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Dietrich Brenner Blog Entry |
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May 16, 2025, 12:00:09 AM May 16, 2025, 12:00:20 AM 5/16/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Dietrich Brenner, sans cap (top drawing) and with cap (bottom drawing). He's the father of Berit and is gamekeeper on the Heidenreich estate. I don't know much about him yet, though whatever I learn will later be in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's a German shorthaired pointer. TUMBLR EDIT: Alas! Dietrich hasn't opened up to me yet, so I haven't any significant lore to share, only vague theories. What a tough nut to crack. Firstly, check out his daughter's, Berit's, page linked above. There you can get a taste of...whatever you would call this. Berit seems somewhat mentally unbalanced, and Dietrich doesn't instill much confidence himself, with their bizarre "Pole hunt" and morbid sense of humor. The only thing I know for sure about Dietrich is that there is a weird aspect to his relationship with his daughter--things are not what they seem. As for WHAT exactly that is...I have no idea yet. Okay, I lied. I have ideas, just that so far, my intuition is rejecting them. Let's take a look at what does hold up so far. Dietrich and Berit are definitely not on the same page: While she's actively (though shadily) aiding the resistance, he has no idea, and isn't involved in her schemes, which include a brief physical relationship with resistance leader Josef Diamant and ongoing efforts to drag him back into her bed (Diamant belatedly realizes just how "off" she is and spends much of the story trying to keep her at arm's length); this of course is highly problematic, as relationships between Germans and Jews are illegal. This detail led me to suspect that this isn't Berit's first rodeo. She likely has a history of inappropriate behavior. I can easily imagine her, prior to her involvement with Diamant as a young adult, flirting and making moves on various others on the Heidenreich estate, possibly even Colonel Heidenreich himself. (I picture him being flattered, yet uninterested--he has plenty of vices, but underage girls aren't one of them--plus I picture Eva Heidenreich having a nice sit-down with Berit and Berit leaving pale and shaking and never ever casting eyes at her boss again.) There are probably at least a handful of male members of the expansive help staff who've received Berit's attentions. This is where Dietrich comes in; he probably overlooks this behavior for a time, believing she'll grow out of it, yet once he catches wind of how reckless it's becoming (maybe her effort with Heidenreich?--Eva would likely speak with Dietrich as well, and in that pleasantly polite yet terrifying way of hers request that he get a handle on his daughter, please), he stages an intervention of his own, insisting that she rein herself in. Dietrich isn't a particularly strict or forbidding father, so he's a bit rusty at trying to reprimand his daughter, though Frau Heidenreich's warning rattles him badly enough to put in the effort. He rebukes a sulky Berit, calls upon God, waves his arms, exclaims that surely if her mother were still here she would set her straight. Frankly, Eva's sit-down with her made much more of an impression--Frau Heidenreich can convince you with no words, merely a courteous smile, that she can have you put on a train and sent to a camp in the blink of an eye (and as her husband is the chief of the SD, she probably could)--so father and daughter are both sure she won't target Heidenreich again. Dietrich begs her to tone down the rest of her risky behavior and maybe find some other hobby. Dietrich is the gamekeeper on Heidenreich's estate; the colonel enjoys hosting parties and events on his sprawling property out in the countryside, which is full of grassy fields for his beloved prize horses, rushing streams and brooks, and thick groves and tracts of forest. The area teems with waterfowl, small game such as rabbits and foxes, and bigger game like deer and boars; although technically extinct in the area, it's been rumored that occasionally, a bear or a wolf may wander in (or more likely, Heidenreich finds a way to have one imported and released). Dietrich patrols the property, keeps his eyes open for ill or injured animals, takes note of those caring for offspring, drives off pests, makes sure no poachers make their way in (an extreme rarity, as the Heidenreichs are a "Shoot first, ask questions later" couple). It's a prestigious job for a working-class person (and Heidenreich pays very well), so he takes it very seriously, and is quite loyal. He also discreetly looks the other way whenever his boss decides to pass some time with any of the female help staff. It's rather a relief that Frau Heidenreich has the sense of mind to never inquire about that, as like I said, she's pretty terrifying, though