would you describe a timeline of the relationship between the german bros? Love your hcs :>
Thank you for the question and the compliment, first off!! I genuinely hope everything I've written here at least makes some sense. I've found myself yet again focusing on the negatives, the ways they don't mesh and the way things go wrong between them; I stand by it, but I don't want to convey that I think theirs is a wholly terrible relationship where they just hate each other and there's no affection between them. It's difficult for me not to focus on stress points, is all. And they're complicated.
From the get-go, I want to make it clear that I fundamentally think they're very similar people. Their demeanor is different, but they both act the way they do to mask insecurity, to fulfil their personal ideal of what they think makes someone worthy of being admired or respected, they're both military men who occupy a more or less high social rank that comes with conditional privileges that they're very desparate to maintain. And they're both alcoholics with bad social skills.
They don't see it this way, though; their personalities clash deeply, not in small part because of that similarity, and to me, their relationship is defined by the way they always seem to view their dynamic and behaviors in very different, almost opposite ways.
The earliest interaction I can point towards to support that is Gilbert insisting Ludwig call him brother, to which Ludwig seemingly reacts with mostly discomfort and confusion.
I think Gilbert is really desparate for someone to really call his family; humans don't last, and even Holy Rome explicitly doesn't consider him a brother. Though he started his life as a knightly order, there's always both a physical distance between Gilbert and the Empire, and the philosophical question of what the hell kind of German he even is. Members of the order came from very different parts of the Empire, and the land Gilbert comes to represent, he occupies as an invader; he's a distant cousin at best to any other German nation, and no one truly considers him family. I think Gilbert clings to it, though, that idea of "German-ness" and his Christianity both justifying his conquest (while separating himself from the people he's conquering and murdering) and making him "worthy" of those familial ties that he feels he's denied by the other Nations and that he finds mostly through his Brothers Of The Order. Which he then loses through military failure. Hah.
This is also why I really fancy the idea of him literally reviving Holy Rome's corpse to serve as the vessel for the German Empire; he took a brother that denied him and forced himself into the equation, insisted he be granted the same status, and, with my headcanon that Holy Rome and *France* considered each other brothers, literally took something away from his enemy.
Considering Ludwig's whole discomfort with (and eventual yielding to) the whole "Brother" thing, I think his relationship to Gilbert is... complicated at best. I don't think many nations have someone they can definitely point to as a "creator"; mythologized heads of state and tribe leaders, yes, but Gilbert, through the power of alchemy, manifestation, state-censorship, war, metaphor, magic and a dash of bullshit, literally *made* Ludwig, put whatever he is into the vessel he dug up for him.
You'll find more about what I believe Ludwig's feelings about the circumstances of his "birth" are under #ergotposting.
Gilbert is trying directly to maintain his own existence when he creates the German Empire. For one, his social order and stability as a monarchy is threatened by a widespread democratic movement, which is why he goes to great lengths to snuff out that movement. Another thing is that his direct rival in assembling a German state is Austria, so a lot of personal vitriol and fear for his international relevance goes into it as well.
So, there's the set-up. Gilbert makes a homunculus for himself, partially because he wants to love it as a brother (and more importantly, wants it to love him like a brother), and partially so he can assure and secure himself in his own existence and gain control over a state that seemed like it would form one way or the other; Gilbert made the choice to decide which way it would be.
Here's the set-up: Ludwig was made because his body needed to be alive to be useful, to represent a Nation whose identity initially formed in direct opposition to what he is now, to a creator that wants to be his brother rather than his father, who is the political and emotional center of his existence.
This period right after Ludwig is "born", before and right after the Empire is formally established, is where I think Gilbert had direct formative influence over him. He definitely oversaw his education, if not taking direct charge of it; reading, writing, basic maths and a version of history where Gilbert is always left looking very competent and very important. It's all things he believes a good soldier needs, and I don't think there's any malice or cruelty in it; Gilbert fully believes he's doing his best, and believes everything he says is true, or at least the version of reality Ludwig should know. And certainly, as a soldier, as a commander and army-state, Ludwig admires him greatly. It's just that he's also functionally newborn and maybe needed to learn emotional regulation first...
Ludwig describes him as overprotective and I think that's exactly what he was, worried not just about his (I think) initially poor physical health but also very vigilant about who Ludwig interacted with and how.
Gilbert, with his Kingdom both intact and at the political center of the Empire, was very assured in his own existence, relevance and in his right to represent the German Empire as a whole, even after Ludwig is born. What we see of Ludwig as an Empire is odd; during WW1, he doesn't recognize Italy even though they were in an alliance, he generally seems poorly socialised to put it mildly, and outside of war, the one time he interacts with a nation (England in the Industrial Revolution comics), Gilbert is there to speak over him.
