Aahana Swrup
Set in 1945 Nazi Germany, ‘Blood & Gold’ is a German war action film directed by Peter Thorwarth. It features Robert Maaser and Marie Hacke in lead roles alongside Alexander Scheer, Florian Schmidtke, and others. Following a deserter SS Private, Heinrich, the film revolves around the SS’s hunt for Jewish gold in the village of Sonnenberg. In the woods, Heinrich finds an ally, Elsa, and goes up against the Starnfeld Colonel on his journey back to his daughter. If you’re curious to see where this adventure takes Heinrich and Elsa and how the SS’s treasure hunt unfolds, here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Blood & Gold.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!
Blood & Gold Plot Synopsis
In the Spring of 1945, Heinrich gets caught in the middle of desertion by the SS. When asked about his motives, Heinrich calls his Fatherland a nation of murderers. As a result, Starnfeld’s Colonel leaves him hanging on a tree in the middle of the forest. However, Elsa, a woman from a nearby remote farm, saves Heinrich’s life and carries him to her house on a wheelbarrow. After waking up, Heinrich tries to leave at once, but Elsa urges him to stay until he recovers.
However, Heinrich has a young daughter waiting for him in Hagen and insists he must leave immediately. Meanwhile, at the nearby village, Sonnenberg, Heinrich’s former SS army unit, rolls into town in search of gold bars that belong to Johannes Löwenstein. As such, the Colonel sends Office Dörfler to collect provisions, and he arrives at Elsa’s farm. Heinrich hides in the attic while Elsa exits the house with her gun to assess the situation. Afterward, Dörfler enters Elsa’s house with his men and throws out her brother Paule.
Dörfler tries to rape Elsa, and his men hold her down when she tries to fight back. However, Heinrich comes out of hiding and fights off the SS Officers. Together, Heinrich and Elsa chase after Dörfler, but he manages to escape and drives away. Soon, Elsa, Paule, and Heinrich leave the farm to escape from the SS. Nevertheless, Paule sneaks to the farm at night to tend to his cow Rita.
The following morning, Paule gets caught by the SS, who take him back to Sonnenberg. In the village, The Colonel calls for a town meeting where he plans to publicly execute Paule by hanging him from the top of a church. However, when two soldiers take Paule to the Church’s attic, he pushes one of them out of the window and steals his gun. As such, Paule starts open firing at the soldiers on the ground while the civilians run away screaming.
Elsa, aided by Heinrich, arrives at the church to rescue her brother. Nevertheless, by the time she reaches him, the Colonel shoots Paule in the head, and Elsa watches his dead body fall at her feet. As a result, Elsa goes into a murderous rage and starts shooting at the soldiers in the town square with her gun. Meanwhile, Dörfler spots Heinrich and chases after him with his men.
The Colonel takes Elsa with him, and Heinrich barely escapes Dörfler’s clutches with a grave stab wound on his thigh. He hides in the house of a Nazi-hating friend of Elsa’s, an old lady named Irmguard. Soon, the village’s priest arrives at Irmguard’s house. Through the priest, Heinrich discovers the SS is looking for gold treasure in Sonnenberg.
Blood & Gold Ending: What Happens To Löwenstein’s Gold?
The Starnfeld Colonel finds out about the Gold through Johannes Löwenstein. Johannes tries to buy his way out of the Nazi concentration camps by telling them about his family’s hidden treasure in Sonnenberg. Years before the Second World War, the Löwensteins used to live in the Sonnenberg village. Their son, Johannes, marries a girl from a wealthy merchant family and sells the company to move from Germany to Palestine.
Johannes senses situations are about to worsen for Jewish people in Germany. However, his parents refuse to leave. On the night of Kristallnacht, the villagers attack the Löwenstein house, killing Johannes’ parents and burning their house. In the mob attack, Mr. Löwenstein drops a crate of gold that Sonja steals with the help of two men and the village mayor.
