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* TragicAidsStory: [[spoiler:Corinna]], the Lorbach aunt with the HighTurnoverRate in regard of partners, has to bring her family the news that she caught HIV on the Christmas dinner table. While the Lorbachs treat her with compassion and offer her support, the Geschners immediately start reducing her to her condition. [[spoiler:The DVB regime imprisons her in a special labor camp for that, where she is implied to die of AIDS.]]
to:
* TragicAidsStory: [[spoiler:Corinna]], the Lorbach aunt with the HighTurnoverRate in regard of partners, has to bring her family the news that she caught HIV on the while they are all having Christmas dinner table. together. While the Lorbachs treat her with compassion and offer her support, the Geschners immediately start reducing to reduce her to her condition. [[spoiler:The DVB regime imprisons her in a special labor camp for that, where she is implied to die of AIDS.]]
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* HateCrimesAreASpecialKindOfEvil: As a book centered around the rise of a new Nazi regime in Germany, this is of course one of the aesops. Early in the book, we see Jirgalem beaten up in open daylight by racist thugs whose dialect identifies them as not from Kassel (where the main plot is set), but having traveled all the way from the Northern German coast just to have more People of Color to harm; later, he can't even appear on the streets safely. [[spoiler:Rieke]] is ReleasedToElsewhere as part of a new genocide against Germany's disabled population, causing her family horrible grief - what means, the family members who really love and accept her, not the family member who gladly sent her to the so-called "nursing home" and is implied to have known better.
* JesusWasWayCool: Discussed. Opinion of an old friend of Gesa, who is active in [[spoiler:a LaResistance network based in]] a Catholic church. He views the experience as renewing for his Christian faith, because since then, he learned to see Jesus as a friend who knows human struggles, especially human fears, and lived himself under an oppressive government.
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* MostWritersAreWriters: Gesa's father is an author and left-wing publisher who becomes a journalist and finally a political defector. The mother owns a book shop until it has to be closed due to the Doldrums.
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* MostWritersAreWriters: Gesa's father is an author and left-wing publisher who becomes a journalist and [[spoiler:and finally a political defector.defector]]. The mother owns a book shop until it has to be closed due to the Doldrums.
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* PuttingOnTheReich: The DVB does this deliberately, viewing the Third Reich as the most glorious age of German history and wanting to bring it back. They end it quite soon due to Schlott's own order.
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* PuttingOnTheReich: The DVB does this deliberately, viewing the Third Reich as the most glorious age of German history and wanting to bring it back. They Ultimately subverted, since they end it quite soon due to Schlott's own order.order.
* PrisonerPerformance: Inside the labor camp for the HIV positive, prisoners founded a theater group. The guards allow them to do it since they are dying people anyway, and they even produce and perform satire - said to be their most successful shows.
* PrisonerPerformance: Inside the labor camp for the HIV positive, prisoners founded a theater group. The guards allow them to do it since they are dying people anyway, and they even produce and perform satire - said to be their most successful shows.
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* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees. Also her family attempts this, but only her father goes through with it in the end.
to:
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees. Also her family attempts this, but only her father goes through with it in the end. This also applies to the whole Jewish community of Germany, who read the signs of the times right collectively and left early enough not to land on the DVB's official hit list.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: After visiting their aunt Corinna in the labor camp, Gesa's mom is so messed up emotionally during driving that she isn't watching the traffic. First sentence of the following chapter: [[spoiler:Mom and Grandma were already buried when Gesa was released from hospital.]]
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** [[spoiler:Jirgalem.]] Artsy NiceGuy who writes and sings his own songs, excellent grades and wants to become a doctor to help people, charismatic and beloved by his family and many, many other people - then he falls victim to persecution under the new Nazi government for being black. So many potential is wasted when he [[spoiler:is finally past the DespairEventHorizon and DrivenToSuicide]]...
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** [[spoiler:Jirgalem.]] Artsy NiceGuy who writes and sings his own songs, excellent grades and wants to become a doctor to help people, charismatic and beloved by his family and many, many other people - then he falls victim to persecution under the new Nazi government for being black. So many much potential is wasted when he [[spoiler:is finally past the DespairEventHorizon and DrivenToSuicide]]...
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* TragicAidsStory: [[spoiler:Corinna]], the Lorbach aunt with the HighTurnoverRate in regard of partners, has to bring her family the news that she caught HIV on the Christmas dinner table. While the Lorbachs treat her with compassion and offer her support, the Geschners immediately start reducing her to her condition. [[spoiler:The DVB regime imprisons her in a special labor camp for that, where she is implied to die of AIDS.]]
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* CapitalismIsBad: The narrative draws strong connections between rich capitalists and the new Nazi government. It's clear that the book wants to say "Capitalism makes you evil.". Capitalists are said to usually support the DVB openly and honestly, and the DVB supporters in the social circle of the Lorbach family happen to own a textile factory that produces most of its products under grueling conditions in Bangladesh and looks down on poorer people.