Heidenreich himself is even more so. I'm pretty sure the sadistic Heidenreich is at least part of the brains behind the sometimes bizarrely themed hunts that occur on his property; Dietrich doesn't strike me as being so creative, at least, not on his own. Hunting in and of itself is just fine by him. The Heidenreichs are easily bored and prefer more interesting pursuits. When Dietrich brings this up at supper one evening, Berit pipes up with an idea to turn a regular hunt into an event. Wouldn't it be something if the entire party used only the sort of weapons the old Saxons might have used? Or what if they all dressed up like they're participating in the Wild Hunt, or Wagner's Der Ring? Dietrich finds the ideas odd and impractical yet runs them by his employers. Frau Heidenreich, too, is skeptical, yet Colonel Heidenreich is intrigued. He orders one of his ever-present SS aides to make a call to the opera and see if they have their Ring costumes available. And asks Dietrich where he got such an idea. Dietrich gives credit where it's due, and says it was Berit's idea. Frau Heidenreich gets a chilly look on her face yet Heidenreich appears to have already brushed off and forgotten the youthful attempted indiscretion; he suggests that Dietrich may want to consider apprenticing his daughter. Berit is thrilled at the idea of becoming apprentice gamekeeper; such jobs are generally off limits to women under the Third Reich, yet Heidenreich bends whichever rules he likes, and he apparently recognizes talent when he sees it. Berit already knows all the basics anyway--she's practically grown up with a hunting rifle in her hands--and Dietrich has already brought her along for many of his duties, so he makes it a regular thing now and instructs her on the job's more specialized aspects. Berit's an eager student, plus, it greatly cuts down on her bad habits now that she has something useful to do. Dietrich asks for her ideas to pass along and soon the Heidenreich estate becomes well known for its extravagant--and borderline weird--hunting events. Dietrich is unaware of what ends up happening as a result of this. He trusts Berit to do her own thing, as two pairs of eyes/hands can get more done than one, so when one evening she arrives back at the hunting lodge where Heidenreich allows them to reside, he's puzzled by her oddly quiet and distracted demeanor. She doesn't chatter all throughout supper like she usually does, and even jumps a little when he asks what's wrong. She insists everything is fine, she just had a close call setting a trap, nothing important. He figures she's not telling the whole truth, yet knows that the harder he pushes, the more she'll resist, so he lets it go. They finish their meal, clean up the dishes, sit by the fire for a bit, then Berit heads to bed before Dietrich does...something truly odd, as she's a bit of a night owl. Dietrich takes a while to fall asleep, he's so uneasy about this change in his daughter's behavior. What had actually happened, rewind to present tense, Berit's POV: Berit, indeed, has been out checking and setting traps on the Heidenreich property, humming a marching tune as she does so. She stops by a hunting blind and checks the nearby area, only to stand back up and find a large revolver pointed right at her face; she's so startled that it takes her a moment to notice the man wielding it. She has no idea who he is--definitely not one of the estate staff--yet she does notice that he has a line of small numbers tattooed on his arm. He waves the end of the gun a little, gesturing for her to move aside a bit, which she of course does, keeping her hands in sight; he asks who she is (he speaks in a soft yet oddly menacing voice), though when she gives her name he says not that, why is she out here, what's her relationship to Heidenreich?--she answers that she's the gamekeeper's daughter and Heidenreich is her father's employer. At that point they're both startled by a rustling noise in the undergrowth; the man with the revolver gestures for her to go in the blind, and he follows. They wait in the dimness until they're sure it was just a passing animal, at which point he turns back to her and asks if she's out here alone. Suppressing a twinge of alarm, Berit lies, saying her father is nearby and probably looking for her right now. The man with the gun stares at her for a moment before letting out a slight snorting noise and saying, "You might want to learn how to lie more convincingly." Berit has just met resistance leader--and Nazi-proclaimed terrorist--Josef Diamant. He and a handful of his followers have been furtively scouting the edges of Heidenreich's property, seeking vulnerabilities and potential access; although obtaining entry to the household itself has been deemed far too risky (the normally hands-off Diamant has even issued a rare order forbidding his people from directly targeting the chief of the SD, knowing his death at their