This is one of my favorite panels ever to demonstrate what I'm going on about with their relationship. It's a cute moment where they're bonding over working on something together, but also, Ludwig appears to be feeling happiness or accomplishment for the first time in his life, and Gilbert just goes "haha yeah it's been a while", which feels mismatched, like he hasn't really taken note of Ludwig's (lack of an) emotional response to him or anything. He's under the impression that they've had fun together before.
Notably, Gilbert seems to think he saved Ludwig from a lot of trouble during his childhood; with how this is framed, it's clearly a farce. He's deluding himself intentionally, or his perception of things is very different from what actually happened, or from how Ludwig views it. I do think he genuinely believes he was doing Ludwig a favor, "shielding him"— which also happened to help Gilbert stay relevant as a nation and political figure. Ludwig, for his part, and I've already mentioned this in a post about him and Austria, doesn't seem to trust Gilbert as much as this imaginary scenario would make you think he should.
Given that it's not perfectly clear when Ludwig actually came into existence, this might literally be Gilbert thinking he saved him from democratic movements.
It's critically important to mention that, for a very long time, the entire world is new, scary and difficult to understand for Ludwig. He's a new consciousness dropped into a body that's... in early puberty, maybe? I like to put it this way, he's 3 and 15 years old at the same time, the worst two ages to be. *The functions of his own body* are foreign to him and changing right away; the rest of the world is pure terror. For as stifling as Gilbert's overprotectiveness is, for how much it stunts Ludwig as a person and for how violently he's going to eventually react to him— on the occasion that they appear in public together, it also provides a deep sense of security for Ludwig to know that his brother, whom he still views as strong, intelligent and capable in Empire Times, is there and will know what to do, what to say. The actual emotional safety this provides him with is going to fall away the more his view of Gilbert degrades, but the instinct to look towards him whenever he feels scared and sees no other escape is going to stay with him for his entire life.
Ludwig's odd unfamiliarity with other nations and his own alliances, as well as the beginning of this comic strip where he's already working in some sort of industrial context, makes me think that for a lot of his late childhood and early adulthood, he did physical labor. While he's deeply socially anxious, he does also feel increasingly belittled and alienated by Gilbert, his overprotectiveness and generally unstable emotional state. Before he learns to assert himself (and eventually begin overcompensating), he pretty much flees the situation and does repetitive, physically engaging factory work. Not being able to monitor Ludwig stresses Gilbert out immensely; he inserts himself into this aspect of his life, too, as we see in this same comic.
When exactly Ludwig permanently joins the army, I'm not sure yet, but I reckon it's around the turn of the century. Prussia as a military state is basically his imagined childhood ideal, the "success story" that he has to live up to if he wants to be worth anything as an Empire; if he can't match Prussia, then he's got no purpose. Gilbert views that "ambition", as he sees it, as a positive. He wants Ludwig to prove himself, and he wants to be proud of him, as well as to be able to say that he's created something great; on top of that, it's a high-control environment where simply leaving is punishable. The thought soothes him.
During the actual war (the first one that is), I think they're physically separated most of the time. Gilbert doesn't immediately trust a lot of the new technology, while Ludwig is very eager for it— watching him disappear down the hatch of a submarine is harrowing— and while Gilbert is mostly deployed at the Eastern front in direct conflict with the Russian Empire, Ludwig is over in the West; I think that's where Gilbert gets the nickname from, since he calls him that before the split. It's meant to come off as affectionate, but Ludwig comes to associate with his perceived personal failures as a soldier and state.
Now, bear with me here. I think Gilbert is very into the "Great Men" of history; notably, he reveres Frederick the Great to this day. So, in my head, he views war as something you win through personal merit, be that as a commander or any particularly exceptional lone actor.
So, see Gilbert at the eastern front, start of the war, nigh-immediately beating back the Russian initiative to invade East Prussia, under the command of General Hindenburg (important for later), in a battle that was (for explicit propaganda purposes, mind you) named Battle of Tannenberg; one of the worst defeats Gilbert feels he's ever suffered, that took away the only people who ever willingly called him Brother, is turned into a vessel for propaganda and warmongering that'll last into the next war. By the halfway point of THIS war, it's a source of pride that Gilbert uses to cling onto the desparate conviction that any war he fights must be good and righteous. I think this conviction is the only thing that keeps him intact, as a personality.
