All Quiet on the Western Front

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Written by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929; German Im Westen nichts Neues) clearly elucidates not only the horrors of contemporary warfare, but also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front.

The Story follows the experiences of Paul Bremer: a soldier who joined the German army shortly after the start of the war. After his training, however, he regrets joining the military. After he arrives on the frontline on the western front with his friends (Tjaden, Muller, and a number of other characters) he meets with Kat. Kat soon becomes Paul's mentor and teaches him about the realities of the war. Paul and Kat swiftly became almost brothers, bonded by the hardships of the war.

Paul and his friends endure day after day the terrible non-stop bombardment. Eventually it all becomes clear to him : war is entirely pointless. All his friends say that they are fighting the war for a few persons whom they have never met and most likely never would. Those are the only people that can gain anything from this war, not Paul and his friends.

Table of contents

1 Theme
2 Film
3 Sequel

Theme

Paul Baumer is the main character of the story. He is a young German soldier that joined up after the start of the war. Unlike the soldier that you would usually see in a war story, Paul is not very heroic. He is not a coward; but he is no stupid brave soldier either. When he first joined he was a soft young recruit who still had a romantic vision of war. The first deaths that he saw on the battle field badly scarred him emotionally. But later on in the story he becomes increasingly hardened. So hardened that the thought of mourning the death of a single person becomes unthinkable. He hates his non-com Himmelstoss with a vengeance. Throughout the story he expresses how hard it is to understand people back home. For example while all the soldiers on the front seek peace, people back home talk about marching on to Paris. He also expresses nonchalant ness to battles. Battles have no names. Rather, one after another they offer a chance for him to get killed. Battle seems to be waged only to gain pitifully small pieces of land.

Kat is PaulÃÂs best friend. They form a closeness like brothers. Kat has been longer in the army than Paul. Kat is good at stealing things the soldiers need and is also good at finding food. He acts as a father to Paul & his classmates.

There are several themes in the book. The first is that war is total nonsense. After all, none of the characters have any reason to kill a Frenchmen. But because of a bunch of people in offices, people like Kaiser Wilhelm II who never even visited the trenches, war is declared and then the common people have to fight it with their lives. It is interesting to note that Muller? (Or is it Kat) suggested that wars should be fought by the comfortable people themselves, because they are the only ones with anything to gain from a victory of any kind.

The second theme is that war is horrible. Paul describes the horrors of war throughout the book. At first bunkers get shelled. Then comes poison gas. Finally the trenches disintegrate German lines are quickly overcome. Very visual examples are presented throughout the book as, for example, one scene in which a very young soldier gets half of his chest blown off by a shell.

Film

The film version, adapted by Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews, C. Gardner Sullivan, Walter Anthony (uncredited) and Lewis Milestone (uncredited), won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 for its producer Carl Laemmle Jr, and an Academy Award for Directing for Lewis Milestone. The movie starred Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.

It also received two further nominations:

Best Cinematography - Arthur Edeson
Best Writing, Achievement - George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson and Del Andrews

The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Sequel

The Road Back-This book is also written by Erich Maria Remarque. It is about a different group of soldiers trying to cope with postwar germany. Dealing with the defeated german society after the war, trying to go to school, trying to live a normal life.