Hogans Heroes Trivia: Colonel Klink and Sergeant Shultz had a prior connection

John Banner and Werner Klemperer had similar lives

Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer } and Sgt. Hans Schultz (John Banner) were perfectly paired on the CBS sitcom Hogans Heroes (1965-1971). Klink was the boss yelling 'Shultzzzzz!" and the sergeant's signature saying of "I know nothing, nothing" were part of their charm. Fans today continue to use these beloved phrases. Often Shultz seemed to side with the prisoners at Kink’s expense or Hogan and his gang pranked Shultz and viewers loved it.

If you believe you know all there is to know about these beloved television icons read on to find out just how trivia savvy you truly are. Both actors Klemperer and Banner were Jewish but had no problem portraying German soldiers working for Hitler. This would not be considered proper today but these men rose above conceived notions to entertain millions.

During an interview, Klemperer said he would only agree to the role if Hitler never won and the series writers obliged him. The weekly storylines were written so that the heroes always got the better of the Nazis. Shultz and Klink's portrayers also had something else in common.

Klemperer and his family fled Germany for the United States in 1935, as Adolf Hitler began his rise to power, Banner had been held in a pre-war concentration camp, and in 1938 when Hitler annexed Austria he was working in Switzerland as an actor and quickly immigrated to the United States. Werner was a technical sergeant and John was a master sergeant during WW 2. The duo ended up working together nine years prior to Hogans Heroes.

Safe Passage

Banner and Klemperer both appeared in the Mystery & Suspense series Alfred Hitchcock Presents which aired on both CBS and NBC from 1955 to 1965. On Feb 19, 1956, the duo was in the episode Safe Passage where Mary Prescott portrayed Claire Trevor, an American reporter who has interviewed an Iron Curtain dictator and been given a safe-conduct pass.

Prescott is on the train en route to West Germany when she is approached by an East German soccer player named Jan Gubak (Jacques Bergerac). He tells her he has a sick sister who needs an expensive operation and gets Mary to agree to smuggle an expensive watch across the border for him. The timepiece turns out to be fake and was a ruse so Gubak could give Trevor microfilm with information she could use in a story she was writing.

Banner ( a train conductor) and Klemperer (Professor Klopka/Captain Kirza) made a brief appearance in the same scene but did not interact. They probably had no idea they would meet again nine years later and be a part of a series that would still be popular close to 60 years later.

Additional connections for Klemperer

The duo has a few other things in common including the fact that Banner and Klemperer both served in the US Army Air Force during World War 2. In 1965 the duo sang Silent Night in German the language in which it was written during a Bing Crosby Christmas special.

Again this was a bit out of the ordinary for Jewish men to sing about the Christian Messiah but Banner and Klemperer rose to the occasion above preconceived norms. Bob Crane, Klemperer, and Banner joined Hogans Heroes castmates Leon Askin General Burkhalterall appeared in the film "The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz" (1968), starring Elke Sommer. The movie, however, was a box office bomb.

John Banner passed away on his 63rd birthday on January 28, 1973. He was visiting friends in Vienna when he suffered an abdominal hemorrhage that led to his demise. Werner Klemperer died of cancer on December 6, 2000, at his home in Manhattan. He was 80 years old, cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.