All Quiet on the Western Front

This article is about the 1929 novel. For other uses, see All Quiet on the Western Front (disambiguation).

All Quiet on the Western Front

1st edition cover
Author	Erich Maria Remarque
Original title	Im Western nichts Neues
Translator	A. W. Wheen
Language	German
Genre	War novel
Publisher	Propyläen Verlag
Publication date	29 January 1929
Publication place	Germany
Published in English	Little, Brown and Company, 1929
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	295
ISBN	N/A

All Quiet on the Western Front (Template:Lang-de) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.

The novel was first published in November and December 1928 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung and in book form in late January 1929. The book and its sequel, The Road Back, were among the books banned and burned in Nazi Germany. It sold 2.5 million copies in twenty-five languages in its first eighteen months in print.

In 1930, the book was adapted as an Oscar-winning film of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone.

Title and translation

The 1930 English translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen gives the title as All Quiet on the Western Front. The literal translation of "Im Westen nichts Neues" is "Nothing New in the West," with "West" being the war front; the phrase refers to the contents of routine dispatches sent by the German Army.

Brian Murdoch's 1993 translation would render the phrase as "there was nothing new to report on the western front" within the narrative. Explaining his retention of the original book-title, he says:

Although it does not match the German exactly, Wheen's title has justly become part of the English language and is retained here with gratitude.

The phrase "all quiet on the western front" later became popular slang for lack of action (in reference to the Phoney War in World War II's Western Front).

Plot summary

The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, a soldier who—urged on by his school teacher—joins the German army shortly after the start of World War I. Bäumer arrives at the Western Front with his friends (Tjaden, Müller, Kropp and a number of other characters). There they meet Stanislaus Katczinsky, an older soldier, nicknamed Kat, who becomes Paul's mentor. While fighting at the front, Bäumer and his comrades have to engage in frequent battles and endure the dangerous and often squalid conditions of warfare.

The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery, but rather gives a view of the conditions in which the soldiers find themselves. The monotony between battles, the constant threat of artillery fire, the struggle to find food, the lack of training of replacement troops (meaning less chances of survival), and the overarching role of random chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers are described in detail. The battles fought here have no names and seem to have little overall significance, except for the impending possibility of injury or death for Bäumer and his comrades. Only pitifully small pieces of land are gained, which are often lost again later. Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally drained and shaken. "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."

Paul's visit on leave to his home highlights the cost of the war on his psyche. The town has not changed since he went off to war; however, he finds that he does "not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world." He feels disconnected from most of the townspeople. His father asks him "stupid and distressing" questions about his war experiences, not understanding "that a man cannot talk of such things." An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and advancing to Paris, while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture. Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender, yet restrained relationship. The night before he is to return from leave, he stays up with her, exchanging small expressions of love and concern for each other. He thinks to himself, "Ah! Mother, Mother! How can it be that I must part from you? Here I sit and there you are lying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it." In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave."

Paul feels glad to be reunited with his comrades. Soon after, he volunteers to go on a patrol and kills a man for the first time in hand-to-hand combat. He watches the man die, in pain for hours. He feels remorse and asks forgiveness from the man's corpse. He is devastated and later confesses to Kat and Albert, who try to comfort him. They are then sent on what Paul calls a "good job." They must guard a village that is being shelled too heavily. The men enjoy themselves but while evacuating the villagers, Paul and Albert are wounded.

They recuperate in a Catholic hospital and Paul returns to active duty.

By now, the war is nearing its end and the German Army is retreating. In despair, Paul watches as his friends fall one by one. It is the death of Kat that eventually makes Paul careless about living. In the final chapter, he comments that peace is coming soon, but he does not see the future as bright and shining with hope. Paul feels that he has no aims left in life and that their generation will be different and misunderstood.

Paul Bäumer dies on an otherwise uneventful day near the end of the war. His face has "an expression of calm, as though almost glad that the end had come."

Themes

One of the major themes of the novel is the difficulty of soldiers to revert to civilian life after having experienced extreme combat situations. When on leave from the front, Paul feels strongly isolated from his family and removed from daily life. Another topic concerns how soldiers' lives are put at risk by their commanding officers who seem unaware of the trauma of their charges.

Major characters

Cover of first English language edition. The design is based upon a German war bonds poster by Fritz Erler.

Paul Bäumer

Paul Bäumer is the main character and narrator. At 19 years of age Paul enlists in the German Army and is deployed to the Western Front where he experiences the severe psychological and physical effects of the war.

Before the War, Paul was a creative, sensitive, and passionate person, writing poems and having a clear love for his family, but as the war changed his attitude and personality, poems become something Paul cannot remember having any link to, and he learns to disconnect himself from his feeling, feels he can tell no one about his experiences, and feels like an outsider where his family are concerned.

