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History

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Germany

Bernd “Lamarck” Albrecht was born in Germany as the son of a pharmacist and a seamstress. His parents pressured him into the family business after Bernd’s father contracted a musculoskeletal degenerative condition that left him unable to work.

For Bernd, seeing his once-strong father degenerate into frailty and weakness behind the pharmacy counter turned the idea of taking his father’s place into a nightmare. Bernd rebelled harshly, but silently, by spiking the drugs he dispensed with slow-working poisons. When townsfolk got too suspicious for his comfort, Bernd hitched a ride on the next train out, comforted by the fact that the pharmacy’s reputation was tainted beyond repair.

The ex-pharmacist ended up working for a family of pig farmers in southeast Bavaria. He grew fond of the animals and their coincident intelligence and free-spiritedness. He studied Lamarckism and took great interest in the breeding of traits through both selection and nurture. This also sparked an interest in eugenics, and he soon acquired significant material developed from communities in the United States on the subject.

During the war, he worked as the driver for a high-ranking SD officer with famously loose lips. Inevitably, some key intelligence appeared to have leaked to the enemy, and despite his innocence, Lamarck knew the blame would land on his head. After making a run for South America, he was captured by the Americans and interned at Camp Algiers in Louisiana.

The Land of Opportunity

Lamarck enjoys telling the story of his escape from the camp, how a pig had dug a hole underneath the tall fence perimeter, how he crawled through the pigshit-stained tunnel with a body almost as weak as his father’s. But he crawled through nonetheless, all to find the pig waiting for him on the other side, holding a pail full of water. This swine had just given him the greatest gift of his life, even if he didn’t know it then. This was a fresh start. An American start. He forged a new identity and scrounged enough savings to purchase a plot of land on which to raise and breed swine of his own. Spurned on by his distaste of his father’s weakness, Lamarck attempted to start a eugenics social club to lobby the local government to improve society by way of “dealing” with disabled individuals with methods like sterilization.

Some years later, when the war had reached its conclusion, he made the difficult decision to sell his pig farm for the sake of better opportunity. If he wanted to get his message around, he needed to change tactics. So he moved to Crescent City, where he worked as a taxi driver and spread his words through word of mouth and pamphlets that he would offer to each and every one of his riders.

Unfortunately for him, Lamarck miscalculated. American interest in eugenics dropped precipitously during the war as the ideas got associated with the enemy, with the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust. He was largely unsuccessful in convincing a following of his ideology, and the perceived unpatriotic nature of his ideas alongside his Bavarian lilt led him to a cruel end.

Death

If you ask him, he’d tell you he died doing what he loved. On one fateful day seventy years in the past, he gave a ride to a German tourist who wanted a tour through the French quarter. They claimed that it was their last day in the city and they didn’t want to miss out on any of the sights. An eight-hour drive and paid in advance. Lamarck still maintains that was the best tour he ever gave, even given the circumstances. The guest gave his thanks as the sun finished setting, saying that this was a night he would not soon forget. Before Lamarck had the chance to respond to the glowing review, a spray of lead shredded through his lungs and stole his breath permanently. The leather driver’s seat did little to stop the German nationalist from executing his quarry.