All Quiet on theWestern Front

byErich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque, the son of a book-binder, was born in Germany in 1898. Abright and perceptive student with strong

interests in music, art, and literature, Remarquedecided to pursue a teaching career. But in 1916,before he could complete his training, Remarquewas drafted into the German army along withother fellow students. He served in a sapper'unit,which was responsible for fortifying positions be-hind the front, until he was wounded by an ar-tillery attack in July 1917. His experiences at thefront and the antiwar sentiment that they pro-duced in him form the central core of his mostfamous novel, AH Quiet on the Western Front.

Events in History at the Time the NovelTakes Place

The outbreak of war. In reaction to Austria'sharsh attempts to control Serbian commerce, onJune 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand ofAustria-Hungary was assassinated by a Serbiannationalist ia Sarajevo. As the Austrian govern-ment plotted a suitable retribution against theSerbs, the effect on Russia was taken into con-sideration. Because Russia was closely allied withSerbia, Austrian officials worried that the slight-est aggression against the Serbs would result inRussian involvement. As a precaution, Austriasought support from Germany, its most power-ful ally. Kaiser Wilhelm II immediately vouchedfor Germany's assistance, telling the Austrianpowers that his nation would support whateveraction the Austrian government might take.

THE LITERARY WORKA novel set during World War I on Germany's•Western: front; published jn;l 929,: i"\ -":

SYNOPSIS ;%v V/;-::A young infantry'soldier describes the horriblerealities of World War t's trench warfare andthe drastic consequences of the war upon hisgeneration. , : : ' V "

On July 23, 1914, the Austrian empire pre-sented an ultimatum to the Serbs, demandingthat they suppress Serbian nationalist activity bypunishing activists, prosecuting terrorists,squashing anti-Austrian propaganda, and evenallowing Austrian officials to intrude into Serbianmilitary affairs. Two hours before the expirationof the forty-eight-hour deadline on the ultima-tum, Serbia responded. Its response fell short ofcomplete acceptance of the terms and so was re-jected by the Austrian authorities. As war be-tween Austria and Serbia loomed on the horizon,both sides experienced a massive groundswell ofoptimism and patriotism regarding the impend-ing conflict.

Austria declared war on Serbia and immedi-ately began shelling Serbian defenses. As theseaggressions began, the Russian army started mo-bilizing to aid the Serbs, and it was soon clearthat Russia was going to become thoroughly in-volved in the war. Two days later the German

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army began to mobilize and entered the war tosupport Austria. Germany was jubilant about theprospect of war and believed that its entranceinto the conflict was perfectly justified. On Au-gust 1, 1914, Germany's Kaiser spoke to a crowdof thousands, telling them, "A fateful hour hasfallen upon Germany. Envious people on all sidesare compelling us to resort to a just defense . . .war will demand enormous sacrifices in bloodand treasure but we shall show our foes what itmeans to provoke Germany" (Kaiser Wilhelm IIin Moyer, p. 72).

Germany's strategy for the war began with aheavy assault on France, which was an ally of theRussians. To facilitate this assault, the Germantroops marched through Belgium. Great Britain,Belgium's ally, immediately sent an ultimatum tothe German army to withdraw from Belgian soil.When, the ultimatum went unanswered, Britaindeclared war on Germany. During one week ofpolitical and military machinations, Germanyfound itself facing Russian, French, and Britishenemies who outnumbered their own army 10million to 6 million.

War in the trenches. As Germany engaged theFrench and British armies in the West, it becameclear that a decisive victory was not an immedi-ate possibility. Both' sides in the conflict settledthemselves into trenches and dugouts in prepa-ration for a war of attrition. New weapons suchas the machine gun and more efficient artillerymade the trenches a necessity. Soldiers on openground would be decimated by the newfangledinstruments of death. Opposing trenches weretypically several hundred yards apart. The mid-dle ground, which was laced with barbed wire,soon became known as "no man's land." Con-stant firefights and artillery barrages removed allfoliage from this area and made it nearly impos-sible to cross.

