Irisdina Bernhard
Captain Irisdina Bernhard is one of the main heroines of Schwarzesmarken and a secondary heroine in Bernhard im Schatten. She is the CO of the 666th TSF Squadron and her call sign is Schwarzesmarken 01.
A decorated war hero of the Poland retreat, no one doubts that her exemplary leadership and tactical skills are a few of the main reasons for the squadron’s continued survival and success on the battlefield. She believes in leading by example, and will be among the first to go into the fray in a battle. Despite this, she is hated by some for having killed her own brother to ensure her own survival.
Five years prior to the story, an unsuccessful coup d’etat was instigated by the Nationale Volksarmee to remove the German Socialist Unity Party and the Stasi from power. Irisdina’s brother, Jurgen, was involved in the coup and thus endangered the Bernhard family. In order to save his sister, Jurgen instructed Irisdina to sell him out to the Stasi to prove her innocence. Heinz Axmann then took it a step further and forced Irisdina to kill Jurgen.
With Lise Hohenstein’s betrayal on the 666th Squadron and her subsequent arrest, Heinz Axmann breaks Irisdina out of prison for his own motives. Refusing his terms, she kills Axmann but becomes mortally wounded in the process and later dies in Theodor Eberbach’s arms.
