That is, the inspiration for Indiana Jones was.

Meet Otto Rahn, German archaeologist and Obersturmführer of the SS.

Like Jones, Rahn was an archaeologist, like him he fell foul of the Nazis and like him he was obsessed with finding the Holy Grail - the cup reputedly used to catch Christ’s blood when he was crucified. But whereas Jones rode the Grail-train to box-office glory, Rahn’s obsession ended up costing him his life.

However, Rahn is such a strange figure, and his story so bizarre, that simply seeing him as the unlikely progenitor of Indiana Jones is to do him a disservice. Here was a man who entered into a terrible Faustian pact: he was given every resource imaginable to realise his dream. There was just one catch: in return, he had to find something that - if it ever existed - had not been seen for almost 2,000 years.

It's interesting to note that Rahn was openly homosexual...probably not such a good idea during Nazi-Germany.

He was found frozen to death on a mountainside in Austria in 1939.

There's something to think about when you go watch the new Indiana Jones movie.

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