loCAliZAtion As AdAptAtion in the WOLFENSTEIN frAnChise
207
for the German market. The localization process is best understood as an
adaptation process, as described by Regina Schober in her article in this
volume. Adaptation, then, is not merely the appropriation of the “original” for
a new medium. Rather, speaking in a biological metaphor, media adaptation
can be understood as the changes to a media product (i.e. the “mutation” of
the media product) in order to make it “fit” into a new environment with
its specific constraints and possibilities.
Looking at the adaptation of the Wolfenstein games for the German
market, the process goes beyond the filtering of forbidden symbols. Instead,
the changes, ostensibly brought about by legal restrictions, amount to an
amplification of the mythologization process of the Second World War as
described above. Due to the series’ sensationalist use of a delicate theme,
extra-medial factors demand the games’ adaptation in order to be sold on the
German market. In popular discussions of this process, German legislature
prohibiting the use of Nazi symbols is usually named, but as I will argue,
the changes in fact go beyond reasons commensurable with the law. As I
will show, the adaptation processes that the Wolfenstein games underwent
in order to become saleable on the German market are partly inconsistent
with the restrictions that can be derived from applicable law on this topic.
The camouflaging of references to Nazi Germany, deriving from political
decisions and broader societal efforts to control the rise of Neo-Nazism
in Germany, render National Socialism as taboo, and as a result give it the
appeal or lure of the forbidden. This is a filtering process that is upheld in
the German version of the most recent installment of the Wolfenstein series,
Wolfenstein: The New Order, whose removal of references to the Holocaust
conserves the “sanitized” and mythicized concepts of Nazism that have
marked these games’ German editions from the franchise’s first installment. 10
The Wolfenstein video game series and its institutional narrative
filtering
Since 1981, eleven Wolfenstein video games have been released. The following
list gives an overview of the games as well as those variant versions that
are discussed in this chapter (passing reference to other Wolfenstein games
is made in footnotes):
– Castle Wolfenstein (1981; not discussed in this chapter),
– Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984; not discussed in this chapter),
10 Bethesda Game Studios et al., Wolfenstein: The New Order (Bethesda Softworks, L.L.C., 2014).
207
for the German market. The localization process is best understood as an
adaptation process, as described by Regina Schober in her article in this
volume. Adaptation, then, is not merely the appropriation of the “original” for
a new medium. Rather, speaking in a biological metaphor, media adaptation
can be understood as the changes to a media product (i.e. the “mutation” of
the media product) in order to make it “fit” into a new environment with
its specific constraints and possibilities.
Looking at the adaptation of the Wolfenstein games for the German
market, the process goes beyond the filtering of forbidden symbols. Instead,
the changes, ostensibly brought about by legal restrictions, amount to an
amplification of the mythologization process of the Second World War as
described above. Due to the series’ sensationalist use of a delicate theme,
extra-medial factors demand the games’ adaptation in order to be sold on the
German market. In popular discussions of this process, German legislature
prohibiting the use of Nazi symbols is usually named, but as I will argue,
the changes in fact go beyond reasons commensurable with the law. As I
will show, the adaptation processes that the Wolfenstein games underwent
in order to become saleable on the German market are partly inconsistent
with the restrictions that can be derived from applicable law on this topic.
The camouflaging of references to Nazi Germany, deriving from political
decisions and broader societal efforts to control the rise of Neo-Nazism
in Germany, render National Socialism as taboo, and as a result give it the
appeal or lure of the forbidden. This is a filtering process that is upheld in
the German version of the most recent installment of the Wolfenstein series,
Wolfenstein: The New Order, whose removal of references to the Holocaust
conserves the “sanitized” and mythicized concepts of Nazism that have
marked these games’ German editions from the franchise’s first installment. 10
The Wolfenstein video game series and its institutional narrative
filtering
Since 1981, eleven Wolfenstein video games have been released. The following
list gives an overview of the games as well as those variant versions that
are discussed in this chapter (passing reference to other Wolfenstein games
is made in footnotes):
– Castle Wolfenstein (1981; not discussed in this chapter),
– Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984; not discussed in this chapter),
10 Bethesda Game Studios et al., Wolfenstein: The New Order (Bethesda Softworks, L.L.C., 2014).