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* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth:
** [[spoiler:Jirgalem.]] Artsy NiceGuy who writes and sings his own songs, excellent grades and wants to become a doctor to help people, charismatic and beloved by his family and many, many other people - then he falls victim to persecution under the new Nazi government for being black. So many potential is wasted when he [[spoiler:is finally past the DespairEventHorizon and DrivenToSuicide]]...
** Also [[spoiler:Rieke.]] Super nice and friendly, always sunny soul who was always happy and confident although she lived with a disability - but deemed worthless by the new regime and murdered.
** [[spoiler:Jirgalem.]] Artsy NiceGuy who writes and sings his own songs, excellent grades and wants to become a doctor to help people, charismatic and beloved by his family and many, many other people - then he falls victim to persecution under the new Nazi government for being black. So many potential is wasted when he [[spoiler:is finally past the DespairEventHorizon and DrivenToSuicide]]...
** Also [[spoiler:Rieke.]] Super nice and friendly, always sunny soul who was always happy and confident although she lived with a disability - but deemed worthless by the new regime and murdered.
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* GenreSavvy/PragmaticVillainy:
to:
* GenreSavvy/PragmaticVillainy: GenreSavvy / PragmaticVillainy:
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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Opi Geschner’s right-wing extremist worldview is seemingly shared by no one else in the Lorbach family as long as he is alive. His wife behaves ambiguously.
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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: ZeroPercentApprovalRating:
** Opi Geschner’s right-wing extremist worldview is seemingly shared by no one else in the Lorbach family as long as he is alive. His wife behaves ambiguously.
** Subverted with Germany in the eyes of the world. While it is first said that the public in foreign countries would be outraged about the developments in Germany and the country loses all its friends on the international stage, the last chapters imply that a similar system to the Schlott dictatorship seems like a solution for many people there now too...
** Opi Geschner’s right-wing extremist worldview is seemingly shared by no one else in the Lorbach family as long as he is alive. His wife behaves ambiguously.
** Subverted with Germany in the eyes of the world. While it is first said that the public in foreign countries would be outraged about the developments in Germany and the country loses all its friends on the international stage, the last chapters imply that a similar system to the Schlott dictatorship seems like a solution for many people there now too...
* CorruptChurch: Played straight for the Catholic Church's clergy, who is said to have submitted to the Schlott dictatorship. Inverted for many believers, [[spoiler:who prove to be a beacon of LaResistance]].
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Omi Geschner questions her daughter Ingrid Lorbach about her fears regarding the DVB, since she won't think about abortions at her age anymore and is also neither a PoC nor queer nor a Muslim nor disabled and also altogether a quite upstanding citizen. She answers that she isn't worrying about herself but for everyone who is one of the latter. Omi Geschner doesn't understand why anyone isn't ItsAllAboutMe.
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* GenreSavvy:
to:
* GenreSavvy: GenreSavvy/PragmaticVillainy:
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** The regime also doesn't practice ReleasedToElsewhere, at least not in regard of ethnic Germans (in regard of non-ethnic Germans anyway). Several ethnic Germans who land in reindoctrination camps come back alive, but successfully reindoctrinated.
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** The regime also doesn't practice ReleasedToElsewhere, at least not in regard of healthy ethnic Germans (in regard of sick and/or non-ethnic Germans anyway). Several ethnic Germans who land in reindoctrination camps come back alive, but successfully reindoctrinated.
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* NationalAnthem: A new one is introduced in Germany under the DVB. The trope is also discussed in a music lesson in which the new anthem is introduced, with Gesa saying that a national anthem isn’t a necessity.
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* NationalAnthem: A new one is introduced in Germany under the DVB. The trope is also discussed in a music lesson in which the new anthem is introduced, with Gesa saying that a national anthem isn’t a necessity.necessity, and that using the quite humble third stanza of the "Chant of the Germans" was better.
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* ProperlyParanoid: The Lorbach family’s reaction to the rise of the DVB.
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* ProperlyParanoid: The Lorbach family’s reaction to the rise of the DVB.DVB shows to be this.
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* ReleasedToElsewhere: The DVB frames the mass murder [[spoiler:of disabled children]] as this, similar to the real-life Nazi regime.
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* ReleasedToElsewhere: The DVB frames the mass murder [[spoiler:of disabled children]] as like this, similar to the real-life Nazi regime.
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* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees.
to:
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees. Also her family attempts this, but only her father goes through with it in the end.
* SocietyIsToBlame: The common reaction to [[spoiler:the Black Guards burning down a bunch of refugee homes and killing several hundreds on them in the process]]. Deconstructed, since it is shown how everyone would have to blame themselves - any society is made up of everyone living in it.
* SocietyIsToBlame: The common reaction to [[spoiler:the Black Guards burning down a bunch of refugee homes and killing several hundreds on them in the process]]. Deconstructed, since it is shown how everyone would have to blame themselves - any society is made up of everyone living in it.
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* CoolOldGuy: Opi Jupp Lorbach, who lives in a great house, loves all members of his family and has two dogs. He also takes in a two-digit number of refugees after the local refugee home is burnt down by Black Guards and hides Jirgalem after his escape.
to:
* ClotheslineStealing: Jirgalem steals drying clothes from a line [[spoiler:to tarn himself when escaping his deportation]].
