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"The Baby" (
Personality[]
The Baby's personality could at best be described as excessively eccentric, and at worst as mercurially xenophobic and violent. In his introduction to Nina Fortner, the Baby was shown to be cheerful and amiable to a fault, with a penchant for decadence, likely due to seeing his goals began to come to fruition with Nina's arrival. However, after capturing Tenma, he expressed little patience for the Japanese man's interference and nothing but disgust for his perceived racial inferiority, mercilessly beating him when the man tried to retaliate during his interrogation. He similarly showed no pity or remorse for attempting to burn down the Turkish Quarter, in spite of the presence of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocents, and in fact expressed paramount disappointment when his scheme failed and his "dinner" was ruined. He was also willing to have his men mercilessly kill an innocent child when he snooped in on the interrogation of Tenma, even expressing some degree of glee and revelry in the act, and this action was only stopped by the timely intervention of General Wolf's men.
Regardless, the Baby was shown to have a soft spot for those he felt close to, such as a prostitute he came into contact with, opened up to, and grew to trust. He is prone to cowardice, as indicated by his lingering paranoid fear of Nina Fortner after she confronted him and demanded to know where he planned to initiate the next major stage of the arson attack, during which he wet himself and proclaimed that she was "most definitely Johan's sister." Nevertheless, he is capable of courage, proven when he stood up to Johan's associate, Christof Sievernich, when the man attempted to unnerve and intimidate him.
Biography[]
Background[]
Little is known of the Baby's past, but what can be verified are his long-term connections to the broader right-wing, ultranationalist movement in Germany and abroad, and that he ascended to a significant leadership role therein. At some point, he became connected with Čapek and his organization, and became fervently devoted to bringing Johan Liebert into their fold and molding him into "the next Hitler." He was likely responsible for having some role in inciting several race riots and arsons against resident immigrant communities after the fall of the former East Germany, including one reported to Kenzo Tenma by Čapek's old friend, Milan Kolasch.
Prior to the events depicted in Monster, the Baby was stated to have been responsible for attempting to build pure-blooded German communities in the eastern bundeslander following the collapse of the communist bloc, the social experiment failed, leading The Baby to resume his racist activities in Frankfurt.
Plot to burn the Turkish Quarter[]
In 1996, Dr. Kenzo Tenma and Nina Fortner simultaneously but separately caught wind of an organization that was somehow tied with Johan Liebert, and the latter of whom heard reference to an important figure known as "The Baby." With both inclined to investigate, the two would navigate a netherworld of extremists, each concurrently pursuing leads, leading them both, respectively, to a posh bar called Candy in a red-light district and a similar bar located elsewhere, in Frankfurt, Germany. Nina Fortner managed to impersonate a prostitute while scantily clad in a showy dress and gained access to the former bar, wherein she inquired about "The Baby" and was granted an audience with him. Elsewhere, Kenzo Tenma burst into the other neo-Nazi bar looking for Detective Messener, wherein he managed to coax the information out of a group of skinheads after holding one of the group hostage with a ballpoint pen pressed against his carotid artery. He would later find Messener at the Frankfurt train station, undergoing withdrawal from heroin as he awaited a dealer there, and convinced Messener to tell him of his connections on threat of not leaving his side and thwarting any attempts on his part to obtain the drug. Messener coughed up the Baby's name and location, as well as gave reference to his aims and intentions, prompting Tenma to leave Messener and find the Baby for himself.
Meanwhile, Fortner had been taken to a backroom and left to await the Baby's arrival by his subordinates, at which time a voice issued from behind some red curtains situated in the chamber, requesting that Nina step forward onto the center of his Turkish carpet before he attended to her. Fortner did as she was requested, and the Baby emerged, dancing lightly to the tune of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby", before speaking with Fortner and informing
her of his plans to use Fortner as bait to draw her twin brother, Johan Liebert, to him and his partners as part of his scheme to make him the leader of a re-emerged Reich, with himself and the organization he served acting in the capacity of his loyal lieutenants. Fortner acquiesced to the Baby's plan, sensing an opportunity to end her brother's life, and agreed to the Baby's conditions, at which time she was transferred to the residence of one of the organization's prominent members, Professor Gunther Goedelitz.
Later, Tenma would arrive on the scene outside of Candy, where he learned of the neo-Nazi presence therein from a Turkish prostitute hidden in the shadows, who urged him to leave the area on account of his Japanese ancestry and hence his racial inferiority in the eyes of the neo-Nazi community. Tenma learned from the prostitute that Nina, in her prostitute guise, had previously been surveying the area in the past few weeks, and hence he intended to find out what had happened to her. However, as Tenma emerged from the alleyway, he was abruptly hit by a black car in front of the bar, prompting the Turkish prostitute to flee in terror, as Tenma was collected by several mysterious, sinister men and taken to the Baby's basement hideout for interrogation. Therein, Tenma was tied to a chair and tortured by the Baby, who sadistically produced and sharpened a poolstick, beating him at every turn for inquiring about his designs and speaking out about them, and ceaselessly reminding him of his racial inferiority, demanding that, as an untermensch, he had no right to speak. Tenma would ultimately proclaim that the Baby and his men were fools for thinking that Johan would ever come to share their goals, since Johan looked down upon all of humanity with equally cold disdain and not just those of different ethnic backgrounds, to which the Baby responded in fury by silencing Tenma with a sharp blow from the poolstick. He also informed Tenma of his ensuing plot to burn down the Turkish Quarter and "cleanse it of its filth." Later, when Tenma's young friend Dieter, who had previously been left in the custody of Otto Heckel, was caught eavesdropping at Candy, he was captured by one of the Baby's henchmen and brought into the basement. Discerning the connection between Tenma and the boy, the Baby threatened to have the boy killed and the henchman was prepared to slit the boy's throat, just as General
Helmut Wolf's men arrived to supervise the proceedings. However, at the last second, one of Wolf's men produced a pistol and shot the perpetrator in the head before he had a chance to act, thereby saving Dieter, much to the Baby's highly shocked confusion, and released Tenma and the boy from the Baby's custody, apologizing for his treatment at the Baby's hands and intimating that General Wolf, whom Tenma had been seeking out for some time, had summoned him. Tenma, Dieter and Wolf's men left thereafter, leaving the Baby to contemplate the incident and resume his plans.
