1. #1등장인물 | Characters

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2. #2아델레 아벤드로스 | Adele Abendroth

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   Character - Adele Abendroth

   • Gender: Female
   • Age in the story: 32–33 (born in 1900)
   • Appearance: Light brown hair cut into a practical, short bob. A lean and angular build. Long fingers with traces of paint or charcoal dust perpetually lingering under her fingernails. The gaze from her gray-green eyes sharpens distinctly whenever she observes objects, though her facial expression remains calm and composed. Her favored attire consists of shirts, suspenders, and loose-fitting trousers—practical with a touch of masculine style. Not glamorous, but she gives the impression of someone who is utterly honest with herself.
   • Keyword: A realist who strives to see reality as it is and love it as it is
   • Background:

   1. War Artist for the German Army: Few women served on the front lines during World War I, but Adele was among those rare few. In January 1918, as the German Empire scraped together every last soul, Adele—then an 18-year-old living in Berlin as a street artist selling illustrated postcards—was conscripted as a war artist (Kriegsmaler). Assigned to follow military units, her task was to visually record frontline terrain, defensive positions, and artillery damage. By March, Adele was assigned to sketch occupied territories while advancing alongside troops during the Spring Offensive (Kaiserschlacht). Three months later, in June 1918, the offensive collapsed, and the front lines began to rapidly recede. While the retreat of combat troops took top priority, the withdrawal of non-combat personnel was delayed; amidst the chaos, Adele was taken prisoner by the French army alongside other non-combatants.

   2. Becoming a Prisoner of the French Army: The French army detained them in a separate camp designated for non-combat personnel. Because it held non-combatants—including women and youths barely out of adolescence—and because the impending end of the war was palpable with the Allied powers holding the upper hand, there was no severe, hate-driven abuse or high-intensity forced labor. Even so, the chilly atmosphere of the camp and the mere reality of being a prisoner caused Adele to become visibly dispirited and withdrawn with each passing day. One day, however, during a routine interrogation and interview session, an eccentric French interpreter officer handed her a sketchbook and a piece of charcoal. Along with it came a suggestion: to draw whatever she wished, rather than trenches and shell craters. Committing the surname on his nametag—"Joncour"—quietly to memory, Adele resumed drawing the surrounding scenery and people on paper, taking life one day at a time until the war finally ended in November 1918.

   3. After Returning to Berlin: Upon returning to Berlin after the war, all that lay before Adele's eyes were ruins. Instead of despairing, she quietly began depicting the devastation left in the war's wake and the people living amidst it. Over the next few years, Adele's work progressed from postcards sold on the street to appearing in an ever-growing array of magazines, newspapers, and books, eventually leading to pieces featured in art exhibitions. Years later, in the summer of 1927, Adele encountered an unexpected figure at her first solo exhibition: Joncour, the officer who had handed her the charcoal and sketchbook at the camp in 1918. Only then did she learn his first name was Marcel, and from that point onward, the two met regularly to talk.

   4. Resolving to Leave Her Homeland: Over the next few years, Adele continued her artistic work while maintaining the "Hoffnung" collective. However, after the Nazi Party became the largest party in parliament for the first time in the July 1932 federal election, she began to sense an unsettling shift. Watching her works—which depicted reality as it was—get rejected from exhibitions on the absurd grounds of being "degenerate art," and seeing a fellow painter harassed simply for being a member of the Social Democratic Party, she intuitively realized something was going terribly wrong. She formed a vague plan to emigrate to Switzerland, solidifying it when the Nazis once again secured the position of the largest parliamentary party that November. With her preparations virtually complete, she revealed her plan to others in January 1933, intending to leave Germany for Switzerland following the dissolution of Hoffnung.

3. #3마르셀 종쿠르 | Marcel Joncour

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   Character - Marcel Joncour

   • Gender: Male
   • Age in the story: 35–36 years old (born in 1897)
   • Appearance: A man with neatly combed dark chestnut hair and round wire-rimmed glasses. He has a tall, slender build and always maintains an upright posture. His face is oblong with gentle features, and the fine wrinkles around his eyes when he smiles give him a warm impression. His preferred attire consists of a slightly old-fashioned French-style suit, a wool coat, and a muffler wrapped around his neck. A small notebook and a fountain pen are always tucked into his pocket. Due to years of carrying a bag full of books, one of his shoulders tends to droop slightly without him realizing it, which he consciously tries to correct. He leaves an impression that blends the refinement of an intellectual with the uprightness of a soldier.
   • Keyword: A humanist who strives to cherish both himself and others based on a belief in human nature.
   • Background:

   1. Interpreter Officer of the French Army Born in Nancy, which became a border region with Germany after Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Prussia, Marcel grew up accustomed to the languages and cultures of both France and Germany. In 1915, after coming of age, Marcel majored in German Literature at the University of Nancy. Following the outbreak of the war, he was drafted in early 1917. In recognition of his higher education in German, he went through officer candidate training, was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and was assigned to serve as an interpreter officer. Afterward, Marcel was stationed behind the front lines, primarily in prisoner-of-war camps, where he interrogated German prisoners and translated captured documents. Then, in early 1918, Marcel was assigned to a newly established camp built to manage a large number of non-combatants captured during the German Spring Offensive.

   2. A Humanist in the POW Camp Unlike some of the previous camps he had been assigned to, Marcel’s new camp did not subject prisoners to harsh living conditions or extreme forced labor. However, it was far from an ordinary camp, as most of the detainees were non-combatants barely out of adolescence who had rarely held a rifle, and there were even women among them. In fact, it was no coincidence that Marcel—who had already earned a reputation at other camps for treating German prisoners "too humanely"—was assigned here. It was the result of a decision by his superiors, who reasoned that if they could not fix Marcel’s soft-hearted nature, it would be better to send him where there was no reason to treat prisoners roughly in the first place. True to form, Marcel exerted his "softness" even further here, doing everything he could to ensure the prisoners could maintain at least a minimum level of humane living. And among those efforts was placing a sketchbook and pieces of charcoal into the hands of a young girl who had been conscripted as a frontline combat artist for the German army.

   3. After the War, from Hometown to Berlin After the war ended, Marcel returned to his hometown of Nancy, resumed his university studies in 1919, and graduated two years later after completing his degree. After working in translation and interpretation in France for a few years, he headed to Berlin in 1924. As the Weimar Republic was finding a measure of stability supported by American aid, notably through the Dawes Plan, he moved to Germany where the demand for translation and interpretation was higher. Then, in the summer of 1927, Marcel came across unexpected news in the newspaper featuring a familiar name. It was an announcement that Adele Abendroth, a name he recognized from the camp's prisoner registry, was holding a solo exhibition. Reunited with her at the gallery, Marcel began meeting with her on a regular basis.

   4. One Who Returns Home Marcel continued to meet regularly with Adele and other companions, but in the course of his translation and interpretation work—handling various newspapers, speeches, and official documents—he sensed early on that something was going terribly awry inside Germany. In July 1932, when the Nazi Party became the largest party in the Reichstag and that sense of unease materialized into a tangible crisis, he resolved to leave Germany. Having already established a foundation in France, he did not need much preparation, but feeling guilty, he kept his plans to himself. Only in January 1933, when Adele brought up the subject of escaping Germany first, did he finally reveal his plans to her. He intends to leave Germany and head for France once Hoffnung is disbanded.

4. #4나데즈다 "나쟈" 오블렌스카야 | Nadežda "Nadja" Obolenskaya

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   Character - Nadežda "Nadja" Obolenskaya

   • Gender: Female
   • Age in Story: 26–27 (Born in 1906)
   • Appearance: A woman of petite yet solid build, who ties her bright blonde hair into a bun. Her grayish-blue eyes cast a cold gaze, and a small scar marks her cheek, yet a genuine smile brings warmth to her face. Befitting a mechanic and driver, her rough hands bear a few old scars from past fights. Yet, remnants of the aristocratic upbringing she received in her childhood often surface unexpectedly—in the angle of her fingers holding a teacup, or her straight, upright posture. Her preferred attire is a leather jacket and boots, typical of taxi drivers. On the rare occasions that require a bit of care, she pulls out a well-ironed blouse. She gives the impression of a noble's bone structure wrapped in the gritty texture of the streets.
   • Keyword: A survivor who strives to embrace life despite knowing the cruelty and darkness of the world.
   • Background:

   1. The Shadow of the Revolution In 1917, during the Bolshevik Revolution, Nadja was eleven years old. Her family, including her parents, were classified as "counter-revolutionaries" simply for being aristocrats, and they all met a tragic end. She barely managed to escape to Germany thanks to her elderly nanny, who disguised Nadja's identity by claiming she was her own granddaughter. However, the nanny soon passed away as well, leaving Nadja to realize all too early that she was completely alone in the world.

   2. Rising from the Bottom Even so, Nadja survived. The French taught to her by her governess was similar enough to German, and the nimble reflexes she had gained from watching her older brothers fence and box helped her dodge punches and blades to knock opponents down. Of course, the German she newly picked up was full of crude and vulgar words her governess would have never taught her, and street fights offered no protective gear. Drifting from the streets to factories, laundries, and auto repair shops, she soon felt the need to build a stable foundation. She mastered mechanics at a repair shop, secretly taught herself how to drive, and studied automobiles, successfully earning her Berlin taxi license at the age of eighteen. After working for a taxi company for several years, she saved money relentlessly and finally bought her own cab in 1926, becoming an independent driver.

   3. A Peculiar Fare and the Name of the Circle In the spring of 1929, while working as a taxi driver, Nadja realized she had been driving the same passenger—presumably an artist—at the exact same time every week to the same café for several months. Her creed had always been that a driver should simply take passengers to their destination and mind their own business. This time, however, her curiosity got the better of her; after dropping the passenger off, she parked nearby and decided to secretly watch what the passenger was up to. Seeing that the passenger was merely talking with a French man at the café, Nadja was about to head back to work. Just then, she witnessed two thugs wearing strange cross-marked armbands picking a fight with them over the man's French accent. She tried to ignore it and walk away, but hearing them cross the line with xenophobic insults, Nadja stepped in before she even realized it, swiftly knocking them down with a few punches and chasing them off. Having formally introduced themselves through this incident, Nadja, Adele, and Marcel formed a new circle. When deciding on a name, Nadja was thoroughly embarrassed when they adopted the name she had offhandedly suggested: "Hoffnung"—the German word for "Hope," which shares the same meaning as her real name, Nadežda.

