Wagner

Wagner is a fictional character who appeared in the Hogan's Heroes episode, The Informer. He was played by Noam Pitlik.

Wagner first appears in the episode dressed up as a recently captured American airman who is standing outside Klink's office, waiting to be processed. He is shown rubbing one of his wrists, as a pair of handcuffs are being removed from his other arm, when he is approached by a cigar smoking Colonel Hogan, who soon tells him to only give Kommandant Klink his name, rank and serial number. He tells Hogan that he would. But, once inside Klink's office, he reveals himself to be a future plant when, as Klink starts to speak to him in German, he asks him to instead speak in English so that he won't give himself away.

Upon his arrival inside Barracks 7, he is asked several questions by Hogan about his old unit. As the others watch, he gives Hogan the number of his unit, and then Wagner tells him that the two people that he is being asked about didn't sound familiar. When he asks about the questioning, Hogan tells him that they are to help keep out ringers that the Germans might try to plant and that he has just passed the test, but when Hogan then asks him about a certain rapscallion that Hogan claims he knew in that unit, Wagner pretends that he also knows the person in question. Hogan then tells Wagner that later he is going to ask him about what his old friend has been up to lately, before finally leaving him. Wagner is then bumped into by Corporal Newkirk, who then proceeds to help him clean him up while apologizing for the 'accidental' bump. Wagner then leaves the scene. But, once he is out of sight, Hogan tells Newkirk that Wagner is actually a German spy, since the answers that he'd just given him about his rapscallion friend are wrong, since that individual didn't actually exist. After being told by Newkirk that he is clean, Hogan tells Newkirk to inform the other prisoners not to talk to Wagner. Newkirk then leaves to do just that. Unfortunately, he doesn't tell this to Lieutenant Carter, who is presently sleeping.

A short time later, as Carter is being told how they are going to help him escape, Newkirk comes into Hogan's office telling him that Wagner is inside Klink's office. They, along with Sergeant Kinchloe and Corporal LeBeau, then see the red light on the coffee pot listening device blink on, before they start hearing Wagner's phone conversation with his superior in Berlin, telling him about what he has just learned about their organization. While he is still inside Klink's office, he tells a disbeliving Klink, who tells him that there must be some mistake, that it is going to be his last mistake. At the same time, Hogan asks who'd blab to Wagner, with Carter quickly confessing to the others that he did, not knowing at the time that he should not have spoken to him, since an equally confessing Newkirk says that he has not warn a sleeping Carter that Wagner is actually a German spy.

When LeBeau asks what they are going to do about Wagner, Hogan suggest that they eat the food that LeBeau has prepared earlier, which they proceed to do. Later, when the men, led by Sergeant Riley and Sergeant Minsk, asks Hogan what they are going to do about Wagner, thinking that he knew too much about their organization, Hogan tells them that he thought that he didn't know enough, and that they are going to show Wagner their whole operation and then discredit him before his superior.

Hogan starts the first part of the disinformation operation by informing Wagner, after he has reentered the barracks, that they have just voted and decided to show him their whole operation. He is quickly blindfolded by LeBeau, with Hogan saying it is being done for his protection. Wagner is then led by Hogan and LeBeau to the doghouse tunnel inside the dog kennel, while he is convinced by them that they are going through the secret tunnel entrance that is suppose to be under the camp's water tower.

Once they are all inside the tunnel, Wagner is shown around by Hogan: Wagner first sees the mint where the prisoners create fake currency, which Wagner, watched by Hogan, takes away a sample of for evidence; next, he is brought to the factory, where he watches a few prisoners pack away a few Lugers shaped cigarette lighters, which Hogan informs him would later be sold in Berlin, before he takes one away as evidence; he then asks Hogan how they are able to get their equipment in and out of camp, soon being told by him that they did it by using Oscar Schnitzer's truck, claiming that there are no real guard dogs inside it, only a recording that creates barking sounds; he is then shown the sauna which Hogan says they use to help stay trim after all of the food that they bring in to eat, so as not to give away the operation; next, he is shown the barber shop which Hogan says they use to help keep the men hair trim, and which includes an area where Fraulein Helga gives manicures to the prisoners, before he hears Hogan also mention that they have a communication center, before he see Hogan leave.

The following day, after the arrival of Colonel Burkhalter and his staff, Wagner tells Burkhalter about Hogan's secret operation that is under Colonel Klink's very nose, while Hogan acts surprised about learning that Wagner is actually a spy. He then tells the pair about the tunnel system under the camp, the mint, the factory, the sauna, the barber shop and the communication center. But when he tries to prove each of his assertions, he is unable to do so.

First, the money that he has taken earlier he now discover to have suddenly vanished (actually it has been secretly retrieved by Newkirk). Next, neither Klink nor Burkhalter would believe his story that Helga is giving manicures to the prisoners. Then, when he tries to use the Luger which he has stolen earlier, claiming that it is one of the cigarette lighters which he has seen being made in the factory, to light up a cigar that Hogan has just given Burkhalter, it instead fires a bullet which destroys the cigar in Burkhalter's mouth. He quickly claims that the prisoners have somehow switched the lighter with a real Luger. Wagner then leads Klink, Burkhalter and his staff over to the water tower. Upon reaching it, he grabs the cord while telling Burkhalter that he would now reveal to him the main tunnel entrance. Instead, the pulled cord leads to water being released from the tower, which then drenches Burkhalter and his staff, much to the amusement of Hogan's men. Now desperate, Wagner, after claiming that there is a prisoner who has actually snuck into the camp, next heads over to Schnitzer's truck, to prove that it is being used to smuggle stuff into the camp. But, after ignoring Schnitzer's warning about the dogs, when he opens up the back, he is surprised to see several dogs exits it, who are soon being chased around by both the prisoners and the camp's guards, while Carter sneaks into the truck and Olsen sneaks out of it.

Wagner, at this point, starts to have a mental breakdown. For Burkhalter, this is the last straw, as he immediately orders Wagner to be arrested by his staff and taken away, to be sent to the Russian Front to help clear his head. As the prisoners watch, Wagner is taken away by Burkhalter's staff, while screaming his innocent.