By the end of the book, Paul realizes that he no longer knows what to do with himself and decides that he has nothing more to lose. The war appears to have snuffed out his hopes and dreams, which he feels he can never regain.

Albert Kropp

Kropp was in Paul's class at school and is described as the clearest thinker of the group. Kropp is wounded towards the end of the novel and undergoes an amputation. Both he and Bäumer end up spending time in a Roman Catholic hospital together, Bäumer suffering from shrapnel wounds to the leg and arm. Though Kropp initially plans to commit suicide if he requires an amputation, the book suggests he postponed suicide because of the strength of military camaraderie. Kropp and Bäumer part ways when Bäumer is recalled to his regiment after recovering. Paul comments that saying farewell was "very hard, but it is something a soldier learns to deal with."

Haie Westhus

Haie is described as being tall and strong, and a peat-digger by profession. Overall, his size and behavior make him seem older and more mature than Paul, yet he is the same age as Paul and his school-friends (roughly 19 at the start of the book). Haie also has a good sense of humor. During combat, he is injured in his back, fatally (see Chapter 6) — the resulting wound is large enough for Paul to see Haie's breathing lung when Himmelstoss carries him to safety.

Müller

Müller is about 19 years of age, and one of Bäumer's classmates, when he also joins the German army as a volunteer to go to the war. Carrying his old school books with him to the battlefield, he constantly reminds himself of the importance of learning and education. Even while under enemy fire, he "mutters propositions in physics". He became interested in Kemmerich's boots and inherits them when Kemmerich dies early in the novel. He is killed later in the book after being shot point-blank in the stomach with a flare gun. As he was dying "quite conscious and in terrible pain", he gave his boots which he inherited from Kemmerich to Paul.

Stanislaus Katczinsky

Also known as Kat, he has the most positive influence on Paul and his comrades on the battlefield. Katczinsky was a cobbler in civilian life; he is older than Paul Bäumer and his comrades, about 40 years old, and serves as their leadership figure. He also represents a literary model highlighting the differences between the younger and older soldiers. While the older men have already had a life of professional and personal experience before the war, Bäumer and the men of his age have had little life experience or time for personal growth.

Kat is also well known for his ability to scavenge nearly any item needed, above all, food. At one point he secures four tins of lobster. Bäumer describes Kat as possessing a sixth sense. One night, Bäumer along with a group of other soldiers are holed up in a factory with neither rations nor comfortable bedding. Katczinsky leaves for a short while, returning with straw to put over the bare wires of the beds. Later, to feed the hungry men, Kat brings bread, a bag of horse meat, a lump of fat, a pinch of salt and a pan in which to cook the food.

Kat is hit by shrapnel at the end of the story, leaving him with a smashed shin. Paul carries him back to camp on his back, only to discover upon their arrival that a stray splinter had hit Kat in the back of the head and killed him on the way. He is thus the last of Paul's close friends to die in battle. It is Kat's death that eventually makes Bäumer careless whether he survives the war or not, but that he can face the rest of his life without fear. "Let the months and the years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear."

Tjaden

One of Bäumer's non-schoolmate friends. Before the war Tjaden was a locksmith. A big eater with a grudge against the former postman-turned corporal Himmelstoss (thanks to his strict 'disciplinary actions'), though, manages to forgive him later in the book. Throughout the book, Paul frequently remarks on how much of an eater he is, yet somehow manages to stay as "thin as a rake." Tjaden appears as a well-liked school teacher in the sequel, The Road Back, but it is unclear whether he is the same person as in the prequel.

Minor characters

Kantorek

Kantorek was the schoolmaster of Paul and his friends, including Kropp, Leer, and Müller. Behaving "in a way that cost [him] nothing," Kantorek is a strong supporter of the war and encourages Bäumer and other students in his class to join the war effort. Among twenty enlistees was Joseph Behm, the first of the class to die in battle. In an example of tragic irony, Behm was the only one who did not want to enter the war. Kantorek is a hypocrite, urging the young men he teaches to fight in the name of patriotism, while not voluntarily enlisting himself. In a twist of fate, Kantorek is later called up as a soldier as well. He very reluctantly joins the ranks of his former students, only to be grilled and taunted by Mittelstädt, one of the students he had earlier persuaded to enlist.

Leer

Leer is a soldier in Bäumer's company, and one of his classmates. He is very popular with women; when he and his comrades meet three French women, he is the first to seduce one of them. Bäumer describes Leer's ability to attract women by saying "Leer is an old hand at the game". In chapter 11, Leer is hit by a shell fragment, which also hits Bertinck. The shrapnel tears open Leer's hip, causing him to bleed to death quickly. His death causes Paul to ask himself, "What use is it to him now that he was such a good mathematician in school?"

