NERV Germany

NERV Germany (ネルフ) appears in the novel Neon Genesis Evangelion: ANIMA as a smaller branch carved out of the original NERV and sustained chiefly by the German government together with other countries. It commands its own Evangelion, the EURO-II Heurtebise, and pursues an agenda that grows increasingly hostile toward NERV Japan.

The branch first surfaces when it invites Hikari Horaki to work with it while she vacations in Australia, a short-term contract NERV Japan consents to. Curious to see the country where Asuka was raised, Hikari accepts and finds everyone welcoming; the branch supplies a guide and a luxury car even outside working hours. When the Longinus Curtain event strikes, her German bodyguards keep protecting her even as their bodies turn to salt.

Its engineers later score a technical breakthrough, developing the means to bring Armaros' quantum resonance plates under human control, which is why the Heurtebise carries two Q.R. Signums in its shoulder pylons when Shinji first observes it over Hokkaido. Politically, the organization turns predatory. Its management, convinced Unit-02 was unfairly taken by NERV Japan, mounts a subterfuge: it manipulates the United Nations into ordering NERV Japan to survey the Moon's surface, drawing away Japan's most dependable Evangelion, while also steering public perception after the Longinus Curtain to serve its own standing. A coalition of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and other European states then invades Japan under UN Resolution 508, broadcasting on every frequency that NERV Japan is negligent, bent on seizing power, and unfit to operate Evangelions that are ultimately UN property, framing the incursion as internal UN reorganization that threatens no Japanese citizen. Misato, suspecting Tokyo has tacitly permitted the European forces' passage, decides to fight the invaders.

Lieutenant Colonel Clausewitz commands the branch, supported by an unnamed assistant, while Hikari Horaki serves as its pilot. Its hardware includes the Evangelion EURO-II Heurtebise, airborne early warning and control aircraft, and gravitational mirrors, with ties running to NERV, the United Nations, and the governments of Europe.