Character guide

Herr von Wenk

major

Also known as Wenk, Dr. Wenk, Herr Wenk, Dr. von Wenk, State Attorney von Wenk, VI Wenk, VIII Wenk

Wenk moves through the novel as its investigating conscience, a bachelor with no womanly influence in his life and a boyhood dream of justice that suddenly feels fulfilled by this pursuit. He plants himself as bait — a rich provincial at the card tables — reasoning that his supposed fortune will draw the night moths of the gambling world toward him. His disciplined, watchful mind, sharpened by a pre-war journey to China, makes him the one man Mabuse treats as a genuine adversary rather than a pawn.

Dr. Mabuse

major

Also known as Mabuse, Dr. Mab⁠

Mabuse moves between consulting room and getaway car, dismissing a pleading woman at his garden gate with the cold maxim that the past is past and her part is to obey. His mind races through smuggling calculations and shifting plans as compulsively as it once raced through diagnoses, and he wonders with irritation whether he is actually afraid. He is the gravity of the book: everyone else's fate bends toward him, and the early chapters are spent watching how far his will can reach.

Countess Told

supporting

Also known as Countess, the Countess, the fainting Countess, Countess Told

The Countess belongs to the world of titled Munich society, wife to Count Told and an object of Mabuse's obsessive attention. Confined and disoriented, she finds herself torn between horror at what has been done to her and a strange, shameful pull toward the man she calls a devil. Her repeated, unanswered cry of "Where is my husband?" measures the distance between her old life and the abyss she now hangs above by a single rootlet.

Hull

supporting

Also known as young Hull, Herr von Hull, lady Hull, Herr Hull, old Hull, the murdered Hull, Edgar Hull, Edgar von Hull, Edgar, Eddie

Hull is the kind of well-placed young man who knows the addresses of secret gambling dens and can be trusted to procure them without awkward questions. Wenk leans on him to gather information through Cara, extracting a promise that Hull will not mention Wenk to the girl. His usefulness to the investigation places him near the currents of Mabuse's world, where proximity to such secrets carries its own price.

Count Told

supporting

Also known as Count, Told, The Count, The embarrassed Count

Count Told moves in the same aristocratic Munich circles as his wife and Wenk, a man of graceful manners who treasures the quiet evening moments he shares with the Countess after nights out. At the Wendel mansion he finds himself doing something he never intended — palming cards and winning money he did not want — and the horror of it drives him from the crowd's contempt into a hired taxi and an empty house. His bewildered question, "Who moved my hand?", marks him as one of the earliest and most intimate victims of a will not his own.

Spoerri

supporting

Spoerri handles the logistics of Mabuse's operations — transport, documents, safe passage across frontiers — and answers the telephone in Zürich with the calm of a man accustomed to emergencies. He is practical enough to urge retreat when Swiss police close in, and bold enough to titter at his master's stranger orders, such as placing the State Attorney's life under Mabuse's protection. His competence is what makes Mabuse's schemes feel terrifyingly feasible rather than merely theatrical.

Cara Carozza

supporting

Also known as Carozza, Cara

Cara moves through the gambling dens and back alleys as Mabuse's eyes and hands, a woman who knows the underworld well enough to be useful and loves her master well enough to be destroyed by it. When the State Attorney Wenk pressures her to betray the doctor, she clings to the hope of saving him instead, only to have Spoerri visit her cell with a flask and a smile. Her devotion is the story's most intimate portrait of how Mabuse's power works: not through fear alone, but through the willing sacrifice of those who cannot stop loving him.

George Strümpfli

supporting

Also known as George, George Hinrichsen, Hinrichsen

George is the shadow at Mabuse's shoulder, driving the car, removing the gas-flask, delivering the knife-edged messages that keep the doctor's household in line. He is the one who tells Cara that the master's will is like a sledgehammer, and he says it without cruelty, as a man who has long since stopped being surprised by what devotion costs. His presence in the early chapters establishes that Mabuse's power is not merely intellectual but logistical, enforced by men who have surrendered their own judgment to his.

Weltmann

supporting

Also known as the celebrated Weltmann

Weltmann exists in the novel as a reputation before he exists as a person, a name that circulates among gamblers and criminals as a measure of what is possible in their world. He is the kind of figure whose arrival at a gaming table changes the atmosphere, whose presence implies stakes beyond the merely financial. His importance to the early arc lies in what he represents: the existence of a tier of operators above the ordinary cheats and swindlers, men whose influence Mabuse must either match or surpass.

Karstens

minor

Also known as But Karstens

A minor character involved in the criminal underworld.

Poldringer

minor

A minor character in the gambling milieu.

Balling

minor

Also known as Herr Balling, a Herr Balling, the pseudo Herr Balling

A minor character, possibly an alias used by Mabuse.

Dr. Schramm

minor

Also known as Schramm

A doctor, possibly a colleague or victim of Mabuse.

Pesch

minor

A minor character, likely a criminal associate.

Privy Councillor Wendel

minor

Also known as Wendel, Herr Wendel, the Privy Councillor Wendel

A minor official or nobleman in the story.

Dr. Dringer

minor

Also known as Doctor Dringer

A minor doctor character.

Professor Grote

minor

Also known as Professor

A minor academic character.

Grube

minor

Also known as Herr Grube

A minor character, possibly a servant or associate.

Basch

minor

A minor character, possibly a criminal or informant.

Baron Prewitz

minor

Also known as Prewitz, The Baron, the Baron

A minor nobleman involved in the story's events.

Vörös

minor

A minor character, possibly a gambler or servant.

Endivian

minor

A minor character with limited presence.

Lucy

minor

A minor female character, possibly a servant or acquaintance.

Voss

minor

A minor character, possibly a police officer.

Dr. Ebenhügel

minor

Also known as Ebenhügel, Inform Dr. Ebenhügel

A minor character, possibly a doctor or official.

Schachen

minor

A minor character, likely a gambler.

Sergeant Schmied

minor

Also known as Schmied, Wenk of Schmied

A police sergeant assisting Wenk.

Georsh

minor

A minor character with few mentions.

Elsie

minor

A minor female character.

Peter Resch

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Constance

minor

A minor female character, possibly a relative.