HSHQ TASK TWENTY-EIGHT : PERSONAL STAFF.
every person that works in the grand duke of rhine’s offices is extremely ambitious, innovative, open-minded and specially handpicked for optimal results. they don’t always agree with each other, but they never find themselves at an impasse, the engine always needs to roll forward. their main goal: to make rhine as lucrative and as progressive as possible. the first 3 are the only ones present with kaspar in the program, the 4th flies in and out as needed.
1. PERSONAL ASSISTANT: oskar heisenberg, 26 ( brennan clost )
kaspar believes in steady professional development so his assistants are usually promoted when he feels they are ready. being kaspar’s assistant isn’t easy, especially whilst in the program. almost everything that needs to reach kaspar goes through oskar first. kaspar doesn’t like having minions following him around, so oskar is rarely seen flanking him. he has his station and remains there, running interference with the team in germany and collecting updates and filtering information which he compiles and sends to kaspar in 2 hour blocks. oskar is in awe of ( and has healthy fear of ) his boss, and wants his approval. he is lively, eager and is well connected on every social platform, he knows everything that’s happening: trends, paradigm shifts and fads, networks with flair and is excellent at calling in favours. when necessary, he can deep dive into huge amounts of information fairly quickly which is a huge asset given how efficiently and quickly things run in the rhine offices.
2. BUSINESS DIRECTOR & LIAISON: kelpie lithemba lange, 30 ( damaris lewis )
the rhine staff functions very much like an office in a financial district. pitches, proposals, investments, new initiatives that involve profits and money go through kelpie. she runs her own small team remotely and is also the one that responds to emails and the like on kaspar’s behalf. she is his main go-between for most things except his dealings with rhine’s duke and duchesses. those, he does personally. kelpie and oskar work very closely together in the program to make kaspar’s life as seamless and productive as possible.
3. BODYGUARD & TRAINER: bernard schneider, 35 ( paul bullion )
he doesn’t talk much, not only because it’s his role, but he generally doesn’t talk much. some people think he’s mute. kind face. has a crush on kelpie.
4. CHIEF ANALYST: STRATEGY & RISK: william “wills” wagner, 34 ( kingsley ben adir )
william wagner is the guy that keeps kaspar’s feet planted firmly on the ground. he is the man who crunches the numbers, identifies trends and risks, sees the potential growth areas and helps with all the forecasting that kaspar does. he is no military genius, but he can clip the spending with one word to kaspar’s ear if it’s unfeasible. kaspar met him in university, they were roommates and very good buddies. when kaspar took over from his father, he needed support, structure and someone who he understood and could understand him, in his corner quite badly. he had a particular vision for his rule as grand duke and one of the most brilliant minds he’d known in university would surely be an asset. convincing wills was difficult, there was a lot of persuasion and begging involved. wills’ mother is french. he flies into the program when kaspar and wiebke are doing something major.
5. CHIEF OF STAFF: lorelei günther, 63 ( wendy malick )
there was a time when you could have told lorelei that she would one day willingly work for a zielcke and be loyal to them, and she would have scoffed in your face and told you to get out. she was a seasoned pro at fighting and stacking the system, but not for dietrich or for kaspar, but for one of their loudest opposition camps. she served under the leader of such a group, criticising dietrich’s politics. for the cause she believed in, she was relentless, a real bloodhound and a bulldog in one. kaspar noted her tenacity and sought to poach her for his team someday. that day arrived sooner than he thought it would.
convincing lorelei wasn’t easy, wooing her meant a lot of patience, and the willingness to open himself up to free fire. he invited her to spend a month in his offices, observing before formally offering her the job. at first, she found the offer exceptionally naïve. she was much older, people like him would sooner put her out to pasture — and how could he ever trust that she could be trusted given that she was someone else’s lieutenant? it was kaspar’s response that sold her: everyone is someone else’s guy, until they’re yours. he wanted to be hers just as much as he wanted her to be his. the offer was made, and the contract was signed.
her age and experience are an asset, but she doesn’t tote this around like a superpower, she keeps up with the times, involves herself with the younger generation and sometimes is more savvy with new resources and technology than they are. she pushes kaspar to the limit, keeps his head screwed on tight, woe befall onto anyone that threatens the grand duke or their team. unofficial den-mother of the office.