Daring raids across this deadly no man's landbecame one of the chief pursuits of infantrymenin the trenches. During these raids, supported byfire from their own side, soldiers would cross thetreacherous ground and penetrate enemy barbedwire with the help of either well-placed artilleryattacks or special rifle attachments that gatheredseveral strands of wire together and then fired abullet, severing them. Upon reaching the enemylines, soldiers would first throw a volley of handgrenades into the trenches and then attack thesurprised defenders with bayonets. While theseraids did not typically result in major casualtiesto defenders, they devastated enemy morale andbolstered the confidence of the attackers. In AH

Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer partici-pates in such a raid. Caught in no-man's land byshellfire, Baumer takes shelter in a shallow hole.When a French soldier also seeks shelter there,Baumer stabs him and feels tormented by guiltas he watches the young man die. This scene il-lustrates the traumatic nature of the raids.

A soldier's life in the trenches. The round ofduty along the western front differed little for sol-diers on either side of the conflict. Most of thenight would be spent at hard labor, repairing thetrench walls, laying barbed wire, and packingsandbags. After the dawn stand-to, when everyman would line up on the firing step against thepossibility of a morning attack, die rest of theday would generally be spent in sleep or idle-ness, occasionally interrupted by sentry duty oranother stand-to when enemy activity was sus-pected. Despite the sometimes lengthy periods ofcalm along the front, life in the trenches was filled

Quiet on theWestern Front

THE WESTERN FRONT

The western front was a 475-mile-long battle-line betweenthe Germans and the Allied forces. Along this line of fight-

ing were 900,000 German troops and 1.2 million Allied sol-

diers, or roughly 1,900 and 2,500 men per mile of front. Over-all, the western front was not a continuous trench, but rather

a string of unconnected trenches and fortifications.

with constant dangers. In addition to artillery at-tacks and surprise raids, soldiers suffered afflic-tions brought on by a daily existence in wet andunsanitary conditions. The lack of fresh foodsand the soggy environment in the trenches re-sulted in "trench foot," an affliction that turnedthe feet green, swollen, and painful. Another ail-ment suffered by soldiers in the trenches was thedebilitating, though not fatal, trench fever, trans-mitted by the lice that infested everyone after aday or two in the line. Typically the first stop af-ter being granted a relief or a leave from dutywas the delousing station, and then the baths. InAll Quiet on the Western Front, Baumer and hiscomrades take several trips to the delousing sta-tions during their service on the front.

The influence of the older generation. Centralto All Quiet on the Western Front is the attack onmembers of Germany's older generation for im-posing their false ideals of war on their children.

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All Quiet on theI Western Front

Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine in a 1979 television adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front.

The older generation's notions of patriotism andtheir assumptions that war was indeed a valor-ous pursuit played a crucial role in the conflict.The chief sources of this pro-war ideology werethe older men of the nation: professors, publi-cists, politicians, and even pastors. As the warbegan, these figures intensified the rhetoric, pro-viding all the right reasons why killing the youngmen of France and Britain was a worthy and no-ble endeavor. One Protestant clergyman spoke ofthe war as "the magnificent preserver and reju-venator" (Moyer, p. 9). He went on to say thatthe war would bring an "end to deceit, hypocrisy,self-aggrandizement, and immorality" and wouldbring about "a revival of trust, honesty, decency,and obedience" (Moyer, p. 9). Government au-thorities in Germany did everything in their

power to encourage young men to enlist, evengranting students special dispensation to com-plete final examinations early so as to be able tojoin up sooner. As the war broke out, more thana million young men volunteered for service.

In the novel, Remarque uses the character ofthe schoolteacher Kantorek to develop thenovel's attack against the older generation. Kan-torek's constant encouraging of the young mento enlist—"Won't you join up, Comrades?" heurges (Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front,p. 11)—prompts Baumer's entire class to volun-teer for service. As the plot unfolds, with eachsuccessive death of Baumer's classmates, thenovel further condemns the attitudes and influ-ences of the older generation. In the novel,Baumer himself denounces the pressure they ex-

10 T E R A T U R E A N D I T S T I M E S V O L U M E

Country ;

Russia

British Empire

France ; ;

Italy : •"'.:•• '•

United States

Serbia ;

Germany j '

