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Wilhelm Volker Blog Entry |
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May 5, 2023, 4:00:19 AM May 5, 2023, 4:00:35 AM 5/5/23: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Feldwebel (Sergeant) Wilhelm "Wil" Volker, sans cap (top drawing) and with cap (bottom drawing). He romantically pursues Adelina Dobermann, though both characters end up with someone else. I also just learned he's a count, and is blind in one eye. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's a black-and-silver German shepherd. I also gave him a more period-accurate haircut I should've been giving most of the male characters, oh well. TUMBLR EDIT: Surprise! I never knew much about Wil at all aside from him being a rival to Stephen Gerhardt for Adelina Dobermann's romantic attentions. Right as I got to drawing him, he started to open up. I'm still learning about him, and as it turns out, his story ends up playing a major role in Lt. Hesse's development late in the story in a way that is also still developing, so some details may be iffy. Here we go! Wilhelm "Wil" Volker dates back to at least the circa-2000 reboot, and I'm pretty sure his basic personality, unlike Hesse's, has remained the same...let me check. WILHELM VOLKER: Sgt.; Nazi soldier and friend of Gerhardt's who develops an affection for Adelina. Friendly and courteous; loves to joke around with Gerhardt, not realizing he's a rival. Current storyline Yep--aside from being a friend of Gerhardt's, that's pretty much accurate even today. Now to today's version... Much of Wil's early story is told only in retrospect and in passing, to Adelina. He's born to a Junker count (Graf) and countess, and named for Kaiser Wilhelm II, for better or for worse. (That's actually a new detail. He expresses mild embarrassment when admitting this; it's probably the reason he goes by the nickname Wil.) His father is killed in the Great War; the Spanish influenza takes the rest of his family, aside from an uncle (this guy becomes a more important character, so he needs a name), who takes care of toddler Wil when he too gets sick. He nurses him back to health and effectively raises him like a son. As with so many other families in this story, they're the last left of their branch. When war blooms again, Volker joins the Wehrmacht to defend the Fatherland. He's seriously wounded and requires a bandage over both his eyes. The doctor tells him that while they've saved his eyes themselves, they may not have saved his vision. His uncle visits as he recuperates; finally the bandage is removed and the doctor asks what, if anything, he sees. After a moment or so of blinking, Volker tells the doctor he's holding up three fingers. He can blurrily see with his left eye...his right eye is blind. He puts on a brave face--it's better than not being able to see at all--but it means he can no longer serve in combat. It looks like he'll be discharged from the military. His uncle pulls a few strings and manages to get him a desk job, though Volker finds it tedious and unrewarding. When recruiters tell him he can work for them running much more interesting errands, he joins the Nazi Party. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other about anyone the Nazis deem "undesirables," but parrots the party line anyway, because it's required. For the most part though, he just does his job running various errands for Nazi Wehrmacht members; it's a no more glamorous job than before, but at least he gets out of the office. He's there when somebody runs into Lt. Hesse and Adelina Dobermann, knocking them in the mud; while the offending party helps up Hesse, apologizing profusely (and stealing some of Hesse's papers while he's at it), Volker sees to Adelina. She thanks him but otherwise barely acknowledges him, being too concerned about Hesse. (Hesse later discovers the papers missing and has the guy and his entire family gunned down but that's neither here nor there.) Later, however, when she gets turned around and lost on a visit to the city, Volker happens to run into her again; when she tells him she's lost he helps her find her way. This time they introduce themselves before they part ways...or at least, Volker does. Adelina: "I'm sorry I didn't get your name the last time." Volker: "Volker--Wilhelm Volker. Call me Wil." Adelina: "Good to meet you...Adelina--" Volker: "Dobermann. I know who you are. Everyone here loves your father." Adelina is embarrassed by the attention her father, Louis Dobermann, gets her by association, but she's also very proud of him, so Volker's comment makes her blush. Once she departs, Volker can't get her out of his head. When the guy he's currently working for visits the Dobermann estate, Volker makes sure to go with him. There he meets Sgt. Stephen Gerhardt, who's just been assigned to the estate as a sort of informal guard (Dobermann has a standing arrangement with the Wehrmacht to keep undesirables off his property), along with Addy again, and Lt. Gunter Hesse, an SS officer who's a friend of the family. Volker's gotten skilled at people watching, and he picks up on a LOT of little details nobody else would even notice. He senses the tension between these three--between Gerhardt and Addy, between Hesse and Gerhardt, between Addy and Hesse. There's a very subtle but obvious (to him) romantic tension between the first two, despite neither of them knowing it themselves; meanwhile, Addy has a crush on Hesse (who's twice her age and has helped raise her from a baby so he thinks of her almost as a daughter, plus he already has a mistress, Sophie); and Hesse has picked up on the same vibe Volker has, so he's rather overprotective of Addy, and suspicious toward Gerhardt. None of them openly acknowledge any of this, so Volker decides he'll give catching Addy's eye a shot. He doesn't get to immediately, as his current boss loses his temper with Dobermann for some reason and storms off, leaving Volker to awkwardly try to smooth things over; but at least this gives him an excuse to return to the estate. Over the following days he becomes a frequent visitor and gets to know the others in the household, including fellow Wehrmacht members Sgt. Alger