All Quiet on the Western Front, hailed “the greatest war novel of all time,” is a novel published in 1929 about WW1 by Erich Maria Remarque, who fought in WW1 and was wounded five times, the last time severely. All Quiet on the Western Front is a literary triumph, for it expresses vividly the horrors of war and the trauma soldiers sustain from it.
All Quiet on the Western Front begins with the acknowledgement that it serves no political purpose, and that the only objective it has in mind is to communicate the horrors of war: “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Remarque then introduces the characters. The protagonist who narrates the story is Paul Baumer, who volunteered to fight in the war with the other young men in his community: “little Albert Kropp, the clearest thinker among us and therefore only a lance-corporal; Muller, who still carries his school textbooks with him, dreams of examinations, and during a bombardment mutters propositions in physics; Leer, who wears a full beard and has a preference for the girls from officers’ brothels” (3). Paul then remarks that all four of them were nineteen years and had volunteered for the war due to delusions of grandeur. He then continues to introduce characters, such as Tjaden, a slight locksmith “our own age, the biggest eater of the company,” Haie Westhus, “of the same age, a peat-digger,” Detering, a peasant who only thinks about his home and his wife, and “Stanislaus Katczinsky, the leader of our group, shrewd, cunning, and hard-bitten, forty years of age, with a face of the soil, blue eyes, bent shoulders, and a remarkable nose for dity weather, good food, and soft jobs” (3-4).
They then received letters from their family, and Paul recollected on the past, thinking of how his previous schoolmaster, Kantorek, had inspired the members of his community to join the war. Paul recollected that out of all the members of his community, only one person, Joseph Behm, “a plump, homely fellow,” gave any resistance (11). And even he had to give in at the end, for those who wouldn’t fight in the war would be labeled cowards and socially ostracized, leaving them little chance to do anything else. As for the war itself, “no one had the vaguest idea what we were in for” (11). After some time in war, Paul realized the foolishness of nationalism, saying that even though he loved his country, one’s death-throes were stronger in intensity. He then stated that those who volunteered and hated the war weren’t traitors, but people who could tell what was true from what was false. And when they examined the world around them, they realized their previous illusions had been shattered, and they “were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through” (13). One of the letters was from Kantorek, and he tried to inspire them by telling them that they were the “Iron Youth,” causing them to laugh hysterically, considering that when it came to their temperaments they were already mature and old.
One of the soldiers, Kemmerich, had his leg wounded, and was suffering from an intense infection, even after it was amputated. Paul remembered that when they left their town, Kemmerich was embarrassed because his mother wouldn’t stop crying, and she made Paul promise he would take care of him. Kemmerich gives some of the characters his possessions, including a pair of good boots, and dies. Corporal Himmelstoss, the leader of the No. 9 platoon, is introduced. He was the strictest disciplinarian in the army camp and felt well about it, seeing that he was “a small undersized fellow with a foxy, waxed moustache, who had seen twelve years’ service and was in civil life a postman” (23). He enjoys punishing people who show even a little defiance, and Paul notes that he was compelled to make Himmelstoss’s bed more than ten times, and each time Himmelstoss would find some small issue and order him to do it again. Katczinsky has a positive relationship with Paul, as Paul knows him as “Kat,” and is in close proximity to Paul during and between battles. The horrors of warfare are seen repeatedly in the battles which Paul participates in, and a large part of this horror is the lack of cover: “The fields are flat, the wood is too distant and dangerous - the only cover is the graveyard and the mounds. We stumble across in the dark … The dark goes mad. It heaves and raves. Darknesses blacker than the night rush on us with giant strides, over us and away. The flames of the explosions light up the graveyard” (66). In even more disturbing imagery, the graveyard received so much damage that coffins erupted from the ground, revealing their rotting contents. The nearby woods are leveled by the artillery, showing the damage war has on the natural world, and if that isn’t enough, a gas attack occurs. Paul remarks that “These first minutes with the mask decide between life and death: is it air-tight? I remember the awful sights in the hospital: the gas patients who in day-long suffocation cough up their burnt lungs in clots” (66).