* CoolOldGuy: Opi Jupp Lorbach, who lives in a great house, loves all members of his family and has two Spitz dogs. He also takes in a two-digit number of refugees after the local refugee home is burnt down by Black Guards and hides Jirgalem after his escape.
* CoolOldGuy: Opi Jupp Lorbach, who lives in a great house, loves all members of his family and has two Spitz dogs. He also takes in a two-digit number of refugees after the local refugee home is burnt down by Black Guards and hides Jirgalem after his escape.
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* GenreSavvy: The DVB stops PuttingOnTheReich quite soon, knowing that it will make them Obviously Evil and drive too many against them.
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* GenreSavvy: GenreSavvy:
** The DVB stops PuttingOnTheReich quite soon, knowing that it will make themObviously Evil ObviouslyEvil and drive too many against them.them.
** The regime also doesn't practice ReleasedToElsewhere, at least not in regard of ethnic Germans (in regard of non-ethnic Germans anyway). Several ethnic Germans who land in reindoctrination camps come back alive, but successfully reindoctrinated.
** They are also quite fond of environmental policies, punishing crimes against the environment with prison at minimum.
** The DVB stops PuttingOnTheReich quite soon, knowing that it will make them
** The regime also doesn't practice ReleasedToElsewhere, at least not in regard of ethnic Germans (in regard of non-ethnic Germans anyway). Several ethnic Germans who land in reindoctrination camps come back alive, but successfully reindoctrinated.
** They are also quite fond of environmental policies, punishing crimes against the environment with prison at minimum.
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* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler:Rike, Gesa’s disabled sister, is impliedly murdered together with the rest of her Special Needs School class.]]
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* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler:Rike, Gesa’s disabled sister, is impliedly implicitly murdered together with the rest of her Special Needs School class.]]
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* AddictionDisplacement: Invoked by the DVB to cure drug addicts. They change their addiction to supporting the regime.
* AddledAddict: The son of a neighbor of the Lorbach family is described to be one. This is ended in one of the reeducation camps.
* AddledAddict: The son of a neighbor of the Lorbach family is described to be one. This is ended in one of the reeducation camps.
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* DemocracyIsFlawed: The Doldrums show it in vibrant colors. The government totally neglects doing something about it. Nevertheless, autocracy under Schlott is the really bad thing.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jirgalem crosses it after his successful escape from a deportation transport when he realizes that it means no freedom for him besides being back home.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jirgalem crosses it after his successful escape from a deportation transport when he realizes that it means no freedom for him besides being back home.
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* DemocracyIsFlawed: The Doldrums show it in vibrant colors. The government totally neglects doing something about it.it, and is far too busy bickering with each other. Nevertheless, autocracy under Schlott is the really bad thing.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jirgalem crosses itafter [[spoiler:after his successful escape from a deportation transport transport]] when he realizes that it means no freedom for him besides being back home.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jirgalem crosses it
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* FaceHeelTurn: Subverted. Ulf grows interested with the DVB and their youth organization, but with the help of his sister Gesa’s speech, he sees through their vice in the end and stands with her.
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* FaceHeelTurn: Subverted. Ulf grows interested with the DVB and their youth organization, but with [[spoiler:with the help of his sister Gesa’s speech, he sees through their vice in the end and stands with her.her]].
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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: How do Gesa and Opi Jupp find out that something is in fact wrong with the Special Needs Housing where Rike is forced to live now? She, known by them as a calm, cheerful and friendly person, is described to behave like a {{Jerkass}} towards everyone there.
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* BlatantLies: The Lorbach family is told that their youngest sister Rieke died of heart failure while in special needs housing. They immediately see that this must be a lie, due to the resemblance to the Aktion T4.
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* BlatantLies: The [[spoiler:The Lorbach family is told that their youngest sister Rieke child Rike died of heart failure while in special needs housing. They immediately see that this must be a lie, due to the resemblance to the Aktion T4.]]
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* BuryYourDisabled: Rike, Gesa’s disabled sister, is impliedly murdered together with the rest of her Special Needs School class.
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* BuryYourDisabled: Rike, [[spoiler:Rike, Gesa’s disabled sister, is impliedly murdered together with the rest of her Special Needs School class.]]
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* DrivenToSuicide: Jirgalem, after going through too much.
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* DrivenToSuicide: Jirgalem, [[spoiler:Jirgalem, after going through too much.]]
* {{Dystopia}}: Germany under Schlott is pretty much one: land in death camps for being born with the wrong skin color, with a not fully-functioning body or mind or as a member of the wrong people, get arrested for your sexuality or will-broken in a reeducation camp when you aren't worshiping the GloriousLeader. And everything surrounded by a large, massive wall.
* {{Dystopia}}: Germany under Schlott is pretty much one: land in death camps for being born with the wrong skin color, with a not fully-functioning body or mind or as a member of the wrong people, get arrested for your sexuality or will-broken in a reeducation camp when you aren't worshiping the GloriousLeader. And everything surrounded by a large, massive wall.