Austria-Hungary

111 : THE HUMAN

Killedof Died

1,700,000 ;J

fpt; 908,371 ;,v

1,357,800- V

fli;: 650,000f|S;::il6,516; V;- •

45,000

1,773,700: ->

1,200,000 , ;

COST OF THE

Wounded& Missing

-4,950,000

f2,090,212

"4,266,000

947,000

204,002

;i 33,1 48

4,216,058 /

3,620,000

WAR

Prisoners

2,500,000

M 91 ,65 2

.', 537,000 ;

600,000

;: : - ?4,50Q :

; 152,958

; 1,152,800

2,200,000

TotalCasualties

9,150,000

3,190,235

6,160,000

2,197,000-

323,018

331,106

7,142,558 ;

7,020,000

All Quiet on theWestern Front

erted. "For us lads of eighteen," he observes,"they ought to have been mediators and guidesto the world of maturity, the world of work, ofduty, of culture, of progress—to the future" (AllQuiet on the Western Front, p. 12). Baumer con-tinues, "The idea of authority, which they repre-sented, was associated in our minds with agreater insight and a more humane wisdom. Butthe first death we saw shattered this belief (AHQuiet on the Western Front, p. 12). In a final con-demnation of this older generation, Baumer says,"While they continued to write and talk, we sawthe wounded and dying. While they taught thatduty to one's country is the greatest thing, we al-ready knew that death-throes are stronger" (AllQuiet on the Western Front, p. 13). Though Re-marque, who was drafted into military service,had not been inspired to enlist by the urgings ofGermany's middle-aged middle class, he still re-sented their false influence and betrayal of theyoung men in his generation.

On the home front. While their young men suf-fered on the western front, German civilians athome made their own sacrifices. As the war con-tinued, a failure in the potato harvest in Decem-ber of 1916 forecasted additional sacrifices onthe horizon. In place of their usual seven-pound-per-week ration of potatoes for each person, Ger-man citizens would now receive five pounds ofpotatoes and two pounds of turnips, a food pre-viously used only as animal fodder. To makematters worse, the list of rationed foods contin-ued to grow. Diminishing grain supplies led to asevere cutback in the bread production. The ra-tion for butter and other fat foods dropped to

two ounces per person per week. Milk was alsoscarce, and fruits and vegetables disappearedfrom the German diet completely. With thepoorer diet came new health problems—stom-ach, skin, and digestive disorders became com-mon. These difficult conditions are illustrated inAll Quiet on the Western Front when Baumer re-turns home on leave. During the stay, Baumeruses his soldier's ration card to provide nourish-ing food for his family members, who have beencompletely deprived because of the increasingshortages.

The Novel in Focus

The plot. Influenced by their patriotic teacher,Kantorek, Paul Baumer and his German class-mates have volunteered for military service onthe western front. Their first disillusionment oc-curs during boot camp, where the vicious drill-sergeant Himmelstoss subjects them to seeminglyendless torment and harassment.

At the front, they experience firsthand thegruesome realities of the war; in one of the earlychapters they visit Kemmerich, one of their class-mates whose leg has been amputated after suf-fering a wound in battle. As Kemmerich lies dy-ing, another of Baumer's comrades, Muller, asksif he can have Kemmerich's boots, a request thatillustrates the cold practicality of warfare. BeforeKemmerich dies, he tells Baumer to give theboots to Muller.

Between battles, Baumer and his friendssmoke cigarettes, relax, and forage for food in thesurrounding countryside. The group forms a

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close bond of friendship despite the grueling con-

All Quiet on the ditions in the trenches.

Western Front As the number of casualties grows, Baumer'scompany is reduced from 150 men to 80, andyounger men are brought to the front. With thenew men comes Himmelstoss, the despised bootcamp sergeant. Himmelstoss continues his abu-sive behavior toward Baumer and his comrades,and the men plot revenge. Disguised in hoods,they find Himmelstoss away from the camp,pounce on him, and beat him.

After being granted a leave, Baumer returnshome to visit his mother, who is sick with can-cer. His stay proves less than pleasant. Unable toadjust even temporarily to a tranquil life backhome, Baumer becomes anxious to rejoin hiscomrades. He readily returns to the trenches af-ter a tearful parting with his mother.

