Ludwig

**Ludwig** is a close ally of Kiku Honda in the manga/anime series, *Hetalia,* and the *Tea Leaves* series. He is the personification of Germany and makes up the Axis powers with Japan and Italy.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Ludwig is a tall, muscular man, with blond slicked back hair and blue eyes. He wears either a green Wehrmacht, or a Waffen-SS officer's uniform with a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on the collar. In early webcomic chapters that take place during WWI, he wore a gray-blue Waffenrock uniform (as seen in colored artwork) characteristic of the German army uniform of that period (the color of this uniform was changed to green for the anime). However, the black cuffs and white piping may also suggest Ludwig wears a Schutzpolizei administration uniform.

### Personality

He is a serious and efficient man who always abides by the rules. Ludwig has to deal with an unreasonable boss as well as the trouble-making Italy. He does not tolerate any mistakes, is a neat freak, and happens to have a rather pessimistic nature. His hobbies include making sweets (including his secret love of baking cakes), reading, and walking his dogs. In Episode 08, Feliciano admits to Arthur, Alfred, and Francis that Ludwig is a fan of BDSM. It was said in an earlier profile, that his pent up anger is released when he has beer. In Episode 79, we get to see that his usual drinking "buddy" is his elder brother Gilbert.

## Back Story

Ludwig first appears in the "Meeting Of The World" segment in Episode 01, where he orders everyone to stop arguing and present data if they want to make a statement. Later in the same episode, the anime skips back to WWI as he finds an abandoned tomato crate in the woods, setting the events of the main Hetalia storyline into motion.

Ludwig's SS uniform color is changed from dark green to teal for the anime adaptation, and the Knight's Cross is absent from his design. His WWI uniform was changed from gray-blue to green as well, though in the Axis training sequences, Ludwig is briefly shown wearing the green version of his WWII SS uniform.

## Storyline History

### Tea Leaves and Gold Pins

Ludwig is there at Kiku's welcome home party thrown by Yao Wang. He asks Alfred F. Jones about Florence.

### Tea Leaves and Red Silk

Ludwig and Feliciano visit Kiku in the hospital. The Japanese man tell them about his dreams and the Woman in Red. Though he can't understand it at the time, but Ludwig seems to grasp how serious the situation is.

### Tea Leaves and Silver Rings

Ludwig and Feliciano stop by Gilbert Beilschmidt's house to pay him a visit. Beforehand, he warned the Italian man not to talk about things that Kiku told them at the hospital because they weren't sure if he was in the right state of mind. Feliciano agrees and all is well until he slips up talks about the Woman in Red. Ludwig tries to stop him, but it's too late.

Later after getting home from an awkwardly quiet world meeting, Ludwig encounters a strange woman in a long red coat. She looked at his house lost as she clutched a piece of paper with "6972 Polanów" written on it. As Ludwig tries to talk to the woman, something seems often off about her. When he gets nowhere with talking to her, he offers to take her to the destination that she is looking for. She agrees and they get into his car. However on the way, the woman tells him to stop the car. She gets out and disappears, leaving the German rather puzzled on what just happened.

Ludwig sees the woman again. This time, she is sitting on his steps, waiting for him. He tries to find out why she ran away from him and who she was looking for in Polanów. It is implied that the woman is looking for a lover there, but she doesn't know anything else about him. When Gilbert stops by the house, he notices that Ludwig seems to be talking to nobody there.

Later, he decides to look up information about this woman. Ludwig calls up the genealogy record center and gives the operator the address, 6972 Polanów. After he gets the records, he learns that a family named Harel had disappeared during World War II. The parents had three daughters and a son. Ludwig notices something familiar about the youngest daughter, Lydia. He thinks she might be the woman that he keeps seeing, but isn't too sure. Gilbert walks into his office and warns him to stop with the research before it's too late.

### Tea Leaves and Opal Necklaces

Ludwig still sees that woman in the red coat. He tries to tell her that 6972 Polanów doesn't exist anymore and asks why she wants to go there. The woman breaks down crying and mumbling something. When Ludwig goes to find out what she's saying, he touches her wrist and hears her ask, "Why did he betray me?" He starts to see disturbing visions of fire and the woman crying in a corner without her eyes. When the German man woke up, hours had passed and he was alone.

His behavior starts to alarm Elizabeta and Feliciano. The latter Ludwig spoke to about the woman in the red coat at lunch, causing him to panic. Ludwig is still doing his search on Lydia and her family. He starts to feel that someone is watching him. Gilbert tries to talk him into stopping, but with no avail. Later on, the woman in the red coat comes by his house. He learns that she is indeed Lydia Harel. She shows him a little bit of their pasts. He saw himself in a coma in a military hospital. Ludwig tells her that he didn't betray her and kisses her. Gilbert finds him out cold with blood on his shirt.

### Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Ludwig is trapped in a coma by Lydia Harel. He cannot wake up and doctors can't figure out while. Meanwhile, she tortures him, demanding to know he betrayed her. He doesn't know the answer and starts having more memories of him in his past life with her. The angrier Lydia gets, the monster-like she becomes. Her terror effects him so bad, that Ludwig has seizes in his hospital bed in real live, leaving Gilbert helpless to watch as doctors try to stabilize him. Ludwig is finally rescued from his coma by a psychic medium that Gilbert turned to out of desperation. She talks to Lydia and convinces her to forgive his past self and Lydia and Ludwig from the past leave peacefully. Ludwig awakes in his hospital bed.

### Tea Leaves and Sapphire Earrings

Ludwig is awake but he is in a catatonic state. The doctors can't figure out why. Ludwig's soul appears to be trapped in Limbo and runs the risk of fading away if not pulled out in time. Later, he wakes up out of his coma and seems to be back to normal.

### Tea Leaves and Purple Robes

Lovino calls him for help. Ludwig doesn't know what's really going on. Everyone's been keeping him out of the loop.

### Tea Leaves and Black Lipstick

Feliciano still hasn't been by to see him in months. Ludwig learns what happened to him. At first, Gilbert and Lovino try to change the subject. He pleads with Gilbert to tell him the truth. Gilbert breaks down and tells him the truth. Ludwig ran into Feliciano on the streets one time in July and he could tell that something was off about the Italian man. The German man goes to see Feliciano after hearing what he did to save him. First, he decides to follow Feliciano. Ludwig calls out to him, but the Italian man didn't respond. The German man is convinced that Feliciano isn't his friend. More like a cold man pretending to be him. He finds the Italian man sitting on the living room. The two men talk. Ludwig can see that Feliciano isn't himself anymore. The Italian man is so cold with his words. The goofy Italian man doesn't exist anymore. The whole time, Ludwig is worried. In the end, Feliciano walked out the door.

## Relationships

### Roderich Edelstein

*Main Article: Roderich Edelstein*

Roderich and Ludwig were allies in both World Wars and lived together for a while during that time. Roderich gives him advice during his confusion over Feliciano in the *Valentine's Day* strips. They appear to be very close, although Roderich annoys Ludwig at times with his behavior such as blaming Ludwig for breaking a cup, when he was actually the one that broke it, or claiming the German composers are Austrian.

### Feliciano Vargas

*Main Article: Feliciano Vargas*

After discovering Feliciano hiding in a crate, Feliciano took him prisoner but eventually got annoyed and sent Italy back. However, Italy returned and declared himself his ally. Despite their differences, the two have a rather close relationship, much to the disapproval of Italy's older brother Lovino, who hates Ludwig.

It is hinted obliquely, but not yet confirmed, that Ludwig may be the Holy Roman Empire, having lost his childhood memories.

It is also implied that Ludwig may be in love with Feliciano, supported by one of Himaruya's original webcomic strips Buon San Valentino where Ludwig started reading a book about how partners behave. As he read the book, Ludwig became confused on whether or not Italy's behavior was that of a friend or a lover. Later, Italy presented him with red roses, a confession of love in Ludwig's home, making him believe that Italy was in love with him. He then proceeded to take the steps in the book to court Italy. He eventually proposes to Italy, and the strip ends with a flashback of Chibitalia receiving flowers from what appears to be Ludwig's view point, suggesting that he is the Holy Roman Empire. The Buon San Valentino strips are unfinished.

In episode 41 of the dub, a horrified Italy asks him about the rumors that Arthur told him, only to have Ludwig deny it and say he loves him in his own language.

### Kiku Honda

*Main Article: Kiku Honda*

The last member to join the Axis team, Kiku had known Ludwig for some time (as depicted in the original strips), although Ludwig said he can never tell what Kiku has in mind. He is serious but quiet and inexperienced to the outside world.

### Gilbert Beilschmidt

*Main Article: Gilbert Beilschmidt*

Ludwig's older brother and drinking buddy, who often refers to Ludwig as "West." Gilbert lives in Ludwig's house, as revealed by the April Fool's Prussia's Blog. Because of Gilbert's attitude and tendency to buy strange things, as well as his referring to their tie as an unsavory one, they seem to be annoyed by each another. Despite this, Ludwig, like several others, was relieved to see that his brother was okay when he woke up after eating Arthur's food.

## Trivia

* In the original webcomic artwork, most notably in the World War-era strips, Germany was represented with the Nazi German Reichskriegsflagge (due to the setting of the comic). Later-era strips and artwork used the more modern flag, while the Reichskriegsflagge was done away with in later media adaptations of the series.
* Germany's three dogs went unnamed for some time in canon, until the second Character CD revealed their names to be Blackie, Berlitz, and Aster.
* His efficient and perfectionist personality is a reference to the German culture of cleanliness and tidiness. Italy revealing that Germany likes BDSM is a reference to the fact that German pornography is often very hardcore and kinky compared to most porn, and that an unusual amount of scat porn is exported from Germany.
* It has been said that Germany was based on a German friend of Hidekaz Himaruya.
* According to Himaruya, the personification of Germany was the hardest to finalize as he had little experience of drawing foreigners at the time. Germany was originally intended to be a moodier, more intimidating character and was initially depicted with a much larger nose and a rougher appearance.

## Source

* Basic Information: http://hetalia.kitawiki.net/index.php?title=Germany