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After an immigration crisis and an economic recession that was euphemized as the “Doldrums” in the media, Gesa Lorbach, a teenage girl from Kassel, has to witness the rise of a new right-wing extremist dictatorship in Germany. People of Color, queer people, people with disabilities, Muslims and of course Jews suddenly aren’t safe anymore, and speaking out against the regime lands you in a reeducation camp. Losing more and more people to it, she wants to resist…but how?
to:
After an immigration crisis and an economic recession that was euphemized as the “Doldrums” in the media, Gesa Lorbach, a teenage girl from Kassel, has to witness the rise of a new right-wing extremist dictatorship in Germany. People of Color, queer people, people with disabilities, Muslims and of course Jews suddenly aren’t safe anymore, and speaking out against the regime lands you in a reeducation camp. Problematic for the Lorbach family, since their oldest son Jirgalem was adopted from Ethiopia, their father is a passionate left-winger and their youngest daughter Rike has Down syndrome. Losing more and more people to it, she wants to resist…but how?
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* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Downplayed. Why it is usually quite clear who is good and who is evil, there are also shades of grey.
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* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Downplayed. Why While it is usually quite clear who is good and who is evil, there are also shades of grey.
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* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Downplayed. Why it is usually quite clear who is good and who is evil, there are also shades of grey.
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* SlidingScaleOfBlackAndWhiteMorality: Surprisingly, fully used. There is everything from snow white to pitch black.
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''The Abyss'' (German original title: ''Der Schlund'') is a German dystopian novel by Gudrun Pausewang, the author of The Cloud. It was published in 1993.
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''The Abyss'' (German original title: ''Der Schlund'') is a German dystopian novel by Gudrun Pausewang, the author of The Cloud.''The Cloud'' and ''Literature/TheLastChildrenOfSchewenborn''. It was published in 1993.
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* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe. Jirgalem’s songs get darker and darker with him getting more and more desperate. The last one before his suicide is outright death-seeking.
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* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe. Jirgalem’s songs get darker and darker with him getting more and more desperate. The last one before [[spoiler:before his suicide suicide]] is outright death-seeking.
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* FauxAffablyEvil: The DVB’s Black Guard. On the one hand, they attack LGBTQ+ bars and disturb demonstrations against human rights violations to gain a fearsome reputation (our heroes just blatantly hate them), but on the other hand, they pose as nice and give the people things like large children’s parties, sports and singing festivals.
to:
* FauxAffablyEvil: The DVB’s Black Guard. On the one hand, they attack LGBTQ+ bars and disturb demonstrations against human rights violations to gain a fearsome reputation (our heroes just blatantly hate them), reputation, but on the other hand, they pose as nice and give the people things like large children’s parties, sports and singing festivals.
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* GreedyCapitalist: Bernd and Irene Geschner are portrayed as this, only concerned for their own well-being, doing business with what- and whoever is profitable at the moment and producing most of their products in Bangladesh while viewing their Bangladeshi workers (the same as non-whites in general) as sub-human.
to:
* GreedyCapitalist: CorruptCorporateExecutive: Bernd and Irene Geschner and his wife Irene are portrayed as this, only concerned for their own well-being, doing business with what- and whoever is profitable at the moment and producing most of their products in Bangladesh while viewing their Bangladeshi workers (the same as non-whites in general) as sub-human.
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* IronWoobie: Gesa becomes one during the course of the story. She decides to finally take her own stance due to having seen too much of the Schlott regime’s cruelty.
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* LeperColony: The camps for the HIV-positive.
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* ReleasedToElsewhere: The DVB frames the mass murder of disabled children as this, similar to the real-life Nazi regime.
to:
* ReleasedToElsewhere: The DVB frames the mass murder of [[spoiler:of disabled children children]] as this, similar to the real-life Nazi regime.
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* ScrewThisIAmOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees.
* SlidingScaleOfMorality: Surprisingly, fully used. There is everything from snow white to pitch black.
* SlidingScaleOfMorality: Surprisingly, fully used. There is everything from snow white to pitch black.
to:
* ScrewThisIAmOuttaHere: ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees.
*SlidingScaleOfMorality: SlidingScaleOfBlackAndWhiteMorality: Surprisingly, fully used. There is everything from snow white to pitch black.
*
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* TheWoobie: Many characters, but Gesa and Jirgalem both stand out.
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* VictoryMeansDeath: A villainous example. When hearing about the election victory of the DVB, Opi Geschner dies of a heart attack.
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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gudrun_pausewangder_schlund.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:When the abyss of evil opens again, what would you do?]]
''The Abyss'' (German original title: ''Der Schlund'') is a German dystopian novel by Gudrun Pausewang, the author of The Cloud. It was published in 1993.
After an immigration crisis and an economic recession that was euphemized as the “Doldrums” in the media, Gesa Lorbach, a teenage girl from Kassel, has to witness the rise of a new right-wing extremist dictatorship in Germany. People of Color, queer people, people with disabilities, Muslims and of course Jews suddenly aren’t safe anymore, and speaking out against the regime lands you in a reeducation camp. Losing more and more people to it, she wants to resist…but how?
