
Albrecht von Beck (died 1935) was a Nazi German archaeologist and SS-Standartenführer, who, in 1935, led a failed expedition to obtain and weaponize the legendary Heart of the Dragon.
Biography[]
Albrecht von Beck was born in the German Empire to an aristocratic Prussian family, and he served in the Imperial German Army during World War I before joining the Nazi Party and the SS. Von Beck rose to the rank of SS-Standartenführer, and, in 1935, he was tasked by several high-ranking Nazi figures (believed to include Adolf Hitler himself) with obtaining the legendary Heart of the Dragon from Xi'an, China. He partnered with Kai Ti Chan of the Black Dragon Triad to this end, and he also worked with Turkish and South African mercenaries to achieve his goal. His first stop was on Sri Lanka, where he attempted to obtain the Heart of Kouru Watu, only for the American archaeologist Indiana Jones to dispatch his South African ivory hunters and throw Von Beck into the water around a sunken temple, where Von Beck was brutally attacked by a giant albino crocodile. Von Beck lost his right eye and was scarred across the right cheek, but he ultimately survived the attack and lured Jones into a trap at Prague Castle, where his Gestapo captured Jones. Von Beck took Jones to Istanbul for interrogation, but Jones was freed by Mei Ying, and Jones found the third piece of the Mirror of Dreams before the Nazis could do so. Von Beck and Kai responded by kidnapping Mei Ying and holding her captive on Peng Lai island, where the Nazis had built a submarine pen and airbase. While Jones freed her, Von Beck made his way to the Emperor's Tomb in Xi'an, China, where he navigated his way through booby traps and to the terracotta maze. He blew through the walls aboard a driller tank, but his troops either perished or abandoned him as he made his way towards the tomb. Von Beck eventually encountered Jones in the maze, pursuing him with his tank, but Jones lured Von Beck into chasing him towards a bottomless pit. While Jones was able to swing over the pit with his whip, Von Beck plunged to his death at the bottom of the chasm with a scream of terror.