When the SS comes looking for the gold, the mayor starts to give in to the pressure when his son’s life is threatened. As such, Sonja and her men kill the mayor before he can rat out the gold’s location. However, when Sonja goes to retrieve the gold from the graveyard, she finds someone has already stolen it. Instead, in the grave, Sonja finds a copy of The Bible.
On Kristallnacht, the priest had noticed Sonja stealing the gold bars. He couldn’t let Sonja and the others possess Löwenstein’s gold and had hidden it inside the church. After the priest tells Heinrich about the Gold’s location, Heinrich devises a plan to help rescue Elsa. Meanwhile, Sonja finds the priest and makes him lead her and her men to the gold. When the two men find the gold inside the church, they also find grenades alongside them which blow them up.
Following the blast at the church, Dörfler arrives at the church with Heinrich. Dörfler kills the priest, but before he can reach the gold, Elsa blows up the church’s roof with a missile launcher. A gunfight breaks out in the church, with Irmguard and Elsa fighting off the SS soldiers. In the end, only Elsa and Dörfler alongside a severely injured Heinrich are left. Nevertheless, when Dörfler tries to choke Elsa to death, Heinrich saves her and kills Dörfler with a bar of gold.
After the fight with The SS, Elsa, and Heinrich leave the town behind and the gold with it. Sonja, the last one left alive, takes the gold with her. However, after the Americans win the war, they blow up Sonja’s truck in the middle of the forest. The American soldiers find Löwenstein’s gold in the car crash and decide to keep it for themselves.
What Happens To The Colonel?
After the Starnfeld Colonel kidnaps Elsa, he takes her to his headquarters at the village inn. The Colonel tells Elsa about a woman named Rebecca, whom he used to love. However, since she was Jewish, The Colonel couldn’t be with her and killed her. Elsa reminds The Colonel of Rebecca. As such, he stops his soldiers from killing her because he wants to replace Rebecca’s absence with Elsa.
The Colonel uncovers his mutilated face from behind his mask and retrieves a ring from inside his eye cavity. The Colonel gives this ring to Elsa, turning her into Rebecca in his mind. At night, the two sleep in two twin beds put together. While the Colonel sleeps, Elsa notices a poison ring on his finger. Inside the ring’s hidden compartment, Elsa finds a suicide pill.
When the Colonel’s sleep is disturbed, and he wakes, Elsa puts the pill in her mouth without swallowing it. Afterward, Elsa kisses The Colonel, transferring the suicide pill into his mouth. As a result, the poisonous pill kills The Colonel, leaving him with a foaming mouth. After The Colonel dies, Elsa escapes through the window. Later, when Dörfler finds The Colonel, he assumes he committed suicide due to Germany’s inevitable loss of the war.
Does Heinrich Reunite With His Daughter?
From the film’s beginning, Heinrich constantly tries to return to his young daughter, Lottchen. During his time with The SS, Heinrich receives a letter from his neighbors at Hagen. In the letter, Heinrich’s neighbors, The Wahrlichs, inform him about a recent bombing raid in their hometown. In the bombing, Heinrich’s wife, Elisabeth, who was seven months pregnant, dies alongside his young son. However, his daughter, Lottchen, survives, and The Wahrlichs take her in.
Since Lottchen’s birth, Heinrich has only ever seen her once, when she was very young. As such, Lottchen barely even knows her father. Nevertheless, Heinrich continues to fight to get back to her in order to keep her safe and happy. Similar to Heinrich, Elsa also deeply cares about her family. Nazi soldiers killed her father for making subversive statements. As a result, Elsa ran away from the village to keep her brother safe since his genetic disorder made him a target for the Nazis.
However, after Paule dies, Elsa has nothing left for her back in Sonnenberg. Therefore, she chooses to accompany Heinrich on his travel to Hagen. Eventually, the two reach their destination and find The Wahrlichs, who have Lottchen with them. Heinrich reunites with his daughter, who runs to him and clings to him in a hug.