----
!! ''The Abyss'' contains examples of:
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Opi Geschner’s right-wing extremist worldview is seemingly shared by no one else in the Lorbach family as long as he is alive. His wife behaves ambiguously.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The book was published in 1993. It is set around the year 2000.
* AnAesop: “History can always repeat. Stay awake.” And “You can be brave and stand up against evil too.”
* BeingGoodSucks: Standing up against Schlott gets you in grave danger, and most of the populace will think that you want the Doldrums back instead of that you want to be free.
* BigBad: Hitler {{Expy}} Mark Schlott, a former TV host who becomes the new Federal Chancellor of Germany.
* BlackShirt: The Black Guard is this a nearly literal way.
* BlatantLies: The Lorbach family is told that their youngest sister Rieke died of heart failure while in special needs housing. They immediately see that this must be a lie, due to the resemblance to the Aktion T4.
* BookBurning: One happens before the Kassel university, one of the books burnt is one written by Gesa’s father.
* BuryYourDisabled: Rike, Gesa’s disabled sister, is impliedly murdered together with the rest of her Special Needs School class.
* CampGay: Dennis Korf, the gay man the Lorbach family rents a room to, was a professional ballet dancer before the Doldrums, sells clothing for a living, uses strong-smelling perfume and is very proud of his expensive suits.
* ChristmasEpisode: Several Christmases in the Lorbach family are covered as narrative devices.
* CoolOldGuy: Opi Jupp Lorbach, who lives in a great house, loves all members of his family and has two dogs. He also takes in a two-digit number of refugees after the local refugee home is burnt down by Black Guards and hides Jirgalem after his escape.
* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe. Jirgalem’s songs get darker and darker with him getting more and more desperate. The last one before his suicide is outright death-seeking.
* CultOfPersonality: One is built around Schlott, with his picture in every classroom and media reports usually being about his good deeds.
* DayOfTheJackboot: Happens when the DVB is finally elected with an absolute majority result.
* DaysOfFuturePast: Germany develops in a way very similar to real-life Nazi Germany. A common criticism of the book is that the events are so similar to Nazi Germany’s history that it ceases to be exciting in any way – you can basically google what will happen next.
* DemocracyIsFlawed: The Doldrums show it in vibrant colors. The government totally neglects doing something about it. Nevertheless, autocracy under Schlott is the really bad thing.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jirgalem crosses it after his successful escape from a deportation transport when he realizes that it means no freedom for him besides being back home.
* DrivenToSuicide: Jirgalem, after going through too much.
* ElectionDayEpisode: There are several elections covered throughout the story.
* EvilLaugh: Mark Schlott laughs loudly in his victory speech.
* {{Expy}}: Mark Schlott is of course a Hitler expy, and his Black Guards are expies of the SA. Nevertheless there are also expies on the side of good: three young people, consisting of two university students and one of them’s younger sister, who try to shoot Schlott – expies of the Nazi-German resistance group Weiße Rose.
* FaceHeelTurn: Subverted. Ulf grows interested with the DVB and their youth organization, but with the help of his sister Gesa’s speech, he sees through their vice in the end and stands with her.
* FailedState: Narrowly averted. Germany nearly turns into one during the Doldrums, with the country being so impoverished that literal slums are cropping up in German cities.
* FairWeatherFriend: Jirgalem has a relationship with a white nurse, who leaves him for a white colleague as soon as an interracial relationship becomes too dangerous for her.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: The journalism job of Gesa’s father, who isn’t paid enough for his works as an author anymore. He hates it, but tries to make the best out of it.
* FascistButInefficient: Invoked. The DVB seems to be able to get the jobless people from the streets – but by forcing them to work in a project to wall up Germany’s borders, what will presumably not last long. Jirgalem manages to flee a deportation transport and to come back home without being discovered.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The DVB’s Black Guard. On the one hand, they attack LGBTQ+ bars and disturb demonstrations against human rights violations to gain a fearsome reputation (our heroes just blatantly hate them), but on the other hand, they pose as nice and give the people things like large children’s parties, sports and singing festivals.
* FictionalPoliticalParty: The Deutsche Front (DF, meaning “German Front”), later changing their name to Deutsche Volksbewegung (DVB, meaning “German People’s Movement”).
* FiveTokenBand: The Lorbach family, consisting of a vocal left-winger (Gesa’s father), a black man (Gesa’s adopted brother), a woman with AIDS (Gesa’s aunt) and a disabled person (Gesa’s younger sister, who has Down syndrome). And they also rent a room to a gay man.
* GenreSavvy: The DVB stops PuttingOnTheReich quite soon, knowing that it will make them Obviously Evil and drive too many against them.
* GreatEscape: Jirgalem escapes from a deportation transport that should bring him to an internment camp.
