The maestro Otto Klemperer is considered to be among greatest conductor/composers of his generation. His son, Werner, however would surpass all his achievements by playing Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes.
Oh if only Otto had conducted the show’s theme song. What transcendental art that would have been.
Did you know the theme actually has lyrics?
Werner also played a fanatical Nazi judge in Judgment at Nuremberg, a bit offputing if your only experience had been Col. Klink. Also, he was Jewish, as was Robert Clary.
John Banner, Leon Askin, and Howard Caine-Sgt. Schultz, General Burkhalter, and Major Hochstetter, respectively-were also Jewish. Banner and Askin were refugees from Nazism, as the Klemperers were.
Werner Klemperer also played the violin, though he considered himself not that musically talented.
Clary was a concentration camp survivor.
Did they ever solve the murder of Bob Crane, eternal nemesis of Col. Klink?
Nope.