hands could result in a bloodbath), the estate is so expansive that finding escape routes around it is difficult and tedious, so the Diamond Network has been seeking a way safely through. Stumbling across Berit is either a stroke of good luck or a stroke of very bad luck; Diamant informs her that which it is depends on her. "I've already killed one miserable bastard like your boss," he says, "this here is his gun"--and he holds the gun aloft so she can see that it's an old M1879 Reichsrevolver--"so, shooting somebody like you or your father would be no big deal." Berit nervously asks what he'd like her to do. He stands up and approaches, reaching for his belt; Berit shrinks back a bit, yet all that he does is pull something out of a small pouch and hold it out to her; she takes it and sees that it's a playing card, the jack of diamonds. This can be used (when applicable) to prove her meeting with him to other members of the Network, but also, "If your boss or anyone else finds you with this, it puts a big target on your back. You can throw it away if you like, but trust me, it'll come right back to you." Berit decides to take the threat seriously; he says he'll be in touch again when he needs her services, and to keep the meeting between themselves. She heads back home and washes up for supper, muted and distracted. Dietrich of course knows none of this. He carries on completely ignorant of his daughter's budding involvement in the resistance, partly because it's just so ludicrous to believe. Berit's always been rabidly nationalist, even more so than himself--he suspects Heidenreich's position in the party has something to do with her expressing interest in him--so she would never act against the state. Well...turns out he's partly right, Berit is attracted to power. Just that it doesn't matter what side the power is on: She ends up making a similar move on Diamant at some point, and he has fewer scruples about reciprocating. (It helps that by now Berit isn't underage anymore, either.) This doesn't last very long--Diamant tries not to get too attached to anyone, a detail he makes clear from the start--and it's no different with Berit. Berit pouts and sulks when Diamant finally puts her off; that in itself is disappointing, but what really gets under her skin is that he shows interest in anyone else, and that another of his former temporary partners, Gret Dannecker, is still often in his company. (There's nothing romantic--or even sexual, anymore--between them. Berit still steams whenever she sees Gret, pretty Gret with her perfect Aryan looks. Berit fantasizes about strangling her with her pretty blond braids.) Dietrich, meanwhile, has no clue. He's too busy doing his job, and although he's a fellow traveler in spirit, he knows to keep his head down when necessary and mind his own business. Late one night, Dietrich wakes and lies blinking in his bed, groggy and confused, wondering what woke him up. It suddenly comes again--a woman's scream, quite faint and distant, but enough to have caught his ear. He pushes off the covers and goes to the open window, listening. He hears a soft knock, then his door opens; Berit creeps in and stops beside him, eyes wide--she apparently heard it, too. They briefly look at each other before renewed screaming draws their attention. "It's coming from the house," Dietrich whispers, staring in the direction of the manor, and "It sounds like Frau Heidenreich," Berit whispers back. Dietrich feels a creeping sense of dread; he pulls the window shut. "Go on, back to bed," he orders; Berit says, "But--" yet he shakes his head firmly and says, "It's none of our business. Back to bed." She retreats and a moment later Dietrich does the same, though it's a long time before he manages to get back to sleep. He and Berit head out, both in a subdued mood, to check the property the next morning; he sends Berit off to the woods while he goes to the house to check in with Heidenreich. The colonel is just on his way out to head to his job in the city; Dietrich is anxious, though Heidenreich gives no sign that anything is amiss, in fact mentions that he likely won't be back until late as there's a social function he'll be attending that evening. They share a few words about Dietrich's duties for the day and he departs. Dietrich starts patrolling the property nearer the house. He goes to the expansive horse stables to check in with the stable hands. Heidenreich comes from a family of horse breeders and he follows the tradition, taking great pride in his horses; they frequently win in competitions of all sorts, though at least a little of this is likely due to cheating (witness Heidenreich playing dirty in his horse race against Louis Dobermann, ending up with Stephen Gerhardt getting injured--but hey, Heidenreich wins). Dietrich spots something that immediately fills him with relief--Eva Heidenreich is there, saddling up one of the horses. Like her husband, she