In the trenches, the men cope with the dis-comforts of rats, lice, and deprivation. During apatrol into no man's land, Baumer takes cover ina shallow hole. When a French soldier also divesinto the hole for cover, Baumer reflexively stabshim. Unable to make himself finish the French-man off, Baumer is tormented by guilt as hewatches the young soldier die and realizes thesenselessness of the war.

During an attack Baumer is wounded by ashell and is taken to convalesce in a militaryhospital. The horrible wounds and deaths ofmany of the soldiers around him again rein-force his realization of the horrible human costof the war.

When Baumer is released from the hospital,he returns again to the front. In his absence ca-sualties have continued to mount. He is the onlysurvivor among the students from Kantorek'sclass. The final chapter of the novel reports thatPaul Baumer fell to his death on a day in whichthe army record consisted of a simple statement:all quiet on the western front.

Remarque's antiwar sentiment. The novel'smost potent and recurring focal point is of asense of disillusionment with the institution ofwar. As Baumer spends a greater stretch of timeat the front, he realizes with increasing claritythe hypocrisy of this war and the horrible real-ities of combat that the war propaganda of theolder generation failed to mention. Listening tothe conversations of his comrades, Baumersenses their disillusionment with the war andtheir feelings of betrayal by the older genera-tion. In one conversation between the men, thesoldier Albert asks his friends, "But what Iwould like to know, is whether there would not

Erich Maria Remarque

have been a war if the Kaiser had said no?" (AllQuiet on the Western Front, p. 203). The soldiershave realized by this point that the petty poli-tics of Europe's leaders have resulted in thenpersonal involvement in the war. As the con-versation continues, the soldier Kropp poses ;basic question: "It's queer, when one think;about it, we are here to protect our fatherlandAnd the French are over there to protect theifatherland. Now who's in the right?" (All Quieon the Western Front, p. 203). When Kropstates that war is caused by one side offendinthe other, the soldier Tjaden replies, "Thenhaven't any business here at all, 1 don't feel nrself offended" (All Quiet on the Western Front,204). Their conversation underscores the pornlessness of the conflict and the thousandslives needlessly ended in its battles.

An even more poignant attack against war apears when Baumer stabs the French soldierno man's land. Baumer regrets the stabbing atries to talk to the man as he lies dying. "Corade," Baumer says, "I did not want to kill y<If you jumped in here again, 1 would not do. . . But you were only an idea to me before,abstraction that lived in my mind and called fcits appropriate response" (All Quiet on the W

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em Front, p. 223). Baumer continues talking tothe man:

For the first time I see that you are a man likeme . . . now I see your wife and your face andour fellowship. . . . Why do they never tell usthat you are poor devils like us, that yourmothers are just as anxious as ours, and that wehave the same fear of death. . . ?

(All Quiet on the Western Front, p. 223)

This scene more than any other condemns thewar and its useless pitting of innocent againstinnocent.

It was the powerful effectiveness of scenessuch as these that made Nazi leaders of the1930s condemn Remarque's novel, and theirdisapproval would eventually lead to the revo-cation of his German citizenship during theThird Reich's reign.

Sources. Many elements of All Quiet on the West-em Front come directly from Remarque's own ex-periences on the front. Remarque, like the novel'snarrator, Baumer, was a student when the warbroke out. Remarque was drafted, and his dutiesin the sapper unit to which he was assigned in-cluded fortifying positions behind the front bylaying barbed wire and building gun emplace-ments, bunkers, and dugouts, all within range ofenemy gunfire. There are several episodes in thenovel in which Baumer and his comrades are sentwith shovels to repair damaged fortifications.These scenes, no doubt, are modeled after Re-marque's own experiences in a sapper unit. Alsobased on Remarque's real-life experience isBaumer's wound and convalescence in a militaryhospital in Duisburg. After recovering, Remarquewas sent back into service, but unlike Baumer,he did not return to the front or die in action.Peace was declared just before Remarque re-turned to the conflict.

Many aspects of Baumer's personal life are alsobased on Remarque—for example, Remarque'smother, like his character's, was dying from can-cer during his service at the front. However, thereason why each was granted a leave differs—whereas Baumer returns home to visit his sickmother, Remarque went back home to attend hismother's funeral.

