Real
Name: Koen Ernst (as Belgian)/Conrad Ernst (as Englishman)
Stille Getuige (Silent Witness)
Real
Name: Koen Ernst (as Belgian)/Conrad Ernst (as Englishman)
Identity/Class: Human Mutate
Occupation: Police officer
Affiliations: Champions of the Earth (a.k.a. Rechtvechters), Veteranen (Veterans), Antwerp Police, the Goddess
Enemies: the Lord (demon lord), Siam Silkpoint, The Nachtclub (the Nightclub), Zizi, a God Fearing Man
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Antwerp, Belgium
First Appearance: Het Album (1989)
Powers/Abilities: The Silent Witness was an English masked and caped grim vigilante, no longer able to talk , who used his experience gained as an English cop to fight crime. The Stille Getuige however has no mouth and no nose, but can talk. He cannot eat or breathe, but seems still pretty alive. He can become intangible, allowing him to walk through walls. He is the chosen of the Goddess and so he wears the “sign of Ton”, an amulet with enough power to allow the Lord to create a world.
History: As an English police officer Conrad Ernst got in a conflict with the criminal Siam Silkpoint. Silkpoint framed Ernst and let the witch Miro Pyro rip Ernst’s tongue out. Ernst became the Silent Witness, a vigilante with a mask suggesting a face without features below the eyes. The Silent Witness hunted Siam Silkpoint down, and ended his hunt with a fight in the BBC-studios, when he had gathered enough evidence to convict his foe. The Witness was a grim, but recognized hero from that point on and became a founding member of the international superhero peace force “Champions of the Earth”, created by Vow.
Some years later the Champions of the Earth disappeared for a fight on a cosmic level. Of the hundred heroes gone, only four returned: Vow, the Gepijnigde (the Tortured), the Silent Witness and one identified as Vow’s brother (Vampire Lord Karshof is a surviving Champion of the Earth too). The named surviving heroes started to work as a team, “de Veteranen” (the Veterans) for the Belgian state, the home country of the Gepijnigde. They had all been changed - in de Stille Getuige’s case his mask had become his real face and he could walk through solid matter. Conrad changed his nationality and his name, officially becoming Belgian citizen Koen Ernst
The Veterans were joined by Miro Pyro, now Vow’s girl friend, but Ernst protested as she was the person who ripped out his tongue. When Hell broke loose in Flanders, Ernst agreed to letting Miro join. The Gepijnigde left to join the Baghwan, Vow was murdered and avenged by Miro Pyro, and the Veterans disbanded. Miro Pyro and the Stille Getuige continued their work as Belgian super powered agents, but mostly had solo careers.
Later Ernst was changed in a vampire by Zizi, himself the product of an experiment by Miro Pyro during her time as Silkpoint’s henchperson. After that the Lord tried to frame Ernst as a murderer so he could steal the sign of Ton, an amulet used by Ernst (without him realizing the power it had - Miro Pyro knows its power). That failed, so the Lord tried something else: invading the Earth. With the assistance of Karshof, Ernst stopped the invasion, but was weakened sufficiently that the Lord was able to rob him of the sign. Ernst landed in Amsterdam with amnesia, where he met A’dam II, the son of the original A’dam, one of the fallen Champions of the Earth. In Antwerp Ernst recovered his memories from Miro’s Krather chronicle and got a new amulet from the goddess. Ernst teamed up with A’dam II, Miro Pyro, and the Gepijnigde against the Lord’s associates in Amsterdam and succeeded in clearing his name.
Since this cosmic adventure, his subsequent encounters have been more mundane.
Comments: Created by Steven de Rie. His official website is here. Thanks to him for the image of the Stille Getuige.
The Stille Getuige’s adventures are quite hard to collect as they have appeared in a variety of magazines, often ones with a small print run.
Profile by Theodoor Westerhof.
CLARIFICATIONS: None
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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