born  terrorists were changed into English forms (mostly into their  British equivalents): Hans became Jack, Karl became Charlie,  Heinrich turned into Henry etc... the new background depicted them  as radical Irish activists having gone freelance and for profit  rather than ideals. (This led to some odd plot holes in this movie  and continuity problems with  _Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)_ (qv); there, the villain is  considered to be the brother of Hans Gruber, yet hes German.) This  was because German terrorism (especially by the Rote Armee Fraktion)  was still considered a sensitive issue by the German government in  the 1980s.