Holt, Lt. Senta Werner, and PFC Konrad Helmstadt. He's surprised to meet the household physician, Dr. Tobias Schäfer--who's Jewish. Oddly, Hesse attempts to bully him into not ratting Schäfer out; Volker promises he has no intentions of doing so. There have actually been rumors of a Jewish person illegally living with the Dobermanns, but he had no idea they were true, and Dobermann is influential enough to keep prying eyes away. Volker is more surprised that an SS officer would participate in such a coverup; he figures Hesse must owe Dobermann a debt of some kind that overrides his loyalty to the SS. (It's actually more complex than this, but basically that's the truth.) In addition, Hesse and Schäfer appear to be on friendly terms, frequently communicating with each other via sign language (Schäfer is deaf), despite Hesse's known history of despising Jews. All of this just goes to show how complicated the personal situation is at the Dobermann estate, and Volker, frankly, finds it fascinating how unaware everyone is of it. He attempts to get closer to Addy, which is a complicated process itself in that she's so fixated on Hesse yet oblivious to anyone else's interest in her. At least he doesn't directly have to contend with Gerhardt--when asked, Gerhardt insists he has no romantic interest in Addy, and Addy shows no interest in him--yet Volker senses it anyway. Still, he tries. Results are terribly unpromising at first, as she seems as uninterested in him as in anyone else but Hesse, but as time goes on and it becomes clearer that's never going to happen, she cautiously begins to open up. She one day overhears someone refer to Volker as "Herr Graf," and seems surprised, addressing him after the other guy leaves. Addy: "Herr Graf--?" Volker: (blinks in surprise, then looks embarrassed) "Ahm..." Addy: "He called you Herr Graf...you're a count?" Volker: "Technically." Addy: "Why did you never mention it?" Volker: "Honestly...I'd prefer people judge me by what I can do, rather than by what title I have...a title that frankly doesn't mean much anymore, anyway." Addy: "Papa's a lot like that." Volker: "I rather got that impression. Difference is, he's done quite a lot of good with his position, meanwhile I'm a glorified lackey." Addy: "I'm sure you're doing someone some good." Volker: "Well, if I could do even a fraction of the good your father's done everyone, I'd be happy." Addy: (blushes and smiles) Volker: "You're very lovely when you smile." Addy: (blushes harder) So, there it is, the opening: Not only does Volker figure out how to catch Addy's attention--through her pride in her father--but out of everyone she's crossed paths with so far (with the possible exception of Helmstadt, who's a family servant, so not so suitable after all), Volker is the most appropriate choice for a suitor: Addy is a Freiin--an unmarried baroness--and were she and Volker to become an item, she would actually be marrying up. Add to that the fact that the two of them are the last of their family lines, and a union between them just seems like a foregone conclusion. Hesse even seems aware of this, in that, unlike with his subtle hostility toward Gerhardt and Addy getting too close, he doesn't express any such overprotective feelings toward her getting close to Volker. The one wild card is Louis Dobermann himself: Oddly, out of everyone, he's the only one who never offers an opinion or reaction either way--he's equally aloof and forbidding toward everyone. Nothing--not monetary enticements, not favors, not flattery or service--cracks his stony facade even a little bit. Volker can't get a read on him; he's a mystery to everyone but Addy and possibly Hesse. This puts him at odds with the Nazi Party, who often question his loyalty to the Third Reich, so that puts a crimp in Volker getting too close to Addy--Dobermann could be a liability. He decides to take the risk, and he and Addy grow closer over the length of the series, though it's a very gradual process. There's a lot going on that Volker ISN'T aware of. Firstly, that Gerhardt is an American spy, who is also trying to determine Dobermann's loyalties. Secondly, that Dobermann, in fact, opposes the Nazis, and not only that, but he's been informally recruited by the resistance Diamond Network, via his presumably (not really) deceased wife Inga: She'd been introduced to the Network via Dr. Schäfer, and had been ferrying Jews and others to safe passage through hidden passages within the house (Volker stumbles across one of these and starts exploring it, to Schäfer's chagrin, before--"Spinnen, Spinnen, Spinnen, eeeehhhhh!--grosse Spinnen!"--spiders startle him back out) before being caught in the act; Network leader Josef Diamant convinced Dobermann to continue her work, so he let those on his staff who were in the know keep doing so while he stepped back. (Meanwhile, Inga's death was faked.) And thirdly, that his own uncle, who raised him, is sympathetic to the resistance efforts, too. This is an angle I haven't fully delved into yet, and my memory of how this scenario initially played out in my head has faded already, but somehow the elder Graf Volker gets informally connected to the Network; I doubt he's a full-fledged member, most of the Junkers who participate aren't, but he does what little things he can to help. He's definitely on the Network's radar as an asset and a "friendly." He's low level and unobtrusive enough that the Nazis don't really think to look into him. He keeps his nephew in the dark: When Volker joined the Nazi Party, he was actually quite dismayed, though he hid it. He's pretty sure by now that Volker isn't terribly into their beliefs and principles, and joined primarily for the benefits and connections it would get him; this is a relief, though it means he could be in even greater danger if found out, so the older count never clues him in. He wants to help the resistance, but even more, he wants to keep his nephew safe. At some point far through the story, though, he gets found out. I need yet to work out the details how. The SS takes him into custody and he ends up in the hands of Lt. Hesse, who works for the SS's intelligence division, and 2nd Lt. Paul Wozniak; they put him in the car