Helge is a sad character through and through. As a boy, he is shy and unsure of himself. He is a poor student and his mother Greta is harsh on him. The local teenagers constantly pick on him.
As an adult, Helge works as a security guard at the nuclear power plant, where his father Bernd Doppler is in charge. He seems rather simple, spending his free time making figurines in a cabin in the woods. He has scars on his face and his ear disfigured. What happened to him?
In 2019, Helge Doppler is a confused old man living in a nursing home. He constantly mumbles prophecies to himself and frequently leaves his accomodation. His son Peter and daughter-in-law Charlotte look after him.
Double life
In 1986, Helge is working as Noah's henchman. He kidnaps several children at Noah's bidding. Noah uses them as test subjects for his prototype time machine and the boys are killed in the process. Noah manipulates gullible Helge and tells him the unfortunate deaths are necessary to save the world from evil. Helge feels burdened and has his doubts, but is unable to stand up to Noah.
Policeman Egon Tiedemann suspects Helge has something to do with the kidnappings. On the night that Mads Nielsen vanished, Helge was working at the nuclear power plant. After his shift, Helge claims he took a longer route home via the state road instead of going through the forest. Why was that? Nevertheless, Helge is never properly questioned.
Regrets
When several children disappear in 2019, elderly Helge remembers his past. "It will happen again," he repeats over and over.
Helge regrets what he's done and wants to try to change things. He escapes from the nursing home and goes to the passage in the Winden caves. He tries to stop his 42-year-old self from taking the children, but doesn't succeed. The old man dies in an attempt to kill his younger self in a car accident. Helge from 1986 survives and the course of events remains unchanged.
Childhood trauma
In 2019, Ulrich Nielsen suspects Helge Doppler has something to do with the missing children. He tries to question him at the nursing home, but Helge is unable to answer coherently. When Helge goes to the caves, Ulrich follows him, but ends up traveling to 1953.
There, Ulrich finds Helge Doppler as a boy. He believes he can prevent the death of his brother Mads and the disappearance of the other children by killing Helge. Ulrich hits the boy over the head with a stone, leaving his ear disfigured for the rest of his life. He leaves the bloodied boy in the bunker next to the cabin in the woods.
Helge is trapped, but then a rift in time opens before his eyes and he can see Jonas Kahnwald in another time. When they touch hands, Helge is instantly transported to 1986.
