Quick Background
Wolfgang Dietrich Armand Ulrich was born on 5 June 1936, to Dietrich Ulrich, Freiherr von and his wife Greta. He was brought up with all the privileges due to the son of a German nobleman, in a childhood which was surprisingly unaffected by the war. He excelled at languages, had a good grip of the sciences, and was a top inter-schools swimmer and athlete. He went to university at Heidelberg, to study English and French, and in his spare time, swam for the university. At the behest of his father of record, he was also a member of the Wehrmacht officer cadet corps. He graduated near the top of the class and then disappointed Dietrich's expectations for his military career by becoming a policeman. It took several years for him to be forgiven.
Wolf proved to be a remarkably good policeman, and his superiors quickly came to the conclusion that he was wasted in the Orpo. He was transferred to the Kripo, where he quickly gained a mixed reputation as being both thorough and honest: thorough was appreciated by his superiors; honest, not so much. His successful investigation into the murderer of a high Party official put him on the radar of the powers that be, and the move to the Gestapo came later that year. However, after a run-in with his immediate superior over the conduct of an investigation, he was posted to Bucharest, were he maintained his reputation as an efficient, if annoyingly honest cop. He was close to being reinstated in the good graces of the powers that be when he defied a direct order from a superior officer to arrest a murder suspect, who he believed to be innocent. This led to his recall to Berlin and a brief period of custody for activities incompatible with his position, before the charges were dropped and he was assigned to Einsatzgruppe 4 out of St Petersburg. At that point, he realised he had to get away from the pit of vipers he found himself in, before he got himself killed.
His tenure on the Eastern Front was brief. After (unwillingly) participating in the pacification of the partisan stronghold of Eglizi, he was given a special assignment aimed at capturing a British spy who had incurred the enmity of German High Command. The mission was not a success. Wolf was initially declared missing presumed dead in what appeared to be a partisan attack. However, further investigations came to the conclusion that he had murdered a superior officer and fled to England, where he was co-operating with the British authorities. He was tried in absentia, found guilty of desertion, treason and murder, and sentenced to death within the Greater German Reich.
Across the Channel, he was treated as a defector, and debriefed accordingly, during which time revelations came out of his involvement in the massacre of 300 civilians. His main advocate was Major (rtd) Ian Cushing, the British spy he'd failed to capture. Despite the fact that Wolf was co-operative, and expressed remorse for what he had done, he was tried before a Military Tribunal. The prosecutor was less than impressed when Cushing came out of retirement for the purposes of acting as Wolf's defence lawyer, and achieved a significant reduction in both charges and sentence. Wolf was jailed for three years, although through a combination of additional appeals and good behaviour, he was released after serving eighteen months. However, it was made clear to him that if he stepped out of line, he would go back inside and the key would be thrown away.
Once he had paid his debt to society, he returned to university as a mature student. He graduated well, but employment opportunities were scarce, so he remained at university studying for a doctorate in forensic science. During that time, he married his childhood friend, Susanne Gerber, with Ian Cushing, with whom he'd maintained a strong friendship, as his best man. After he successfully defended his dissertation, through the pulling of a number of strings, he found employment with the Home Office. The position came with very strict conditions attached, but over the next few years, he proceeded to prove both his competence and his trustworthiness. In return for what was seen as his good behaviour, the SIS managed to bury the public record of his previous service and prison sentence.
As time passed, Wolf became more and more curious at Cushing's interest in him, and started digging. It took him about six months to come to the surprising conclusion that the man he was investigating was in all likelihood his father. However, it wasn't until Christmas 1973, when he and his family were staying with Ian in Kent, that they came clean with each other about their biological relationship.
For the next few years, things settled down into some semblance of normality, as he and Ian pursued their respective careers. However, after an ill-fated trip to Berlin in October 1980, as a result of which the death sentence against him was officially carried out, Wolf Ulrich was officially was declared dead, which led to a full change of identity.
"Rudi Hawke" sold up and settled in Edinburgh, and he and Ian stayed in touch from a distance. When his father disappeared for the best part of six months in May 1981, Wolf spent a while looking for him, with no success. When next they saw each other, he was startled at how young his father looked, and tackled him about where he'd been. That was when he first learned about Bleys and Amber. Ian took him to the Pattern in Tir-na Nog'th a couple of years later, after which he taught him about Shadow and they travelled together for a while, getting into various degrees of trouble.
By 1985, Wolf was back on Tenterden the majority of the time, eventually returning to live in London in 1995, where he set himself up as a private investigator specialising in missing persons. His wife died a couple of years later, although he remains close with his step-daughter, Michel. He is not currently in a long-term relationship.
He has a generally good relationship with his father, based on mutual respect, filial love, and perfect trust.