Name: Sonja Marie Wickler (née Brandt)
Gender: Female
Age: 46
Nationality: German
Appearance:
There are lingering traces of a once-beautiful youth remaining on Sonja's face. Her hair retains it's golden hue towards the ends, though dulls with threads of grey the closer it reaches the roots. Smile lines and crows feet mark time's affect on soft, loosening skin, their friendliness thwarted by the much more severe and prominent frown etched permanently between her brows. She remains an imposing figure despite her age, standing at nearly 5'11 she's taller than most and has a sturdy frame hidden under layers. A modest and practical woman in both appearance and demeanor; her clothes are always clean and pressed, but plain and several seasons out of fashion. A pair of pearl earnings, a simple gold wedding band on her left hand, and a small silver watch bound to the left wrist with a blue velvet band and clasp are the only adornments she allows herself.
Personal Effects:
Sonja's wardrobe is never complete without a hat, a pair of gloves- silk in the summer, leather in the winter -and a medium sized dark carpet bag that serves as both briefcase and handbag, carrying her many necessities;
- A leather-bound journal
- Italian and English translation dictionaries
- A silver lighter two inches long and one wide
- A pair of reading spectacles
- A tin flask filled with a clear and strong alcohol
- 2 pens and inkwells, one black one blue
- A red lipstick that appears completely unused
- 2 needles and spool of thread
- A spare set of stockings
- 2 scarves, one silk one wool
- A handful of hat and hair pins
- Identification papers and a few hundred marks
Her late husband's Mauser C96 remains in her possession, but rarely leaves it's locked hiding place in her office.
Trade: Private Investigator
Backstory:
Sonja was born the fourth and final child of the once-affluent Magdeburg Brandt family in 1877. The family’s hardships started shortly after her birth and most of Sonja's life and early memories were that of a particular sort of impoverishment: Completely dependent on the charity of distant unseen family in far off places and sparse remains of an old inheritance for survival. Neither of her parents worked, instead clinging to their pride and memories of wealth that she had never experienced. All while surrounded by true the destitution of their neighbors. While she hardly had the words to describe it at the time, her family’s combination of ego and ignorance grated and shamed her.
In the late 1880's, the Brandt matriarch contracted tuberculosis. As her mother faded, Sonja's father turned further towards drink. Both brothers fled to find their own fortunes elsewhere. When it became apparent even from the outside they could no longer manage themselves, the community her family had always scorned came to their aid. Each day a different family would come with a dinner, hot bathing water, or clean laundry. More often than not, Sonja would follow them out again, desperate to flee the suffocating remains of her family. Among the squalid dregs of Magdeburg's lowest class she developed a sense of solidarity and identity.
At 19 her mother finally passed after nearly a decade of sickness. The end of her life also meant an end to the charity that had kept the family fed and housed. The generosity of her distant relatives had reached a limit when all that remained of them was a drunk widower and young woman old enough to work for herself. Sonja wrote to them all in desperation. Out of her dozen letters, one responded. A great aunt that had come to her mother’s modest funeral and found Sonja fetching and clever enough to be deserving of a final piece of kindness: A proper education abroad. Within six months she was packed and on a train to Zurich.
She had been intended to stay only for three years, taking music and art classes at a small woman's university. However, one evening while accompanying a group of friends to a marxist rally on the steps of the University of Zurich, she met Michael Wickler. Six years her senior, he was well traveled from a short time in the military, and working towards his doctorate in law. What began as a clumsy attempt to recruit Sonja to a cause gave way to a handful of dates and soon enough, an engagement. Sonja was practical enough to know marriage was the ultimate goal of her education, but Michael saw things differently. He charmed her with flattery and encouragement, gave her the words and understanding for what she had felt her entire life, and incessantly pushed her to continue her education. Under his pressuring she eventually found herself enrolling in the University of Zurich herself. After two rounds of degrees, first in the natural sciences, then another in law, the couple finally returned to Germany as Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wickler.
They made their start in Munich, where Michael had friends, family, and ties, and were able to start a firm in only a few short years. Sonja's interest in her husband’s work matched his own. They took cases for unions and renters, jobs that paid less but offered greater fulfillment. Most days were spent in the too-small poorly-lit office working in silent tandem. Officially, her role was that of secretary, but it was rare for a document or letter to be sent out without being approved by Sonja's discerning eye. Michael found himself embroiled in the SPD shortly after they'd established themselves, through connections he'd made in Zurich. At first Sonja had merely tagged along; taking minutes of meetings and refreshing pots of coffee for the groups of mostly men. Except for one way, when day a contingent of women joined them, identifying themselves as the Munich BDF. In them, Sonja found a cause she could call her own, and thus began her work for woman's suffrage.
Then the war came. Micheal was sent off with the rest of the reservists, and never returned. Sonja moved to live with her sister-in-law, Ada, an agreeable woman married to a police captain. Their four children were all grown and gone and Ada was grateful for the companionship and one less empty room. Without Michael there was no more law work, and Sonja threw herself into political activism to compensate for the loss of both. The SPD's agreement to the war became something of a betrayal in Sonja's mind, and her politics continued to veer left, to the MSPD shortly after it's formation, and eventually the KDP.
Towards the end of the war, she began work in an ammunition's factory; and more importantly it's respective union. For two years she re-immersed herself in the working class she believed herself championing. That career was cut short too, after the strike in 1918, followed by the end of the war. Shortly after, women were granted voting rights, and her work for the BDF was no longer needed as it centralized itself in Berlin for more global affairs.
Hardly content to live as a retired widow before reaching 50, Sonja found her own way of occupation. Over her two decades in Munich, she'd accumulated a number of contacts and friends within different spheres of the left-wing movements in the city. Her unique experience, education, and temperament positioned her well to continue aiding the communities that had been abandoned by their government. Her first job was for the union she'd been a member of during the war, a simple case of wage theft. They hadn't expected a woman to investigate, nor deliver key evidence directly to the police captain as well as every union-sympathizing lawyer she knew. From there, one paid favour led to another, and while the pay was as irregular as the work itself she eventually managed to begin renting out a small office in a squalid district of the city.
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