Rudol von Stroheim


 * The character in this article is commonly referred to as Rudolf von Stroheim.

Rudol von Stroheim (ルドル・フォン・シュトロハイム Rudoru fon Shutorohaimu) is a character from Part II: Battle Tendency. Stroheim is, at first, an antagonist, but later proves to be an effective ally.

Battle Tendency
"German Science is the best in the world!"

- Rudol von Stroheim

When we are first introduced to Stroheim, he is a callous, cruel, demanding Nazi Major who has the foolish idea to experimenting with the Stone Mask in order to further the increase the power of the Nazi army.

He takes an injured Robert Edward O. Speedwagon to the Nazi base in Mexico and interrogates him about the Pillar Men. Is at this moment that we see that Stroheim has captured one of them, which he named "Santana" acording to the place he was found.

Stroheim eventually sacrifices himself in an attempt to stop Santana's rampage and is assumed to have died until he reappears to stop Kars.

Thanks to Nazi science, Colonel Stroheim was revived with cybernetic parts (including a machine gun on his chest and a monocle that presumably serves as a Terminator/Robocop-esque radar system) and had attempted to fight Kars near the end of Battle Tendency, only to be cut in pieces and for Kars to escape. Stroheim appears again when Kars falls into the spikes from Joseph's attack, making full use of his ultraviolet light again to defeat Kars. However, he and his soldiers are soundly defeated once again when Kars reveals his ultimate form. He then follows Joseph to the volcano and witnesses its eruption due to Kars' ripple colliding with the Red Stone of Asia. Stroheim returns to the rest of the group and reports Joseph's supposed death.

After the battle with Kars, Stroheim never meets Joseph again and is said to have died honorably at the battle of Stalingrad.



Steel Ball Run
Stroheim's Steel Ball Run counterpart is named Fritz von Stroheim, or F.V. Stroheim. F.V. Stroheim is introduced as a cyborg, and attempts to kill Gyro Zeppeli and Johnny Joestar, but is quickly taken out by Gyro's steel balls.

Trivia

 * It is likely that Guile from the Street Fighter series is based on Stroheim. Specifically, their hair and physiques are quite alike, although Guile is an all-American soldier and Stroheim is a jingoistic Nazi officer. M. Bison from the same series may also have been based on him.
 * Brocken of the World Heroes series may be based off of Stroheim as well, as both are German soldiers with cyborg enhancements. Brocken even asks "What do you expect from German science?!" in World Heroes Perfect, a possible reference to Stroheim's praising of German science when revealing his hidden weapons.
 * His given name translates to Rudol, without f or ph, in alphabetic languagues. This is probably an error on the author's part due to his unfamiliarity with German as such a given name is very uncommon.