offers no sign of anything being amiss when Dietrich greets her, though when he v-e-r-y warily asks if everything is well, she pauses just a little to give him a sort of sideways look, as if trying to determine what he might know. Dietrich just clasps his cap in his hands with an earnest look. He does see the slightest flicker of something he's never seen before in Frau Heidenreich's eyes--uncertainty. He wonders if she's going to actually share something. Then, just like that--it's snuffed out, and the same half sugary pleasant, half vaguely menacing look that she always has returns, and she smiles and says of course everything is well, and thanks him for asking. She adds that she'll be leaving sometime that afternoon to join her husband in the city, though for now she'd like to enjoy a ride to clear her mind. Dietrich bobs his head, wishes her a pleasant ride, talks with the stable hands and returns to his work. When Berit later asks him about things, he says all is well, and the Heidenreichs return late that night, arm in arm, and life goes on. If you're familiar with my other entries you know that of course all isn't well, just that the Heidenreichs, Eva especially, are masters at concealing the ugliness beneath the surface. Dietrich is busy with his work and so finds out only upon his return to the house one day not long after that something truly awful has happened; the estate's SS guards are swarming the house even more conspicuously than usual, and a fleet of vehicles is streaming in from the city. Dietrich and Berit aren't allowed into the house, which an SD officer explains has been declared a crime scene; within, Dietrich can faintly hear wailing, again, Frau Heidenreich's voice. He'd never imagined her capable of such grief or despair. The SD officer tells him and Berit to remain on hand for questioning; "Questioning? Crime scene...?" Dietrich echoes, "What's going on? We've only just got back, are Herr and Frau Heidenreich all right...?" The SD officer just repeats his request and goes inside. Dietrich and Berit go looking for one of Heidenreich's aides; they spot one and head for him, only to halt abruptly when he doubles over and vomits on the pavement. Father and daughter share a bewildered look. As soon as he stands back up, bizarrely, he bursts into tears. Upon tentative questions from the Brenners, he sobs that Kamerad Heidenreich has been assassinated, horribly assassinated, by a bomb disguised as a gift, obviously the work of the treacherous Jew Diamant and the Diamond Network. "A horse," the officer says, "of course he would open it, from what they tell me, the bomb looked just like a little toy horse," and he starts crying again. The stunned Brenners fail to obtain any further information for a while, as the SD has arrived to investigate and basically locks down the estate; nobody but the investigators can come or go, and everyone is forbidden from conversing with other parts of the staff; Dietrich and Berit are told to return to the lodge and remain until an investigator visits. This doesn't happen until the following day, when a pair of SD lieutenants arrive; they introduce themselves as Obersturmführer Hesse and Untersturmführer Wozniak. Dietrich vaguely knows Hesse, who was involved in the horse race; he's been placed in charge of the investigation at Frau Heidenreich's and the Reichsführer's request. (Dietrich learns later on that he's also been offered a promotion, and Herr Heidenreich's job--Hesse turns down both, though he does assume temporary command of the SD until a replacement can be found.) Hesse is soft spoken and polite, yet obviously fatigued; his fellow lieutenant occasionally asks followup questions as he jots down notes and lifts his spectacles to rub his eyes. The Brenners answer everything truthfully and Hesse afterward ensures them that they aren't considered suspects--or targets--so far, so they have little to worry about: "Kamerad Heidenreich was obviously the target, there's no reason to think you may be in any ongoing danger. Return to your routine as usual, just bitte, don't leave the estate." Dietrich asks him what exactly happened as the two get up to leave; Hesse repeats the story of the bomb, seeming vaguely displeased to find that Dietrich knows it looked like a horse--"Ja, a wooden horse with a glass belly full of gears, how do you know of this?"