"In the night when the French threw the torch into my parents' home, they had predestined my fate."
- Joss
Joss oder der Preis der Freiheit (Joss or The Price of Freedom) is a historical anti-war novel for teenagers by German author Klaus Kordon.
During the Napoleonic Wars: Joss, who is only known by this nickname, grows up as a foundling in the northern German village Siebeneichen (translatable as Sevenoaks). His biological family is suspected to have died during a French town raid, and he was the only one of them who managed to escape. Found by the peasant couple Father Mewes and Mother Marie, he now lives as their son. Through the years he also finds several friends in the village; dreamy Woobie Jeppe and Fiery Redhead Girl Next Door Meicke, and also Shell-Shocked Veteran and now horse breeder Henning Struve, to whom he swears to avenge his family one day.Then, in the summer of 1813, a unit of the Lützow Freikorps camps in Siebeneichen for a night and offers young male villagers to join. Joss sees his moment for revenge and follows their call. But soon the war shows its true, nasty face. And around Leipzig, the infamous Battle of the Nations draws closer and closer…
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Jeppe’s father, who is beating his children and trying to raise them to become hardworking peasants by subjecting them to the hardest work possible.
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: After Joss leaves her for the Freikorps, Meicke starts dating and gets even engaged with Toni Stövesand, another village boy. Subverted, since she only did it to punish Joss for just leaving her.
- Ambiguously Human: Grotmudder Tattermusch, the elderly midwife of Siebeneichen, who lives alone in a forest cottage, knows a lot about healing herbs and seems to be able to see into the future and into the past. Joss also lampshades this, “in the perception of us children, she stayed a witch for a very long time.”
- Army of Thieves and Whores: The infantry of the Lützow Freikorps is like that. Joss states that many of them had no other reason to join the Freikorps than going into hiding “from the police, from his moneylenders or from the woman they had turned into a mother and didn’t want to marry now.”
- Author Filibuster: In an epilogue, Klaus Kordon explains the setting, and it is quite obvious that he believes that Napoleon was a real-life Evil Overlord.
- Berserk Button:
- Anything Napoleon-related for Pastor Rohrmoser. It is even the only time he ever sided with the pope.
- Grotmudder Tattermusch always flies of the handle when she witnesses someone being horrible to animals.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Jeppe is one, frequently dreaming himself into his own utopia to flee his horrible reality.
- Les Collaborateurs: The Lützow Freikorps has to watch out for them all the time, since the French offer large sums on the fighters' heads. During the Battle of the Nations, Joss' unit encounters one who lures them into a trap; Thies is killed thanks to this trope.
- Cool Horse: Hera, to Henning and Joss. Antonius, to Richard Gripp.
- Cultured Badass: Thomas Kelch, an artist who fights for the Lützow Freikorps and is frequently seen drawing. He joined the war effort to chronicle the conflict in his pictures later. Sad enough that it never happens.
- Dead Guy Junior: “Little Thies”, born in Siebeneichen in 1814.
- Dead Guy on Display: Happened to Henning's regiment leader, Major Friedrich von Schill. After he was killed in battle, his severed head was put on display by the French as a posthumous humiliation.
- Death by Childbirth: Jeppe’s mother, at his birth.
- Defiant to the End: The hussars of Major von Schill, Henning's old boss. They fought on, even after the official war against Napoleonic France was lost, and only fell in Stralsund, where they didn't go down without a bloody battle.
- Defiled Forever: Defied. In 1813, most believe in that trope, but Joss defies it for Gundel by making up a story of her having gotten married to Thies before the latter’s death.
- Disease Bleach: Happened to Richard Gripp after getting wounded in combat.
- Driven to Suicide: A Siebeneichen girl named Lotte, in a background story, drowned herself in the Lake Siebeneichen. The reason was fear of ostracization due to an illegitimate pregnancy.
- Drowning Unwanted Pets: Common practice in the early 19th century, and Meicke defies this for a litter of kittens at seven years of age.
- Family of Choice: Joss declares his true surname to be Marwick and Thies to be his brother. Also, Gundel is his sister-in-law for him in the end, and Thies jr. his nephew. He chooses them as his family to defy Defiled Forever for Gundel's sake.
- Fiery Redhead: Meicke. Also Rittmeister Rudolf Irritje, the first fighter of the Freikorps group who addresses Joss directly.
- Friend to All Living Things:
- Grotmudder Tattermusch. She is the local midwife in Siebeneichen, loves to help people with their medical issues (only requesting ryebread and milk as payment) and her ultimate Berserk Button is animal cruelty, even towards the ugly, disgusting ones like insects or stray dogs.
- This is also implied for Meicke, who loves animals and saves a litter of kittens from being drowned as a seven-year-old.
- Gentle Giant: Father Mewes, who could be easily mistaken for a hitman. Also Kasimir Schuba, a fisherman Joss and Thies encounter and stay with.
- Glorious Mother Russia: The Cossacks, Russian warriors who are very proud of their country, are portrayed in a positive light. In general, many characters like the Russians, mainly for finally turning the tide of the Napoleonic Wars for the Coalition's sake in 1812 (the time when Napoleon's army got their ass handed by Russian winter) and creating a chance for winning their freedom back.
