Hermann/Trivia

## Etymology

**Hermann** is a German and Jewish name originating from the Proto-Germanic \*harjaz + \*mann-, corresponding to the common noun \*harjamann- (“warrior”); equivalent to Heer (“army”) + Mann (“man”).

The N Corp. director takes her name from **Hermann Kafka**, the father of Franz Kafka, author of *The Metamorphosis* (German: *Die Verwandlung*). Hermann acts as a composite stand-in for the both parents of Gregor Samsa; neither of whom were given a first name in the original book.

* Franz Kafka infamously had an extremely complicated relationship with his father, as Hermann was the subject of his *Letter to His Father* (German: *Brief an den Vater*). A compilation of 48 pages calling out his emotional abuse and hypocrisies of his father, the letter still expressed hope that Franz could bridge the gap between them. According to his friend and official biographer, Max Brod, Franz Kafka had given his letter to his mother, Julie, to in turn deliver to his father—though, she never did. Hermann never read the letter, as Julie returned the manuscript to Franz; Letter to His Father was only published posthumously in the *Neue Rundschau* during 1952.
* In *The Metamorphosis*, both parents were horrified by Gregor’s sudden transformation into a monstrous vermin; Mr Samsa on several occasions attacks Gregor out of fear for his appearance, severely injuring him. During one of these spouts of abuse, Mr Samsa threw apples at Gregor, lodging one into his back and crippling him. The wound, his other injuries, and his self-starvation eventually leads to Gregor’s death. But even when Gregor was human, his father still never really cared for his well being, only as the family’s main source of income and defacto man of the house before. Franz Kafka largely based the Samsa family on his own, with Mr Samsa heavily mirroring his own relationship with his father, Hermann.
* Apples appear as a major motif in Gregor’s chapter, Canto I: The Outcast, often representing Gregor’s trauma relating to the Smoke War and his relationship with Hermann. Most notably, Hermann had Gregor slicing apples with his insectile arm as practice before gutting people for the war, and had Yuri decapitated after she was eaten by the Abnormality, the Golden Apple.

### Other possible literary references

Additionally, Hermann appears to reference other historical figures, considering her major role in the lives of the other Sinners and members of the LCB.

* Hermann Hesse, the author of *Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth*.
	+ Hermann, as a director of N Corp, was responsible for the massacre of Sinclair’s home village, Calw. Hermann also orchestrates Demian’s reunion with Sinclair, as seen with her collaboration with Sonya at the end of Canto II: The Unloving.
	+ Calw was directly based on the German town of the same name, of which was the birthplace of Hermann Hesse.
* Hermann Broch, the author of *The Death of Virgil* (German: *Der Tod des Vergil*) and *The Sleepwalkers* (German: *Die Schlafwandler*).
	+ *The Death of Vergil* was a novel reenacting the death of Roman poet Virgil, whom Vergilius is directly based on. The novel has Vergil reminisce on his life as he accepts his impending death, in which he realizes that his works only glorified Rome’s beauty but did not acknowledge its flaws, lamenting the false reality he painted of it.
	+ Hermann was first mentioned in *Leviathan*, as she was ascertained by Vergilius as the current director of N Corp. The Wing, and by extension, Hermann, is responsible for ruining Vergilius’ life as well, subjecting his orphans’ to the glass window’s experiments and functionally killing Lapis’ and Garnet’s identities.
	+ *The Sleepwalkers* was novel with the major theme of suicide; the ‘**suicide vending machine**’ (Korean: 자살 자판기, *Jasal japangi*) N Corp. is (in)famous for are the Wing’s largest source of income, and are operated by Hermann herself.
* Herman Melville, the author of *Moby-Dick; or, The Whale*.
	+ At the end of Canto V: The Evil Defining, it is revealed that Hermann rescued Ahab after she miraculously survived the Pallid Whale’s death. Here, Hermann promises Ahab that if she joins her, the washed-up captain would be given the opportunity to kill every Pallid Whale across the numerous mirror worlds.

## Trivia

* Hermann's voice actor, Bi Ju-eon (비주언), also voiced Nikolai from *Library of Ruina*.