and go driving. Unlike Volker, and Addy, the elder Herr Volker is very much aware of the awful stuff Hesse is involved in, the numerous massacres and murders he's ordered, including a Junker neighbor of the Dobermanns', and the entire family of that guy who knocked him in the mud all that time ago. He's also done his own research into Hesse, knowing that he was orphaned as an infant and raised a ward of the state, joining the military after never getting adopted, fighting in the Great War, recuperating from injuries and morphine addiction under the care of the Dobermanns, and ending up radicalized by the SS after the military abandoned him. Hesse attempts to question Herr Volker as they drive through the country, but he gives little information, resigned to his fate. Herr Volker, in fact, starts to turn things around on him, questioning Hesse's loyalty to the SS. This is the chink in Hesse's armor--he orders Wozniak to stop the car, and tells Herr Volker to get out; full of dread, Herr Volker nonetheless obeys. Wozniak watches from the car as Hesse marches Herr Volker off into the woods at gunpoint. Once they've walked far out of sight of the road, Hesse orders Herr Volker to stop, and gestures at him to kneel; Herr Volker again obeys, certain he's about to be executed, but decides to go out with his best effort. Herr Volker: "I see I struck a nerve." Hesse: "Shut up." Herr Volker: "That means I struck a truth. So it's true, then? What I guessed. That blind devotion of yours isn't so blind after all. You're starting to see it, aren't you?" Hesse: "You don't know anything about me." Herr Volker: "I know plenty. I have my sources, like you. I know you grew up alone. Unwanted. I know the Dobermanns showed you kindness but it wasn't enough. I know you were hurting, lost and angry. I know you were searching for somewhere, anywhere, to belong. And I know you found them and they offered you everything you ever wanted. A place, a purpose. A reason to exist. Proof that you're worthy... You aren't correcting me, there must some truth in it, nein?" Hesse: "Like I said. You don't know anything. Except how to betray your own people." Herr Volker: "I haven't betrayed anyone. I'm not the one murdering my own countrymen." Hesse: "Exterminating pests isn't murder." Herr Volker: "Keep telling yourself that. Keep believing it. You have doubts now, though, ja...? It's one thing when it's someone like me saying it, but something else entirely when it's one of your own. Or your own eyes...you're starting to see it now, aren't you? All those truths you've spent your life believing in, those truths they fed you, they aren't so hard and fast after all, are they?" Hesse: "Shut up!" Herr Volker: "You'll have to make me! It's why you brought me out here, isn't it? It should be easy for you by now, shouldn't it? After all the blood you've shed? So why are you hesitating? Because I'm right?... There it is. That look. You DO doubt. What was it, who was it who started to make you doubt? This thing you put all your faith in. All the lies you built your life on. What you would give your life itself for." Hesse: (brief silence) (takes a step back) "Get up." (Herr Volker hesitates) "Now!" (Herr Volker slowly stands) "Now run." (Herr Volker hesitates again) "I said run!" Herr Volker: "You'll have to kill me looking me in the face! I won't give you the satisfaction of turning my head!" Hesse: "If you don't run, I'll put a bullet in the brain of your nephew next." Herr Volker: "He has nothing to do with this. He doesn't know a thing." Hesse: "I don't care. Do you?" (aims) "Then run." Herr Volker realizes he has nothing to bargain with. He doesn't trust Hesse to leave his nephew alone, but it's the tiniest chance he has; he turns and hurries off into the woods. Back at the car, Wozniak stiffens when he hears the gunshot. He gets out of the car and pulls his gun, straining his ears and eyes peering into the trees--"Kamerad?" he calls, then, louder, "Kamerad!" Rustling noises come and he aims, letting out his breath and relaxing only when Hesse comes back into view, alone; Wozniak lowers his gun but keeps looking into the trees. Wozniak: "What happened?" Hesse: "He tried to escape." (lets himself into the passenger side; perplexed, Wozniak heads to the driver's side and gets in) Wozniak: "You shot him?" Hesse: "He left me no choice." Wozniak: "Should I send someone to retrieve..." Hesse: "Nein. Let the animals eat him." (sits back) "Drive, bitte." Although obviously bothered and pensive, Hesse insists on delivering the news to Volker. Volker isn't just stunned and heartbroken, he's confused--"Uncle's always kept his nose clean, he's never been into this sort of stuff," he insists, when told about Herr Volker's resistance ties. The SS has already gone through the entire Volker residence from top to bottom and found nothing to incriminate Volker himself--his uncle was apparently telling the truth when he claimed he wasn't involved--so he's quickly cleared of any suspicion. The incident plants some very big seeds of doubt in Volker, though; he feels he has no reason to suspect Hesse is lying, all available proof points toward his account of Herr Volker's death being the truth, but something still niggles at him. His gut tells him something more is going on. As I said, that bit takes part late in the story, by which point Volker's realized something: He and Adelina are never going to be a couple. He does pursue her for quite a while, and once she herself finally realizes Hesse will never consider her anything more than his niece or adopted daughter, she tries to let go of her feelings for him and focuses on Volker. Volker's been trailing after her for ages, and he seems genuine. Like Hesse, she knows he'd be the best match. She starts tentatively returning his attention, and the two of them begin to spend more time together. For Addy, it's strange but flattering for a man to show interest in her, and she does put in a good effort; but the more time goes on, the more uncertain Volker himself grows at the prospect. He notices the time she spends, when not with him, with Gerhardt; the two never display any romantic intent toward each other, but something about the intensity of their