Reinhard von Lohengramm
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| Reinhard von Lohengramm | ||
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| Nationality: | Galactic Empire | |
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| Allegiance: | Galactic Empire Star Fleet | |
| Rank: | Admiral
Commander-in-Chief |
Emperor |
| Family: | Annerose von Gruenewald (Sister) Hildegard von Mariendorf (Wife and Co-Reigning Empress) Alexander Siegfried von Lohengramm(Son) Claribelle von Musel (mother-deceased) Sebastian von Musel (father deceased) |
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| Hair: | Gold | |
| Eyes: | Ice-blue | |
| Flagship: | Brünhild |
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Reinhard von Lohengramm (formerly Reinhard von Müsel) is a character in Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Reinhard von Lohengramm is one of two main protagonists in the series. As a matter of fact, Legend of Galactic Heroes is a story that revolves around his rise and eventual fall. He and Yang Wen-li both share similar roles in their respective nations as heroes reowned for their military skill. The pair are meant to be foils of each other, and Reinhard is the more ambitious and determined of the two.
[edit] Early Life
Reinhard was born into a poor noble family. He lived with his father and his older sister Annerose. His mother had died when he was young so he knows very little about her. When Reinhard moved to a middle class suburban neighborhood, he met Siegfried Kircheis and they soon became inseparable friends. When his father sold Annerose to become Kaiser Friedrich IV's concubine, Reinhard swore that he would overthrow the Goldenbaum dynasty to rescue his older sister. He left school to join the military academy and persuaded Kircheis to come along with him.
[edit] Military Service
Reinhard von Lohengramm became an Admiral at the early age of 20. His friend Kircheis became his military adviser. Reinhard led many battles against the Free Planets Alliance in order to advance in rank and come closer to saving his sister from the clutches of the Kaiser. His rapid advancement and military success caused jealous nobles/officers to refer to him as "The Blonde Brat". After the Battle of Astate he was appointed as a chancellor of the Kaiser. He made several reforms that helped the commoners while taking power away from the nobles. This infuriated many hard liner nobles. In response to the threat of Reinhard's ever growing influence, the nobles started the Lippstadt Rebellion.
The Lippstadt Rebellion was led by Otto von Braunschweig and began soon after the Kaiser Fredrick IV's death from a heart attack. Because the Kaiser had not appointed a successor prior to his death, the government selected Erwin Joseph II, grandson of the late Kaiser. Because Erwin was a mere boy who was not ready to lead an empire, Reinhard, as the chancellor to the young Kaiser, essentially held all the power. The High Nobles knew that their days in power were coming to an end and rebelled. Reinhard, who had anticipated a rebellion, and was in fact hoping for one, swiftly ordered troops to arrest every noble in the capital. However, a good number of nobles escaped along with a large proportion of the starships of the galactic empire.
Even with numerical supremacy, the rebellion was quickly crushed due to the nobles' lack of battle tactics. The video of an entire planet laid to waste by nuclear weapons by Braunschweig for the murder of his nephew turned both commoners of the empire and soldiers within their ranks against the them. This incident also caused a rift between Reinhard and Kircheis, the first break within their relationship. Reinhard had known of Braunschweig's plan for revenge, but had gone along with his advisor Obersten's suggestion of permitting the atrocity to occur instead of intervening, then use satellite images of the atrocity as propaganda tool against the nobles. Reinhard had correctly predicted that the resulting anger against the nobles would quickly bring the rebellion to an end. Upon learning this, Kircheis was devastated by the apparent divergence in ideals between him and his best friend.
After the rebellion, a servant of Braunschweig offered Reinhard the corpse of his master in exchange for a pardon. He carried Braunschweig's body within a glass coffin to present to Reinhard. During the ceremony, he reached into the coffin and withdrew a gun hidden in the corpse. Out of respect for Reinhard, none of the officers present were armed. Normally, as a sign of the trust and affection between them, Kircheis was the only one permitted to carry a weapon in Reinhard's presence. However, because of their earlier dispute, Kircheis had been stripped of this special privilege. As the other officers were frozen by shock, Kircheis bravely tackled the assassin. He was shot several times in the chest, but refused to loosen his grip until the assassin had been killed. As he lay dying, Kircheis asked his friend Reinhard to fulfill their childhood dreams by "Capturing the galaxy in his hands."
Kircheis' death shocked Reinhard. His best friend had sacrificed himself in order to protect him. Kircheis had been Reinhard's one true friend, who had been with him since he was a child, who had shared his ideals, who had worked wordlessly to fulfill their common dream. Their ideals had never diverged, until the rift shortly before Kircheis' death. Reinhard was guilt-ridden over Kircheis' death. This torment would stick with him throughout his whole life. In order to remember the promise he made with his friend, he had a picture of him, Kircheis, and his sister Annerose placed in a locket with strands of Kircheis' hair.
Soon after the rebellion, two loyalists of the rebellion sneaked into the young Kaiser Erwin Joseph II's mansion and kidnapped him. They then sought asylum within the Free Planets Alliance to continue the Goldenbaum dynasty there. Reinhard had actually known of their plans and facilitated their success by reducing the guards at the palace. The kidnapping of the Kaiser and the establishment of the government-in-exile within the Free Planet Alliance gave him an excuse to invade.
[edit] As Kaiser
Effectively acting as the Kaiser, Reinhard continued to make the lives of commoners within the empire better. He also sought to defeat the Free Planets Alliance after they agreed to give asylum to the renegade Kaiser. When he invaded the Free Planets Alliance and won conquest after conquest, "Seig Kaiser Reinhard" (Victory to Kaiser Reinhard) became a standard cheer, even though he was not yet the Kaiser. When Reinhard finally took the throne, he was renamed Kaiser Reinhard von Lohengramm and the dynasty name changed from Goldenbaum to Goldenlöwen (i.e. "Golden lion" in German). A new calendar was instated, called the new imperial year.
Also, after the success of conquering the Free Planets Alliance Reinhard made an ambitious yet difficult task of moving the capital of the Empire to Phezzan, which was also seized by the empire. He also instated many of his high admirals to administrative positions within the former alliance territory, which he named the "Neueland", or "new land" in German. He assigned fleet admiral Oskar Von Ruental as General Governor of Neueland, Admiral Kesler as General of Police forces of the Empire, Fleet Admiral Oberstein as minister of military affairs, and admiral Mecklinger as governor of Odin.
[edit] Death
Reinhard died of a never-discovered congenital disease at the young age of 25, shortly after his accession to the throne. The doctors could not find a precedent for the disease and named it "The Emperor's Sickness".