- Good Shepherd: Pastor Rohrmoser, the pastor in Siebeneichen, is a downplayed example. He is described to be deeply compassionate to Joss, goodness in person and in general a good church leader. But there is one person he knows no forgiveness for: Napoleon Bonaparte, who also serves as his Berserk Button.
- Happily Married: Father Mewes and Mother Marie are implied to be this.
- It's Personal: For Joss, and several other Lützowers. Joss wants to avenge his family, Rudolf Irritje the defeat of Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, Konrad Kohlsaat a severe French looting that led to his infant son starving, and Burchard Voss the murder of his brother and gang-rape of his sister-in-law and his niece (plus the theft of all their jewelry).
- Thies Marwick is a subversion. For him, it is personal too, but mainly because of his concerns about a better future for Germany and Europe. The first step for him is to defeat Napoleon together.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Implied for Jeppe Jessen. Jeppe's mother died during his birth, and he is very lonely and the only good-natured member of his surviving family. He is said to be quite broken inside.
- Meaningful Funeral: The funeral of Theodor Körner and the three other fallen fighters in the fight near Gadebusch. Also Thies is buried in a mass grave on the battlefields around Leipzig. Nevertheless, the Russians still have a little funeral service for their fallen.
- Morton's Fork: Major von Schill was delivered to one: He would die by the hands of the French, who hated him as a defiant enemy, or be Court-martialed and sentenced to death by the Prussian army for renegading. He is killed during his hussars' Last Stand in the end.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Joss' later master and teacher, Hermann Navium from Camin, is a publisher and book merchant.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Most Freikorps fighters think like this. Their first loyalty is to the not-yet unified Germany, although they usually don’t have a good opinion of their royalty.
- Never Learned to Read: Joss didn't learn to read and write, since there is no school in Siebeneichen. Subverted later, when he learns it from Thies. Also Meicke and Jeppe learn from Joss himself later.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Lützow Freikorps is described as this.
- New Meat: Joss (peasant)
- The Mentor: Thies Marwick (law student)
- The Big Guy: Konrad Kohlsaat (blacksmith)
- The Leader: Major von Lützow (nobleman)
- The Heart: Theodor Körner (poet and playwright)
- Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Deconstructed. Joss views himself on a mission to avenge his family that was killed by Napoleonic troops, but has to make the experience that he is a far too small number to achieve anything really meaningful.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: What the French did to Joss’ previous hometown. His family died in the fire that means, the ones who were there beside himself).
- Revenge Is Not Justice: One of the main aesops of the novel.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: This is 1813, and most countries are still absolutist monarchies, so the royals need to do something; with different reception of their respective subjects. Nearly a whole chapter is given to a loving memory about the Prussian Queen Luise, who tried to ease the Peace of Tilsit in a personal talk with Napoleon, only to be rebuked. It is widely believed that this was the stress that caused her untimely demise.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Henning Struve is a downplayed example. Crippled and clearly traumatized, but still avid for revenge, winning the war and life in general.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Richard Gripp and Thies once reminisce about a fallen Freikorps comrade named August Renz, who was in fact a woman named Leonore Prochaska (a Real Life example of this trope). They remember her in admiration.
- Their First Time: Meicke and Joss have theirs on a meadow by Lake Siebeneichen after he comes back from war.
- War Is Hell: Well, where to begin with…first, it makes Joss an orphan and destroys his hometown, then, it kills the promising Warrior Poet Theodor Körner, three other Freikorps fighters and twelve French soldiers, bloody operations must happen and No Quarter is disturbingly common.
- Warrior Poet: Lieutenant Theodor Körner, who is an avid and able soldier frequently writing fresh patriotic poetry. Also composer of bloodthirsty soldier songs. He does this out of true love towards the fine arts, making him also a Cultured Badass.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Thies is subject to that kind of operation, and also Richard Gripp was this in the past (it gave him his Disease Bleach). Justified, since common practice in the setting.
- Wham Line: Gundel, after Joss goes back to the Nufer estate to inform her about Thies’ death: “Please don’t think bad of me, but…I’m with child!”
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Discussed several times. It is clarified that Napoleon didn't burn Joss' hometown himself, but some of his soldiers did, and are by this reason no better than Napoleon. Later Joss hesitates to kill a French soldier during the Battle of the Nations due to compassion with him.
- Where Are They Now: The last part of the book gives a summary of that. Joss becomes the apprentice of a book trader and moves to the next town with Meicke, and both will marry soon. Jeppe chose Walking the Earth as his way of life, and Petrus frequently changes home and trade. Gundel lives with Father Mewes and Mother Marie, will inherit their farm, and they raise Thies’ son together.
- World of Snark: The Lützowers, and also the Cossack unit Joss and his newfound friends join for the Battle of the Nations.
- You Killed My Father: Reason for Joss to take up weapons against Napoleonic France (whole family). And for Konrad Kohlsaat (youngest son) and Burchard Voss (brother).
- Younger Than They Look: Richard Gripp is in fact only middle-aged, but looks like an elderly man.
