Egon Spengler the love interest of Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters' secretary, in the first film and both animated series ("Ghostbusters II" excluded their romance due to Ramis' dislike of the subplot, thus having Melnitz date Louis Tully instead). Spengler sometimes appears to be unaware of Melnitz's romantic interest in him, but at times he displays having similar feelings for her, such as when he gave her a geranium as a gift when she expressed an interest in plants (which backfired horribly when it was revealed that the geranium was possessed by a ghost and nearly destroyed her apartment, along with much of
Oswald Spengler the central government). Spengler is rendered as a nationalist, anti-democratic, and a prominent member of the Conservative Revolution, but he rejected National Socialism due to its racialism. Instead, he saw his ideal realised in Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Fascist Italy. He correctly predicted important developments of his time and strongly influenced other historians, including Franz Borkenau and especially Arnold J. Toynbee. Oswald Spengler was born in 1880 in Blankenburg (the Duchy of Brunswick, the German Reich) as the second child of Bernhard (1844–1901) and Pauline (1840–1910) Spengler. Oswald's elder brother was born prematurely (eight months) in 1879, when his