第 4 页

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JOSEF BEHM

One of Paul's classmates, Behm is a plump, homely volunteer who dies

two months before he would have been drafted. Wounded in the eye, he

is shot down while blindly attempting to return to safety. His death

greatly affects his classmates. Later, Mittelstaedt upbraids

Kantorek with the fact that had it not been for his marching the whole

class down to enlist, Behm would have had at least two more months

to live.

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LIEUTENANT BERTINCK

Paul's company commander, Bertinck is a fine officer who came up

through the ranks. He bears Himmelstoss's complaint and treats

Tjaden and Kropp as fairly as possible. He dies saving his

companions from an approaching enemy team using a flamethrower.

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HEINRICH BREDEMEYER

Bredemeyer is a soldier and fellow townsman of Paul who tells Paul's

mother about the increasing dangers in the front lines. His

tactlessness makes Paul's first leave more miserable than it might

otherwise have been.

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FRAU (MRS.) BAUMER

Paul's mother is a courageous woman who is dying of cancer. She is

the most comforting person Paul finds at home. She alone does not

pretend to understand what it is like at the front. Paul is in agony

over her illness and is overwhelmed by the love she shows him by

preparing his favorite foods and depriving herself in order to buy him

fine underwear.

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FRAU (MRS.) KEMMERICH

Unlike Paul's quiet mother, Franz Kemmerich's mother tends to weep

and wail. She had unreasonably expected Paul to watch out for her son,

Franz, and blames him for surviving while Franz died. The two

mothers show different reactions to the brutality of war.

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MITTELSTAEDT

This classmate of Paul takes revenge on schoolmaster Kantorek when

the latter is assigned to the home guard unit Mittelstaedt commands.

Once Kantorek had held Mittelstaedt's future in his hands by his

potential influence in connection with examinations. Aware now that

survival is more important than any test, Mittelstaedt ridicules

Kantorek, even using the schoolmaster's favorite phrases.

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BOETTCHER

The former porter at Paul's school becomes a model reserve

soldier. Mittelstaedt sends him on errands through town with the

former schoolmaster, Kantorek, who is an impossible soldier, so that

everyone may enjoy the irony of the reversal of roles: the nobody is

now the teacher.

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GERARD DUVAL

Duval is a French printer with a wife and child. The soldier Paul

instinctively stabs after he falls into Paul's shell hole. Paul's

horror grows as he waits hours for Duval to die, and then learns the

facts of his life from his wallet. Duval is a pleasant-looking man,

and now he is dead at Paul's own hand. Guilt nearly drives Paul mad

before a slowdown in the firing finally allows him to leave the

shell hole.

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SERGEANT OELLRICH

In contrast to Paul, Oellrich is a sniper who is proud of his

ability to pick off enemy soldiers. Katczinsky and Kropp point him out

to Paul to shock him back to the reality of front-line warfare after

Paul has killed Duval. Oellrich boasts about how his human targets

jump when he hits them, and Katczinsky and Kropp remind Paul that

the man will probably get a decoration or promotion if he keeps

shooting so well.

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JOSEF HAMACHER

Hamacher is a popular soldier in Paul and Kropp's hospital ward.

He can get away with anything because of a "shooting license," a paper

stating that he experiences periods of mental derangement.

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LITTLE PETER

Another patient, Peter is small and has black, curly hair. His

lung injury is so serious that he is sent to the Dying Room, a room

located next to the elevator to the morgue. He vows to return- and

does, to everyone's amazement.

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SISTER LIBERTINE

Sister Libertine is one of the nurses at the hospital where Paul and

Albert are patients. Unlike some of the callous medics and surgeons,

and even the other serious-minded nuns, she spreads good cheer

throughout her entire wing of the hospital. The men would do

anything for her.

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FRANZ WACHTER

Wachter dies in the hospital. Unable to get anyone to take care of

his hemorrhaging arm wound, he makes Paul realize that patients can

die just from neglect.

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THE THREE FRENCH GIRLS

Three girls live in a house across the river from a German camp.

