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Any clue or meaning in the name Oberhauser ?


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#1 hoagy

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Posted 29 July 2015 - 09:22 PM

If I understand correctly, German "ober" translates to English "upper."

And "hause" translates to "home."

 

Does anyone think this provides any meaning or clue ? 



#2 stromberg

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Posted 29 July 2015 - 10:40 PM

None at all. A random name which is not uncommon in the Kitzbühel area. Guess that Fleming took the name from someone he knew down there. Could as well be the name of a pub or a hostel down there (I read somewhere that he found the name "Shatterhand" that way).

 

Oberhausen is also a city in the Ruhrgebiet area (near Wattenscheid, where Bond was born, according to Pearson).



#3 tdalton

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Posted 30 July 2015 - 02:51 AM

I don't think that there's any real meaning behind it, at least in terms of its relationship to SPECTRE.  I think that they've chosen it primarily because it's an unused Fleming name and one that they can also tie back to Bond's childhood because that, along with stuffing the films to the brim with self-references, seems to be Mendes' thing.



#4 Guy Haines

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Posted 30 July 2015 - 06:23 AM

I agree with stromberg and tdalton on this. Hannes Oberhauser was referred to in the short story "Octopussy" as being someone who befriended and looked after Bond in his boyhood after losing his parents. It seems the film makers have used that tenuous link to develop this new ch.aracter Franz Oberhauser. Not the same person as Hannes, but as tdalton says, the name Oberhauser ties in to Bond's past.

#5 Single-O-Seven

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 05:24 PM

Aside from just Octopussy, Hannes Oberhauser was also referenced in the novel OHMSS as having been Bond's ski instructor. I can't remember in which story Bond recalls him specifically as "something of a father figure at a time when he happened to need one," but believe it was Octopussy. It looks like both the father figure and ski instructor angles are being utilized, given what little information we've seen.



#6 stromberg

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 07:30 PM

Aside from just Octopussy, Hannes Oberhauser was also referenced in the novel OHMSS as having been Bond's ski instructor. I can't remember in which story Bond recalls him specifically as "something of a father figure at a time when he happened to need one," but believe it was Octopussy. It looks like both the father figure and ski instructor angles are being utilized, given what little information we've seen.

Hannes Oberhauser isn't mentioned in OHMSS. That line is from Octopussy. It's quoted by Pearson in 'The Authorized Biography':
 

Fleming apart, the most important person Bond met at Kitzbühel was a man called Oberhauser. Fleming, who knew him, wrote of his tragic death in Octopussy, and quotes Bond's words to his murderer, the pathetic Major Smythe – ‘Oberhauser was a friend of mine. He taught me to ski before the war, when I was in my teens. He was a wonderful man. He was something of a father to me at a time when I happened to need one.’

As Bond says, the idea of Oberhauser teaching him to ski is a typical piece of Fleming exaggeration. As Fleming knew quite well, Bond could already ski – in his own rough and ready but effective way. But it was Oberhauser, an Olympic medallist and by far the soundest ski instructor in the town, who taught James Bond a little of the style he lacked. Also, as Fleming says, this Tyrolean succeeded in doing what no one else had done for Bond. He got through to him, persuaded him to talk and acted as a sort of father with advice. Bond believes he all but saved his life.

Oberhauser was a realist. Like Bond, he had often found himself face to face with death as he climbed the mountains. He had lost comrades, friends and those he loved; and yet his zest for life was undefeated. Bond talked to him of Fedyeov, of Marthe de Brandt and finally about his parents. The Austrian was sympathetic, but, as he said to Bond, ‘so what?’ Did he intend to live his life out with a load of guilt? Would he continually blame himself whenever things went wrong? If he went on like this, the past would finally destroy him.

What did he suggest, asked Bond, and Oberhauser pointed to the mountains.

‘Climb them,’ he said, ‘and don't look back.’

During those weeks in Kitzbühel, Bond took his advice, and once again he felt the joy and the renewal of a whole day's climbing. By the time he returned to Paris, the mountains and Oberhauser's words had done their work. Bond had evolved a conscious plan for living. His aim was now to live entirely for the moment and to enjoy the pleasures of his calling to the uttermost. There would be no more remorse and no regret. He would turn himself into what Fleming called ‘a lethal instrument’.



#7 Single-O-Seven

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 08:35 PM

Thank you, Stromberg - I see you're quite right. My mistake! I just went back and re-read some of the sections of OHMSS where I thought the reference had come up. I must have got confused with the Hannes Schneider School Bond attended in his youth, and where he learned to ski. I don't know my left Hannes from my right.

 

Great quote from the Pearson book. I should go back and re-read that. Some of the best Bond continuation/prequel stories pepper that book.