Ludwig, in turn, basically only experiences failure, from his fairly brutal first death via submarine decompression and failing to keep Italy as a prisoner of war in the alps, to being shipped of to the western front, which is at a standstill and will remain at a standstill until he's literally unable to maintain the war and his government is collapsing.
By the end, Ludwig fully buys into the Dolchstoßlüge in a feeble attempt to protect his ego. It makes him resent his own people, anyone that wasn't a soldier, and worsens the antisemitism which is already present as a cultural baseline. Gilbert blames the November revolution on insubordinate individuals on the one hand, on the other on the poorly run war, which he blames on.... his dear baby brother? His general that brought him his historic victory? He kills the thought before he can think it to its logical conclusion.
Weeks before a ceasefire is established and the war comes to its end, Ludwig is pulled off the battlefield entirely; he's shell-shocked and fully unable to continue fighting. It's Gilbert who keeps him from being institutionalised; while he's initially diagnosed with Hysteria, a heavily stigmatized diagnosis, Gilbert leverages his rank and historically high social status to have it amended to Neurasthenia; there was a class divide on who got diagnosed with what in regards to war-trauma. Ludwig is put on opiates for treatment.
And Gilbert's reasons here are layered. Chiefly, he cares about his brother and doesn't want him hurt. He doesn't want him in a place where he doesn't have access to him. Kingdom and Empire have been dissolved and democratic parliaments have been instated and Gilbert may or may not be in search of something that'll give him a feeling of being individually in control of something. Due to some history I won't get into here further, he sees medical care as a means of exerting control.
Fundamentally, Gilbert doesn't believe Ludwig could be "truly sick"; he believes it's something that'll have to pass, that, soon enough, won't affect Ludwig anymore, because that's his little brother and his little brother is strong just like he is.
But now:
1. Ludwig has been deemed unfit to participate in society (and war, more importantly)
2. Gilbert has to disprove that, because that's his little brother you're talking about
3. and to do that, he has to monitor him very closely
4. NOT BECAUSE HE THINKS IT'S TRUE
5. but just to see it for himself.
And it's all one big humiliation for Ludwig. He's on one hand grateful that Gilbert got his diagnosis amended, but on the other ashamed that it had to be amended in the first place, and now he's stuck with his goddamn brother who intrudes upon everything he does and treats him like a child that can't care for itself and can't be trusted to make its own decisions. Again.
Ludwig is having trouble re-adjusting to civilian life, and does everything in his power to not have to; to feel like there's still a battle to be fought that'll make him worth something again. He's a willing, enthusiastic, active fascist from early on. If he hadn't been debilitated, he'd have joined a Freikorps troop the moment they started forming. As soon as he's not fully dependent on it for basic functioning, he refuses to take opiates anymore (and replaces them with heavy drinking).
Gilbert isn't any less of a fascist than his brother, but maybe less of an active one. He sits in his stupid little parliament with his stupid little people where he has to listen to their stupid opinions, and he thinks they should probably put a war hero in charge of the country.
Gilbert disapproves of Ludwig joining fascist goon squads, not so much because he opposes the idea itself, but moreso because he thinks they're improper; they act like gangs, they're not bound by kingly authority, Ludwig looks like a criminal, they're drunkards and indiscreet and how does Ludwig expect to be respected by anyone acting like that? Not to mention his ~condition~. Ludwig is extremely sensitive to these mild critiques because he's an alcoholic, beating people in the streets is how he's trying to restore his extremely fragile confidence, and soldierhood is the only way he's been able to find companionship outside of Gilbert so far, so he pretty much blows up at him in an argument turned fist fight and fucks off to live in makeshift barracks.
Gilbert himself is a drinker as well, especially in the economic and political clusterfuck he finds himself in, but he has a superiority complex about it. Due to his marriage to Brandenburg, who was also an alcoholic, he believes very firmly in the concept of "functioning" and "nonfunctioning" alcoholism, and since Gilbert has always been able to do his work and fulfil his duty, and generally wants to separate himself from people he thinks less of, he sees no problem with his own alcohol use. He's growing resentful of Ludwig; his embarassing behavior, his resistance to anything Gilbert tries to tell him, the continued distance he puts between them.
Since Ludwig is visibly adult, not bound by army regulations, able-bodied enought to actually maintain distance if he wants to and is beginning to divorce his need for security and validation from Gilbert, though, drinking eventually turns into the only common ground they actually have. As these things go, "having a drink with your brother" turns into "fist fight" more often than not.
