User blog comment:Zeldakasumi/Is Mr. Braun a Rounder in the Steins Gate world line?/@comment-7888499-20130421124206

"An interesting thought. My assumption is that Mr. Braun is still part of the Rounders. The on of the main difference in the Steins;Gate world line is that, since the first D-mail was never sent (well, it was, but it was erased), SERN has no need to come after the lab members. Therefore, Mr. Braun, through the other Rounders, doesn't need to do any killing.

Now, if I'm wrong and Mr. Braun isn't a Rounder anymore, I can't think of a reason why the lab would still be connected to SERN. Of course, the movie might expand the story a bit, so, we will see what happens.

Just my thoughts. 8 hours ago by Rsaj"

Good points. I had just been thinking about this while working on the individuals list for the Committee of 300 article. In the end I listed Mr. Braun in the Alpha and Gamma AF, but not yet in the Beta. I figured I should take an "innocent-until-proven-guilty" stance. When I first saw the anime, I thought that either he wasn't a Rounder in the Steins Gate line because he invites Moeka to work for him, meaning she would come in contact with Nae whom he so zealously protects; or he is a Rounder there but he doesn't know M4 (Kiryuu Moeka)'s real identity, which seems strange to me. In either case, I assumed Okabe would just choose to err on the side of caution when dealing with Mr. Braun.

And, when I saw Robotics;Notes, I thought maybe he had been a Rounder but like Sawada had managed to turn against them, since Nae joined the resistance. In any case, I don't think he was pushed to commit suicide after being cornered by Okabe, because Nae hasn't become an unhinged maniac but a rather spunky young adult who uses the nickname Okabe gave her as her codename in the resistance.

Also, theories 1 & 2 fall through if Mr. Braun isn't a Rounder. However, theory three is still possible, I think.

"Theory 3. Using time travel the SERN from the future ordered SERN in the past to install the cables to speed up the completion of the time leap machine (the time leap machine requires a fast connection). This would enable SERN to capture and develop time travel technology in a shorter amount of time in order to create a dystopia within 2 years." (http://ibm5100.net/steinswiki/faq/qa/)

It doesn't seem likely to me that SERN succeeds in making a time machine in the Steins Gate line, though, since Yashio Kaito succeeds in becoming an astronaut.

Like you said, Rsaj, I think we will just have to patiently wait for the movie. It was just a question that popped up, and I figured I would throw it out there in case someone had noticed something I had missed in the materials already available in English.