Events in History at the Time the NovelWas Written

Germany's lost generation. Remarque was oneamong the many younger Germans who felt thattheir lives had been permanently damaged by the

war. In 1928, while writing AH Quiet on the West-em Front, he had been working a series of oddjobs that brought a meager income and little sat-isfaction. Like others, he blamed his inability tofind a fulfilling career or sustained happiness onthe war and the crucial coming-of-age period thatit had stolen from him. Numerous passages inthe novel highlight these feelings and commenton the development of the "lost generation," aterm also applied to the post- World War I gen-eration of Allied lands. This group of youths feltrobbed of time and hope by the war. During oneconversation between the soldiers, Albert com-plains about the future awaiting him after thewar, "That's just it. Kat and Detering and Haiecan go back to their jobs because they had themalready. Himmelstoss too. But we never had any.How will we ever get used to one after this, here?"(AH Quiet on the Western Front, p. 86). As the con-versation ends, Baumer continues in this vein inhis narration: "We agree that it's the same foreveryone; not only for us here, but everywhere,for everyone who is of our age; for some more,and to others less. It is the common fate of ourgeneration" (All Quiet on the Western Front, p. 87).Perhaps the most powerful statement about thefate of this lost generation is found in Remarque'spreface to the novel, in which he writes:

This book is to be neither an accusation nor aconfession, and least of all an adventure, for.death is not an adventure to those who standface to face with it. It will try simply to tell ofa generation of men who, even though they mayhave escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.

(Remarque, preface)

Reception of the novel and the rise of theNazis. After its publication in its original Ger-man in 1929, AH Quiet on the Western Front wasinterpreted worldwide as a manifesto for paci-fism and antimilitarism. An American film ver-sion of the novel, released in 1930, reinforcedthis concept. The book, the film, and the authorhimself all became the subject of heated politicaldebate in Germany at a time when Hitler's Naziparty was rising to power. In response to thenovel, the Nazi party unleashed propaganda inan attempt to defame Remarque by claiming thathe was a French Jew, and that his real name wasKramer. More serious than simple defamationswas the Nazis' attempt to imprison Remarquewhen they came to full power in 1933. Fortu-nately, Remarque had just left for Switzerland tobegin a new book.

Remarque's works were among those publiclyburned in Berlin in front of the Opera House on

Quiet on theWestern Front

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All Quiet on the\ Front

May 11, 1933. Both students and Nazi speakersdenounced the authors whose writings theyburned. As flames consumed Remarque's works,a speaker shouted to the crowd, "Against literarybetrayal of the soldiers of the World War, for theeducation of the nation in the spirit of truthful-ness. I consign to the flames the works of ErichMaria Remarque" (Wagener, p. 6).

In the opinion of numerous scholars, Remar-que might have avoided the public burnings of hisbooks and subsequent exile had he submitted toa specific request of the Nazis. Joseph Goebbels,Germany's propaganda minister during the ThirdReich, offered to leave him and his works unmo-lested if he would simply attribute all responsi-bility for the film All Quiet on the Western front tohis Jewish publisher. Remarque refused.

Though Remarque was safely out of Ger-many, the Nazis were still able to exact revengeon the famous writer. On December 16, 1943,Remarque's sister Elfriede was accused of mak-ing defeatist remarks and beheaded with an axe.Roland Freisler, the judge of the People's Courtthat presided over her trial, told her that "be-

cause her brother was beyond the controlcourt she would have to atone for his(Wagener, p. 7).

Though it cost him his German citiztand the life of his sister, AH Quiet on the V,Front was Remarque's greatest literary acment. To this day, the poignant depiction cBaumer, who lives and dies in the trencWorld War I, remains one of the most po-

testaments against war.

For More Information

Moyer, Laurence. Victory Must Be Ours: Gein the Great War, 1914-1918. New Yorkpocrene, 1995.

Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the V*Front. 1929. Reprint. New York: Balk1982.

Wagener, Hans. Understanding ErichRemarque. Columbia: University ofCarolina Press, 1991.

Young, Brigadier Peter. The Marshall CavIllustrated Encyclopedia of World War I.York: Marshall Cavendish, 1984.

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