German sniper Erwin König 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 Zaytsev to avoid any confrontation.

Zaytsev was immortalised in the 2001 war film Enemy at the Gates, which told the story of this battle through Zaytsev’s eyes. The film culminates in a climatic sniper battle between Zaytsev and Major Erwin König, a German sniper, and the director of a Wehrmacht sniper school.

The Armed Forces Museum of Moscow claims to be in possession of König’s telescopic sight, and Zaytsev indicates in his memoirs that a three-day sniper duel did occur, and that the sniper he killed was the head of a sniper school near Berlin.

The tremendous human cost of the battle is difficult to comprehend. The Axis forces (comprised of German, Italian, Romanian and Hungarian troops) suffered 800,000 casualties, the Soviets more than one million. The battle marked the furthest extent of the German advance into the Soviet Union, and is seen by many historians as a key turning point in the war.