All Quiet on the Western Front

Here is one of those examples of when I had to read a book for school, 10th grade or so, and thought it so incredibly boring, couldn’t fathom why they had us read it other than for reasons of punishment. The book is called “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque. I read it again two weeks ago because a friend recommended it. I gobbled it down within a few days, couldn’t fathom why I had thought it boring in school, why I had agonized reading it. Had I been stupid or what?

The story, if you wanna call it that, is set during World War I. The protagonist is a boy who had supposedly “volunteered” together with his friends from school to become a soldier after his teacher had told them that it was their damn duty to do so. As history unfolds, he watches his friends die, and the soldiers who literally step in their boots and the soldiers who step into their boots. The book depicts war in all its cruelty and ugliness, showing in a surprisingly dry language what it is like to sit in a bomb crater while hell is raining down on you. Alternating between the struggle to survive on the battlefield and trivialities like picking lice, the book emphasizes the inconsistency of the situation. One of the moments that touched me the most, is when he wonders why he is sitting in the mud, shooting people he doesn’t know for reasons he has forgotten. The story is told from the perspective of a German soldier but I’m sure there wouldn’t be much difference if you made him French or British or Russian. There is no focus on reasons for the war or nationalities whatsoever. There is no laying blame on someone, no justification, no explanations. There is merely a boy and his thoughts, his fear of dying, his fear of returning home after the war ends and having nothing to live for because all he knows is war.

Written in 1929, “All Quiet on the Western Front” was translated into at least 50 languages and sported an edition of 20 million. It opens with the declaration that it should neither be seen as an accusation nor as an avowal. It merely tries to describe a generation that was destroyed by war even if it escaped the grenades. Walter von Molo called the book a war memorial, the last will of every soldier of every nation killed in action, given to all those who live. I think I was too young when I read the book the first time, unable to relate, unable to see what’s in between the words.

“All Quiet in the Western Front” is an incredible book about the abysmal depths of humanity. Its impact and message are today still as strong as they were 80 years ago.

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