Donald's uncle Ludwig (was Rosa's own li'l Universe)

[Lars Jensen]

Matthew Williams and Kai Saarto wrote:

>> I'm amazed by the number of websites I've seen that describe Ludwig
>> as Scrooge's brother-in-law [due to Don Rosa's theories].
>>
>
> Actually I think that the idea of Ludvig being Scrooge's
> brother-in-law goes much farther. Donald has called Ludvig "uncle" for
> decades at least in Finnish Aku Ankka (probably in most Egmont
> countries). Since Ludvig doesn't seem to be Scrooge's brother, its a
> good assumption to make him to be related in some other way.

When Ludwig Von Drake in 1961 debuted on the TV program "An Adventure in
Color", he at one point said the following to Walt Disney: "You're the
fellow who works for my nephew Donald Duck, isn't that right?" So yes,
Ludwig is Donald's uncle. That much we can agree on. I don't think I'm
jumping to conclusions, though, when I say that Walt & co probably
didn't have long talks about how *exactly* Ludwig and Donald were
related. Did Walt at one point whip out an issue of "Uncle Scrooge" and
say: "Ludwig has got to be married to this guy's sister. That's the only
thing that makes sense!"... I don't think so. I'm not even sure Walt
knew Scrooge *existed*!
Presumably, as far as the creators of Ludwig were concerned, Ludwig was
"the uncle of Donald". That's all. End of story.

In the context of Don Rosa's Duck Universe, however, you're right: It is
a very logical (and very good) idea to have Ludwig be married to
Scrooge's sister. It fits very well into Don's universe. In Disney's
animated universe, though, where Ludwig originated, his relationship to
Donald is merely defined as being "Donald's uncle". So the idea of
Ludwig being Scrooge's brother-in-law doesn't go back decades, no. It
goes back some 10 years.

Lars