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Bernhard Dannecker Blog Entry |
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June 14, 2024, 12:00:07 AM 6/14/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Bernhard and Tanja Dannecker, younger siblings of Margarethe and Christof Dannecker, children of Else Dannecker, stepchildren of Ernst Dannecker. (I haven't drawn Else's unnamed/deceased first husband yet.) I don't know much about them as they and Else are estranged from Gret throughout most of the story; only Christof shows Gret any sympathy for what she went through. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, they're white Pomeranians. TUMBLR EDIT: I'm not 100% certain but I estimate that Christof is maybe two years younger than Gret; Bernhard is two years younger than Christof; and Tanja is a year younger than Bernhard. Thus one reason they all look around the same age in my art, despite Gret being around 20 or so, meaning Bernhard and Tanja would be around 16 and 15 in this art. (Their father was a poor, low-ranking member of the Wehrmacht and Nazi Party--cannon fodder, Ernst Dannecker calls him, even though he was once such a soldier himself in the Great War--who was killed on the Eastern Front pretty early on. Else's children were born in relatively quick succession, and in one adult WIP I make passing mention that there were a few miscarriages and a stillbirth in among them.) Another reason they all look the same age is that they're purebred Pomeranians--compare them to their mother, who also looks the same. (Whenever I draw their biological father, he too will look the same.) They're all relatively petite in size--people keep mistaking 5' tall Gret for a child when she's full grown--and so always look pretty youthful compared to the Danneckers, who are purebred Siberian huskies (and are pretty tall in general, Walther isn't as tall as his son but he and Margit are both taller than average and I estimate Dannecker himself is probably around 6'4"). The rest of this will be truncated in Tanja's entry to save repetition. Not much to say about Bernhard and Tanja, they're more background characters than anything. I've gone over most of the relevant info in the entries of the other family members already linked. (For even deeper info, see also Dannecker's parents, Margit and Walther.) I never go into detail yet DISTURBING PLOT FOLLOWING, beware. The gist of it is that Commandant Dannecker marries the widowed, destitute Else solely to gain access to her oldest daughter, Margarethe (about 14-15 at the time), who irrationally reminds him of his own deceased mother, Margit, with whom he'd been engaged in a relationship since adolescence. (His father, Walther, discovered this and sent Ernst off to military academy to break it off, yet WWI broke out, Dannecker went to the front, then came back home all grown up--and now, much stronger and fitter--and ended up murdering his own father so he and his mother could be together. Margit had no hand in this, yet went along with Dannecker afterwards, both out of love and fear. She justified the relationship, BTW, by mentioning how her father justified the same when she was young...hinting that this has been going on for generations.) Dannecker even wonders if his mother (from beyond the grave) sent Gret to be his bride in her place...it's quite messed up. Anyway, he grooms the entire family for a while--lavishing them with gifts and a comfortable lifestyle, making them dependent on him--before starting to abuse Gret much the same way Margit abused him. Gret is also targeted by Josef Diamant, a prisoner in her stepfather's labor camp, who plans to seduce her to help him kill Dannecker before Dannecker can kill him; except Gret decides to go along with this plot willingly. After the deed is done, she tries to contact her mother, yet Else refuses to believe her beloved Ernst would ever do such things; she's forced to acknowledge it's so only when Christof tells her that he witnessed the abuse one night, and then her reaction is to accuse Gret of seducing her husband. She willingly chooses a man who victimized her daughter, and who never even loved her, and disowns Gret. Christof is the only family member to show Gret any sympathy; he helps her gather some things and go on the run (nearly getting shot by a jittery Diamant in the process), and continues to help provide for her throughout the war; afterward, he's the only one to get back in touch. Else never forgives her for Dannecker's death. And Bernhard and Tanja, who were also spoiled by Dannecker and brainwashed by Else to believe Gret is the bad one, keep their distance as well. (Incidentally, one threat Dannecker uses to keep Gret in line is that he'll do the same to Tanja--which he really has no interest in doing, he has eyes only for Gret--and will imprison her family in his camp. So the entire time, Gret keeps quiet in hopes of protecting the same family that turn their backs on her afterward.) I don't know if Bernhard or Tanja ever reestablish communication with Gret or not. I'd like them to, but it seems more realistic for them not to. They always knew Dannecker only as a loving and devoted stepfather, and have no reason to doubt their own mother. IRL, it's all too common for victims to not be believed, even by those closest to them, and if I can't get anything else realistic about my story, then I'd like to get the emotions and interpersonal interactions accurate. At least Gret has Christof. [Bernhard Dannecker 2024 [Friday, June 14, 2024, 12:00:07 AM]] |