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Information
Name/Nickname: Ernst Dannecker; Der Teufel; the Devil; Devil Dannecker; Dannecker The Devil
Gender: Cisgender male
Birthdate/Age/Sign: NA; thirties/forties; Aries
Orientation: Heteroromantic heterosexual
Relationship Status: Involved (Margit Dannecker); single; married (Else Dannecker)
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality: Caucasian; Germanic descent; German
Class: Middle
Religion: Unknown
Profession: Labor camp commandant
Birthplace/Residence: Germany (deceased before the main story)
Personality/Characteristics
[Coming soon.]
Appearance
Dannecker is a Siberian husky with pricked ears and short fur. He's of tall height; with a fit/athletic body type; has light blue eyes; and has white and dark gray fur and sandy blond hair.
Dannecker has an eagle-and-swastika tattoo on his upper left arm. He wears the traditional black SS-Totenkopfverbände uniform (with the Totenkopf rather than the SS collar tab) and SS-Degen (dress sword) while in the office or at work and sometimes a gray SS uniform when in the field. When interacting with others he has an especially oily and unnerving smile and demeanor which is polite, yet offputting and vaguely menacing.
Family & Relationships
Margit Dannecker (Mother/Lover)
[Coming soon.]
Walther Dannecker (Father/Victim)
[Coming soon.]
Else Dannecker (Wife)
[Coming soon.]
Margarethe Dannecker (Stepdaughter/Victim)
[Coming soon.]
Christof Dannecker (Stepson)
[Coming soon.]
Bernhard Dannecker (Stepson)
[Coming soon.]
Tanja Dannecker (Stepdaughter)
[Coming soon.]
History
[Coming soon.]
Dannecker In Heaven
[Coming soon.]
Trivia
*The incestuous relationship between Dannecker and his mother, Margit, is non-forcible yet nonconsensual, as he's underage when it begins--Ernst Dannecker is himself a victim of abuse. However, Dannecker willingly resumes the relationship as an adult, and remains faithful to his own mother until she dies; she's the only person he ever really mourns and seems to genuinely love (even though he hints that he could turn on her in an instant if she betrays him). His nonconsensual relationship with his stepdaughter Gret (indeed, his entire marriage to Else and the adoption of her children) is a direct result of his relationship with Margit; Margit, who had been similarly abused by her father and learned to normalize it, instructed her son that one day he would need to take a wife and have children of his own. Dannecker sees his mother in Gret and even wonders if she's been sent by Margit. It can be argued that he never actually loves Gret herself, instead he loves the image of her as his mother and thus his lover. Despite her age during their "relationship," I don't believe Dannecker technically fits the profile of a pedophile (more accurately hebephile/ephebophile); although he does coerce Gret by threatening to target her younger sister Tanja, he has no intention of following through, and he's never attracted to any other minors or even to any other women besides Margit. (He admits forcing himself on a farm woman during the Great War, and visiting brothels, but also claims the experiences were unsatisfactory; similar with a few encounters he has with women following his mother's death and before he meets Else. Regarding Else herself, the two do engage as husband and wife, though Dannecker privately tells Gret that he finds her mother bothersome and unattractive, a "fat old cow.") In short, every romantic/sexual relationship Dannecker is involved in as an adult revolves around his feelings toward his mother, the only genuine feelings he's ever had.
*It's hinted that he may have latent homosexual tendencies: While targeting Josef Diamant as a camp prisoner, he intimidates Diamant by cornering him and grinding against him briefly while making a lewd comment; later, he forces Isaak Schindel to perform oral sex on Diamant while he watches. However, Diamant himself claims Dannecker isn't "eine Schwuchtel," explaining that while he expected Dannecker to get off on watching him and Schindel, he didn't do so. He correctly theorizes that this is simply how Dannecker dominates and intimidates others; he experiences no sexual attraction to men whatsoever.
*The taunt that a fellow military academy recruit/soldier levels at him--Muttersöhnchen--translates to "mama's boy," and is an actual psychological term. This casual taunt much later leads to one of Dannecker's first "pet projects."
*His weapon of choice is an M1879 Reichsrevolver which he always carries on his person. Although it's outdated, he likes emptying it of all but one bullet and terrorizing his victims with Russian roulette. Gret Dannecker acquires a similar revolver (perhaps another one of her stepfather's?) for Josef Diamant to use.
*In a side story, Josef Diamant describes how he's able to walk perfectly silently even in jackboots, and can easily approach people unnoticed.
*In a side story, Gret Dannecker makes note that his breath smells of cinnamon.
*He's not offended by his prisoners'/victims' nickname for him, Dannecker der Teufel (Dannecker the Devil), and in fact relishes his reputation; for this reason he chooses a Devil-themed tapestry to take from the Dobermann estate and hangs it up not far from his office.
*Ironically, this same tapestry helps conceal the secret passage that he first uses to victimize Gret, and which is later used in Diamant's escape. The passage goes unnoticed by SS investigators for years.
*Josef Diamant, one of his primary victims, unconsciously starts to emulate Dannecker more as the story progresses and he grows more militant. He frequently disguises himself in a stolen SS-Totenkopfverbände uniform, carries a similar revolver, and intimidates others by subjecting them to Russian roulette.
*Although he's sent unwillingly to military academy by his father and is shortly after drafted to fight in the Great War, he excels in the army, and reaches the rank of captain (Hauptmann).
*He never serves in the Waffen-SS or fights in the second war, and so does not possess a blood group tattoo (even though the Waffen-SS and SS-Totenkopfverbände are closely affiliated).
*It's due to his influence that Louis Dobermann is able to remain on the Nazi Party's good side despite Dobermann never joining or granting the Party official access to his property. In an ironic twist, he inadvertently aids in the Diamond Network's escape efforts before the Network even exists.
*The SS-themed ring that he commissions from Diamant as a gift for Gret--in actuality, a ruse by Diamant and Gret to aid in a prisoner escape--goes missing during the escape; he drops it after he's shot and it rolls under his desk, where one of the guards finds it later, and sells it. The ring passes through various hands before it's acquired by Vincenz Immerwahr. Gunter Hesse spots it in Immerwahr's collection while visiting his home; Immerwahr gifts it to him, asking what need has he (Immerwahr) of a woman's ring. This is the same ring Hesse offers to Sophie Sommer when he proposes--a ring designed by his greatest enemy and involved in the murder of a fellow SS officer.
*[Coming soon.]
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