Wolfgang Grimmer

Overview

Plot

Appearances

Gallery

Wolfgang Grimmer
Information
Alias(es)	Neumeyer
Gender	Male
Age	44
Date of birth	1954
Relatives	Unnamed ex-wife Unnamed son (deceased)
Nationality	German
Occupation	Spy (formerly) Freelance journalist
Status	Deceased
First appearance
Manga debut	Chapter 78: "Grimmer"
Anime debut	Episode 40: "Grimmer"
Portrayal
Japanese	Hideyuki Tanaka Shiho Kawaragi (child)
English	Patrick Seitz
French	Pierre Tessier
German	Sven Plate
Korean	Oh Inseong Hyeon-sim Kim (child)
Spanish	Luis Posada

“	Everyone in this world carries around their own sins, and they never go away. But that doesn't change the fact that we do what we must.	”
—Grimmer, "Grimmer"

Wolfgang Grimmer (ヴォルフガング・グリマー, Vorufugangu Gurimā^?) is a major supporting character in the series, and a survivor of 511 Kinderheim. A former spy, he now travels around Germany working as a freelance journalist with the aim to uncover more information about 511 Kinderheim and his past.

Appearance

Grimmer is a lanky man with slightly tanned skin, grayish-blue eyes, and short medium-blond hair that hangs over his forehead. He is usually seen smiling.

Personality

Grimmer is a kind, generous person who believes in the inherent goodness in people. He is very concerned for the well-being of others, especially children, and wants to ensure the best possible futures for them. At first glance, he seems to be a modest person who finds joy even in the simplest things life can offer. However, due to the treatment he experienced in 511 Kinderheim, he is unable to feel emotions such as happiness, love, or sorrow, and it is also because of this that of all the things he learned to do during his spy training, smiling was the most difficult.

"The Magnificent Steiner"

When Grimmer is enraged or in peril, his alternate personality "The Magnificent Steiner" is unleashed, and he becomes capable of extreme violence.

Grimmer is by no means a unique case, as Franz Bonaparta mentions witnessing this phenomenon amongst the children in his past experiments. However, he also notes that most of the afflicted children ended up committing suicide, so it's impressive that Grimmer has managed to survive as long as he has.

Background

Grimmer was born in 1954 in former East Germany. For unknown reasons, around the age of 7 or 8 he ended up in 511 Kinderheim, where he became friends with a boy named Adolf Reinhart. Eventually, Grimmer was taken out at age 14 and enrolled in a school to undergo spy training. He was provided parents and a home located in an artificial neighborhood, and given his current name of Wolfgang Grimmer.

At some point in his adult life, he began working for a newspaper in Leipzig, Germany. While there, a female coworker confessed her love to him. To avoid any potential suspicion as a spy, he married her, and they later had a son. One day, while his wife was out shopping, he walked into his son's room and found him collapsed on the floor, not breathing. Though he tried to resuscitate him, his son died. Due to his inability to feel and express emotions, he was unable to mourn the loss of his son - something that his wife struggled to comprehend. She would later lash out at him while at their son's funeral, accusing him of being heartless and incapable of love, before leaving him.

Quotes

• "Don't just follow orders, you're men, not machines! In your hearts you know what's right, the answer is sitting there waiting for you. Are you brave enough to look inside yourselves?"
• "The only person you can truly believe in is yourself. You can try to trust other folks, but sometimes they let you down."
• "You can't just erase people's feelings. It's as if my emotions were lost somewhere hundreds of miles away. It's as if they were sent long ago, in a letter that was always intended for me."
• "I'm also an imaginary person. I'm not the man called Mr. Neumeyer, who signed the hotel registry, nor am I the man known as Wolfgang Grimmer. I'm not anyone. So I'll disappear as well."

Triva

• Grimmer's blood type is AB+.