Germany

Germany ドイツ
Character Information
Name	Federal Republic Of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
Human Name	Ludwig (ルートヴィッヒ, Rūtovihhi)
Age	20
Gender	Male
Birthday	October 3
Hair Color	Blond
Eye Color	Blue
Height	180 cm (5' 10.8")
Debut Appearances
Volume	Hetalia: Axis Powers Volume 1
Strip	Hetalia: Chapter 1
Game	Osōji Prussia
Drama CD	Hetalia Drama CD: Prologue
Anime	Episode 01
Musical	~Singin' in the World~
Voice Actors
Japanese	Hiroki Yasumoto Yuu Ishibashi (drama CD)
English	Patrick Seitz
Tagalog	Jefferson Utanes

Germany (ドイツ Doitsu) is a main character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers and leads the Axis Powers. Between 2007 and 2008, Himaruya gave out human names to some of the characters and he received the name Ludwig (ルートヴィッヒ, Rūtovihhi).

Attributes

A 'chibi' version of Germany.

Appearance

Germany is a tall, muscular man, with sleek blond hair and blue eyes; his facial features strongly resemble those of Germania. He wears either a green Wehrmacht, or a Waffen-SS officers' 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 Germany wears a Schutzpolizei administration uniform.

Personality and Interests

He is a tough, too-serious, and efficient man who always abides by the rules and is "weak to" them. He often has difficulty leaving his commanding, serious mode and relaxing, even for the sake of another. Germany has to deal with an unreasonable boss along with the troublemaking Italy. He does not tolerate any mistakes, is a neat freak, and happens to have a rather pessimistic nature. Volume 3 also revealed that he has a sincere personality. In Episode 32, he reveals to Ancient Rome that he has a lack of experience when it came at relationships, and tells Austria a similar story in the "Buon San Valentino" strips. His hobbies include making sweets (including his secret love of baking cakes), reading, and walking his dogs. In Episode 08, Italy accidentally admits to England, America and France that Germany is a sadist and 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, it is shown that his usual drinking buddy is his elder brother Prussia.

According to Prussia, he's strong enough to stop him (and presumably Germany, as well) from being afraid of Russia. He seems to have inherited his brothers' stubborn traits, and is somewhat aware of this, as he remarks that his telling someone else to avoid doing things to make those around them worry is the pot calling the kettle black, as he does such things all of the time.

France said, in his first Bloodbath, that Germany enjoys running around naked almost as much as Italy. According to Germany's diary, he also enjoys the maid cafes at Japan's house, for the uniforms the girls there wear.

Character notes reveal that Germany is awkward when talking to women, though acts as a father figure to younger nations (those who look like they're in grade school and younger) and thus can speak with younger girls without trouble. He also may be able to speak with women with less trouble if it's about work.

Relationships

Austria

Main Article: Austria

Germany has described Austria as being something like an older brother to him; however, unlike with Prussia, he does not call Austria "big brother," so they likely aren't quite as close. Austria and Germany were allies in both World Wars and lived together during World War Two, much to Hungary and Italy's dismay, though Austria didn't mind it at all. He approves of and supports a lot of Germany's ideas, and he relies very heavily on him. It's said that, if Germany were to get even a little cold, Austria would catch a high fever and collapse, causing Germany to have little choice than to take good care of himself. His behavior often annoys Germany, especially since Austria blames him for things he'd done such as when he'd broken a cup. He also orders him around very often, much to Germany's chagrin; however, it's been going on for so long that they and their neighbors all acknowledge it as "the usual" with them. Germany, however, feels that what he does goes beyond ordering. Austria has admitted that his reliance is a "terrifying thing." He has, however, been trying to lessen his dependence, at least economically. Germany has admitted that Austria's fighting technique is "magnificent." He does seem to worry about how reliant he is, and has tried to teach him to be more self-sufficient, but gave up when Austria stubbornly tried to push himself past his (rather short) limit after exhausting himself with two minutes of sweeping.

Austria gave him some advice during the Buon San Valentino strips and, apparently, Germany has had romantic troubles before as Austria was aware of how easily he "[lost] his head" when it came to romance. Oddly enough, when Germany attempted to, presumably, have sex with Austria in attempt to practice and ensure he knew how for when he intended to do so with Italy, despite his struggling, refusing, and telling Germany off, he apparently removed his pants himself. He then called his behavior "upright" as he said all Austrian citizens were, confusing Germany.

