Werner Hartenstein

Captain Gustav Julius Werner Hartenstein (not to be confused with Lt. Werner.) (27 February 1908 - 8 March 1943) commanded the U-boat U-156 in the German Navy of the Third Reich during the Second World War. Hartenstein received many awards, including the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross which was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery during World War II.

Laconia Incident
Hartenstein is known for his involvement in the "Laconia incident" shortly summarised, the Laconia incident was an incident which happened late 1942, a German U-boat sank the British troopship Laconia carrying 463 officers and crew, 80 civilians, 286 British Army soldiers, 1,793 Italian prisoners of war, and 103 Polish soldiers off the coast of West Africa. After realising that the passengers were primarily POWs (Prisoners Of War) and civilians, the U-boat started rescue operations while waving the Red Cross flag. A U.S. Army Air Corps bomber flying out of a secret South Atlantic airbase on Ascension Island attacked the U-boat. The U-boat aborted the rescue effort and left the survivors to drift to Africa. Over half the survivors died. This incident led to Admiral Dönitz issuing the Triton Null signal, which came to be known as the "Laconia Order"; the signal forbade submarine commanders from rescuing survivors from torpedoed ships.

Parody Universe
Hartenstein is a character introduced in the Parody Universe by Unterganger DictatorAntics. He was aware of Thomas Kretschmann's role in The Sinking of the Laconia and initially downloaded the movie to exploit Kretschmann's role in it. After watching it, and seeing how the main character, Hartenstein, speaks with Dönitz (Thomas Kretschmann) and even receives the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross from him he figured that he wanted to introduce him to the parody universe as a new antic master.

Hartenstein's first appearance in a parody was in DictatorAntics' series The Antic Menace. In the first episode he is seen with other naval commanders raising their glass for Fegelein. He is at the end of the parody seen again where he receives an award and is named Antic Master by Fegelein. Fegelein tells Hartenstein that as an Antic Master he can start a guild because all other masters have one on which Hartenstein replies that he wants to be the guild master of the Atlantic Ocean which Fegelein agrees to. As commented on that parody by Unterganger HitchcockJohn that means that Captain Willenbrock would get competition because crewmember of Willenbrock, Antic Master Werner, is the Navy Antic Guild Master. And although Hartenstein will indeed be a counterpart of Werner in upcoming parodies of DictatorAntics he is an ally of him in the series. Hartenstein is also seen in the second episode of the series where he gets killed by a kraken.

Hartenstein committed his first antics in a parody of DictatorAntics where he tries to put laxatives in Hitler's food and blame Fegelein for it, because he's afraid that Hitler would murder him when finding out that he's a new antic master. As a new master, Hartenstein's antic didn't go as planned, because Fegelein found out about it and after his apprentice Walter added fuel to the fire, Fegelein decided to warn Hitler. Hartenstein who also didn't know that Hitler was a vegetarian stuffed the laxative in a steak. That's why at dinner, Hitler switched from meal with Goebbels and therefore the antic is accidently pulled on him who later craps his pants.

Relationship with other Parody Universe characters
Hartenstein is an antic master trained by Fegelein and also used to have a good relationship with him, but after his first antic that he blamed on Fegelein the relationship got less good. Hitler hated him right after being informed that he is an antic master and started ranting about how he can't believe that there is another new antic master.