The Man in the High Castle Wikia
The Man in the High Castle Wikia
Attention Needed - Article Stub
This particular article is still lacking the necessary information, images, and/or general formatting.
You can assist The Man in the High Castle Wikia by improving it.


You will take an early retirement, and all this will go away, will all be forgotten. Now, I hope that sounds good. Because the alternative; reeks of treason, execution and other unpleasantries.
~ Hoover, threatening John Smith


John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 - c. March 1965) was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), serving from 1935 until 1947, when he then went on to lead the American Reich Bureau of Investigation, a Nazi America-based division of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Born to a German-American family in Washington, D.C., Hoover worked as a at the Library of Congress before obtaining his Bachelor of Laws degree. After the outbreak of the First World War, he was hired by the Department of Justice where he served under the War Emergency Division, assigned to investigate allegedly disloyal foreigners which ultimately resulted in the arrest of so-called 'enemy aliens'. In 1919, he was appointed the head of the General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation as the first 'Red Scare' began, and played a major role in the Palmer Raids, causing the arrests and detention of thousands of 'radicals'. Two years later in 1921 he was appointed the agency's deputy head, and in 1924, became its director.

During the Prohibition Era, the Bureau was directly involved in the war on criminal gangs; in 1934 its agents managed to successfully kill a number of prominent gangsters, and in that time Hoover created an image of himself as a brave crime-fighter. In 1935, Hoover had the agency renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and became its first director. By the late 1930s, the FBI had become the premier counter-intelligence service in the US, with its own laboratory and fingerprint index. During the pre-war years the FBI's work shifted to investigating communist and fascist sympathizers in the US after concerns of a potential 'fifth column' arose. During the Second World War, Hoover was tasked with preventing espionage by Germany and Japan and exposing enemy agents. His power continued to increase, especially due to the fact he had amassed significant amounts of highly compromising information on various public figures, mainly politicians.

After the surrender of the United States in 1947 and the end of the war, Hoover switched sides and became a supporter of the Nazis - an easy transition due to his racist and antisemitic views, offering his services to the Reich Main Security Office. He subsequently founded the ARBI as the successor to the FBI and the de facto American secret police, implementing a pervasive and universal system of surveillance in every part of the country. No one was safe from the authorities, with every home and office bugged and wiretapped, phone lines monitored for potentially 'subversive' conversations and people encouraged to report on their own friends, family and neighbors. Hoover's influence peaked in the 1950s and 60s, where he became one of the most senior figures in the American Reich. He became one of SS commander John Smith's prime adversary; in 1963 he colluded with Reichsmarschall George Lincoln Rockwell to expose him for covering up his son's illness. However, after Smith blackmailed Hoover into backing down, the plot failed, Rockwell was stripped of post and exiled to Cuba.

After Smith was appointed the new acting Reichsmarschall, Hoover bided his time, and convinced Rockwell's successor to expand the system of universal surveillance, extending to Smith's own family. After ARBI wiretaps recorded potentially treasonous conversations by Smith, his wife and children, Hoover planned to use the evidence to get revenge on the Reichsmarschall and remove him from his position. At a high command meeting in Berlin, Hoover presented his findings to Heinrich Himmler and the officers gathered there; however, it would ultimately be the ARBI director who would end up feeling the wrath of the Nazi state. After Himmler and his staff were murdered in a coup d'etat carried out by Smith and SS general Wilhelm Goertzmann, Hoover was the only person in the room left alive. Smith would then stab Hoover with his dagger, killing him and eliminating his last true rival.


Biography[]

Background[]

During World War II, Hoover was still the director of the FBI in the United States. After America and its allies were defeated and occupied by 1947, Hoover decided to collaborate with the Greater Nazi Reich, presumably in a move to save his own life and retain his political power. Such a transition likely was not difficult, given his shared distaste of communism and degeneracy with the Nazis, along with his preferences for violating civil liberties.

Accordingly, the FBI was then restructured into a Nazi American based division of the Sicherheitsdienst, known as the American Reich Bureau of Investigation (ARBI), with Hoover retaining his position as director.

Season Three[]

Hoover is seen to be in a close political relationship with Reichsmarschall George Lincoln Rockwell, the head of Nazi America. While working closely with Rockwell, he becomes involved in a conspiracy to expose John Smith's actions regarding his attempted cover-up of his son's illness. He provides Rockwell with detailed evidence documenting Smith's plans to have Thomas kidnapped in South America, and together they plot to reveal this information to Reichsfuhrer Himmler.

John soon finds out about this conspiracy and threatens Hoover with blackmail. Hoover then turns on Rockwell, withholding all evidence he has on John, leading to Rockwell being exiled to Cuba for treason.

Season Four[]

Hoover successfully persuades Smith to allow the ARBI to set up a sophisticated surveillance system to continuously spy on every citizen of the American Reich. Unbeknownst to the Reichsmarschall, Hoover begins spying on members of the Smith family, especially his wife and his eldest daughter, who've been secretly disillusioned by Nazism. The ARBI sets up a variety of wire-taps all over Smith's residence without his knowledge, and later kidnaps and interrogates their maid for information.

Hoover then flies to Berlin to present the incriminating data to Heinrich Himmler under Adolf Eichmann's orders. However, he does not know that Smith and German Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Goertzmann have planned a putsch against Himmler and Eichmann. As Smith is summoned to Himmler's office, where he plans to kill him, Goertzmann's men eliminate all the members of the Nazi war command, including Eichmann. Hoover is left to be knifed to death by John Smith for his betrayal.

Appearance & Personality[]

Hoover is an ambitious, cunning, and opportunistic man whose talent for espionage has enabled him to rise through the ranks of the ARBI just as quickly as he did through the FBI in our timeline. He is perfectly at home in the political arena and knows how to choose the right allies to achieve his ambitions.

Relationships[]

To be Added

Appearances[]

Season Three
"Now More Than Ever ..."
Appears
"Imagine Manchuria"
Appears
"Sensô Kôi"
Appears
"Sabra"
Absent
"The New Colossus"
Appears
"History Ends"
Appears
"Excess Animus"
Absent
"Kasumi ..."
Absent
"Baku"
Absent
"Jahr Null"
Absent
Season Four
"Hexagram 64"
Absent
"Every Door Out..."
Absent
"The Box"
Absent
"Happy Trails"
Absent
"Mauvaise Foi"
Absent
"All Serious Daring"
Absent
"No Masters But Ourselves"
Absent
"Hitler Has Only Got One Ball"
Appears
"For Want of a Nail"
Appears
"Fire from the Gods"
Absent

Notes & Trivia[]

J. Edgar Hoover, as a Director of the FBI in our timeline.

J. Edgar Hoover, as a Director of the FBI in our timeline.

  • Smith's blackmail over Hoover is never specified in the series. However, given that the real Hoover was widely rumored to be homosexual (something he fervently denied), it is possible that was Smith's blackmail over Hoover in the series, assuming it is true in the series.

References[]