Altstadt

Altstadt
General information
Location	East Prussia
Constructed	Pre-16th Century
Affiliations	Alexander of Brennenburg (ruling baron)
Game information
Appearance(s)	Amnesia: The Dark Descent Remember

Altstadt is a small Prussian town, surrounded by woods, near Brennenburg Castle.

Information

Not too much is known about the town, as it is only mentioned a couple of times in Daniel's Diaries in Amnesia: The Dark Descent and never seen in-game. However, it is also heavily featured in several of the short stories in Remember - Amnesia The Dark Descent namely "Waiting for the Rain" and "The Outrider."

Altstadt is a haven in the midst of a vast forest. The forest is known to be beautiful during the daytime, covered with both lakes and mountains, but a dreaded place by nighttime. This has led to the area being the source of many myths and superstitions.

East Prussia

The town had an inn, called Der Mühle. This is the inn where Daniel spent the night before he visited the castle. It is also known to have a church, which was visited by Klaas Gottschall in 1774, as he was investigating the fate of Wilhelm.

Altstadt, surrounded by several small farms, is also the home of the Zimmermann family, although the family had perished by the events of the game at the hands of Daniel and Alexander.

History

In 1525, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa visited the village for a two-week period. While there, he found an underground Mithraic temple, from which he took an Orb. He was immediately branded by The Shadow, which caught up with him and reclaimed the Orb. Many years later, however, Alexander found out about this Orb and claimed it for himself.

In 1702, the region saw a vicious crime spree which lasted until 1704. During that time period, Wilhelm von Gerich was one of the most notable people to combat the increasing crime rate. In truth, however, he was responsible for the crimes: he had been hired by Alexander to arrest and kidnap people and bring them to the castle dungeons for Alexander to use in his attempts to gather Vitae.

As evidenced by a note found on the Archives level, Altstadt is surrounded by a dark, gloomy forest which is the source of many myths. It is said that soldiers who deserted during the Thirty Years' War got lost in the dark woods and were forever damned to guard the forest, a curse which earned them the name 'Gatherers' by the townsfolk. These creatures, however, were created by Alexander and assist him with kidnappings.

In 1704, a barn burned down a couple of miles from Altstadt. Wilhelm arrested the farmhand, Emil, and supposedly brought him to the Brennenburg dungeons. After this, Alexander grew tired of the imprudent behavior of Wilhelm and his men and killed them with poisoned wine. With this, the crime spree ended. A while later, a sheriff from Königsberg was sent to Altstadt to question Wilhelm about his civil arrests but found no trace of him.

In 1774, Klaas Gottschall travelled to Altstadt in an attempt to uncover the fate of Wilhelm. He visited the town church and the site of the barn fire. After a while, his search led him to Castle Brennenburg. His fate is unknown.

Gabriel, who worked as an outrider in Bremen, grew up in the town of Altstadt. In 1839, he was approached by Daniel, who sought his services in scouting a path to Altstadt. Initially not wanting to take the job, he was swayed as Daniel kept offering more and more money. They arrived in the town on August 2, and Daniel stayed the night at the local inn, Der Mühle.

That night, a Servant Grunt made its way down to the town and kidnapped a local cat, Tinker. Gabriel chased the creature down and saved the cat. Der Mühle's owner

On August 18, the Zimmermann family buried their recently deceased son in the town's local graveyard, before heading back to their farm just outside of town. Later that night, Daniel and Alexander made their way to the farm, killed Gustaf Zimmermann and his farmhands, and kidnapped his wife and three daughters.

Trivia

• The Orb that Agrippa found in the cavern near Altstadt, is the same Orb that you gather the pieces of and reassemble in the game.
• Altstadt translates from German to "Old Town" or "Old Village."
  • Unlike many elements of the game corresponding to real people or locations, Altstadt is no singular real place but instead is a word that refers to a historic city center from which newer parts of a city or Neustadt ("new town") expand outwards upon.
  • Given that the in-universe Altstadt is a very small hamlet set aside from other towns, it could have been part of a larger habitation devastated by large-scale conflicts such as the Thirty Years War (among other catastrophic events such as those brought about by Alexander's kidnappings) which heavily reduced it in size and from which it had not recovered.
• The town is said to have a population of only 86 in 1704, due to the vicious crime spree perpetrated by Wilhelm and, by extension, Alexander.