Fortunately for Paul, his gas mask worked, and while the gas surrounded him and clouded his vision, it didn't enter his body. Kat was also fine, though they both felt discomfort from having to breathe in the same used air, which made them feel like they were suffocating. After the shelling and the gas attack, the graveyard was completely destroyed, as “Coffins and corpses lie strewn about. They have been killed once again; but each of them that was flung up saved one of us” (70-1). Although Paul and Kat survived relatively unscathed, one of their allies who was only a recruit didn't - his hips were converted by the artillery into “one mass of mince-meat and bone splinters. The joint had been hit. This lad won’t walk any more” (71). Kat and Paul decide to put him out of his misery, as the youngster will go through intolerable pain in the next few days before he dies: “The youngster will hardly survive the carrying, and at the most he will only last a few days. What he has gone through so far is nothing to what he’s in for till he dies. Now he is numb and feels nothing. In an hour he will become one screaming bundle of intolerable pain. Every day that he can live will be a howling torture” (72). Before they could put him down, other soldiers appeared, which would only prolong the suffering of the recruit. All in all, in the bombardment five were killed and eight wounded. Paul then reveals that two of those who died “lie in the upturned graves. We merely throw the earth in on them” (73).
Paul talks to his friends once he returns to the camp, and they ponder their future. When Paul asks what they could do when they go back home, Kropp replies that he doesn’t want to do anything since death awaits everyone, and that they probably wouldn’t survive the war. Albert made the opinion of the group clear when he stated that the war has ruined the participants, for it destroyed all their previous illusions and subjected them to some of the worst brutalities of humankind. Paul remarks that he is right, as “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly 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. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war” (87-8).
After some time, Paul remarks that the situation looked bad for the German side, as the artillery on the English side have been strengthened, as “There are at least four more batteries of nine-inch guns to the right of the farm, and behind the poplars they have put in trench mortars. Besides these they have brought up a number of those little French beasts with instantaneous fuses” (100). Furthermore, Paul noted that their own shells were inaccurate, as they kept landing back on their side and wounding people. Paul proceeds to remark that when it came to surviving trench warfare, luck was more important than skill, for skill couldn’t predict the future. That is, there is actually very little soldiers can do to ward off death. They could try to avoid projectiles by ducking or moving, but they couldn’t know where it would land. This in turn creates an atmosphere of helplessness, and is seen in Paul’s own experience: “A few months ago I was sitting in a dug-out playing skat; after a while I stood up and went to visit some friends in another dug-out. On my return nothing more was to be seen of the first one, it had been blown to pieces by a direct hit. I went back to the second and arrived just in time to lend a hand digging it out. In the interval it had been buried” (101). Paul then states that survival was a matter of chance, and that he should’ve been dead but got lucky. However, “No soldier outlives a thousand chances” (101).
As Paul rested underground, he could hear the sounds of artillery bombarding the trenches. There was nothing the German army could do except wait for it to end, and it is around this part of the text that the terrible living conditions of the soldiers were made apparent. That is, there were fleas and rats everywhere, and the rats are especially aggressive: “they are so fat-the kind we all call corpse-rats. They have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude tails” (102). The rats would do anything to get to the bread of the soldiers, and no matter what they would do, the rats would always get to them in the end. For recreation and for revenge, the soldiers cut off the parts of the bread which the rats had bitten and dumped them in the middle of the room. They would then get their spades to strike the rats once they appeared, and in this way they could get rid of a significant number of them: “Several times we repeat the process … They return no more. Nevertheless, before morning the remainder of the bread on the floor has been carried off. In the adjoining sector they attacked two large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them” (103).
Paul and the soldiers eventually emerged at night to attack the French after shooting at them with a machine gun. They easily recognized them, for their faces were distorted, and Paul saw a Frenchman “fall into a wire cradle. His body collapses, his hands remain suspended as though he were praying. Then his body drops clean away and only his hands with the stumps of his arms, shot off, now hang in the wire” (112-3). Paul remarks that they were animals, for they aren’t fighting for a side, but for their lives: “It is not against men that we fling our bombs” (113). The battle also proved a chance for them to retaliate for the feeling of helplessness which they were subjected to for three days during the bombardment: “for the first time in three days we can oppose him; we feel a mad anger. No longer do we lie helpless, waiting on the scaffold, we can destroy and kill, to save ourselves, to save ourselves and to be revenged” (113). Grenades were thrown, which only increased their bloodlust, as Paul noted that they were turned “into thugs, into murderers, into God only knows what devils; this wave that multiplies our strength with fear and madness and greed of life, seeking and fighting for nothing but our deliverance” (114). This bloodlust is elaborated on even further when Paul describes that they hated the French because they were destroying them (though the same could be said of the Germans). When they reach the enemy side, Paul and the other soldiers proceed to brutally slaughter everyone: “a blow from a spade cleaves through his face. A second sees it and tries to run farther; a bayonet jabs into his back” (116). Even when the enemy were retreating, they proceeded to chase them in a spirit of fury: “With the butt of his rifle Kat smashes to pulp the face of one of the unwounded machine-gunners. We bayonet the others before they have time to get out their bombs. Then thirstily we drink the water they have for cooling the gun” (116-7).
The French were driven off and the Germans gained a small portion of land, and the German side celebrated by eating the French rations. Paul remarks that the French corned beef is famous for its high quality, and that the German side frequently conducts raids solely for that product, as they are constantly hungry due to their poor diet. Over the days, more raids and counterraids occur, increasing the number of the dead. Some of the most unfortunate victims are those who are severely wounded but not killed, as they are frequently buried under dirt, rubble, or other corpses, and would remain conscious for a few days before expiring. Paul describes that one of these unfortunates “must have been badly hit - one of those nasty wounds neither so severe that they exhaust the body at once and a man dreams on in a half-swoon, nor so light that a man endures the pain in the hope of becoming well again. Kat thinks he has either a broken pelvis or a shot through the spine. His chest cannot have been injured otherwise he would not have such strength to cry out. And if it were any other kind of wound it would be possible to see him moving” (124). Although the Company Commander offered three days extra leave to anyone who can find the wounded soldier, no one could, for the voice seemed to come from everywhere, and there were too many places to check. The cries of the victim “first … called only for help - the second night he must have had some delirium, he talked with his wife and his children, we often detected the name Elise. To-day he merely weeps. By evening the voice dwindles to a croaking … In the morning when we suppose he must already have long gone to his rest, there comes across to us one last gurgling rattle” (125).
Paul and the other soldiers are then assigned to teach new recruits the basics of war, and while they are detailed in their instructions, the recruits are too excited and have trouble following instructions. Paul is eventually given leave to return home. The first thing he does when he gets home was to see his sick mother, and it becomes clear he likes his family despite the state of affairs. He lies to his family about the state of the war so as not to concern them, and his sister tells him that their mother was diagnosed with cancer. Paul tries to fit into society during his brief leave, but finds himself unable to, for the war has drastically altered his mind and changed his behavior. He finds reading to be spurious, for the words fail to reach him. He then reflects on the terrible nature of military leave, as it is only “A pause that only makes everything after it so much worse. Already the sense of parting begins to intrude itself. My mother watches me silently; I know she counts the days; every morning she is sad. It is one day less. She has put away my pack, she does not want to be reminded by it” (179).
Four days before he is to report back to the front lines, he visits Kemmerich’s mother to inform her of the news of her son’s death. Not wanting to inform her of his tortuous and prolonged demise, he swore that “he was shot through the heart and died instantaneously” (180). Strangely, she knew that he was lying, saying that she heard his voice at night, and that even though she appreciated that Paul wanted to comfort her, it would cause her less pain if he would just tell her the truth. Paul then thinks to himself that he will never tell her the truth, as “I pity her, but she strikes me as rather stupid all the same. Why doesn’t she stop worrying? Kemerich will stay dead whether she knows about it or not. When a man has seen so many dead he cannot understand any longer why there should be so much anguish over a single individual” (181). Using his mental reserves, he tells her that “‘He died immediately. He felt absolutely nothing at all. His face was quite calm’” (181). She then believes him. The night before he leaves, he curses himself for taking leave, as “Out there I was indifferent and often hopeless - I will never be able to be so again. I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end” (185).
Upon returning to the war, Paul soon kills an enemy soldier by stabbing him with his bayonet. The soldier is seriously wounded and takes time to die, and when Paul sees that his hands were bloody, immediately “cleans” them by wiping them with dirt. Even after some time, “The body is still perfectly still, without a sound, the gurgle has ceased, but the eyes cry out, yell, all the life is gathered together in them for one tremendous effect to flee, gathered together there in a dreadful terror of death, of me” (219). Moved by compassion and guilt, Paul gives him some water to drink. After three hours since being stabbed, the man is still alive, and Paul hates himself for what he has done, wishing that he didn't lose his revolver - if he had it he would use it to put him out of his misery. However, “Stab him I cannot,” as it was too visceral, protracted, and personal (221). At 3:00 PM he is finally dead, and Paul’s guilt only increases, but is somewhat tempered by his concession as to the absurdity of existence: the man “might have had thirty more years of life if only I had impressed the way back to our trench more sharply on my memory. If only he had run two yards farther to the left, he might now be sitting in the trench over there and writing a fresh letter to his wife” (222). This applied to the deaths of most soldiers, as the events that led up to their deaths were random and could have been avoided if they had foresight, which they didn't: “if Kemmerich’s leg had been six inches to the right; if Haie Westhus had bent his back three inches further forward” (223).
Because Paul was stuck in the trench with the corpse for the entire day, he attempted to resolve his guilt by telling the corpse that he didn't want to kill him, and he had only done so due to an instinctive drive. Furthermore, he wished that he could know him, as the only difference that branded him as an “enemy” was that he wore a different uniform. Paul also tells him that he will write to his wife, and that if he could, he would give him the rest of his life, as he no longer wished to have it. In Paul’s own words, “‘Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too … Forgive me, comrade … Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and the same dying and the same agony … how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother … Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up - take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now’’ (223). He later returns back to the base, but not before looking at the dead man’s wallet and seeing his family. Though he fancies writing them a letter and apologizing, he knows that he couldn’t do it, but that he might send them money through anonymous means if he could afford to. He then learns that the man was Gerard Duval, a printer.
After receiving a relatively relaxing job which involved guarding an abandoned village, he was sent back to battle. In the battle bad luck caught up to them, as Paul and his friends were shot at by artillery. Albert and Kropp both suffer leg injuries, and while Albert hopes to be sent home, Kropp states that if his leg is to be amputated, he will end his life, for living as a cripple, from his standpoint, isn’t a life worth living at all. Paul is also injured and sent to the hospital, which is run by nuns. He is surprised when he is told he can lie on a bed composed of “clean snow-white linen, that even has got the marks of the iron still on it,” as his “shirt has gone six weeks without being washed and is terribly muddy” (246). Paul is then sent to a hospital in the interior of Germany, also run by nuns, and is terribly vexed when he is awoken at 7:00 AM by the Morning Devotion of the nuns, which is made possible by the fact that the door to the infirmary is open. Ironically, upon hearing his complaints, a nun “innocently” tells him that praying is more effective than sleeping (251). Paul requests once again for the door to be closed, but the nun hesitates. Only after the entire room complains that the nuns finally shut the door, allowing them some rest. Another contributing factor was how Paul threw a bottle at the door, causing it to break into many pieces, illustrating to the nuns that they should listen to their requests. Hilariously, the nuns didn't know Paul threw the battle, and when a person was sent to inquire who did it, a fellow patient, Reinforcement-Reservist Josef Hammacher, said that he was the culprit. He took the blame because he has a “shooting license” - “‘I got a crack in the head and they presented me with a certificate to say that I was periodically not responsible for my actions. Ever since then I’ve had a grand time. No ones dares to annoy me. And nobody does anything to me’” (253).
