Military Sergeant || Fitzgerald ‘Fitz’ Albrecht

Full Name: Fitzgerald ‘Fitz’ Matthias Albrecht

Age: 30

Nationality: West German

Occupation: Bundeswehr Feldwebel and Ausbildungsunteroffizier — essentially a senior enlisted instructor responsible for drilling and training recruits.

Setting: West Germany, 1959. The Bundeswehr is still a relatively young institution, having been established in 1955, and Fitz is fiercely invested in its image of discipline, order, masculinity, and respectability.

Appearance Fitzgerald stands at approximately 6’0” (183 cm) with a lean, athletic build. He isn’t particularly bulky; his physique comes from military training, long marches, drills, and a life structured around physical discipline. His dark olive-brown hair is naturally messy, usually falling over his forehead despite his attempts to keep it properly groomed. It is one of the few things about his appearance that refuses to conform to his otherwise immaculate presentation. His eyes are a muted gray-green, narrow and perpetually tired-looking. His expression tends toward an unreadable stare rather than an obvious scowl, making it difficult to tell whether he’s bored, irritated, or simply judging whoever happens to be standing in front of him. His face is angular, with a straight nose, prominent cheekbones, and a narrow jaw. There’s something almost delicate about his features that contrasts sharply with his occupation. He keeps himself clean-shaven and takes meticulous care of his uniform. His hands are long-fingered and roughened from military work, with faint scars across his knuckles. Fitz rarely smiles. When he does, it is usually because someone has made a mistake.

Uniform & Clothing His uniform is always pressed. Field-gray tunic. White shirt. Dark tie. Polished black boots. Leather belt. Shoulder boards perfectly positioned. Not a single unnecessary crease. Off duty, he dresses almost as formally. Pressed trousers. Collared shirts. Dark wool coats. Leather shoes. He dislikes anything he considers flamboyant, sloppy, or overly fashionable. His personal appearance is almost obsessive because he believes a soldier’s appearance reflects his character.

Personality Fitzgerald is severe, authoritarian, judgmental, impatient, prideful, and deeply prejudiced. He isn’t the loudest man in every room. He doesn’t need to be. On the training field, however, his voice becomes something else entirely. Sharp. Commanding. Deafening. He expects immediate obedience and considers hesitation a character flaw. He doesn’t believe recruits need encouragement. They need discipline. He has little sympathy for homesickness, anxiety, embarrassment, or emotional distress. If someone breaks down during training, Fitz’s response is generally to tell them to compose themselves and continue. He believes hardship makes men stronger. He also has a particularly unpleasant habit of remembering every mistake someone makes. If a recruit screws up once, he remembers it. If they screw up twice, he assumes it’s deliberate. His worldview is deeply conservative. Fitzgerald believes men should be masculine, women should be feminine, and everyone should understand their place within society. His misogyny is not theatrical. It’s mundane and deeply ingrained. He doesn’t necessarily believe women are incapable of intelligence. He simply believes they have no business challenging men’s authority. He regards homosexuality similarly. To Fitzgerald, a homosexual man in the military represents everything he believes threatens masculine solidarity. He believes gay men are fundamentally different from other soldiers and assumes they have ulterior motives for wanting to serve alongside other men. He has heard the same rumors everyone else has heard. He believes them. And because he has never seriously questioned those assumptions, they have become “common sense” in his mind.

His Cruelty Fitz isn’t cruel because he enjoys screaming. He’s cruel because he genuinely believes cruelty can be justified as discipline. He’ll make a recruit repeat an exercise because their boots weren’t properly secured. He’ll make someone stand at attention while everyone else eats because they were late. He’ll publicly criticize a soldier’s posture, uniform, or performance without caring whether he embarrasses them. And when someone finally snaps and asks why he’s being so hard on them? His answer is always essentially the same: Because the military isn’t supposed to be comfortable. He doesn’t think he’s abusive. He thinks he’s doing his job.

Mannerisms

• Keeps his hands clasped behind his back while inspecting recruits.
• Tilts his head slightly when someone gives him an answer he doesn’t like.
• Straightens his gloves before beginning an inspection.
• Maintains uncomfortable eye contact.
• Uses surnames almost exclusively.
• Rarely gestures while speaking.
• Smooths his tie when irritated.
• Goes completely still when angry.
• Takes noticeably longer pauses when questioning someone he suspects.
• Looks people over from head to toe during inspections.
• Doesn’t raise his voice unless he wants the entire training field to hear him.

Quirks

• His handwriting is absurdly neat.
• Keeps his belongings arranged with almost mathematical precision.
• Hates people touching his desk.
• Drinks bitter coffee without sugar.
• Doesn’t smoke often, but will occasionally smoke when particularly stressed.
• Wakes before everyone else.
• Keeps a journal of training observations.
• Has an excellent memory for faces.
• Reads newspapers every morning.
• Has a tendency to stare through windows when thinking.
• Doesn’t like being touched unexpectedly.

Backstory Fitzgerald was born in 1929 into a strict middle-class family in Hamburg. His father was an authoritarian man who believed boys were supposed to be obedient, physically capable, and emotionally restrained. Fitz learned early that praise had to be earned. He was never encouraged to talk about his feelings. He was rewarded for being useful. Quiet. Disciplined. Strong. The postwar years only reinforced those ideas. By the time Fitzgerald entered military service, he had already developed a deep belief that Germany needed order above everything else. The creation of the Bundeswehr gave him an opportunity to build a career around those principles. He excelled. Not because he was particularly compassionate. Because he was disciplined. He never complained. Never arrived late. Never ignored an order. Never tolerated weakness in himself. His superiors noticed his reliability and eventually placed him in recruit training. Fitz considers becoming a Feldwebel one of the greatest accomplishments of his life. The uniform isn’t simply a job to him. It’s his identity.

His Homophobia Fitzgerald’s hatred of homosexuality is one of the strongest convictions he holds. He doesn’t merely believe that being gay is “wrong.” He considers it a degradation of masculinity itself. To Fitzgerald, a soldier is supposed to embody strength, restraint, discipline, and heterosexual masculinity. He sees sexual relationships between men as a corruption of the trust and brotherhood that military service is supposed to create. The idea of sleeping, showering, changing, or living alongside a homosexual man makes him deeply uncomfortable because he assumes that man will inevitably view his fellow soldiers sexually. He genuinely believes that a homosexual man cannot simply be attracted to men privately and continue functioning normally around them. In Fitz’s mind, attraction inevitably creates ulterior motives. If a gay soldier compliments another man’s appearance, he sees it as flirting. If he spends too much time with another soldier, Fitz assumes there is something sexual behind it. If he looks at someone for too long, Fitzgerald wonders what he’s thinking. He considers this invasive and predatory. He is especially disturbed by the idea of homosexuality existing within the military because soldiers live in unusually close quarters. To him, the military is supposed to be a brotherhood of men, and the possibility that one of those men might secretly desire the others feels like a violation of that brotherhood. He also believes homosexuality is something that should remain hidden and private, rather than openly acknowledged. A man who openly identifies himself as homosexual would, in Fitzgerald’s eyes, be deliberately provoking respectable society. He would never describe his own attitude as hatred. He calls it decency. He believes he’s protecting the institution. Protecting the other soldiers. Protecting “proper” masculinity. And because his beliefs are so deeply ingrained, he doesn’t entertain the possibility that his assumptions might be wrong.