6. HEAD OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS/SPOKESPERSON: tara mazetta, 37 ( mozhan marnó )
she doesn’t look german, her name isn’t very german either, but tara loves germany. she is a consummate german, and she loves rhine. she adores the river, she adores its eccentricities, the way it mingles culture with influence from close neighbours, the symbiotic relationship always gave them character. she and her team take care of everything communications related, from drafting and disseminating policy, issue management, crisis communication, and general PR. handling journalists and the public in the way kaspar would, authentically is her forté. she has 0 sense of humour. you can count on her to never laugh at any joke ever, unless it’s you falling over or failing spectacularly after tooting your own horn. it is highly likely that she will succeed lorelei when she retires, and one of her underlings will take over her current post.
7. ADVISOR: helmut rathenau, 54 ( jonathan cake )
helmut served kaspar’s father dietrich, the previous grand duke. he was loyal to dietrich and continues to serve his son with the hope that kaspar won’t tarnish everything his father built. dietrich supported the german crown, and had an entirely different style from kaspar so helmut’s opinions often clash with the decisions kaspar ends up making. they butt heads often. helmuts influence allows kaspar to see the other side of things. getting rebutted at every turn keeps his ego and pride in check and allows him to see more clearly. helmut did not favour the attack on strasbourg, his reasoning and experience were valued and were quite convincing. they let kaspar know that failure was not an option. everything helmut posed was rectifiable by claiming alsace in its entirety, and that is what they did.
8. IN-HOUSE PERFORMANCE COACH/ THERAPIST/ WELFARE ADVISOR: doctor leana keller, 40 ( keri russell )
leana is a psychiatrist by training. she has an MD as well as extensive business and political experience because this is the industry she has entered since coming on board. absolutely nothing gets by her and she can evaluate your motivations the moment you walk into a room. she was born in leeds, england to an english mother and a swiss-german father, spent time in geneva in her youth, then the U.S. for her MD. kaspar met her at a conference. she was very charmed by him, intrigued by his mind and the opportunity he was offering was unique and exciting. she wouldn’t just help people with their problems, she could build something, revitalise a whole beautiful region ! by personality, leana is approachable and warm. she knows the mental and psychological blueprint of every employee that has walked into her office: what makes them tick, how they will react in various scenarios, can spot conflict before it comes. in her office, she listens to what might hold them back at work, asks questions, gets to the root of any problem and employs a number of combined techniques and tactics from neuroeconomics and psychology to help them get out there and perform their best. she is the reason rhine runs on its own version of order and she is the reason everyone stays loyal despite the occasional disagreement or differing opinions. she is also responsible for organising team exercises. when leana says something, cautions something or demands the room’s attention, people listen. her authority is second only to lorelei’s. she and kaspar are fairly close.
9. LEGAL COUNSEL: james newman, 46 ( billy crudup )
kaspar has more than one legal counsel, but with what’s happening in the world, and with his and wiebke’s pursuits, it is the oiliest, smarmiest snake in his arsenal of contacts that he uses as his legal quarterback. james is american. absolutely nobody likes him. he is everything despicable about a lawyer that can exist, and then some. james’ strength, given his american training is finding loopholes and finding unconventional ways to win. if kaspar and his team can find every loophole, they can cover them and make their work, and their processes iron-clad, even when the moves aren’t popular or questionable. he gets the job done and is a formidable one to have in their corner.
10. PERSONAL APPEARANCE SPECIALIST / IMAGE CONSULTANT: dia handrich, 34 ( dia mirza rekhi )
dia is half ethnic indian and half german, but is german through and through. she and kaspar have known each other since kindergarten. she knows kaspar inside out, and was a frequent visitor to the brühl palace and nordkirchen from age 5, past kaspar’s parents’ divorce and right up til dietrich’s funeral. she is close enough to him that she is privy to almost every aspect of his life, she knows and is involved with almost every other friend he has, makes, or will make, and is a vivacious and elegant darling to the personnel in all the zielcke residences. when they were 23, they made a pact to marry each other if they were still single past the age of 40. this of course, was voided, because dia married recently, mere days before kaspar joined the program. dia has her own company, and a full life, she moonlights as kaspar’s stylist and image consultant in order to support him after his father’s death, and the collaboration simply stuck !
