Name: Hermann Köhler

Age: 44

Place of Birth: Lippetal, Westphalia

Affiliation: Conservative rural populism

Key Possession: Leader of the German Peasant’s Brotherhood, a fringe revolutionary peasant organization in Westphalia, mostly popular around Lippstadt, Hamm and Munster. The peasant mob has organized various militias and bands of armed citizens, but doesn’t control any large cities, just countryside and villages.

Background: Before the revolution Hermann Köhler was nothing but a well-off peasant in Lippetal, tending to his own business and managing his farmlands, which were among the most important in the village. Already then he was a vocal defender of peasant’s rights, often finding trouble with local Prussian administration and tax collectors.

Role:  As the revolutionary war began, a group of Prussian soldiers marching to the Rhineland decided to forage the farmlands of Köhler in search for some extra rations. Enraged by this, Köhler lead a small mob that attacked the troops and seized their arms. The peasant mob first seized Lippetal and then quickly large swatches of supporting countryside, severing Prussian supply lines and ambushing soldiers moving into and from Rhineland. As the revolution spread across Germany, Köhler declared the formation of the German Peasant’s Brotherhood, an umbrella organization for the various peasant mobs and militias, directly opposed to the more urban liberal revolution waged in cities. In the fall of 1849, the Brotherhood still remains a minor organization and doesn’t have a representative in the Frankfurt assembly, much to the annoyance of Köhler.

Strengths (PRIVATE): 1. Cunning 2. Warfare

Weakness (PRIVATE): Education

Virtues (PRIVATE):
1. Populist agitator – Köhler is good at rousing the peasant masses of Northwestern Germany, and enjoys great popularity in the rural regions and among the common farmer.
2. Bold and proud – Köhler is famous for his exploits in the war waged against Prussians, and is regarded as a very bold man, who is ready to fight for his beliefs despite of poor odds. He is also proud of that, and actively seeks to spread rumors that strengthen his image as a savior of the common peasant.

Vice (PRIVATE): Paranoid, borderline insane

Secret History (PRIVATE): Köhler has a fear that the newly empowered liberal, urban bourgeoisie wish to restore the old system that oppressed the German peasant. He has a great distrust towards the Frankfurt authorities and urban population in general. Köhler is a big admirer of German folklore and romanticism, and wishes to return Germany to its pre-feudal rural roots, as depicted in Medieval and Classical tales of heroism.