German sniper Erwin Knig on way to Stalingrad (Enemy at the Gates)

In the film Enemy at the Gates the Germans send Erwin König—played by Ed Harris—as the head of the Wehrmacht Sniper School. He is sent to Stalingrad to take on the increasingly aggressive Soviet snipers. König is depicted as a ruthless Bavarian aristocrat pitted against Zaytsev. Erwin König is a name of an apocryphal Wehrmacht sniper allegedly killed by the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaytsev during the Battle of Stalingrad. König is mentioned both in Zaytsev's memoirs Notes of a Sniper (a “Major Konings“, potentially SS) and William Craig's 1973 non-fiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. He was portrayed by Ed Harris in the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates. The alleged duel between Zaytsev and König took place over a period of three days in the ruins of Stalingrad. In a post-war visit to Berlin,Zaytsev was allegedly confronted by a woman who told him she was König's daughter, with Soviet authorities quickly evacuating Z