Victor Hoppe (The Angel Maker)/Detailed timeline

This is a detailed timeline of all the events taking place in The Angel Maker, in chronological order.

Childhood (1945-1950)

Ca. 1940: Karl and Johanna move to Wolfheim. Karl just graduated his medicine studies.
Morning of 4 June 1945: Victor is born, gets rejected by Johanna.
Baptised by curate Kaisergruber.
5 June 1945: Victor is brought to the convent of the Clare sisters at La Chapelle
Ca. 1946: Victor is officially declared retarded (moron: IQ 50-70). Sister Marthe joins the convent as postulant.
Summer 1948: Angelo Venturini kills Egon Weiss. Sister Marthe becomes a novice. Victor speaks for the first time (the litany of Saint Joseph) en stops eating.
3 days later: the nuns force-feed him. A Sister has to be with him 24/7 to pray.
At night: sister Marthe hears him speak the litany of Saint Joseph and the litany of the Holy Spirit in French and in German. She repeats him to practice the litanies herself.
Next day: the same.
That night: tells him to eat, else he'll die and won't be able to pray for Egon anymore. He eats. He uses actual speech: "Yeah-Sis-ter. P-ease." She sings Het zandmannetje (The Sandman) for him.
Next morning: Victor eats. Victor only has to be prayed to 2 hours per day, a task assigned to Sister Marthe.
Over time: Sister Marthe notices that Victor can recognize letters.
Winter 1948: Sister Marthe teaches Victor to read.
Somewhere before his 4th birthday: Sister Marthe tells Abbess Milgitha that Victor can read when she gets caught teaching him. Victor shuts down when Sister Milgitha puts him on the spot to test his reading.
??End of summer 1949: Sister Marthe does not return from a trip to her parents (almost a year after becoming novice).
12 November 1949 3 (months later): Sister Marthe returns.
Ca. 2 months later: Sister Milgitha has not seen traces of menstrual blood in the wash for a while.
Sister Milgitha calls dr. Karl Hoppe. Marthe is 4 months pregnant at 20 years old. She tells Karl that Victor is not a moron.
The grey woman from Aachen forcefully perform an abortion with a knitting needle on Marthe.
23 January 1950: Karl takes Victor out of the institution.

Home again, gone again (1951-1961)

Somewhere in the meantime Johanna has become catatonic, Karl cares for her at home.

Karl takes Victor everywhere around the village. The villagers think it's a bad idea. He does not tell Johanna that Victor is home again.
Victor does puzzles at home.
People start to avoid Karl.
Victor starts sneaking into Johanna's room.
Johanna dies. Victor prays for her. Karl hits Victor.
Karl tries to make it up to Victor by buying more puzzles. He also gives him Johanna's Bible.
Some days after Johanna's funeral: Karl tells Father Kaisergruber he's going to prove that Victor is not a moron.
Some weeks later, 4 months in total after coming home: Victor fails to read for Father Kaisergruber.
Karl tells Victor that Johanna was his mother. Victor asks how he can become a doctor.
31 August 1951: Karl brings Victor to the boarding section of the Brüder der Christlichen Schulen in Eupen. He starts classes with Brother Rombout.
Grade 5/6: learns about the New Testament, "Eli Eli lama sabaktani" and how God abandoned Jesus.
Karl's practice is doing better but Karl is doing worse.
Last week of June 1955: class trip to the Calvary Hill to visit the Stations of the Cross. He climbs in front of the statue of Jesus at the 12th Station, and yells “Eli Eli lama sabaktani”.
Almost gets kicked out of school, but Brother Rombout convinces the Abbott to let him stay.
30 June 1955: obtains primary school diploma (so he did 6 years of primary school in 4 years).
Secondary school: starts to read a lot about the natural sciences.
1960: another school trip to La Chapelle. He suddenly remembers his time in the institution. He wanders away from the group, and bumps into Sister Milgitha.
Karl denies that Victor was institutionalized.
A few days later: Karl gives Victor his file from the institution.
30 June 1961: graduates from secondary school.