Paul, Kropp, and Leer swim a closely guarded canal to spend two

evenings with them. Leer's favorite is the blond; Paul's girl is the

little brunet. She is not particularly concerned that he is going on

leave. Considering the shortages, she will welcome any decent soldier,

whatever his uniform, if he can also bring food.

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BERGER

Berger is the strongest soldier in Paul's company. At one time he

stoically listened while the screaming horses died, but by the end

of the war his protective shell has grown as thin as anyone else's. He

loses all judgement and insanely tries to rescue a wounded messenger

dog two hundred yards off. He dies of a pelvis wound in the attempt.

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KAISER WILHELM

William II (1859-1941), or Kaiser Wilhelm, who briefly appears to

inspect troops, is a figure from world history. Emperor of Germany and

King of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, he was the son of Frederick III and

a grandson of both William I of Germany and Queen Victoria of England.

When he was a young man, his parents rejected his belief in the divine

right of kingship and disliked his impulsiveness and love of

military display. These traits have often been explained as his

attempts to compensate for a withered left arm. His visit to the

troops in this novel shows both his love of military display and his

lack of an imposing physical appearance.

His goal was to make Germany a major world power, and he was the

dominant force in his own government. He loved foreign travel but

often spoke impulsively and insulted other heads of state. His actions

helped drive Great Britain into an alliance with France. He engaged in

the famous "Willy-Nicky" correspondence with Czar Nicholas of

Russia, but undermined the friendship by supporting Austria in

policies offensive to Russia. He strained relationships with France by

interfering in colonial affairs in Morocco. Alarmed at the growing

isolation of Germany, he allied his country with Austria, Italy, and

Turkey.

His power declined after the outbreak of the First World War. His

abdication was one of the peace requirements demanded by the Allies in

1918.

SETTING

OTHER ELEMENTS

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SETTING (RALLSETT)

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The story told in All Quiet on the Western Front occurs during the

two years just before the Armistice ended World War I in November

1918. In Chapters 1 and 2 we learn that Paul Baumer, the narrator, and

his friend Kat had been together three years- one year longer than the

time period covered by the novel.

By 1916 when the story begins, World War I had already been underway

for two years. It broke out in August 1914 between the Allies

(Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, and later the United

States) and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary and Germany). In

June 1914 Austrian Archduke Frances Ferdinand and his wife had been

assassinated at Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist, leading to

Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia. German leaders,

alarmed at Russian mobilization and eager to establish the Reich as

a power on a par with Britain, declared war on both of Germany's

neighbors, Russia and France. They also refused to guarantee the

neutrality of Belgium. Great Britain, in turn, declared war on Germany

in response to the threat to British allies. At the time, Paul and his

classmates would have been 16-year-old schoolboys.

German desire to become a major power was nothing new. Prussian

beliefs included the idea that Germany had to be a military state

because it lacked natural protective boundaries. The Prussian goal was

to make Germany a glittering, well-organized, self-confident

machine. The idea that Paul rejects- 18-year-olds as Iron Youth-

fits perfectly into this Prussian mentality.

From the beginning, World War I was fought in two areas, named for

their geographical relationship to Germany. The Eastern Front extended

into Russia, and the Western Front extended through Belgium into

northern France. Germany hoped to knock out France in six weeks and

then turn its full strength against Russia. The Allies, however,

soon halted the German army at the Marne River, and the war in the

West settled down to four years of trench warfare- the static or at

a standstill kind of war described in the discussion of Chapter 6 in

this guidebook.

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(See illustration.)

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In All Quiet, Paul describes a battle with the French in Chapter 6

and then, a short time later, is assigned to a camp (Chapter 8)

where he guards Russian prisoners of war. Although he does not name

the exact locations for the military offensives he describes- after

all, the place names had little to do with life and death- the

offensive in Chapter 6 could have been the French attack in 1917 at

Aisne and Champagne. That offensive failed, with heavy French losses.

Meanwhile, behind the Fronts, all resources were being directed

toward winning the war. At first, military methods used were mostly

those from earlier wars- infantry, cavalry, and artillery- but this

war boosted production of tanks, planes, machine guns,

high-explosive shells, flamethrowers, and poison gas. The strong