Bandaged and "sick" in "Ad Astra," the German pilot whom Monaghan has shot down on the day Germany surrenders is nonetheless described as wearing the appearance of "a man who has conquered himself" (412). Born into a noble family in Prussia as the oldest of four brothers, he repudiated his hereditary title. He studies music at the university in Bayreuth, marries a woman beneath his privileged class, and fathers a child with her. Over time, however, the loss of each of his three younger brothers sends him back to military service.
Apparently this aviator in "Ad Astra," whom the narrator refers to as the "Hun patrol leader," was the pilot who shot down Sartoris' brother's plane (414). He may in turn have been shot down by Sartoris; Hume says that Sartoris "must have got him" during the week he spends in the sky seeking to avenge his brother, but as the narrator says, "we didn't know" if the enemy pilot Sartoris shot down was the one he was after (414). (During the First World War, "Hun" was a derogatory term for the German enemy.)
The youngest of four German brothers in "Ad Astra" flourishes in the German military service, beginning as a "cadet of dragoons" (417) and eventually becoming an aviator. When his eldest brother last sees him, he "iss now ace with iron cross by the kaiser's own hand" (419). In 1916, he is shot down by the Canadian air ace Bishop.
In "Ad Astra" the third child of the German family (and a younger brother of the German prisoner) is the twin of Franz. He feels no obligation to serve his family, and according to his oldest brother, he "did nothing in Berlin" (417). Although he comes home to be assume the title of Baron, his brother continues: "he does not stay at home. In 1912 he iss in Berlin newspaper dead of a lady's husband" (418). It seems likely that the "lady" is this man's mistress.
It seems apparent in "Ad Astra" that this Berlin woman is having an affair with one of the German prisoner's twin brothers; according to the captive, at least, in 1912 his brother is reported in the Berlin newspapers as "dead of a lady's husband" (418). This is the extent of her appearance in this story.
The "kaiser" whom the German aviator refers to without naming in "Ad Astra" is Kaiser Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Albert von Hohenzollern); he ruled Germany as emperor from June 1888 to November 9, 1918. On that date, having lost the support of the army, he abdicated, and fled the country a day later. The German prisoner says he does not serve "baron and kaiser" (418), but he is proud when his brother Franz is declared "ace iron cross by the kaiser's own hand" (419).
The mother of the German prisoner in "Ad Astra" is at times distant from her eldest son, because of her husband's disapproval. After her husband's death, she informs this son of developments within the family. Very shortly before the day of the story, she writes again to inform him that since his last living brother is dead, he must be assume the title of Baron after all.
The father of the captured German aviator in "Ad Astra" is a nobleman - as the aviator puts it, "my people are of Prussia little barons" - who does not approve when his eldest son renounces the title of "baron" (417). The father dies during the War of natural causes.
This group is more like a casualty statistic than a character. The World War I aviators in "Ad Astra" keep track of their successes by counting each enemy plane they shoot down as a "Hun": thus Sartoris shoots down "three Huns" in his quest to avenge his brother's death (414), and Monaghan refers to the "thirteen Huns" he "got" (416). ("Hun" was the derogatory term the Allies used for their German opponents.)
In "Ad Astra" Monaghan's father's wealth enables his son to attend Yale and to become acquainted with well-to-do people. The senior Monaghan charges his son to remind these "fine friends," these privileged individuals, that "every man is the slave of his own refuse" and that "your old dad," who made his money working with sewers, "is the king of them all" (415)