Career (1966-1981)

26 June 1966: graduates cum laude as a doctor. Calls his dad. Karl starts writing his suicide note. Dr. Bergmann wants Victor to do his Ph.D at his faculty.
27 June 1966: the rector tells Victor that his father killed himself (hanged himself from the walnut tree). He reads the suicide note: He inherits Karl's entire estate. "To do only good, therefore, is not enough. You must also vanquish the evil. And I have done too little of that."
Victor speaks with Father Kaisergruber about the funeral. Karl will have a sober ceremony, and be laid to rest next to Johanna.
1 July (Saturday): Karl's Funeral. Victor is not present, he's already gone back to university and gets a mental breakdown. He starts constantly reading the Bible.
Around halfway August: the rector and dr. Bergmann do a wellness check.
dr. Bergmann speaks with Victor about his future, offers him the choice of either embryology, oncology or geriatrics.
1960s: does his Ph.D on the regulation of the cell cycle at the university of Aachen. It is published in Science.
Refuses a position as professor
1970: starts working as fertility doctor in Bonn. Tries to fertilize egg cells in vitro
Spring 1977: tests in vitro fertilization in humans.
Summer 1978: other doctors succeed in performing IVF, leading Victor to stop his own experiments.
11 November 1978: appointment with Rebekka and her partner. They want a child that is from both of them. He says it's possible and starts experimenting.
12 November: implants unfertilized egg cells in both women to buy himself time for experiments.
2 weeks later (end of November): both women think they have miscarried. Victor again implants unfertilized eggs. He can already grow mouse embryo's from 2 egg cells, but they don't make it to birth. He is able to fuse the nuclei of human egg cells.
15 January 1979: the women want to call it quits. He shows them mice borne from two mothers.
16 January 1979: sends his research paper about mouse borne from two mothers to Science
12 February 1979: Science wants to clarify some things before publishing
12 February 1979: implants 3-day-old embryos in the women.
Rebekka gets pregnant. The couple hires an apartment in Bonn to be closer to Victor's practice.
6 weeks later (end of March): two fetal heartbeats on the ultrasound.
2 weeks later (half April): a second ultrasound reveals Rebekka is carrying conjoined twins.
Somewhere in 1979: Science publishes Victor's paper.
9 April 1979: the scientific world congratulates him with his research, but he is torn over what to do with the conjoined twins. Rex Cremer tells him "You have certainly beaten God at His own game."
15 April 1979: Victor call Cremer. "But sometimes that which appears to be impossible is merely difficult. It's just a matter of persevering, isn't it?" Cremer offers him a position as a professor, Victor considers it.
Victor plans to abort the conjoined twins under the guise of a chorionic villus sampling, but he can't do it. He starts considering cloning humans (his red hair and cleft lip will serve as evidence).
3 days later: Rebekka miscarries.
Victor makes an appointment with Cremer to discuss his professorship and cloning.
After a job interview, Victor is hired (3 people voted for his appointment, 2 people against).
1 September 1979: first day as professor.
First months of his professorship: practices cloning, but makes no progress.
End of 1979: still no progress.
3 months later: Cremer discovers cytochalasine B
13 December 1980: cloned mice are born
16 December 1980, half past 4 in the afternoon: Victor calls Cell to share the results of his cloning experiments
Night of 16 December 1980: the hair color of the newborn mice becomes visible, revealing three of the pups to be clones.
17 December, quarter past 4 in the morning: Victor calls Cremer. He's already submitted his manuscript to Cell, since Science asks too many questions.
10 January 1981: publication of his manuscript. Victor refuses to repeat his mice experiments and wants to move on to cloning humans.
Starts human cloning experiments before Cremer gives him permission to.
Cremer becomes Victor's superior, Victor repeats his mouse cloning experiments.
Some weeks after the publication of his manuscript: David Solar and James Grath of the Wistar Institute for Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia have their doubts about his experiments.
Neither Cremer nor Grath and Solar can repeat Victor's methods.
1982: Victor publishes "Experimental genetics of the mammalian embryo" in the journal Differentiation.
July 1983: Victor discovers methods to get cells back into G0.
Victor wants to invite the women for another attempt, but they've already broken up. Rebekka does want to give it another go.
10 February 1984: implants five cloned embryo's in Rebekka.
End February 1984: Solar and Grath publish their critique of Victor in Science.
Cremer is angry at Victor. Victor shows him photos of five cloned human embryos. His plan is to clone mice as fast as possible, and use the pictures of the human embryos in the meantime—to prove he is right.
The rest of the faculty has their doubts. An international commission is called. Victor stays home in Bonn in the meantime.
A month later: Victor calls Cremer, panicked. There are four embryos.
30 May 1984: the commission shares their conclusions: Victor didn't commit fraud, but it was poor scientific practice.
14 June 1984: the rector invites Victor to discuss the results, but Victor refuses.
15 June 1984: Cremer drives to Bonn to deliver the report of the commission. Victor shows him Rebekka. Three living fetuses remain. Victor voluntarily resigns from the university.
3 July 1984: article in Nature reports his resignation.
28 September 1984: Victor shows Rebekka the triplets and the dead embryo on ultrasound.
29 September 1984: the triplets are born.

