Manfred Flachsbart

         Manfred is a German officer, raised as a foster son in a military family. His foster-brother is (fictional) Oberst Eberhard Flaschbart -- a tough army officer in the Heer. However, though he was exceptional in games and sparring with his brother, he always graduated exactly last in his class -- with the bare minimum to graduate. While in school, he had looked up to Ernst Röhm and his efforts at socialist revolution. However, once he joined the military he was soon disillusioned. He knew from early on that he was a homosexual, but successfully kept it hidden. He covered up his occaisionally foppish ways by winning several women with his charms. He did genuinely try to see if he could swing the other way, but it did not work.

         In the meantime, the Nazi party had risen to power and began its expansion. His performance in the army went up and down. He always did well enough to land some sort of position, but then he performed terribly once there. He did help many people to escape the Holocaust, including Jews and gypsies as well as homosexuals. However, he always maintained to his own bottom line first.

         After England was conquered, he managed to get a desk position within the war department in London. There he contacted the resistance and offered his aid. He had a few failures at first. He had snuck his compatriot Federico into an empty office building to gather documents. However, troops then moved in and sealed the building to fumigate it. Federico was trapped inside choking on the poison gas for two hours, while Manfred tried to find him a way out. Eventually he escaped without being found, but his health had greatly suffered. Weeks later, he was to take a gang of East-End thugs to disrupt a Party meeting. However, perhaps having heard of his homosexuality, they refused to take orders from him. Federico swept in to take charge. Manfred took it hard.

         However, he also helped out many. He helped his compatriot Alexandra with her endurance training by hooking her up with a women's spa and gym. When there, she found lots of sporty types eager to help her training.

Thoughts

Manfred was inspired most directly by Donna Barr's "Pfirsich Marie Rommel" The Desert Peach. Pfirsich is the fictional flamingly gay brother of Erwin Rommel. I originally thought of giving him the name Pfirsich, then later decided that it was just an occaisional nickname. Pfirsich is quite funny in playing up Nazi sex fetishes, but also has some treatment of more serious issues.          As I read more on it, though, I also was intrigued by the history of Ernst Röhm -- the co-founder of the Nazi co-founder of the Nazi Sturmabteilung, or storm troopers. Rö (pictured below right) was a homosexual, even openly so for several years (from 1925 until his execution in 1933). He also pressed for a genuinely socialist agenda -- the nationalization of large firms, profit sharing for employees, and cuts in the interest rates. He was an accomplished military man, but the SA were considered by the military to be a brawling mob of undisciplined street fighters.          Though Manfred is not a Nazi party member, and is actively working against them, I am interested in his view of nationalism as a German military man. I suspect he looks up to Röhm despite his role in bringing the Nazis to power, and their thuggish approach to political opponents.