All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Bäumer and several of his school friends enlist in the German army after being encouraged by the patriotic certainty of their teacher. Training strips away their confidence, and service on the Western Front replaces abstract ideas of duty with bombardment, hunger, wounds and the practical dependence of soldiers on one another.

Paul’s visits away from the line show that the war has also separated him from civilian life. Remarque centres the novel on the ordinary infantryman rather than strategy or victory, tracing how fear, comradeship and repeated loss destroy the future that Paul and his generation once expected to inherit.