* GreedyCapitalist: Bernd and Irene Geschner are portrayed as this, only concerned for their own well-being, doing business with what- and whoever is profitable at the moment and producing most of their products in Bangladesh while viewing their Bangladeshi workers (the same as non-whites in general) as sub-human.
* HailToTheThief: Some students in Gesa’s music class (herself included) start ridiculing the over-the-top proud new national anthem of Germany as soon as they learn it.
* HappilyAdopted: Jirgalem is adopted and grew up very well in his adoptive family.
* HistoryRepeatsItself: The Nazi era history of Germany nearly duplicates to an extent that it ceases to be exciting since the next events are quite predictable.
* IHaveNoSon: An example with a grandparent. Opi Geschner doesn’t view his black adopted grandson Jirgalem and his disabled granddaughter Rike as his grandchildren and openly not even as members of the family.
* IntrepidReporter: What Gesa’s father becomes in his time as a journalist. He bravely reports about the vice of the DVB, what sadly barely gets anyone’s interest.
* IronWoobie: Gesa becomes one during the course of the story. She decides to finally take her own stance due to having seen too much of the Schlott regime’s cruelty.
* JoblessParentDrama: Both Lorbach parents lose their jobs due to the Doldrums. The father cannot work as a full-time author anymore, what makes him turn to journalism, and the mother’s bookshop has to be closed.
* LandslideElection: How Schlott is finally elected.
* LeperColony: The camps for the HIV-positive.
* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: The DVB takes some heavy advantage of the Doldrums.
* MostWritersAreWriters: Gesa’s father is an author and left-wing publisher who becomes a journalist and finally a political defector. The mother owns a book shop until it has to be closed due to the Doldrums.
* NationalAnthem: A new one is introduced in Germany under the DVB. The trope is also discussed in a music lesson in which the new anthem is introduced, with Gesa saying that a national anthem isn’t a necessity.
* NaziGrandpa: Opi Geschner. He is very open about his never-changed beliefs and his outbreaks are dreaded. In his opinion, the Nazi era was the Glory Days of Germany and it is mainly a question of race and ethnicity whether one can consider themselves German. He doesn’t consider his grandchildren Jirgalem and Rike as those due to him considering them undesirables.
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Gesa, who is a student at a Gymnasium (the German equivalent to high school, not the sports ground).
* PatrioticFervor: Invoked and enforced in-universe by the DVB.
* PoliceBrutality: The Black Guards attack people not in line violently.
* ProperlyParanoid: The Lorbach family’s reaction to the rise of the DVB.
* PuttingOnTheReich: The DVB does this deliberately, viewing the Third Reich as the most glorious age of German history and wanting to bring it back. They end it quite soon due to Schlott’s own order.
* RacistGrandma: Downplayed with Omi Geschner, who hold similar beliefs like her husband, but at least tries to hide them to keep the peace in the family.
* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:Gesa is arrested after her valedictorian speech and dragged out of the school auditorium in handcuffs. However, some in Gesa’s audience solidarize themselves with her, and her brother Ulf finally realizes Schlott’s true nature.]]
* ReleasedToElsewhere: The DVB frames the mass murder of disabled children as this, similar to the real-life Nazi regime.
* RunForTheBorder: Gesa’s father flees Germany after the rise of the new dictatorship, crossing the border to Czechia on foot through the woods at nighttime. The reason: He openly spoke out against the DVB, especially their Black Guard.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: The Lorbach family’s reaction towards the events around the Doldrums? Mainly fear regarding the fate of German democracy. Later, Gesa’s mother is offered a job as a secretary in her brother’s factory, but declines since her brother supports the DVB.
* ScrewThisIAmOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees.
* SlidingScaleOfMorality: Surprisingly, fully used. There is everything from snow white to pitch black.
* StarvingArtist: Gesa’s father starts to work as a journalist since his books aren’t profitable enough to make a living anymore.
* StartingANewLife: Subverted. Jirgalem tries this in the United States, but leaves quite soon since the States are similarly racist, implying an OppressiveStatesOfAmerica in the book.
* TheDictatorship: What Germany becomes again in the book.
* TheWoobie: Many characters, but Gesa and Jirgalem both stand out.
* ThoseWackyNazis: The DVB.
* {{Tyrannicide}}: An attempt of that is defied by Schlott’s bodyguards.
* VictoryMeansDeath: A villainous example. When hearing about the election victory of the DVB, Opi Geschner dies of a heart attack.
* WallsOfTyranny: Germany’s borders are walled up under the DVB – not just to force immigrants to get creative as hell, but also to make emigration far more difficult.
* WithUsOrAgainstUs: The DVB follows that idea, abolishing freedom of press and opinion.
* WretchedHive: Many German cities become that during the Doldrums, including literal slums. It is said to happen everywhere else in the world too.
* YouCannotKillAnIdea: Gesa leaves the scene with this thought in her head.
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[[caption-width-right:300:When the abyss of evil opens again, what would you do?]]
''The Abyss'' (German original title: ''Der Schlund'') is a German dystopian novel by Gudrun Pausewang, the author of The Cloud. It was published in 1993.