Bertinck

Lieutenant Bertinck is the leader of Bäumer's company. His men have a great respect for him, and Bertinck has great respect for his men. He permits them to eat the rations of the men that had been killed in action, standing up to the chef who would only allow them their allotted share. Bertinck is genuinely despondent when he learns that few of his men had survived an engagement. When he and the other characters are trapped in a trench under heavy attack, Bertinck, who has been injured in the firefight, spots a flamethrower team advancing on them. He gets out of cover and takes aim on the flamethrower but misses, and gets hits by enemy fire. With his next shot he kills the flamethrower, and immediately afterwards an enemy shell explodes on his position blowing off his chin. The same explosion also fatally wounds Leer.

Himmelstoss

Himmelstoss was a post-man before enlisting in the war. He is a power-hungry corporal with special contempt for Paul and his friends, taking sadistic pleasure in punishing the minor infractions of his trainees during their basic training in preparation for their deployment. However, Bäumer and his comrades have a chance to get back at Himmelstoss, mercilessly whipping him on the night before they board trains to go to the front. Himmelstoss later joins them at the front, revealing himself as a coward who shirks his duties for fear of getting hurt or killed, and pretends to be wounded because of a scratch on his face. Bäumer beats him and when a lieutenant comes along looking for men for a trench charge, Himmelstoss joins and leads the charge. He carries Haie Westhus' body to Bäumer after he is fatally wounded. Matured and repentant through his experiences Himmelstoss later asks for forgiveness from his previous charges. As he becomes the new staff cook, to prove his friendship he secures two pounds of sugar for Bäumer and half a pound of butter for Tjaden.

Detering

Detering was a farmer who loved his wife and farm and constantly longed to return to them. He is especially fond of horses and is angered when seeing them used in combat. He says, "It is of the vilest baseness to use horses in the war," when the group hears several wounded horses writhe and scream for a long time before dying. He tries to shoot them to put them out of misery, but is stopped by Kat. He is driven to desert when he sees a cherry blossom, which reminds him of home too much and inspires him to leave. He is found by military police and court-martialled, and is never heard of again.

Josef Hamacher

Hamacher is a patient at the Catholic hospital where Paul and Albert Kropp are temporarily stationed. He has an intimate knowledge of the workings of the hospital. He also has a "shooting license," certifying him as sporadically not responsible for his actions due to a head wound, though he is clearly quite sane and exploiting his license so he can stay in the hospital and away from the war as long as possible.

Franz Kemmerich

Kemmerich had enlisted in the army for WWI along with his best friend and classmate, Bäumer. Kemmerich is shot in the leg early in the story; his injured leg had to be amputated, and he dies shortly after. In anticipation of Kemmerich's imminent death, Müller was eager to get his boots. While in the hospital, someone stole Kemmerich's watch from him, causing him great distress, prompting him to ask about his watch every time his friends came to visit him in the hospital.

Joseph Behm

A student in Paul's class. Behm was the only student that was not quickly influenced by Kantorek's patriotism to join the war. Eventually, due to pressure from friends and Kantorek, he joins the war. He is the first of Paul's friends to die.: He is blinded in no man's land and cut down by enemy fire.

Adaptations

Film

Main article: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film)

In 1930, an American film of the novel was made, directed by Lewis Milestone. The screenplay was by Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews, C. Gardner Sullivan, with uncredited work by Walter Anthony and Milestone. It stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 for its producer Carl Laemmle Jr., and an Academy Award for Directing for Lewis Milestone. It was the first all-talking non-musical film to win the Best Picture Oscar. It also received two further nominations: Best Cinematography, for Arthur Edeson, and Best Writing Achievement for Abbott, Anderson and Andrews.

In June 2009, an announcement was made that All Quiet on the Western Front will be remade. The cast, crew, and director will be announced before the film's shoot in late 2010. The remake is scheduled for release sometime in 2012 with Daniel Radcliffe starring as Bäumer.

TV film

Main article: All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film)

In 1979, the film was remade for CBS television by Delbert Mann, starring Richard Thomas of The Waltons as Paul Bäumer and Ernest Borgnine as Kat. Although filmed in color, instead of black and white as the earlier 1930 film adaptation was, the wasted and desolated landscapes and environment are very effectively conveyed. An overall element of bleakness prevails throughout.

Radio

On November 9, 2008, a radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 . It starred Robert Lonsdale as Paul Bäumer and Shannon Graney as Katczinsky. It was dramatised by Dave Sheasby and directed by David Hunter..

Music

Elton John's 1982 album, Jump Up! features the song, "All Quiet On The Western Front" (written by Elton and Bernie Taupin). The song is a sorrowful rendition of the novel's story ("It's gone all quiet on the Western Front / Male Angels sigh / ghosts in a flooded trench / As Germany dies").

Theatre

In 2009 Nottingham Playhouse commissioned a play of the book by Robin Kingsland prior to a UK Tour.

See also

• Bildungsroman

External links

• CliffsNotes
• Spark Notes
• All Quiet on the Western Front study guide, themes, quotes, literary devices, multimedia, teacher resources