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Information
Name/Nickname: Tobias Schäfer; Doctor Schäfer
Gender: Cisgender male
Birthdate/Age/Sign: NA; thirties/forties; Pisces
Orientation: Heteroromantic heterosexual
Relationship Status: Single
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality: Caucasian; Germanic descent/Ashkenazi Jew; German
Class: Middle
Religion: Jewish
Profession: Before the war--doctor; during the war--camp prisoner/in-home physician at the Dobermann estate; after the war--retired
Birthplace/Residence: Germany (deceased after Ultima Thule)
Personality/Characteristics
[Coming soon.]
Appearance
Schäfer is an uncertain breed of spitz, likely a Mittelspitz, with pricked ears and long fur. He's of short height; with a slight/slim body type; has golden amber eyes; and has red and white fur and red hair.
Schäfer has a camp prisoner ID number tattooed inside his left forearm. He wears spectacles for myopia (nearsightedness). He generally dresses in light-colored three-piece suits and carries a medical case. He never wears a yarmulke/kippah while living with the Dobermanns, for practical reasons. He wears a yellow Judenstern on his left breast. He has to look people in the face when they talk to him so he can read their lips; for those who are unaware he's deaf, this makes him come across as highly attentive and a good listener. He has a meek, unassuming, deferential demeanor, often keeping his head somewhat lowered and his ears somewhat down when speaking to those in authority; this is likely a learned behavior from his time in the camp. He's soft spoken and gentle natured, which helps conceal his more cunning, secretive side.
Family & Relationships
Name Here (Relationship Here)
[Coming soon.]
History
[Coming soon.]
Schäfer In Heaven
[Coming soon.]
Trivia
*Schäfer goes deaf in adulthood for an indeterminate reason. Given the concurrent rise to power of the Nazi Party, he teaches himself to read lips so he can escape detection as being disabled. For this reason he miraculously survives selections in Commandant Dannecker's camp, and Dannecker never realizes that he's deaf. (Schäfer is ultimately selected for execution after an injury renders him unable to work.)
*He's the driving force behind the Dobermann family getting involved in the resistance.
*Despite his alliance with Josef Diamant, the two are often at loggerheads with each other, given their very different approaches to handling the Nazis. Schäfer considers Diamant to be dangerously reckless, while Diamant considers Schäfer to be too conciliatory and overly cautious. Mainly, Diamant criticizes Schäfer's close relationship with Lt. Hesse, refusing to take the complexities of Schäfer's situation into account.
*He maintains a delicate, complicated friendship with Gunter Hesse, the SS officer who's a frequent guest of the Dobermanns and is Diamant's primary foe. Although Hesse despises Schäfer at first, and tries multiple times to convince the Dobermanns (and Dannecker) to return him to Dannecker's camp--ultimately abandoning these efforts in exchange for Schäfer being confined to Dobermann property and wearing a Judenstern--his malice gradually lessens after Schäfer first treats him for a collapsed lung, then treats his beloved horse Gewitter when she suffers from colic. Although the two by necessity maintain a degree of distance, they're on oddly friendly terms with each other, considering, occasionally making smalltalk and sharing meals with the Dobermanns. Hesse even learns sign language to better communicate with Schäfer, stomps his boot to get his attention, and more than once asks him about Jewish customs (such as inquiring if he's allowed to eat the deer Louis Dobermann shoots; Schäfer replies that he's allowed to eat deer, though not one killed in such fashion). Most significantly, Hesse actively participates in shielding Schäfer from possible persecution by his fellow Nazis; although Schulte, Wozniak, Reinhardt, and Arzt become aware of Schäfer's presence at the Dobermann estate, Hesse's boss and chief of the SD, Heidenreich, is kept in the dark.
*He feels he owes Louis Dobermann his life, and is completely devoted to him and Inga. He's devastated to learn of von Dobermann's death in the Alpine Fortress, but tries to help Inga through her crushing grief, by convincing Adelina to bring her to see Der Wächter Der Stadt, the statue of von Dobermann that's been erected in the city square. He likewise comes to check on Inga's health and comfort her when her memory starts failing.
*[Coming soon.]
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