Winden wouldn't be the same without this man. Bernd Doppler is the driving force behind construction of the nuclear power plant in the 1950s. He lives together with his wife Greta in a stately manor house. They have one son, Helge, whom Bernd loves above all else. He is devastated when Helge goes missing.
Bernd works as the director of the nuclear power plant for several decades before passing the reins to Claudia Tiedemann in 1986. By this point he is an old man in a wheelchair, but his mind is as sharp as ever.
Accident at the nuclear power plant
On her first day as director of the plant, Claudia Tiedemann discovers there was an incident in the summer of 1986 that has been covered up. She wants to go public with the information, but Bernd Doppler convinces her otherwise. The entire town is economically dependent on the plant and revealing the accident would threaten the plant's existence, especially after the Chernobyl disaster. Bernd shows Claudia an entrance to the Winden caves on the plant site where countless yellow barrels full of radioactive waste have been hidden.