Back in Wolfheim (1984-1989)

13 October 1984: returns to Wolfheim with the triplets, nearly 20 years after leaving.
During some weeks: deliveries of medical equipment from Germany.
Early January 1985: first time wearing doctor's coat, first patients arrive. Father Kaisergruber does not trust him.
May 1985: Victor saves George Bayer from choking. First time showing the triplets, in café Terminus.
Few days later: Victor treats Father Kaisergruber's stomach infection, public opinion starts turning in his favor.
Saturday in July 1985: Florent Keuning does some odd jobs around the house, catches sight of the triplets.
End of July/early August 1985: Victor hires Charlotte Maenhout. He will speak German to the triplets, she will speak French.
The triplets do not speak at first.
Some weeks later: first words (car, taxi).
Frau Maenhout starts taking over more and more of the housework.
29 September 1985: the triplets get sick.
September 1986: tattoo-incident. The villagers think Frau Maenhout has gone crazy, they start betting on when she'll be fired.
Over the course of 4 months: the triplets become curious about the outside world, Frau Maenhout convinces Victor to let them go out for a bit.
Spring 1987: the triplets are spotted in the garden for the first time.
Spring/summer 1987: Frau Maenhout asks whether the triplets would be allowed to go to school, but Victor refuses.
Frau Maenhout teaches them to read and write of her own accord.
Ca. 2 months later: Victor wants Frau Maenhout to keep teaching, she agrees on the condition that she gets a classroom.
Florent Keuning builds a classroom in their house. Victor removes the cross with Jesus.
Victor is involved with the triplet's learning process at first, but this starts to wane.
Tee health of the triplets starts failing.
Half September 1988 (2 weeks before their birthday): Frau Maenhout asks how old the triplets will get.
29 September 1988: birthday party for the triplets, Gabriël has the walnut tree incident.
A week later: Frau Maenhout sees that Victor has done a kidney biopsy on Gabriël. She gives herself seven days, after that she'll alert the authorities.
She tells the triplets about heaven.
29 October 1988: Victor attends a conference in Frankfurt, where he bumps into Rex Cremer. Tells Cremer he's going to start again. Frau Maenhout takes the triplets to the three-border junctions. Michaël climbs the watchtower. Felix Glück fetches Otto Reisiger to get him down.
Back home: Frau Maenhout searches through Victor's lab and files. She discovers "chaos and fraud".
Half past five that evening: Victor is back. Otto Reisiger brings back Michaël's broken sword. Frau Maenhout confronts Victor with the chaos and fraud. She accidentally falls down the stairs and dies.
About a week later: Cremer comes to Wolfheim and is horrified by the triplets. They ask him where Frau Maenhout is.
11 November 1988: Gunther Weber gets hit by a bus and dies
Victor visits Gunther laying in state and secretly removes his gonads. He offers his help to Gunther's parents.
Before Christmas: Lothar calls Victor in Vera's name. Victor tells him they'll be able to get a child just like Gunther, without his deafness.
1 January 1989: the Webers ask Father Kaisergruber for advice. They want to talk with Victor.
20 January 1989: Victor cites Sara to convince the Webers.
1 April 1989: Rebekka calls Cremer to inquire about Victor.

Final days (1989)

13 May 1989: Michaël dies. Victor stops feeding the children.
14 May (Pentecost): Rebekka travels from Salzburg to Wolfheim. She takes care of the surviving children. Villagers start to gossip. Vera has been taking hormones for 4 months.
15 May: Rebekka stays with the children. The Webers come for a consult. Victor still hasn't cracked the DNA code. He still decides to go ahead with the cloning, and harvests 7 egg cells. Rebekka tells the boys she's their mother.
That evening: none of the egg cells have survived. Victor starts calling around to get his hands on egg cells. Rebekka scolds him and calls Cremer.
16 May: Rafaël dies. Victor shows Michaël and Rafaël's conserved corpses to Rebekka. She slashes him with a scalpel.
17 May: Gabriël dies.
19 May: Father Kaisergruber drops by to offer the sacrament of anointing the sick. Victor asks him why Jesus died on the cross.
20 May: Victor calls the Webers to come in tomorrow.
21 May: Victor implants three embryo's in Vera. He fetches nails and a hammer from Florent. Cremer comes to Wolfheim and confronts Victor. Cremer runs to the three-border junction, then goes back to Victor's house. He discovers the corpses of the triplets and Rebekka. Cremer sets the house on fire and flees, but accidentally drives into the construction pit of the Boudewijn tower and dies.
21 May, still: Victor crucifies himself at the 12th Station of the Cross, before the eyes of the entire village. "It is done."

Epilogue (1990)

19 May 1990: the new Boudewijn tower is officially opened. The Webers have a 4-month-old baby: Isaak.