After an immigration crisis and an economic recession that was euphemized as the “Doldrums” in the media, Gesa Lorbach, a teenage girl from Kassel, has to witness the rise of a new right-wing extremist dictatorship in Germany. People of Color, queer people, people with disabilities, Muslims and of course Jews suddenly aren’t safe anymore, and speaking out against the regime lands you in a reeducation camp. Losing more and more people to it, she wants to resist…but how?
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!! ''The Abyss'' contains examples of:
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Opi Geschner’s right-wing extremist worldview is seemingly shared by no one else in the Lorbach family as long as he is alive. His wife behaves ambiguously.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The book was published in 1993. It is set around the year 2000.
* AnAesop: “History can always repeat. Stay awake.” And “You can be brave and stand up against evil too.”
* BeingGoodSucks: Standing up against Schlott gets you in grave danger, and most of the populace will think that you want the Doldrums back instead of that you want to be free.
* BigBad: Hitler {{Expy}} Mark Schlott, a former TV host who becomes the new Federal Chancellor of Germany.
* BlackShirt: The Black Guard is this a nearly literal way.
* BlatantLies: The Lorbach family is told that their youngest sister Rieke died of heart failure while in special needs housing. They immediately see that this must be a lie, due to the resemblance to the Aktion T4.
* BookBurning: One happens before the Kassel university, one of the books burnt is one written by Gesa’s father.
* BuryYourDisabled: Rike, Gesa’s disabled sister, is impliedly murdered together with the rest of her Special Needs School class.
* CampGay: Dennis Korf, the gay man the Lorbach family rents a room to, was a professional ballet dancer before the Doldrums, sells clothing for a living, uses strong-smelling perfume and is very proud of his expensive suits.
* ChristmasEpisode: Several Christmases in the Lorbach family are covered as narrative devices.
* CoolOldGuy: Opi Jupp Lorbach, who lives in a great house, loves all members of his family and has two dogs. He also takes in a two-digit number of refugees after the local refugee home is burnt down by Black Guards and hides Jirgalem after his escape.
* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe. Jirgalem’s songs get darker and darker with him getting more and more desperate. The last one before his suicide is outright death-seeking.
* CultOfPersonality: One is built around Schlott, with his picture in every classroom and media reports usually being about his good deeds.
* DayOfTheJackboot: Happens when the DVB is finally elected with an absolute majority result.
* DaysOfFuturePast: Germany develops in a way very similar to real-life Nazi Germany. A common criticism of the book is that the events are so similar to Nazi Germany’s history that it ceases to be exciting in any way – you can basically google what will happen next.
* DemocracyIsFlawed: The Doldrums show it in vibrant colors. The government totally neglects doing something about it. Nevertheless, autocracy under Schlott is the really bad thing.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jirgalem crosses it after his successful escape from a deportation transport when he realizes that it means no freedom for him besides being back home.
* DrivenToSuicide: Jirgalem, after going through too much.
* ElectionDayEpisode: There are several elections covered throughout the story.
* EvilLaugh: Mark Schlott laughs loudly in his victory speech.
* {{Expy}}: Mark Schlott is of course a Hitler expy, and his Black Guards are expies of the SA. Nevertheless there are also expies on the side of good: three young people, consisting of two university students and one of them’s younger sister, who try to shoot Schlott – expies of the Nazi-German resistance group Weiße Rose.
* FaceHeelTurn: Subverted. Ulf grows interested with the DVB and their youth organization, but with the help of his sister Gesa’s speech, he sees through their vice in the end and stands with her.
* FailedState: Narrowly averted. Germany nearly turns into one during the Doldrums, with the country being so impoverished that literal slums are cropping up in German cities.
* FairWeatherFriend: Jirgalem has a relationship with a white nurse, who leaves him for a white colleague as soon as an interracial relationship becomes too dangerous for her.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: The journalism job of Gesa’s father, who isn’t paid enough for his works as an author anymore. He hates it, but tries to make the best out of it.
* FascistButInefficient: Invoked. The DVB seems to be able to get the jobless people from the streets – but by forcing them to work in a project to wall up Germany’s borders, what will presumably not last long. Jirgalem manages to flee a deportation transport and to come back home without being discovered.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The DVB’s Black Guard. On the one hand, they attack LGBTQ+ bars and disturb demonstrations against human rights violations to gain a fearsome reputation (our heroes just blatantly hate them), but on the other hand, they pose as nice and give the people things like large children’s parties, sports and singing festivals.
* FictionalPoliticalParty: The Deutsche Front (DF, meaning “German Front”), later changing their name to Deutsche Volksbewegung (DVB, meaning “German People’s Movement”).
* FiveTokenBand: The Lorbach family, consisting of a vocal left-winger (Gesa’s father), a black man (Gesa’s adopted brother), a woman with AIDS (Gesa’s aunt) and a disabled person (Gesa’s younger sister, who has Down syndrome). And they also rent a room to a gay man.
* GenreSavvy: The DVB stops PuttingOnTheReich quite soon, knowing that it will make them Obviously Evil and drive too many against them.
