Superman Taschenbuch
Translated into German as "Der Henker stirbt um Mitternacht!" (The Hangman Dies at Midnight) and published in Stuttgart, Germany by Egmont Ehapa Verlag, the story acts as a dark psychological deep-dive, illustrating von Hammer's isolating inner torment, his unique bond with a wild black wolf in his ancestral forest, and his rigid refusal to shoot down unarmed or defenseless enemies despite the ruthless demands of the German military command.
Like many Ehapa Verlag issues of this era, this book originally included a collectible reward stamp (Sammelmarke) printed on the inside or back. In the modern German collector market, finding a copy where a child did not cut out the stamp dramatically increases its resale value.
True to early 1980s German localization trends, the intense historical wartime dialogue by Robert Kanigher was heavily softened and polished by the Ehapa translation staff to comply with strict domestic German comic distribution standards regarding violence and military glorification.
