Trivia: A sinister aspect of an otherwise lightheated comedy, but the fact is that Hogan and his men are war criminals. They engage in combat activities behind enemy lines when not in uniform, and worse, while wearing enemy uniforms. The Germans tried that during the Battle of the Bulge and those arrested were shot.
Trivia: During WW2 Robert Clary, who played Louis LeBeau, had been imprisoned at Drancy internment camp in France, and at Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp where he was tattooed with the number "A5714." He was the youngest of 14 children. Twelve members of his immediate family were sent to Auschwitz, and perished.
Trivia: The ever-present helmet on Klink's desk and in the opening and closing credits is a "Pickelhaube" (pronounced pickle-how-be). It was originally a Prussian helmet design that later spread throughout the German Reich and beyond. It quickly became a symbol of Prussian militarism and hints at Klinks military career in the 1st WW. The spike on top was supposed to deflect a sabre blow from an enemy. The ones on the desk are the 1915 model, identified by it's easily detachable tip. Since it was inadequate in a modern combat environment - it was made from leather - it was succeeded in 1916 by the nowadays equally iconic Stahlhelm.
Trivia: When the show was translated to German, the producers feared that some of the more patriotic lines of Klink would be too nationalist for the bruised German sensibilities. As a result, whenever Klink starts talking patriotic drivel in the original, in the German he starts rhyming nonsense rhymes or talks about his housekeeper and (secret) affair "Frau Kalinke" which does not even exist in the original.
Trivia: In the show, Klink is depicted as thoroughly unmusical and an atrocious violinist. In real life, Werner Klemperer was a proficient violinist and also a piano player. After the show was canceled, he worked as a classical musician.
Trivia: Werner Klemperer was Jewish. When he was a child, he and his parents fled Germany when WWII broke out. Klemperer plays Klink as a buffoon, always losing in the end, and totally oblivious to the Allies shenanigans; he insisted that it be written into the contract that this formula be followed. Otherwise, another man would have been Klink.
Trivia: Hogan's Heroes was originally conceived as a comedy set in a U.S. Penitentiary. Creator Bernard Fein tried for four years to sell it, gave up, and was headed home on a plane when he saw a passenger reading the novel Von Ryan's Express. That gave him an idea. He flew back to Hollywood with a proposal for a show now set in a German P.O.W. Camp, and sold the series in four days.
Trivia: When the outside night time activities were filmed (i.e., entering or exiting the Emergency entrance, et cetera), and it was at the back lot film location, it was during the day, and the cameras were fitted with "night lenses." This was a special filter that turned day time to an evening setting.
Answer: Nimrod's actual identity was never revealed in the series. It was only known that he was a British intelligence agent. Nimrod was not Colonel Klink. Hogan had only implied it was him as a ruse to get Klink returned as camp commandant, not wanting him replaced by someone more competent who would impede the Heroes war activities. (As another contributor previously posted, the term "nimrod" is slang for a nerdy, doofus type of person, though it's unclear why that was his code name).
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