Moritz Maria Von Igelfeld

Professor Moritz Maria Von Igelfeld is the main character of the Professor Von Igelfeld book series. He worked at a college in Regensburg where he was a professor of romance philology, specializing in the Portuguese language.

Early Life
Von Igelfeld was born into the Von Igelfeld clan, a Lutheran family of lesser nobility in Germany and Austria.

College Days
At college he studied philology, especially romance philology.

Assistant-ship
After graduating from college he wanted to get a job as an assistant for a philology professor.

He was rejected a number of times but was finally accepted by Professor Vogelsang.

Von Igelfeld was initially thrilled to have gotten the offer, and took it immediately, staying with a woman who hosted academics, but later found Professor Vogelsang to be rather rude and hypercritical.

Trip to Ireland
During his time as assistant Professor Vogelsang took Von Igelfeld with him on an academic trip to Ireland. There they encountered an old Irish man, who spoke a very old variant of Irish Gaelic. Professor Vogelsang took Von Igelfeld with him to interview the elderly man, but the man only yelled at them in the old language, Von Igelfeld taking notes.

Having come back from the trip, Von Igelfeld was required to translate all of the words the old man had used against them, Von Igelfeld, in turn, discovered, their vulgar nature. When the woman hosting him discovered his notes, (including the translations), she kicked Von Igelfeld out, as she inaccurately, (though not unjustifiably), came to the conclusion that Von Igelfeld was a pornographer. Von Igelfeld's time as assistant to Professor Vogelsang ended soon after.

Writing Portuguese Irregular Verbs
At some point after working for Professor Vogelsang Von Igelfeld wrote, Portuguese Irregular Verbs, a book about, as its name would suggest, irregular verbs in the Portuguese language, his book was widely received among the philology academic community, but failed to enter the mainstream media.

It is unknown as to whether the writing of Portuguese Irregular Verbs was before he was hired by the university of Regensburg or after.

Professor at Regensburg
At some point Von Igelfeld was hired to work as a professor of Romance philology at the University of Regensburg, along with his friend Prinzel, (although it is unknown as to whether the hiring of the two was related.). Where Von Igelfeld met and befriended the librarian and Unterholtzer.

Rebellion and Presidency of Colombia
In the wake of his trip to England, Von Igelfeld was offered an academic reward in from a Colombian University.

He visited Colombia, staying at a hotel. Later, his colleague led him to the "villa of reduced circumstances", owned by an old woman and renowned intellectual. There they engaged in academic conversation. Moritz-Maria took notice at the increasingly loud staff of the villa.

Later, Moritz-Maria attempted to leave the villa but was stopped by a guerrilla leader who said that he would shoot Moritz-Maria and his colleagues. As Moritz-Maria was emotionally preparing for his own death he found that his hostess had befriended the guerrilla leader, joining the rebellion and volunteering Moritz-Maria to do so as well.

Personality
Von Igelfeld has an immense amount of pride, and often times has trouble admitting defeat, which often times only hurts him.

He seems to lack a sense of humor to a certain degree. Additionally to this he seems to think about the world rather logically, and typically does not ponder, (or does not care,), about how his plans or actions might backfire or hurt the people around him.

Von Igelfeld can often be irrational, even to the point of paranoia. Von Igelfeld frequently misperceives unintentiona slights as acts of rude derision, even calculated attacks. When he feels threatened, whether it be a legitimate or imagined threat, he can be apathetic to others, including one occurrence when he cut off a number of the legs of his friends' sausuge dog, and when his frenemy, Unterholtzer became more confident (and thus more threatening) as a result of his therapy, Von Igelfeld intentionally sabotaged it.

In spite of it, he still feels remorse.

Religion
Throughout the series Von Igelfeld's religion has remained mostly ambiguous, however, in The Finer Points of a Sausage Dog, it is revealed that he was raised Lutheran, however he appears to be rather questioning in his theological philosophy. In Portuguese Irregular Verbs it is mentioned that Von Igefleld believes that if any branch of Christianity is accurate, than it is the "Mediterranean variant" as opposed to the "Northern Variant."

Politics
Von Igelfeld is, for the most part, apolitical. To such an extent that he does not even know who the Chancellor of Germany is. He also believes that scholars would be better at ruling than would legislators, but notes that that will never happen, leading him to make a pessimistic statement about the state of the world while in an Italian hotel, "Il nostro mondo! Che tedio!", meaning "Our world! What a bore!"

Physical Appearance
Little is known of Von Igelfeld's appearance, what is known however is that he was rather tall. In Unusual Uses for Olive Oil it is revealed that Von Igelfeld is quite thin, enough to garner the concern of his colleagues.

Relationships
Unterholzer- Unterholtzer and Von Igelfeld are coworkers and both work in the field of Romance Philology. Von Igelfeld and Unterholzer have an unspoken rivalry, particularly regarding Von Igelfeld's office, which Unterholzer uses whenever he is away. Part of Unterholtzer's hostility towards Von Igelfeld is based on Von Igelfeld removing all but one of Unterholtzer's dog, Walter's legs, while overseeing a veterinary procedure.

Florianus Prinzel- Von Igelfeld and Florianus Prinzel have been friends since the two's college days, where they met. Von Igelfeld admires Prinzel greatly both professionally and personally, one might argue, to the point of jealousy, he however, has never made ill comments towards Prinzel.

Ophelia Prinzel- Ophelia cares deeply for Von Igelfeld, showing sympathy for all his plights as well as often inviting him on trips to get his mind off things.

Trivia

 * His clothes are often inadequately ironed.