Finland

Main Article: Finland

The two are said to have a good relationship. The two nations were allied with each other and were seen chatting about their bosses in Hetare 4: Pact of Steel. Germany mentions that his boss is making him look for the Holy Grail. Finland jokingly asks if he worries that his boss will throw him in jail for complaining about him too much but Germany wonders what kind of world involves bosses imprisoning countries. Finland then quietly mentions to him that he believes his (Germany's) boss has it in him to do such a thing. In Comic Diary 4, Germany and Finland were seen having lunch together and conversing, asking Germany if he made a lunchbox in which he replied that Italy made it for him.

Hungary

Main Article: Hungary

Their relationship has yet to be shown in much detail, but they seem familiar with one another. Hungary affectionately refers to Germany as Germany-chan and, despite being stated to have trouble speaking with older women on any non-work-related topic, he seems to be able to speak with her with less trouble, though whether this is because they were discussing Austria and Prussia (who give Germany a lot of trouble and thus might be seen as "work" in his eyes) or because they're familiar with one another is unknown. When Germany received and began carrying out his orders to take over Austria, she was very upset saying that he should "please consider his feelings," though Austria didn't mind at all in the end.

Italy

Main Article: Italy

Since their pact of steel and declaring the Axis Powers the two have been best friends, at least in Italy's perspective. The two met in World War One, when Germany discovered Italy hiding in a crate and took him prisoner, but eventually grew tired of his behavior and sent him back home. During the Interwar period, Italy went to Germany's house to work because there was no work at his own home and he needed the money due to the bad state of the economy at the time. Italy returned and declared himself his ally in the following World War, much to Germany's distress. Despite their differences, the two have a rather close relationship, much to the disapproval of Italy's older brother South Italy, who hates Germany. Germany has a great admiration for Italy's culture, language, food, and his home in general, and seems to go there almost every summer on vacation. He enjoys it to the point that he's said that he wouldn't mind staying in Italy forever if he could. Even though Italy annoys him, he found that having someone who depended on and trusted him as Italy did was a fun experience.

A comic strip on Valentine's Day was released, centered around Germany's misunderstanding of Italy's behavior--kissing him, telling him he loved him, and giving him red roses--and Germany's attempt to reciprocate what he believed were Italy's romantic feelings for him which ended in him proposing to Italy after following the instructions in a book entitled "Dating for Germans" for approximately six days. Though he was nervous before meeting with Italy when he intended to propose to him, he didn't feel bad at all and felt rather happy, instead. Italy, misunderstanding the entire situation, assuming he was angry. At the end of the presumably uncompleted strip, Germany appears to have a flashback of Chibitalia, hinting that he might be Italy's long-lost love Holy Roman Empire, though it isn't outright confirmed.

Japan

Main Article: Japan

The last member to join the Axis team, Japan had known Germany for some time (as depicted in the original strips.) Germany said he can never tell what Japan has in mind. They share similar opinions on Italy's behavior, though Japan is generally more patient with him.

Prussia with a young Germany.

Prussia

Main Article: Prussia

Germany's older brother and drinking buddy, who often refers to Germany as "West". Prussia lives in Germany's house, as revealed by the April Fool's Prussia's Blog. Because of Prussia'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, Germany, like several others, was relieved to see that his brother was okay when he woke up after eating England's food. He has also said that Prussia could be extremely overprotective of him. Germany also seems to believe most anything that Prussia says that he cannot disprove, or at least about his past, as evident in the 2011 Christmas event where he was surprised that his brother was not as cool of a child as he had claimed, and intended to ask him for an explanation.

Appearances

Germany in Episode 14.

Anime

Germany 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.

Germany'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, Germany is briefly shown wearing the green version of his WWII SS uniform.

Musical

Yūichirō Ōmi as Germany.

Germany appeared in the musical Hetalia ~Singin' in the World~ and was portrayed by Yūichirō Ōmi.

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.
  

  An early design of Germany
• 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. In addition, Sealand questioned why all of Germany's torture devices looked rather perverse.
• It has been said that Germany was based on a German friend of Hidekaz Himaruya.
• Germany shares both Japanese and English voice actors, Hiroki Yasumoto and Patrick Seitz respectively, with Agni, a character from the anime Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji.
• 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. In the Volume 3 special pamphlet, he revealed that he couldn't decide on his face for a long time, as he didn't appear anywhere but Japan's Gakuen manga. The tough, serious expression stays constant throughout his whole design, however his original design had a more bloodthirsty and scary image. Himaruya had also initially tried to make him look less attractive, "if you look closely."