--so Dietrich explains that a guard told him. Dietrich vows that he doesn't know any more than that. He asks if Frau Heidenreich is all right; Hesse says she's alive and uninjured. "What of Herr Heidenreich...?" Berit asks; Hesse pauses just briefly before saying, "He'll receive a state funeral, though there isn't much to bury." The Brenners pale a little at that and don't ask any more questions. In following days as the lockdown eases, they learn that indeed, the bomb, while small, was good enough to do its job--it went off in Heidenreich's closed office so nobody else was harmed, though Heidenreich was basically obliterated. Supper is subdued that night; Dietrich wonders how secure his job is now that his boss is dead (he got along with Heidenreich just fine, but they weren't close, it's hard to say Heidenreich had any actual friends or confidants). He asks Berit if she's well, as she's looking more nervous and distracted than usual. She actually jumps a little, and insists a bit too forcefully that she's fine, yet then blurts out, "You think it's true what they said? That Herr Diamant is behind this?" Dietrich furrows his brow--"Herr Diamant?"--it strikes him as a bit weird for Berit to refer to a terrorist leader so formally, or to be so oddly concerned about his possible involvement. "I don't know...I mean, who else would it be?" he says, yet then immediately second-guesses his own words--Heidenreich had LOTS of enemies, plus, he thinks again of the screaming he heard that one night, and the strange look in Frau Heidenreich's eyes--and Berit is too moody and rattled to share her own thoughts, so they head off to their beds, no less anxious than before. Unknown to them, after his initial certainty regarding the culprit behind the assassination, Hesse starts having the same doubts. Gerhardt--who unknown to Hesse is working with the resistance, and after confronting Diamant, learned he had nothing to do with this--presents the argument that the bomb, while good enough to get the job done, according to witness descriptions was nowhere near as sophisticated as Diamant's work; Diamant is a master craftsman, well known for his absurdly elaborate explosive devices. He even sends Hesse a windup toy soldier that almost kills Adelina Dobermann when it fires a bullet intended for Hesse. Hesse bristles at a mere Wehrmacht foot soldier insinuating that he might know better than a skilled longtime SD investigator, and says Diamant was probably attempting to deflect blame. Gerhardt asks if Diamant has ever done that?--because every time the Diamond Network stages a bombing or other act of sabotage, Diamant has always taken full credit, that's his thing. And Hesse finally falls silent, uncertain. The more he mulls it over the more sure he is that Diamant DIDN'T send the bomb after all. He confides in Wozniak about these suspicions, asking, "Do you think I have a blind spot?" Wozniak admits he kind of does, but why wouldn't he?--Diamant is his white whale. Hesse just stares at him. "Moby Dick," Wozniak says. Hesse just stares at him. "An American novel," Wozniak says a bit awkwardly. "Haven't read it," says Hesse. "Obviously," says Wozniak. Hesse reluctantly starts looking further afield than the Diamond Network, though it turns out he should be looking much closer to home. The Brenners, were they the sort to get chatty with outsiders, could have provided an important clue, though Hesse later learns it through other means. Berit is too preoccupied trying to allay her own budding hysteria (as with Gerhardt, Diamant has to defend himself from her accusations of killing Heidenreich--"Why does everyone think I'd build such a horribly incompetent bomb??"); Dietrich, meanwhile, spends his days teetering on the brink of uncertainty. The eventual arrest of Frau Heidenreich--she accompanies the SD officers without protest, head held high, not an ounce of fear or shame to her--jars him even more badly than the assassination. The Heidenreichs have no children--Frau Heidenreich was unable--so the estate is left ownerless, with the assumption that it'll be taken over by the state; the help staff are informed that their jobs are secure for now, though this could always change in the future. Still, job uncertainty isn't Dietrich's main concern anymore. He's far more unsettled by the fact that even someone as powerful as Heidenreich could be brought down so easily--and not even by the enemy, but by two of Germany's own (his own wife, and her lover, Waffen-SS captain Erich Arzt). Same as Hesse, his faith in the order of things is badly shaken by this; he finds the thought worming into his brain that maybe, he's on the wrong side, and even if he isn't, maybe he should be on the side that isn't eating its own...? As I said before I went into all this extraneous detail, I don't know for sure yet what Dietrich Brenner's fate will be; he hasn't opened up yet. I can't help but suspect that something goes horribly wrong with Berit, given her mental instability and tenuous Network ties, and perhaps Dietrich--already dealing with personal conflicts regarding where his loyalty should lie now--ends up caught in the middle as some sort of collateral damage. I don't think he ends up killed, but I feel that something serious happens. I can't really theorize about just what it is yet; I guess I'll need to wait a while longer for more pieces to fall into place. [Dietrich Brenner 2025 [Friday, May 16, 2025, 12:00:09 AM]] [Dietrich Brenner 2025 2 [Friday, May 16, 2025, 12:00:20 AM]] |