"Serves you right you little Scheiße."
Otto Holtenwasser is the Murphys' elderly German-Jewish neighbor. Due to his religious background and German nature, the neighborhood children racially believed him to be Hitler's little brother, a Nazi, who hunted down kids, and the numbered tattoo on his arm is a scoreboard for how many people he has killed. When in reality, he is the opposite of the kids' racial view of him, as he is generally a sweet man to the children who survived the Holocaust. He is voiced by Trevor Devall.
Biography[]
Otto was born in Germany in 1898. It's revealed in The "B" Word that his father had turned him into the Gestapo, causing him to be incarcerated at a concentration camp. During this time, he endured many traumatic events. Eventually, he was liberated and moved to America. Sometime during this period, he met a woman named Mary, who was a U.S. nurse. They married and became the first homeowners of a subdivision on a cul-de-sac. Over time, more people moved into the neighborhood, including the Murphys, the Goomers, the Bonfiglios, and Vic Reynolds. Sometime between 1961 and 1973, Mary passed away, leaving Otto widowed.
Most likely due to words getting twisted about his past, a playground rumor has the kids believing he is a Nazi and therefore are scared of him. Despite this, In "The Bleedin' in Sweden," Bill's magnet gets stuck to the numbers on Holtenwasser's house.
In "The Trough" he gives Kevin a ride home. He recounts to him how he's watched Kevin grow up throughout the years, seeing him playing around the neighborhood. He also mentions that he and his wife were the first homeowners in the subdivision. During this, Kevin notices a Star of David hanging from his rearview mirror but mistakes it for a pentagram. For this reason, Kevin (and later Bill) believes he is a Satan worshipper, even despite Frank's more accurate description of him as "a sad old man whose family was butchered in the war."
In "O Holy Moly Night," Holtenwasser is the one who finds the Murphys' dog, Major, after he ran away from the fireworks. He is also one of the guests at their Christmas party.
In "The Liar's Club," Holtenwasser joins Kevin and Frank and the rest of the neighborhood in the Murphy's basement, remarking he shared a basement with fourteen others in his lifetime. Vic likens this to a life of partying before Holtenwasser reflects it was, really, a very quiet life, "most of the time."
In "Punch Drunk", he and Ginny hook up after getting drunk during the block party. He is very regretful about it but has a hard time breaking it off with her.
Personality[]
Otto Holtenwasser is a friendly elderly man, who is always generous to his neighbors and especially kind to children. Although 99% of the time, Otto managed to keep a delightful and carefree demeanor, he will occasionally mention circumstances of the Holocaust, likely spurred by superficial similarities his present situation has to his past experiences. This often kills the mood, prompting everyone to momentarily lower their heads and look somber, with the exception of Vic, who always believed these tangents to be jokes in his intoxicated state.
During his period of sobriety, Vic called Otto out on his frequent recounting of the unpleasant events. Otto is moved by this suggestion, and chooses to move forward with more confidence and sternly positive outlook in life. With his first major choice being standing up to Ginny and telling her to, "Get ze fuck out of my house."
Additionally, although a very gentle soul, he has been prone to the very rare angry outburst, seeming to have a mild degree of road rage. Like most people, he seems to hate Jimmy Fitzsimmons.
Episode Appearances[]
- The Bleedin' in Sweden
- Saturday, Bloody Saturday
- The Trough
- O Holy Moly Night
- Heavy Sledding
- The Liar's Club
- Night Shift
- This Is Not Good
- Fight Night
- F Is For Fixing It
- Landing The Plane (cameo)
- Are You Ready For The Summer? (cameo)
- Paul Lynde to Block
- The Stinger (cameo)
- Mr. Murphy's Wild Ride
- Battle Of The Sexes
- Punch Drunk
- Summer Vacation
- It's In His Blood
- Frank The Father
- Bill Murphy's Night Off
- Father Confessor
- Nothing Is Impossible
- Bring Me A Tooth (non speaking-cameo)
- The "B" Word
Trivia[]
- Mr. Holtenwasser drove Sue to the hospital for Maureen's birth, when Frank got caught up with other predicaments.
- In German, his surname "Holtenwasser" literally translates to "fetched water".
- His serial number is 121437.
- As previously stated, despite being nice to most kids, he despises Jimmy Fitzsimmons, and he's not afraid to show his darker side and curse at him when he's being bothered by him. In "This Is Not Good", he was happy when he overheard that Jimmy got sent to boot camp.
- In the third season, Mr. Hotlenwasser unintentionally gets roped into a fling with Ginny Throater, who was still recovering from her divorce at the time.
- So far, Otto received the most amount of racist nicknames out of all characters.
- Due to his father turning him over to Gestapo, Otto may have been a convert to Judaism.
- He was based on a Japanese neighbor one of the writer’s had when he was a kid and said writer and his friends were scared of him like Bill and his friends were.