interactions, their banter and especially how enthusiastic Addy gets about discussing things with him, indicates to Volker that there are strong feelings there, even if Addy and Gerhardt can't see it. By the time Addy tries to kiss Volker, he reluctantly pulls away, not letting her. Addy is understandably confused. Addy: "What is it? What's wrong?" Volker: "I...don't believe this is what you want." Addy: "What do you mean? Of course I do." Volker: "Nein...you don't. There's someone else you want, not me. You've wanted him all along." Addy: "Who? Not Uncle Gunter, I realize now that was silly--" Volker: "Nein, not Herr Hesse...you already know who." (Addy looks perplexed) "You should see the way your face lights up when you talk to him." Addy: "Who...?" (they stare at each other a moment) "Herr Stephen...? But--he's my friend. He doesn't think of me like that." Volker: "I notice you don't say that you don't think of him like that." Addy: (blushes & averts eyes) "It...what does it matter what I might think of him? I'm here with you, aren't I?" Volker: "You shouldn't settle for your second choice." Addy: (guiltily) "I didn't mean it like that, Herr Wil--" Volker: "It's all right--I know how you meant it. But it's so, isn't it? And I really wouldn't want to be the one who keeps you away from what you want. How do you think I'd feel every day...? Knowing that?" Addy: (murmuring) "I thought this was what I wanted." (long silence) "Are...are you angry with me?" Volker: "I'm disappointed...I could never be angry with you, though. You don't choose who you love... (lighter) Frankly, it looks like I never stood a chance." Addy: "I don't even know that he feels the same way." Volker: "Well, there's only one way to find out." Addy tries to summon the courage to ask Gerhardt how he feels, though isn't sure exactly how without humiliating herself; Gerhardt himself ends up inadvertently opening that door. He's developed feelings for Addy but given his position as an American spy (and a Jewish one, no less) playing the part of an Aryan German soldier, he denies this even to himself. His true role there is to determine where Herr Dobermann's loyalties lie, and getting involved with Addy would be a big no-no. When Addy pours out all her grievances to him one day--including her assertion that she looks nothing like the blond-haired, blue-eyed ideal most men seek--Gerhardt interrupts, saying, "What are you talking about? You're beautiful." The comment, said without thinking, stops Addy cold. Throughout the series, she's been referred to as lovely, cute, pretty, juvenile things like that, but nobody has ever used the word beautiful, the word that's been used to describe not just various Aryan women like Hesse's mistress Sophie Sommer and the SS chief's wife Eva Heidenreich, but her own mother Inga, who was dark haired and brown eyed. (Addy takes after her, and looks nothing like her blond-haired, blue-eyed father.) Hearing Gerhardt call her the one word she was sure didn't apply to her sparks something--it means he's noticed. When they find themselves alone, she tries to kiss him this time, and although he's startled at first, he reciprocates. They end up falling asleep in her room; Gerhardt doesn't get the chance to slip back out before someone knocks on her door in the morning. Addy doesn't wake, so Gerhardt hurries to get dressed and answer the door, steeling himself for whatever might come--for some reason he doesn't expect Hesse, yet that's who it is. Painfully awkward, considering that Hesse thinks of Addy almost as his innocent little girl, yet here in her room is this guy who's completely unfit to be there. Hesse: (blinks, surprised) "Herr Gerhardt--?" Gerhardt: (hastily) "Herr Hesse." Hesse: "What are you..." (peers further into the room, sees Addy still sleeping in the rumpled bed, then back at Gerhardt; his eyes start to go black) (tersely) "Finish dressing yourself. Then meet me in the hall." (turns & walks away) Gerhardt: "Ja, Herr Hesse." (grimaces & finishes buttoning up his tunic & smoothing himself down; casts a look back at Addy before exiting, shutting the door, & following Hesse down the hall & around the corner) (upon rounding the corner, gasps--Hesse grabs him by the collar & slams his back against the wall, shoving his pistol under Gerhardt's ribs) Hesse: (leaning close) (low, quiet voice) "If you hurt her. If you make her shed so much as one tear or have one regret. I'll unload my gun in the back of your neck and dump you in an oven. Understood?" Gerhardt: "I--I have no such intentions." Hesse continues glaring at Gerhardt for a few seconds, then lets him go. Gerhardt has to steady himself, unsure if this trouble is worth it. Later on, when he comes across Dobermann sitting with guests in the parlor, the baron stares daggers at him and he realizes that somehow he knows; and then even later when he meets with Josef Diamant, Diamant throws his hands up and hisses, "What were you thinking--?? Herr Dobermann's daughter! I should wring your neck myself!!" Not only does he have no idea how the hell everyone seems to have found out what happened so fast, but he hadn't known Addy has so many father figures watching her like hawks. "Not you, too," he groans when he runs across Volker, who gives him a look; Volker replies, "I'm just glad I'm not in your shoes right now." For her part, Addy is mortified to learn of what he's going through; she apologizes profusely and offers to intervene, an idea Gerhardt quickly shoots down, knowing it would only make things worse. He assures her his problems aren't her fault even as she promises to speak up if he needs her to. As these two are getting closer to each other, meanwhile, there's someone else Volker's been interacting with more often: Lt. Senta Werner, the female Wehrmacht officer residing at the Dobermann estate. Her very existence mystifies Volker when he first meets her, as the Nazi Party and the military heavily frown upon women joining; they almost exclusively serve in auxiliary roles, doing secretarial work, radio communications, things like that. Senta wears a Wehrmacht uniform and sidearm, knows how to fight with a sword and ride a horse, and from what Volker is told, could hold her own pretty well in combat should she need to--she's had training--it's just that such service is forbidden to her. She only managed to obtain her position via family intervention, i. e., bribery--a fact that rankles her--and even then, the only position she was allowed to serve in was keeping watch over the Dobermann property, a job Dobermann offers various Wehrmacht members who are capable yet not quite fit for active service. Senta accordingly has an attitude problem. She longs to do more, to serve the Fatherland, yet is prohibited from doing so. Once he gets past his initial confusion, Volker attempts to befriend her as a fellow Wehrmacht member, treating her almost like one of the guys, though Senta isn't exactly enthusiastic at first. She spends most of their interactions berating him and just being a jerk in general. Volker is very difficult to offend, though, and he can tell her overly aggressive attitude is a defense mechanism, likely from having to deal with so many condescending people who doubt she's fit for her job. (Indeed, this includes her own mother, who had wanted a son--Senta's twin brother was delivered stillborn and Senta's been trying to fill in for him ever since.) Volker doesn't outright hit on her, since at the time he's still hung up on Addy, plus Senta has her eye on Dobermann himself--which pisses off Addy, who still mourns her mother and is always straining for her father's attention (Dobey keeps an emotional distance which Addy misinterprets as disappointment in her). As time goes on, however, Senta's attitude toward Volker softens and her barbs become more like banter. The two of them don't really realize that they've developed tentative feelings for each other, however, until everything comes to a head at the Dobermann estate with the sudden and unexpected return of Inga Dobermann. Yep--Inga has been alive, and in hiding at a neighboring household, the entire time. And oh, also, it turns out Louis Dobermann's loyalties lie not with the Nazis, but with her--and Inga had been working for the resistance Diamond Network before nearly being caught forced them to fake her death. Her husband took up her mantle and has been allowing Network members and refugees from the Nazis to utilize the estate as one step of an advanced network of safe houses and passages to flee the country. Although much of the help staff, including Wehrmacht sergeant Alger Holt, is in on the plot, many other of the household's residents--including Addy herself--have no clue. Inga showing up shortly after revealing herself to Addy at the neighbor's house, however, just as the Allied armies are approaching and the Third Reich is starting to crumble, begins to rapidly unravel everything. This part of the story is outlined in various other entries, but the version closest to Volker's POV is HERE, in Senta's entry. As Volker and Senta escape to safety with each other and Senta's mother, who like Volker has since turned her back on the Nazis (he'd been growing disillusioned the more he learned about their war crimes, and the revelation that Inga herself is Jewish--making Addy half Jewish--finally decides him so he actively turns on them), Senta's mother mistakes them for a couple--and to both their surprise, they find they aren't entirely opposed to the idea. It just sort of happens naturally as they move into a small house in the countryside to try to start their lives over following the war. There's a further development that occurs either sometime during all this or immediately after (still ironing it out). A former Diamond Network member/associate (who knows, maybe the same doctor who helped Frau Werner?) brings news to Volker as well--or more like, a visitor--his uncle. Volker, astonished and overwhelmed, hugs him tight, exclaiming that he'd been sure he was dead, Hesse had told him as much. How, and why, is he showing up again after so long, alive? Even Herr Volker, overjoyed that his nephew has made it out of the city safely, seems to be almost beyond words trying to explain what happened, but he finally settles himself enough to outline events since Hesse marched him off into the woods at gunpoint. "There it is. That look. You DO doubt. What was it, who was it who started to make you doubt? This thing you put all your faith in. All the lies you built your life on. What you would give your life itself for." Although he doesn't understand why, Herr Volker knows this was the point at which something in Hesse's original plans shifted, and he told Herr Volker to run. Herr Volker did so--falling to the ground as soon as he heard the gunshot, sure he was dead. After a while he opened his eyes and realized he was miraculously still alive--and what's more, he was unwounded. A quick physical check revealed he hadn't been shot at all. He waited a bit longer yet nothing else happened, no one arrived to check on him, so finally he crept back in the direction of the road. Hesse's car and the two officers were nowhere to be seen. Hesse had apparently fired into the air or the trees, returned to the vehicle, and departed with Wozniak, leaving Herr Volker behind--alive. He doesn't understand why or how, but something he said got through to Hesse, and Hesse let him go. This is a truly bizarre development, considering Hesse's loyalty to the SS, but further details that emerge begin to make sense, and paint a far more nuanced picture. I don't know that they ever learn the entire truth, but here it is. Yes, Hesse HAD been blindly devoted to the SS, which he viewed as both an extension of his childhood aspirations--living unwanted in an orphanage, of becoming a "knight" and providing a service--as well as the adoptive family he never had. The SS stepped in when he was near his lowest, offering him not only a sense of belonging and being useful, but also a shared enemy on whom to place all his spite and bitterness following his abandonment by the military after the Great War. His job in the Allgemeine-SS offered him the chance to go after these enemies himself. He nearly outed Inga Dobermann herself, but instead, not realizing what she was into, he helped downplay the investigation of her "death" so she escaped with her secret intact. He did this because the Dobermanns