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Horst von Dobermann Blog Entry |
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February 16, 2024, 12:00:34 AM 2/16/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is a twofer: Horst von Dobermann and Ewald von Dobermann. They are respectively: older brother and uncle of Louis Dobermann; older son and brother-in-law of Ilse von Dobermann; older son and younger brother of Rudolf von Dobermann; and are deceased before Inga Dobermann or Adelina Dobermann enter the story. Horst is a bit of a playboy (I gave him a dueling scar, seemed appropriate); I don't know much about Ewald, but he seems nice. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, they're fawn-and-tan doberman pinschers; Ewald is a bit chubbier and I gave him light reddish hair to distinguish him a bit. This is now all the von Dobermanns! Well, except Adelina's and Gerhardt's sons, Louis II and Diepold (they take their mother's name). TUMBLR EDIT: Horst and especially Ewald are characters I don't know a lot about, so I haven't much to say. Like Ilse and Rudolf, they both die in the Spanish flu pandemic while Louis Dobermann is recuperating in a military hospital (where he meets bride-to-be Inga). Neither Inga nor of course Adelina ever gets to meet Dobermann's family as they're wiped out within days of each other in 1918. The rest of this entry, until the end paragraph, will be divided/individualized for these two characters to avoid too much repetition... I know a bit more about Horst due to his position in the von Dobermann family. (Louis drops the "von" while in the army; he and Inga and Addy take it back up following WWII.) Horst is the older of the two von Dobermann sons, members of a family of Junker barons, so he's the heir of the estate; the majority of it is supposed to go to him upon his parents' deaths. Louis wouldn't be left completely cut off, of course, though this is just the way of things even though under the Weimar Republic, their noble status has lost meaning. The Junkers are old fashioned and set in their ways, however, so, out in the country where many of them depend on each other for support, they pretty much continue their pre-Republic lifestyle. Horst is most likely expected to find a nice Junker--or at least upper-class--bride, settle down, and start his own family. He never expresses too much interest in doing so, however. The von Dobermanns--with the exception of Louis--are social butterflies, chatty and outgoing and loving going to parties and events. Horst, especially, adores the spotlight. There's no such thing as negative attention. While he doesn't go out of his way to be a jerk or anything--in fact, he's quite charming--he is rather reckless at times, speeding his car through the countryside, engaging in duels just for the hell of it, participating in rough sports, getting into all sorts of hijinks. He likely breaks a lot of feminine (maybe a few masculine?) hearts along the way, although he doesn't do so out of malice, he's just rather shallow and can't be bothered to think out the consequences. He lives in the moment and never worries about the future, at least partly because he imagines it's all already laid out for him: Inheritance, wife, family. Maybe, even, Horst's careless lifestyle is a sort of rebellion against the planned-out future...but just a temporary one, because he knows eventually he'll need to set this lifestyle aside and take responsibility. Louis is perhaps a few years younger than Horst. Oddly, he's the serious one, the one who's a little TOO responsible for his own good. Although the Prussians are known for their stuffiness, the von Dobermanns aren't especially so, yet he sure is. He's stoic straight out of the womb, hardly cries or fusses when he's born, is then a quiet obedient child, then a well-mannered yet reclusive teen who never intentionally causes trouble. (The one time he does cause trouble is actually the result of his parents conspiring with the parents of a neighboring Junker girl, Katharina von Thiel, to hook the two up; although they become close friends, they aren't romantically attracted in the least. Frau von Thiel can't decide whether to be offended that Louis and Katharina are caught visiting inappropriately, or that the inappropriate visit has nothing to do with romance.) Rudolf and Ilse ponder more than once whether they should look to him instead to ensure the family line, just in case Horst never outgrows his rebellious streak. If only Louis showed any interest in breaking some hearts, himself. He's as prudish and morally upright as one gets. Unfortunately, none of this gets any chance to happen. Germany goes to war in 1914. It's traditional for the younger sons in Junker families to enlist in the military, and Louis promptly does so, out of a sense of duty as well as to prove that he's his own person, distinct from his family name; he even drops the aristocratic "von." Horst's carefree attitude dampens some, not just due to the less-jovial wartime circumstances, but with the sobering realization that Louis may very well never make it home again; this possibility increases as the war drags on and on, Louis moves up through the ranks to become a Hauptmann (captain), and his letters grow fewer and farther in between. Communication at last stops completely, and Rudolf, Ewald, Horst, and especially Ilse grow anxious about Louis's unknown fate. As it turns out, Louis isn't the one they need to worry about: Although he's been badly wounded carrying another soldier, Gunter Hesse, to safety, he's currently receiving excellent care in hospital. The rest of the von Dobermanns should worry about themselves first off. See Ilse's entry. Ewald returns from a visit to the city and falls ill. In quick succession, the rest of the family, and many of the staff, sicken as well; at last Horst, feverish yet in the best shape, drives Rudolf, Ewald, and Ilse to the city hospital for emergency care, before collapsing himself. One by one they succumb--Horst is the next to last, his own young, relatively healthy immune system turning on itself. His mother Ilse goes to her death crying out for "My baby boy, he's in the army, where is my boy?" The hospital staff assume that she's asking about Horst (even as they wrap his still form in sheets and start disinfecting his room), and blame her raging fever for the delirium of believing he's in the army. Louis Dobermann was always so quiet and unassuming, and has been away for so long, that almost everyone has simply forgotten about him. At least, until lawyers for the von Dobermann estate send letters informing both the hospital and the city government that massive monetary donations have been made to help combat the flu...donations made in the name L DOBERMANN. ...The entire von Dobermann family is eradicated almost overnight, leaving the younger son, Louis, as the sole survivor and inheritor of the entire estate and all its finances. He goes from being an army captain lying deaf and wounded in a hospital to Freiherr Dobermann, the insanely wealthy sole owner of the Dobermann estate and sole carrier of the family name. It's a lot of responsibility to take on at once, especially for someone who is so ill at ease dealing with the public. Fortunately for him, shortly after receiving this devastating news in the hospital, he receives an unexpected visitor: A young woman named Inga, who makes the rounds offering encouragement and companionship to the injured troops. For the first time, Louis feels a spark, and Inga feels the same. He eventually returns to his family estate, but he's not alone, and he's no longer the only von Dobermann left. Despite tragedy's best efforts, the family line carries on through their daughter Adelina, then through her sons, Diepold and Louis II. [Horst von Dobermann 2024 [Friday, February 16, 2024, 12:00:17 AM]] |