* GreatEscape: Jirgalem escapes from a deportation transport that should bring him to an internment camp.
* GreedyCapitalist: Bernd and Irene Geschner are portrayed as this, only concerned for their own well-being, doing business with what- and whoever is profitable at the moment and producing most of their products in Bangladesh while viewing their Bangladeshi workers (the same as non-whites in general) as sub-human.
* HailToTheThief: Some students in Gesa’s music class (herself included) start ridiculing the over-the-top proud new national anthem of Germany as soon as they learn it.
* HappilyAdopted: Jirgalem is adopted and grew up very well in his adoptive family.
* HistoryRepeatsItself: The Nazi era history of Germany nearly duplicates to an extent that it ceases to be exciting since the next events are quite predictable.
* IHaveNoSon: An example with a grandparent. Opi Geschner doesn’t view his black adopted grandson Jirgalem and his disabled granddaughter Rike as his grandchildren and openly not even as members of the family.
* IntrepidReporter: What Gesa’s father becomes in his time as a journalist. He bravely reports about the vice of the DVB, what sadly barely gets anyone’s interest.
* IronWoobie: Gesa becomes one during the course of the story. She decides to finally take her own stance due to having seen too much of the Schlott regime’s cruelty.
* JoblessParentDrama: Both Lorbach parents lose their jobs due to the Doldrums. The father cannot work as a full-time author anymore, what makes him turn to journalism, and the mother’s bookshop has to be closed.
* LandslideElection: How Schlott is finally elected.
* LeperColony: The camps for the HIV-positive.
* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: The DVB takes some heavy advantage of the Doldrums.
* MostWritersAreWriters: Gesa’s father is an author and left-wing publisher who becomes a journalist and finally a political defector. The mother owns a book shop until it has to be closed due to the Doldrums.
* NationalAnthem: A new one is introduced in Germany under the DVB. The trope is also discussed in a music lesson in which the new anthem is introduced, with Gesa saying that a national anthem isn’t a necessity.
* NaziGrandpa: Opi Geschner. He is very open about his never-changed beliefs and his outbreaks are dreaded. In his opinion, the Nazi era was the Glory Days of Germany and it is mainly a question of race and ethnicity whether one can consider themselves German. He doesn’t consider his grandchildren Jirgalem and Rike as those due to him considering them undesirables.
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Gesa, who is a student at a Gymnasium (the German equivalent to high school, not the sports ground).
* PatrioticFervor: Invoked and enforced in-universe by the DVB.
* PoliceBrutality: The Black Guards attack people not in line violently.
* ProperlyParanoid: The Lorbach family’s reaction to the rise of the DVB.
* PuttingOnTheReich: The DVB does this deliberately, viewing the Third Reich as the most glorious age of German history and wanting to bring it back. They end it quite soon due to Schlott’s own order.
* RacistGrandma: Downplayed with Omi Geschner, who hold similar beliefs like her husband, but at least tries to hide them to keep the peace in the family.
* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:Gesa is arrested after her valedictorian speech and dragged out of the school auditorium in handcuffs. However, some in Gesa’s audience solidarize themselves with her, and her brother Ulf finally realizes Schlott’s true nature.]]
* ReleasedToElsewhere: The DVB frames the mass murder of disabled children as this, similar to the real-life Nazi regime.
* RunForTheBorder: Gesa’s father flees Germany after the rise of the new dictatorship, crossing the border to Czechia on foot through the woods at nighttime. The reason: He openly spoke out against the DVB, especially their Black Guard.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: The Lorbach family’s reaction towards the events around the Doldrums? Mainly fear regarding the fate of German democracy. Later, Gesa’s mother is offered a job as a secretary in her brother’s factory, but declines since her brother supports the DVB.
* ScrewThisIAmOuttaHere: Several classmates of Gesa leave Germany with their parents as political refugees.
* SlidingScaleOfMorality: Surprisingly, fully used. There is everything from snow white to pitch black.
* StarvingArtist: Gesa’s father starts to work as a journalist since his books aren’t profitable enough to make a living anymore.
* StartingANewLife: Subverted. Jirgalem tries this in the United States, but leaves quite soon since the States are similarly racist, implying an OppressiveStatesOfAmerica in the book.
* TheDictatorship: What Germany becomes again in the book.
* TheWoobie: Many characters, but Gesa and Jirgalem both stand out.
* ThoseWackyNazis: The DVB.
* {{Tyrannicide}}: An attempt of that is defied by Schlott’s bodyguards.
* VictoryMeansDeath: A villainous example. When hearing about the election victory of the DVB, Opi Geschner dies of a heart attack.
* WallsOfTyranny: Germany’s borders are walled up under the DVB – not just to force immigrants to get creative as hell, but also to make emigration far more difficult.
* WithUsOrAgainstUs: The DVB follows that idea, abolishing freedom of press and opinion.
* WretchedHive: Many German cities become that during the Doldrums, including literal slums. It is said to happen everywhere else in the world too.
* YouCannotKillAnIdea: Gesa leaves the scene with this thought in her head.
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