had been his only friends following the war, nursing him back to health and treating him as a member of the family; he'd fallen in love with Inga, although he never acted on it, and spent his life protecting them from his own associates. Despite his loyalty to the SS, he always placed the Dobermanns first, potentially jeopardizing his own job. As the war went on, however, it grew even more complicated. Hesse finally started to see signs that his beloved brotherhood was hopelessly corrupt and rotting from the inside out; numerous times he witnessed hypocrisy much more blatant than his own (he of course found ways to justify his own), including from higher-ups such as his former commanding officer in the Waffen-SS, General Vincenz Immerwahr, and his then-current boss in the Allgemeine-SS, Colonel Rupprecht Heidenreich. Immerwahr once hit on Hesse (and often invited young male officers to his place to "enjoy the view"), yet the Allgemeine-SS refused to investigate when Hesse filed a complaint, deeming Immerwahr far too important to subject to such treatment; Heidenreich, meanwhile, despite all his outward revulsion toward everything "degenerate," constantly cheated on his wife Eva (including with a half-Jewish woman, though I don't know that Hesse was aware of that detail) and saw no problem bending the rules when it suited him (such as covering for Immerwahr's behavior). Whatever strict rule the SS may have had, it was never so strict that those in power couldn't make an exception. Much of this corruption was exposed to the outside world when Eva Heidenreich--with the aid of her lover, Waffen-SS officer Erich Arzt (whom Hesse was also familiar with)--orchestrated the murder of her own husband, initially pinning the blame on the Diamond Network. Hesse was dismayed to find that the despised Josef Diamant actually had nothing to do with the incident, and it was an inside job, motivated purely by jealousy and spite. Eva was executed, Arzt committed suicide, and Hesse was left emptyhanded trying to figure out all that had gone wrong. His knightly brotherhood didn't seem so noble anymore. Some of the harshest truth came from SS-Totenkopfverbände Major Jan Delbrück, adjutant of the local labor camp. He and Hesse were not fond of each other, due to Hesse's investigation of Delbrück allegedly visiting a Jewish prostitute; Delbrück insisted Hesse had tarnished his honor and the two dueled over this. Hesse won the fight, but, wearied out by all the dramatics of being considered an SS "rat" by his fellows, decided to drop his investigation. He ran into Delbrück again much later, after spotting him marching in a Waffen-SS unit that had just returned from the Eastern Front; surprised to see him there, he asked what was going on. Delbrück explained that things were getting quite bad in the east, and troops were running short, requiring the Waffen-SS to call eligible members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände into active service. Hesse asked why then were they here, marching in parade? Delbrück tersely replied that it was purely for show: The government realized the war effort was all but lost in the east, and so called back some troops to march into the city, looking victorious to help boost civilian morale. Delbrück and his comrades actually volunteered to remain at the front to continue fighting yet were refused, indicating just how bad things were getting. He bluntly informed Hesse that everyone was being lied to, right to their faces, and the Reich was set to collapse at any time: "Perhaps you'll listen to me this time, Kamerad, and get out while the getting's good, because no one's going to have your back anymore but you." Hesse got much the same message from Wozniak, who privately informed him that he and his new wife and child would be leaving the city as soon as possible and seeking shelter elsewhere. (Hesse knew Wozniak's family had fudged their German ancestry and were in fact Polish--much of the SS itself was aware yet covered it up--but he didn't know Wozniak was also gay and his marriage to an unwed mother was a scam.) Increasingly disillusioned, he took his mistress, nightclub hostess Sophie Sommer, on a weekend getaway to a mountain lake cottage for one last escape before figuring out his own final moves, after proposing to her. Sophie, who'd previously laid bare a lot of her unsavory past to Hesse (including being a teenaged prostitute, and nearly dying from an illegal abortion following an affair with a married SS officer), had tried to dissuade him from this, but he was adamant. Here's part of the exchange, from Sophie's entry: Sophie: "Gunter, you barely know me." Hesse: "I know enough. I know what matters. I'll ask the SS, but you have to answer me first." Sophie: "You're not the first to ask. I know your people. All your regulations and laws. It's easier to fight the Red Army than to marry into the SS." Hesse: "They'll accept you. Look at you. You're perfect." Sophie: (frank look) "You of all people know you can't tell just from looking at a person, Herr Gunter." Hesse: "I'll find a way." Sophie: "And what if they don't accept? What if they tell you nein?" Hesse: (brief pause) "Then I'll choose you." Sophie: (stunned silence) "You'd...give up your life, for me?" Hesse: "You don't know this by now?" For clarification here: Sophie had been asking if Hesse intended to choose her over the SS (give up his life with the Schutzstaffel) if it came to that, and Hesse confirmed this: He'd finally found something more important to him than the SS, and his loyalties were now with Sophie. Considering the role the SS played in his life, this was a VERY momentous decision, and they both knew it. The weekend they spent at the cottage just strengthened his resolve, and his encounter with Herr Volker sparked something. Compare the dialogue: Sophie: "You'd...give up your life, for me?" Herr Volker: "What was it, who was it who started to make you doubt? This thing you put all your faith in. All the lies you built your life on. What you would give your life itself for." Herr Volker did indeed make an impression on Hesse that day in the woods, echoing Sophie's own words, about what exactly he was willing to sacrifice for. That