Paul is eventually subject to a surgery which mended his body but caused him to vomit for two days. He is also told that his “‘bones will not grow together’” by the surgeons’ secretary (259). Many died in the hospital from wounds and infections, so many, in fact, that the nuns couldn’t handle them quickly enough: “Two fellows die of tetanus. Their skin turns pale, their limbs stiffen, at last only their eyes live - stubbornly. Many of the wounded have their shattered limbs hanging free in the air from a gallows; underneath the wound a basin is placed into which drips the pus” (262). Paul then states that the war has wounded and crippled for life countless people, as those who had died were not only in “one hospital, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is” (263). A few weeks later, Paul’s leg had recovered, and his arm was also better. His friend Albert, who had accompanied him from the front, also recovered, though he was permanently disabled - he lost his leg. His entire personality changed from the loss of his limb, and Paul mentioned that Albert would have shot himself a long time ago if he wasn’t sent to the hospital. Unfortunately for Paul, more soldiers were needed for the war, and he was sent again to the front line.
Not longer after returning, many of Paul’s friends died. For instance, Muller was shot “point-blank in the stomach with a Verey light. He lived for half an hour, quite conscious, and in terrible pain” (279). While Muller was buried, it was likely his body would be unearthed, for the armies were constantly moving. Furthermore, “Bertinck has a chest wound. After a while a fragment smashes away his chin, and the same fragment has sufficient force to tear open Leer’s hip. Leer groans as he supports himself on his arm, he bleeds quickly, no one can help him. Like an emptying tube, after a couple of minutes he collapses. What use is it to him now that he was such a good mathematician at school” (284). Eventually, it was the summer of 1918, and though Germany is losing the war and might surrender, it is never discussed. Kat is grievously wounded as his shin was smashed, and even though Paul tried to get him back to the base, Kat’s condition worsened. They recollected on their experiences together, and Kat states that it is ironic that he dies only at the end of the war. Paul refuses to let go of Kat, telling him that he will visit him after the war, going so far as to ask for his address. Kat then dies of his wound, and Paul initially denies it, though he accepts it once he sees that Kat has “a splinter in the head. There is just one little hole, it must have been a very tiny, stray splinter. But it has sufficed. Kat is dead” (291). After accepting Kat’s death, he becomes completely disillusioned and is emotionally damaged, as most of the people who came with him from his community had perished in the war. Kat reflects that “Had we returned home in 1916, out of the suffering and the strength of our experience we might have unleashed a storm. Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more” (294).
Paul was killed in October 1918, “on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front” (296). Paul’s body had fallen into the earth, as if he was sleeping, and “Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come” (296).
Personal thoughts:
All Quiet on the Western Front is a literary classic, and I could see why that is. The characters are shown to be relatable and human, as they have passions and lives outside of the war. Remarque’s descriptions of WW1 were fantastic, seeing that he served in it himself, and it clearly illustrates the stupidity and brutality of war. As Paul mentioned, those who fought each other didn't really hate each other, and fought for imaginary entities, for countries don’t really exist (humans made them up to prevent people from killing each other). The brutality of war in general is encapsulated very well in the warfare, as previously decent individuals were overcome by hatred and bloodlust, as well as in the hospital, which was ripe with wounds, infections, and other medical conditions. The attitude of countries towards war is also seen, as WW1 clearly demonstrated the relatively new concept of nationalism - every country viewed themselves as somehow immune to catastrophic failure, which would only make problems even more devastating when they did occur. The effects of trauma regarding soldiers are also effectively demonstrated, as Paul’s loss of interest in life and insensitivity to suffering are clearly a result of his losing all his friends in the war and constantly seeing suffering on the battlefield. Although All Quiet on the Western Front received widespread acclaim, the most vocal entity against it was, unsurprisingly, the Nazis. They banned and burned copies of the book, as they criticized it as portraying Germany as a weak nation. They also claimed the book was damaging morale, ignoring Remarque’s note at the beginning of the text. Remarque had to flee to Switzerland for his own safety, but his youngest sister was not so lucky - after criticizing Nazi policies, she was beheaded. I highly recommend All Quiet on the Western Front to anyone interested in warfare, soldiers, human nature, and WW1.
Get the book: