Hans von Zettour

Hans von Zettour a.k.a Zettois is a staff officer in the Imperial army, currently serving as the Deputy Director of the Service Corps in the General Staff. He was renown as scholarly general with a profound mind, and regarded as a vital pillar of Imperial Army along with his partner, Rudersdorf.

Appearance
In the manga, he wears his 1940's German-designed general official suit (the gorget patches are identical to an SS-Standartenführer during WW2) with his medals hanging near his left chest. He has also a monocle in his left eye.

In the anime, both his eye are closed but able to move balance like a normal individual. He wears a World War I German-designed general official suit.

Personality
He seems quietly serious and ordinary in the eyes of his office mates. However, he has a tremendous and outstanding mindset and beliefs. He has academically inclined personality, always making risk assessment to their military actions. He is clever, thoughtful, and knowledgeable about both strategies and combat operations. He believes in rationalism and hates unfounded speech and idealism. He is loyal to the country, always keeps the best soldiers, decides the best solution for the Empire.

Plot
He first showed up as a talented staff officer attending a military conference. Here Rudersdorf and he lodged the strong objection, opposing launching a major offensive against Legadonia. Unfortunately, they failed at last.

After the Republic Army invaded the Empire, many of the staff officers within General Staff that supported the plan to launch the attack were replaced and demoted. Zettour was assigned to the Deputy Director of the Service Corps. One day in the library of Charloburg War College, he ran into Tanya and had a discussion about the Great War with her. He was inspired by her, and promised her a mage battalion under her command. Later, he published a paper titled "The form of the current war and prediction on its development".

One day in Conference Room One, he suggested General Staff found a quick reaction mage battalion and got accepted. Another day, He had dinner with Tanya and Kordel in Imperial General Staff (Army) First Dining Hall. They were discussing the the unit she would be assigned to. After Colonel von Kordel left, they started talking about her exact assignment in General Staff. She would be assigned to the organizing officer, an ancient post that organized the mercenaries into the army. Since a captain was not allowed to organize a mage battalion, in this way, she could organize her mage battalion by the power of organizing officer.

During the war against Principality of Dacia, he deployed troops and arranged for the necessary supplies to arrive prior to the start of the battle, fully demonstrating his frightening ability at the management of logistics. Due to this achievement, he was promoted to Major General. October 23, 1924, he had his dinner with Rudersdorf in First Dining Hall. He suggested Rudersdorf attack Osfjord.

April 28, 1925, in the Joint Meeting of the Service Corps and Operations, he advocated focusing on eliminating enemy soldiers instead of occupying land. May 4, he proposed a swift, ruthless way to “cope with” the Arene Incident. August 24, he had his dinner with Rudersdorf in the First Dining Hall. They congratulated each other on their promotion to Lieutenant General and discussed the situation and dilemma the Empire had to deal with.

March 15, 1926, in General Staff Office, Conference Room 1, he was busy at work to send resource, reinforcement to Eastern Army Group. He also supported the request of Tanya to assault the Federation capital, not expecting she would make it far out of a simply propaganda. April 10, he attended the court of inquiry as the president to investigate the raid of Moskva executed by 203rd Mage Battalion. Later the end of the court, he had a fierce discussion with Tanya and finally sent her to Western for research and development. June 25, he phoned Tanya up and discussed about her new experimental kampfgruppe.

Quotes
A Review of the Dacian War: Modern war measures the obvious gap between developed nations and developing ones──with corpses.

''Lieutenant General Hans von Zettour at the eastern situation review meeting: Horrible things have many friends. Take bad news, for instance: You always get a lot at once.''

Trivia

 * His name is a reference to Hans von Seeckt, a notable known German general during World War I.
 * He had ever been criticized to be ‘‘having a personality that was too academically inclined, thus not suitable to become a general’’ by the judge of Imperial War College Selection Review Conference.
 * In the light novel, the joint conference is in 4/28, and Arene Incident in 5/4. In the anime, the joint conference happened later than Arene Incident.
 * He has an unmarried granddaughter.