thing was no longer the SS; it was the person he loved and the prospect to finally have a family. All the other evidence he'd been getting snatches of, the hypocrisy and the info that he'd been lied to by everyone he looked up to this entire time (main example, that Germany really DID simply lose the Great War, there was no stab in the back from the Jews), added up. Tiring of the deceit, Hesse told Herr Volker to run, and covered up another escape; Herr Volker sought safety with the Diamond Network, effectively going underground until the Reich fell. Unknown to everyone else but Sophie and his close confidant Theodor Schulte, Hesse started making his own plans to escape with Sophie and start a new life on their own...the difference is, unlike Wozniak, he waited too long. His remaining loyalty to the Dobermann family, ironically, is what helped do him in. Volker fills his uncle in on some of the rest of this as he was there to witness part of it. Hesse rushed to the Dobermann estate upon the report of a disturbance, similar to the night Inga Dobermann was "killed"--bizarrely, Inga was again the cause of the fuss: After revealing herself to Adelina, she returned to the estate and to her husband. Everyone arrived around the same time (unknown to them all, Senta Werner's own father was the one to rat out the Dobermanns), and while struggling to figure out how to handle the situation, Hesse was shot and killed by Josef Diamant. You've probably already read over that above; there's a more detailed version HERE in Dobermann's entry. Anyway, Volker and his uncle reach the same conclusion, that something had fundamentally changed in Hesse's worldview, to allow him to let Herr Volker go free, and to make him hesitate long enough to inadvertently allow the Dobermanns to escape. Volker wonders if this latter incident was so inadvertent, however; although Hesse had threatened to take the Dobermanns into custody, his indecision was obvious. Herr Volker's odd tale just lends credence to this thought. The two of them, though, have no way to prove their suspicions that if he'd had a little more time, Hesse might have done something completely different. Currently, Volker isn't set to show up in the final story, Ultima Thule (this could change); also, considering the timing, I'm not sure how this bit with him being reunited with his uncle could fit into the penultimate story. So this needs some working out. It's opened up an "alternate" scenario, however, that I've been sorely tempted to insert as Reunion's true climax, taking the place of the one outlined in other entries. This would entail other semi-major plot changes too, however, so I haven't gone with it yet. Currently my tentative idea is to introduce some sort of psychic element or visionary experience into the story (this isn't completely out of place, Turquoise and Nixie are clairvoyant characters, yet on the rodent side of the story--I don't have any such characters yet on the canine side) which would allow the characters to see how things would have played out if Hesse had gone in a different direction as he started to plan yet never got the chance to do. (Originally Hesse was just going to tell Inga what he would've done, but IMO that's not convincing enough.) Here's the alternate scenario that's emerged, likely also in need of ironing out: What's the same: Addy meets with Josef Diamant and Inga outs herself to Addy at neighbor/resistance collaborator Katharina von Thiel's house. Herr Werner catches wind of this and rats the Dobermanns out to the officials. Hesse is one of the parties notified, and he and various other officials and troops, separately from him, head out. Inga and Diamant arrive at the Dobermann estate and the Dobermann family is reunited. Everyone, including Lukas Mettbach, Hesse, Volker, as-yet unnamed Wehrmacht officials, and already-present parties including Sgt. Gerhardt, Sgt. Holt, Senta, PFC Helmstadt, and Dr. Schäfer, converges on the estate. Inga's status is discovered and there's an armed showdown. Helmstadt turns on the Dobermanns. Volker is wounded, yet kills Helmstadt. What's different: Hesse likely arrives a bit later than previously, so misses the conflict with Helmstadt. He may engage with Diamant and may get wounded, but isn't killed this time. Somehow Diamant escapes, likely with Lukas's aid/force since I don't believe he would willingly abandon the Dobermanns no matter what (maybe Diamant is also wounded?--it can't be too serious though, as he later helps the Dobermanns to the mountains--or maybe he's almost caught by officers arriving at the estate?). Hesse holds the Dobermanns at gunpoint and threatens to take them into custody same as previously; Addy likely still jumps in front of her father, catching Hesse off guard. The Wehrmacht officials intervene before Hesse can act, and start taking control of the situation; Volker, Senta, and Holt are temporarily removed to the stables as previously. As everyone is trying to coordinate how to handle things, Hesse volunteers to personally drive the Dobermanns and Schäfer into the city (where the situation is likewise rapidly deteriorating as Allied forces are approaching from the west and east) to SS headquarters for interrogation as Allied collaborators. The Wehrmacht official in charge agrees. Hesse marches the Dobermanns and Schäfer out to his car at gunpoint and makes them get in, the Dobermanns in the backseat, Schäfer in the front passenger seat. They depart. For a time Hesse drives in silence along the lengthy dirt roads, not speaking; a few other vehicles follow at a distance. After a while Hesse peers at the Dobermanns in the rearview mirror, at the following cars in the side mirror, then ahead again; his mouth sets in a firm line. He grips the steering wheel more tightly. Schäfer jumps a little when he lightly taps his arm, and turns to look at him; Hesse signs something. Schäfer stares at him a second or so, then twists around in his seat to look back at the Dobermanns. "Get down," he says, and although Addy and Inga try to ask what's going on, Dobermann puts his hands on them both and pushes everyone down to the floorboards. Schäfer ducks as well. Hesse abruptly floors it, turning and heading down a