a cult who is searching for the treasure hidden by King Lothair II, a holy book, somewhere near the Maginot Line. With the apocalyptic knowledge from the book he planned to create a new Europe.
He was portrayed by the late Christopher Lee, who also portrayed Frankenstein's Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein, Count Dracula in Hammer Studios' Dracula films, Kharis in Hammer's The Mummy, Fu Manchu in Hammer's Fu Manchu series, Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun, King Haggard in The Last Unicorn, Kato in Mio in the Land of Faraway, Cushing Catheter in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Saruman in Sir Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel films and The Jabberwock in Alice in Wonderland.
History[]
When he was a Wehrmacht officer in WW2, von Garten found a secret tunnel at an abbey near the Maginot Line but due to the defeat of the Germans was not able to investigate. After the war he bought the abbey and founded a secret cult, whose members wore monk tunics and were using WW2 steroids, making them stronger, able to endure pain and mindless, the perfect tools for von Garten.
When a group of twelve men solved the secret of the tunnel, von Garten sent his monks to kill them. These murders led detectives Reda and Niémans on the case. Although they were able to partially solve the riddle, they were not able to save the 12 "apostoles" (apostles) who were all but for one killed by von Garten's monks.When the police got a warrant for searching the abbey, von Garten made clear that he intended to leave. Niémans tried to stop him but had to let von Garten go due to his diplomatic immunity.
When the monks obtained the key to the tunnel from the last "apostole", von Garten and most of his order entered the Maginot Line, killing the old security guard on von Garten's orders. Unbeknownst to them they were followed by Niémans and Reda who entered the tunnels through the abbey. However, the policemen were attacked by von Garten's soldiers. After shooting some of them, the two policemen were tranquilized by a grenade containing knock out gas and woke up as prisoners of von Garten, who used the key to open the tempel of Lothair II. There they werere forced to watch how Heinrich opened the altair which indeed contained the book. Niémans tried to warn Heinrich not to lift the book from the pedestal, as this would most certainly trigger some sort of trap but Heinrich, wo now only had eyes for the book, did not hear him and lifted the book. A trap was triggerd which led to the entire tunnel system being flooded. Reda and Niémans managed to escape but all of Heinrich's followers drowned. Realising that he had no way to escape, Heinrich climbed the altar and there shot himself in the head before he had to drown.
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