German Literature - All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

Im Westen nichts Neues (1929) All Quiet on the Western Front

This classic novel of World War One is utterly compelling. It is gripping, written throughout in the present tense which adds to the thrill. The descriptions of warfare are intense and unsparing.

Remarque claimed that the novel was apolitical and it is prefaced by the statement: ‘Dieses Buch soll weder eine Anklage noch ein Bekenntnis sein’ (This book is neither an accusation nor a confession). Instead, he regarded the book as reportage – reporting the experiences of his generation. Nevertheless, the book was widely perceived as an anti-war novel.

Remarque writes with authority because he had served in the trenches. The novel draws on his own experiences and those of his friends. In an interview, Remarque stated that the novel ‘was really, simply a collection of the best stories that I told and that my friends told as we sat over drinks and relived the war.’ (see reading list below, Minden, p. 148).

David Midgley points out that the novel provoked controversy because it ‘persistently deheroicized the war [...] The soldier’s most fundamental concern [...] is not the fighting, but the fulfilment of bodily needs’ (Midgley, p. 236).

In Chapter One, we meet the narrator, Paul Bäumer, and his comrades including Stanislaus Katczinsky (Kat), the leader of the squad. The soldiers are enjoying double rations because half of their regiment – around seventy people – were killed the day before by the English artillery. They visit their comrade Franz Kemmerich who has just had his leg amputated. Kemmerich is dying and Müller claims his boots.

In Chapter Two, the soldiers are bullied by officer Himmelstoss.

In Chapter Three, Kat finds a cask of beans with meat, also some bread and horse meat. Kat gives a speech about how power corrupts people. Late one night, the men ambush Himmelstoss and give him a whipping.

In Chapter Four there is a gas attack.

In Chapter Five the men discuss what they would do if the war was over. Albert Kropp declares ‘Der Krieg hat uns für alles verdorben’ (The war has ruined us for everything); the narrator agrees.

Chapter Six contains some horrific battle scenes.

In Chapter Seven, the narrator Paul Bäumer is given two weeks home leave. The civilians at home have no idea about the grim reality of the war. Bäumer has to tell Kemmerich’s mother about her son’s death.

In Chapter Eight the narrator guards some Russian prisoners of war.

In Chapter Nine, the company are inspected by Kaiser Wilhelm II himself. Shortly afterwards, there is a surprise attack and Paul Bäumer hides in a bomb crater. He stabs a Frenchman, Gérard Duval, in the belly and feels terrible about this as the man bleeds to death. Paul Bäumer has to watch the man die, slowly, and is forced to spend a whole day with the Frenchman’s body – making promises to the corpse that he cannot keep – before he is able to crawl back behind German lines.

In Chapter Ten, Paul and Albert are wounded and spend time in a military hospital.

In Chapter Eleven most of the narrator’s comrades are killed.

In Chapter Twelve, the narrator is killed on a particularly quiet day, so quiet that the official army report states there is nothing to report on the Western front.