The uncle from Austria

[Lars Jensen]

Sorry to bring up these old postings, but I haven't had a chance to
react to them until now...

On November 12, Sigvald wrote:

> > Von Drake is not married. So it is not a *fact*.
>
> In the Rosa universe he IS married... (That's also confirmed by
> Fernando in another thread). And it is even logic. Even the
> referred sites states that Ludwig is Donald's uncle. There is 4
> ways that can be true (assuming uncle means uncle):
> a) Ludwig could be Donald's father's brother
> b) Ludwig could be Donald's mother's brother
> c) Ludwig could be married to a sister of Donalds's father
> d) Ludwig could be married to a sister of Donalds's mother

You claim the only logical conclusion is that Ludwig is married to
Donald's mother's sister, since only that fits with various unpublished
Barks facts. But it's only the "logical" answer, because you want to
combine two Duck universes: The Barks one and the 1960s Disney
television one.

Walt Disney introduced Ludwig as Donald's uncle from Austria. Since this
was Walt himself talking about a character he had (in some capacity or
other) supervised the development of, I'm inclined to believe him on
these facts. I'm also pretty sure Walt didn't at the time intend Ludwig
to be married to Donald's mother's sister - if only because the animated
Duck universe had yet to introduce Donald's mother, let alone her
sister. And they still haven't!
Maybe Walt figured Ludwig was Donald's mother's brother? Maybe Walt
figured Ludwig was Donald's father's brother, and Donald's father had
anglicised his last name to "Duck" when he came to the US? Or maybe Walt
just didn't care, as long as Ludwig was an interesting addition to the
animated Duck universe? I think it's pretty safe to say he didn't work
out a Duck family tree, incorporating all of Barks' characters, before
deciding how Ludwig should be related to the rest of them.

No, I personally don't see any reason why Ludwig *couldn't* be married
to Donald's mother's sister. I've certainly never seen him being
romantically linked with anybody else. I'm just pointing out a mistake
in your reasoning: Trying to combine separately developed universes and
claim the "logical" answer is the only correct one.

Lars