   4. The Beginning of Another Wanderlust Nadja read the room very early on. In late 1929, with the onset of the Great Depression, the Weimar Republic's fragile economy collapsed, and extremists began gaining ground—a trajectory that was a spitting image of the cursed Bolsheviks' rise to power she had witnessed as a child. Knowing all too well how that story ended, she began quietly preparing her escape, setting her sights on the United States, a land that seemed to stand at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from the "Reds" in Russia. Starting in late 1929, Nadja began gathering the necessary funds and arranging her visa, and it didn't take long to complete the preparations. Yet, judging a situation correctly was one thing, and accepting that she had to start all over again was another. For the past few years, she could have left whenever she wanted, but she kept putting off the final decision. Only when Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933 did she finally make up her mind and reveal her plans. Following the disbandment of Hoffnung, she plans to leave Germany and set off for America.

5. #5올리버 서티스 | Oliver Surtees

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   Character - Oliver Surtees

   • Gender: Male
   • Age in Story: 21–22 years old (Born in 1911)
   • Appearance: Curly, sandy light brown hair falls softly over his forehead. He has an average height, a slender build, and the pale complexion typical of someone who spends all their time indoors reading books. His dark brown eyes hold a quiet gaze, naturally drifting downward whenever he is lost in thought. His preferred attire consists of the typical British middle-class student uniform—a sweater vest and a tweed jacket—yet his prolonged stay in Germany has blended in local touches, lending him a somewhat ambiguous air. Overall, he gives the impression of someone not yet fully formed and belonging nowhere, but for that very reason, embodying the potential of youth.
   • Keywords: One who strives to break out of his shell, even while sensing the outside world to be a frightening and chaotic place.
   • Background

   1. Oliver, the Economics Student Born into a middle-class family, Oliver believed economics was the most vital discipline in the world. He was convinced that every problem in the world could be solved by answering an economic question: how to allocate scarce resources, and to whom. Looking at the Weimar Republic, which seemed to be rising anew from the ashes, he saw it as the very place where his faith in economics would materialize, and chose to attend the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Of course, the affordable tuition and its comparatively high academic prestige were also contributing factors.

   2. The Great Depression Strikes Shortly after his matriculation in the autumn of 1929, however, the Great Depression triggered by Wall Street hit, and the economy of the Weimar Republic literally collapsed. The academic passion kindled in this new land over such a brief time withered away as he watched the discipline exist solely within books, powerless to exert any influence on reality. While financial support from home kept him from falling into poverty, witnessing everyone around him plunge into destitution and despair weighed heavier on his heart than ever before. Though he could have easily abandoned his studies in disillusionment, Oliver instead threw himself deeper into his work, as if to drown out the reality around him. His grades rose and his professors praised him, yet his inner world turned greyer by the day. One rainy autumn afternoon in 1930, Oliver stepped out of the library and hailed a cab. Under normal circumstances, he would have given the address to his boarding house, but on that exceptionally gloomy day, he simply murmured to the driver: "Take me anywhere."

   3. "Anywhere" The petite but sturdy-looking female driver gave him a slight side-eye with a scowl, muttered a few words in what sounded like Russian, and started the car. For a moment, Oliver wondered if she was going to abandon him in some secluded woods, but soon the taxi pulled up to a café. The driver told Oliver to get out and led him inside. There, he heard the cab driver introduce him as a "new friend" to a German-looking woman and a French-looking man already seated at a table. She added that she had brought him along because he looked as though he might jump into a river if left alone. Thus, Oliver became the newest member of Hoffnung. In his conversations with Adele, Marcel, and Nadja, he gradually learned that there are many facets of life that economics alone cannot explain—and that people continue to live their lives within those very facets, a truth found in no economics textbook. Thanks to them, the grey within his heart slowly began to take on color once again.

   4. Time to Return Oliver was originally slated to graduate in the autumn of 1933 upon completing his four-year undergraduate course. In September 1932, however, with one year left until graduation, a message arrived from his parents back home. A relative well-versed in diplomatic affairs had advised that the internal situation in Germany was taking a strange turn, urging him to finish his studies and return home as soon as possible. Indeed, from Oliver's own perspective, the circumstances around him were far from normal. Having focused intensely on his studies and already met the necessary requirements, Oliver decided to graduate early in March 1933—six months ahead of schedule—and return to England. When he shared this news with the members of Hoffnung, he was met with the bittersweet realization that the others were also planning to leave Germany in their own time, and that Hoffnung would naturally dissolve. In any case, following the disbandment of Hoffnung, he is set to return to Britain.

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