The Baby, having strategically plotted to stage several smaller arsons throughout Frankfurt's Turkish Quarter before igniting a far larger one along the riverside that would engulf the entire area and burn down the district in one fell swoop with the arrival of a nightly windgust, made a reservation at a private, high-rise dining room, from which he could observe the events unfold. Accompanied by two prostitutes with whom he was enamored, the Baby meticulously ordered each dish to coincide with each event in turn, and took note of the scene with delight as he saw the first flames and plume of smoke distantly emerge from an abandoned building just as his first appetizer arrived. Little did the Baby know that Tenma, having left Wolf's company, as well as Dieter and Heckel, who had later been captured by skinheads involved in the plot but were rescued from one of the burning buildings by Nina Fortner, herself having previously escaped from Goedelitz's residence when he and his men were all mysteriously murdered by an unseen figure, presumably Johan himself, were now poised to challenge him. Tenma had informed the Turkish community of the Baby's plot upon his departure, and the Turks, anticipating the smaller fires, were now organized to fight them as they emerged. The Baby, still having his largest gambit up his sleeve, proceeded with his plans to burn down a large riverside warehouse concurrent with the windgust and thereby burn the Turkish Quarter to the ground, until Nina Fortner arrived at his dining chamber and, pointing her COP Derringer pistol to his head, demanded on threat of taking his life, with absolute fury in her eyes, that he tell her where he intended to "serve his main dish." Frightening him into disclosing the location of the large fire's planned origin and wetting his previously unsoiled pants, Nina would leave the Baby to stop the blaze before it could began, causing him to remark in awe that she was certainly a relation of the evil Johan Liebert, on account of her ability to terrify even him into submission. Ultimately, Tenma, Nina, Dieter, Heckel and their newfound acquaintances were able to stop the massive arson attack and thereby thwart the Baby's plans, causing him to remark disappointedly that "his meal had become cold" as he was left alone by his subordinates to contemplate his failure.
Continued efforts to connect with Johan Liebert[]
Sometime later, in 1997, the Baby introduced a bodyguard named Martin, who had been in the Baby's employ for some time, to his superior, Peter Čapek, remarking that if he screwed up the meeting, he wouldn't hesitate to kill him. Čapek and the Baby assigned Martin with the task of protecting Eva Heinemann, Tenma's former fiancee, so that she would be able to point Johan out to them and they could introduce him to Christof Sievernich, adopted son of the late Ernest Sievernich, a prominent business figure and neo-Nazi leader who was a member of their organization, and the only other survivor of the events at 511 Kinderheim. However, Martin found his loyalties grew conflicted as he became inexplicably infatuated with Heinemann and, when he was ordered to kill her, he refused at the later expense of his life by agents sent by Čapek, thereby thwarting at least one aspect of the two's conspiratorial plans.
The Baby would be sighted in Frankfurt, in the company of Peter Čapek, on several occasions thereafter by Tenma, who was still spying on their doings, but, when the police became aware of Tenma's presence in the area, he grew nervous and fled, only narrowly escaping a near-death experience with the help of Čapek old friend, Milan Kolasch, who now lived with a mixed immigrant family in the same Turkish Quarter that the Baby had attempted to burn down a year earlier. The Baby also met with Christof Sievernich during this time, asserting his position of dominance when the younger man made vague threats about his intentions to usurp him or have him eliminated.
Ultimately, the Baby would meet his end at the hands of a prostitute to whom he grew attached after frequenting her nightclub on several occasions and taking her out to dinner, who was likely hired by Christof in his bid to throw the organization into chaos. After the two checked into a hotel together, a subordinate of the Baby arrived as the prostitute departed to find his blood-soaked body in the bathtub with the water still running, worrying Čapek about Johan's probable involvement in the crime.
Another Monster[]
- Main article: Another Monster
In Another Monster, the Baby is stated and clarified to be a high-ranking member in the infamous "Pure German People's Party" and the "Reform and Progress Party", two ultra-right-wing political organizations in post-reunification Germany with neo-Nazi connections.
Quotes[]
- "Names have so very little meaning."
- "But depending on one's dining companions, the meal can either taste good or bad."
Trivia[]
- The Baby's arson attacks and other neo-Nazi activities, much like any number of other connections depicted in Monster, have a real-world basis in the rise of neo-Nazism in Germany during the 1990's, evident in such events as the deadly and dangerous Solingen arson attack that took place in 1993.
- Just like Adolf Hitler himself, The Baby was not a perfect example of the Aryan race.
- This character is thought to be a homage of "The Man from Another Place" as seen on the famous TV series "Twin Peaks", dancing just like him and passing through the curtains on his first appearance.