And they keep doing this because truly, it's easier to pretend that having a fight resolved the situation than to sit down and reckon with the fact that they... sort of hate each other now. The fact that Gilbert has buried all his resentment under "but he's my brother" to protect his ego and psyche and that it's just not enough anymore, the fact that, for all his hypothetical respect towards his skill and accomplishments, Ludwig thinks very little of Gilbert as a person.
Then, Prussian parliament is dissolved. It leads into the last truly explosive confrontation Gilbert has with Ludwig, at least on his part; after that, he's content to subsist off mockery until they're all dust. Ludwig insists that it was necessary, that he'll grow unstable and divided if political power is split between them, and that Gilbert should know, since he watched Holy Rome die- Ludwig knows well enough what happened. Gilbert tells him this is *not* the same. They accuse each other of wanting the other dead.
Two years later, when the army is re-established, Gilbert is more or less appeased by immediately rising through the ranks. Insofar that Gilbert can wait in his little office and prepare for a war that's going to come way too soon to prepare for and he knows is unwinnable, and cling to the idea he's still a big shot in the army, and pretend his world isn't falling apart, it works. In every other regard, he knows he's fucked.
At this point, theirs is less of a relationship and more a bunch of baggage they share.
During the war, their interactions are characterized by... trying and failing to pretend that everything is normal. Gilbert still acts haughty and loud-mouthed and jovial, painfully so, and there's nothing behind it. Ludwig thinks he should be happier now, now that he's won and is in control, but it doesn't feel like much of a victory. They still drink together. Drinking together is almost all that they do. Gilbert calls Ludwig a drunk and a brute and a war-obsessed dumbass in the same tones he used to tease him in when he was younger, and there's not much of a joke behind it. Ludwig can't rebuke him. Gilbert can see the war is lost, Ludwig refuses to see it. Gilbert mocks him for it. Once they're both through the meatgrinder twice or thrice and Gilbert is more of a husk-corpse than a living thing, Ludwig drags him from the rapidly descending eastern front back to Berlin, because it's the only thing he can think to do; fighting stopped being an option long before *he* stopped.
In a drawing titled "Trogoautoegocrat", I explained the idea that Gilbert would consume himself whenever something cataclysmic happened; when he had to change what he was, fundamentally, to continue surviving. I think this is what happens at the end of the war, and Ludwig is there to witness it. He watches his brother autocannibalize his ruined body; Ludwig himself is experiencing necrosis on several limbs. He knows he can't do whatever the hell Gilbert is doing here, and he's in awe.
Importantly, though, Gilbert doesn't immediately wake up alive and well. It takes years, for the occupational government to establish itself and for the Soviet sector to begin breaking away, before his half-eaten body reassembles himself into what would become the GDR.
I don't think either Gilbert or Ludwig are able to function much outside of autopilot in the years following, so even if they wanted to see each other, they wouldn't. The Iron Curtain and wall are up firmly by the time either of them could even begin to feel like seeing each other would end any way but disastrous, and they don't seek each other out even when given the opportunity; for political and appearance reasons, for fear it could lead to a public incident, for fear that there'd be nothing but resentment between them.
Gilbert canonically experiences Ostalgie, and I think it's mostly tied to the relief he felt knowing that he could continue living as an "independent" (big quotation marks lmao) nation for at least a while. His nostalgic view is off-putting to Ludwig, who was always very eager for reunification.
Gilbert himself had a lot of very mixed, very complicated feelings about the GDR and Soviet leadership, from being more comfortable with authoritarian leadership to yet again existing in opposition to his people, both to those that were loyal to the GDR (I think he's a monarchist and he's very descriptive when talking about his dislike for Russia) and to those that wanted a unified German state (I think he wants to live).
Ultimately, their relationship in the modern day is tense, if at least something they've both gotten more or less used to. Sure, they missed each other during their separation, because despite all the resentment and history of direct opposition, they're both deeply nostalgic people with an idealized view of the past, but they also never stop bristling in each other's company. Ludwig becomes frustrated with Gilbert to the point of physical violence, and Gilbert in turn never misses an opportunity to stress-test that frustration to its fullest, ostensibly for shits and giggles. They don't take each other seriously, either as capable adults or fully thinking and feeling beings, and they spend more time arguing than not.
I think Ludwig feels like he owes Gilbert a life that he can never give him back. I think Gilbert is still more attached to the idea of having a brother than to the reality of it. I think knowing exactly where "unconditional love" starts becoming an impossibility in a relationship is its own kind of security. I think being so similar is what makes it so hard for them to understand and love each other, and what makes them care so much despite everything I wrote here.