side road and away from the city. The vehicles trailing behind struggle to catch up; after a few more moments they open fire, striking Hesse's car several times (to the panic of Inga and Addy), but Hesse manages to elude them. He catches Schäfer's attention and signs at him again; Schäfer peeks out the window and after briefly surveying their surroundings, points and says, "That way." He continues giving directions as Hesse follows them, until at last Hesse pulls the car over at the side of the road and halts. Everyone peers at him uncertainly; he's breathing hard, looking near panic himself, as if he can't believe what he's doing. He pulls himself together and gets out, signing at Schäfer; Schäfer gestures at the Dobermanns, and they open the back door to get out as well. Everyone gathers in the road; Hesse points toward a mix of woodland and scrubland to the side. Hesse: "Doktor Schäfer says there's an underground bunker that way?" Dobermann: "A passage. Ja." Hesse: (signing at Schäfer) "Take them there." (to Dobermann) "I'll wait here and make sure they don't follow." Dobermann: "And what about you?" Hesse: (pause) "I'll be fine. Go." Inga: "Herr Gunter...?" Hesse: (faint smile) "Look after each other." (Schäfer gestures and hurries off; Dobermann takes Inga's and Addy's arms and steers them after him) Addy: (calling out) "Uncle Gunter--? Uncle Gunter...!" Hesse simply stands in the road and watches as they go, Inga and Addy calling after him a few more times as they hurry off toward the trees. The sound of automobile engines revving and gravel tossing is already growing closer; one last glance back shows them Hesse looking down the road at whatever's approaching, before he's lost from sight. Shouting/arguing noises come. They're about to reach the trees when the sound of assault rifles firing echoes in the air; Inga and Addy both cry out, and even Dobermann grimaces--Hesse hadn't been armed with an assault rifle. Only Schäfer fails to react to the awful implications of the sound as he can't hear it; Dobermann grasps his now-weeping wife and daughter tighter and hurries them along after him in the direction of the underground passage. Master Sergeant Schulte arrives, this time not at the Dobermann estate, but on the road where Hesse's car is still parked, idling. (Need to figure out how he knows to turn this way; perhaps he sees a sign that Hesse's car had gone down that road.) He rushes to Hesse, who's lying in the road, torn and bloody and unresponsive. (A detail here I've never covered yet: Much earlier in the story, I believe Hesse gets accidentally(?) dosed with some drug and spends a while dealing with residual hallucinations; one occurs during a solar eclipse, wherein he stares deliriously at the sky and envisions first a Black Sun, then a symbolic battle that appears to predict Germany's defeat and, in some manner, Hesse's own death. The look he gets on his face while lying in the road staring at the sky is meant to echo this earlier incident, making the vision of his own death and the fall of the Third Reich come around full circle. HERE is a song for this particular scene, enjoy.) What's the same: Schulte clutches Hesse in his lap and sobs, "Boss, Boss," for a few moments. Realizing there's nothing he can do for him but head back to the city to find Sophie and shuttle her off to safety, he does so, reluctantly leaving Hesse's body behind. He finds Sophie at the nightclub, informs her of Hesse's death, and begs her to come with him; devastated by the news, she refuses, not seeing the point. Schulte's efforts to convince her to flee for the safety of her and Hesse's unborn child fail, and he leaves emptyhanded; on his way out, a nightclub worker who's been collaborating with the Diamond Network shoots him in the head and kills him. Sophie, hearing this, takes out a gun Hesse had bought her to protect herself when he's not present, and commits suicide. The nightclub worker finds her already dead; he uses her lipstick to write "NAZI-HURE" (Nazi Whore) on her mirror before leaving. Later, American Allied forces discover the bodies, but Axis forces find Hesse's and Helmstadt's bodies and spirit them away for Project Ultima Thule. You can see some of the bugs that still need ironing, for example, where Gerhardt ends up during all this (he's supposed to stay with the Dobermanns), and how they reconnect with Diamant and Lukas (who provide them with horses and escort them to the mountains before parting ways). Perhaps they all make a plan ahead of time to have a safe meeting spot in case they get split up, and perhaps Gerhardt gets his cover blown along with the Dobermanns and so accompanies them and Schäfer in the car with Hesse? Unsure. Anyway. If this remains an alternate scenario--what Hesse WOULD have done, if Diamant hadn't shot him first--then it needs to be revealed somehow to the characters in Ultima Thule. The thing is that the more I dwell on this alternate climax of the story, the more I lean toward it being the actual plot. It offers Hesse the chance to redeem himself just a tiny bit--NOT completely, not even close, but he would at the very least repay the debt he's owed the Dobermanns all these years for saving his life. Not only that, but there's a nice irony in Hesse getting killed in the exact same way he ordered the massacre of the family of the guy who knocked him down and stole his papers all that time ago. And it helps make his about-face in the final story more believable. With the bonus that I wouldn't need to shoehorn in a clunky supernatural subplot. SO...that's my heads-up, that a major plot change may end up occurring soon. I know it's kinda dumb for me to get into all this here--in Volker's only tangentially related entry--but Hesse's interaction with Volker's uncle is a catalyst--almost a trial run--for this, and I haven't had anywhere else to share it, so... Anyway. Volker ends up not with Addy, but with Senta, while Addy ends up with Gerhardt. I imagine they have the opportunity to meet again sometime after the war, though that's a story for another time, as I need to finish this one up. [Wilhelm Volker 2023 [Friday, May 5, 2023, 4:00:19 AM]] [Wilhelm Volker 2023 2 [Friday, May 5, 2023, 4:00:35 AM]] |