The End of Innocence: All Quiet on the Western Front

”When it comes to dying for your country, it’s better not to die at all.” Paul Bäumer

Erich Maria Remarque used his personal experiences to write the most powerful novel on World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front.

On June 22, 1898, Erich Paul Remark, a descendant of French Catholics, was born in Osnabrück, an industrial town in Northwestern Germany. The Remarks were of the lower working class.

Erich attended the local school but few professional choices lay ahead for a man of his social class so he studied elementary education. In 1916, he was drafted into the Imperial Army as a musketeer, or infantryman.

In 1917, Remark’s company moved into Flanders, experiencing some of the most savage fighting of the war. In four months, 770,000 casualties were reported from both the German and allied armies. Whatever youthful idealism he had was shattered after he carried his wounded friend Troske out of enemy fire. His friend later died, and Remark used the experience in his book, changing Troske to the fictional character Kat, who died from a shrapnel wound while being carried to the dressing station.

Remarque himself was evacuated suffering neck, knee, and wrist injuries from grenade fragments. He was medically discharged in 1918. He performed odd jobs and began teaching in 1920, resigning that same year. He finally began his writing career as an editor and writer of humor and verse for the Echo Continental.

During this period, he adopted the French spelling of his surname and substituted “Maria” his late mother’s name, for his middle name. Following the huge success of All Quiet on the Western Front (1928), he affected an expensive lifestyle, with convertible sports cars and rare objets d’art.

All Quiet on the Western Front sold more than a million and a half copies the first year, in twenty-nine languages. Germans criticized the novel as pacifist, overstating wartime dangers, creating anti-war sentiment, denigrating war and Germany, and depicting manufacturers and medical staff as incompetent and opportunistic. This, needless to say, brought a lot of turmoil into Remarque’s life and brought his first marriage to a halt.

The literary success made him unwelcome in Germany so Remarque fled to Switzerland to escape from Hitler. He later moved to France and made friends with other famous people, including Einstein and Hemingway. All Quiet on the Western Front was banned in Germany and Russia. In 1939, Remarque made his way to New York, where he was a celebrity and became an American citizen in 1947. There, he led a life of fame and luxury till his death in 1970.

All Quiet on the Western Front is the greatest of Remarque’s works, receiving favorable reviews from around the world. It was made into a movie in 1930 by the great director Lewis Milestone and received the Academy Award for best picture. Remarque adapted the book to the screen himself.

Remarque relates his personal experiences and dwells on the themes of lost youth and disenchantment; soldiers’ naiveté and vulnerability - particularly the aftermath of combat where the disillusionment produced a generation of drifting, traumatized young men.

Remarque writes about his schoolmates, who represent a generation of men destroyed by the dehumanization of trench warfare. All Quiet on the Western Front tells of their enlistment at the urging of their teacher, Kantorek, whose wisdom they trusted.

Paul Bäumer, the hero, is a sensitive teenager, the prototype of a young infantryman whose youth is snatched away by the brutal war. The young man who had written poems and a play reaches manhood during the three years service as a soldier in the 2nd Company during World War I. His disillusionment following the cataclysm is the focus of the author’s anti-war sentiment.

The author’s style is unapologetic, unemotional, and very direct. With masterful skill he transmits the hellish tones of agony and horror; the dry, death-dodging humor and comraderie.

The plot is heavy with grim details and the atmosphere of death and suffering, fluctuating from the men’s absorption with ordinary things: full plates, rest, a jest, a game of cards, an uninterrupted toilet break, to the hovering specter of hopelessness and unpredictable, horrible death. The men have mood swings that rob them of their ability to think, feel, and enjoy normal life as a result of constant stress.

The bright spots in the plot seem dismal to an outsider; but will ring true for those who have similar experiences. The author indicates black wartime humor when one of the men describes lice marked by red crosses on their heads, which he had become infested with after staying at the Red Cross hospital. He mentions the worn out artillery pieces that are so inaccurate that they endanger their own troops. Remarque’s use of various descriptive techniques helps make the book enjoyable despite its gory details.

Remarque’s characters are skillfully drawn, captured in brief glimpses and sketchy dialogue. Paul – the central figure could be one of our own - the boy next door, a son, or a relative. He states,

“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow.”

Himmelstoss, a postman turned drill instructor that sadistically over-exerts his authority is also well drawn. Poetically, the rear area martinet cravenly tries to evade fighting by pretending he is hurt.

Remarque’s book takes you to the battlefield and lets you experience the fears and uncertainty, the humor that accompanies war, and its consequences on the survivors, civilians and military alike.

In his direct and simple style, Remarque has brought his thoughts, fears, and aspirations to us, questioning the senseless death and devastation caused by war. It is a touching, moving, and very poignant book. I would strongly recommend All Quiet on the Western Front to everyone. It is a classic!

Also recommended is the 1930 Academy Award winning film ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT