At the height of the Second World War, as Allied armies fought their way across Europe
and Africa, news began to reach their lines of a secret German weapons program.
This program, known as HYDRA-Abteilung, was rumored to have developed startling new technologies
with the potential to decide the fate of the war.
Most troubling of all however was the intelligence that suggested Hydra had become an increasingly
rogue agency, one that no longer answered to the directives of the German High Command.
Instead, the organization was united under an almost cult-like reverence for their leader;
a man named Johann Schmidt who would be immortalized in infamy as
The Red Skull.
Even as a young man, Schmidt’s life was defined by a passion for the occult and Teutonic
myth that bordered on obsession.
His theories brought him into contact with the upper leadership of the Sturmabteilung
and in time, he had garnered enough political power to establish his own branch of the SS;
HYDRA-Abteilung.
Despite his close ties with the Nazi regime, Schmidt rejected the state’s racial doctrine,
believing instead that any superior man would be artificially created and separate from
all humanity that came before.
This led him to focus his significant resources on developing the means to create a new race
of super soldier, designed to be faster, stronger and more agile.
When the first prototype was delivered, Schmidt insisted on testing it himself.
While ultimately successful, the process had horrifying side effects that earned Schmidt
his gruesome nickname.
The questionable success of the serum nevertheless emboldened Schmidt in his search for powerful
artifacts and knowledge.
In 1942, he uncovered the Tesseract, a crystalline containment vessel for an object of cosmic power.
Even with only a fraction of this power harnessed, Hydra was able to develop powerful new weapons
that could not only defeat the Allies, but also pave the way for Schmidt to assume control
over Germany and the world.
His plans however had drawn the notice of the Allied armies, in particular an elite
unit known as the Howling Commandos.
As Hydra’s bases were attacked and destroyed, Schmidt was forced to accelerate his plans
and ordered the destruction of several American cities with Tesseract powered nuclear bombs.
When the Allied Forces led by the Howling Commandos arrived at Hydra’s Headquarters,
Schmidt fled aboard the Valkyrie, a prototype bomber through which he could carry out his
vengeance and escape.
Steve Rogers, known to history as Captain America, had also managed to board the aircraft
and in a desperate fight over the Atlantic Ocean, the Valkyrie crashed with both Rogers
and Schmidt believed killed.
There is no doubt that Johann Schmidt was tremendously cruel, devoid of mercy and common
humanity.
This is in part due to the effects of his serum, which elevated him, in his mind at
least, above all other men.
As a consequence he placed little value on human life, willing and perhaps even eager
to sacrifice the lives of his slave labour workforce, or even his own soldiers.
While it might be easy to dismiss Schmidt as just another megalomaniac, he was also
a gifted scientist, whose genius allowed him to find great truths were others only saw
myth and superstition.
With the end of World War Two, Johann Schmidt faded into history, but his vision lived on.
Like it’s namesake, Hydra would rise anew, growing like a parasite within the very forces
that had seemingly defeated it.
As for Schmidt himself, his ultimate fate remains unknown.
While the official record states he was killed aboard the Valkyrie, his body was never recovered
and recent events have shed new light on his final moments.
If he was in fact transported somewhere across the Nine Realms as the only eyewitness suggests,
than it’s possible that the world has not seen the last... of The Red Skull.
In Dossier, the Templin Institute investigates the legendary figures from alternate worlds.
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