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1-Page Summary of All Quiet On the Western Front
Overview
In World War I, the narrator and his fellow soldiers recuperate behind the front. They’ve lost many of their friends in battle. He describes three 19-year-old boys from his class who also volunteered for the war: Albert Kropp, a clear thinker; Müller, an academic with physics inclinations; and Leer, sexually mature. Their friends include Tjaden, a 19-year-old locksmith; Haie Westhus, a large peat digger; Detering (a married peasant); and Katczinsky (Kat), their wise 40 year old leader.
The boys discuss Kantorek, their former schoolmaster, who used to bully his pupils into volunteering for the war. The boys feel betrayed by Kantorek and other elders. The boys visit Kemmerich, a wounded soldier who is going to die because he doesn’t know that his leg has been amputated. Paul describes how twenty young men from his class patriotically enlisted in the war. During training, Corporal Himmelstoss immediately disliked and punished Paul and some of his friends for being defiant. He recognized defiance in them during training camp when they made a pact not to go running with Himmelstoss again after he had shouted at them all day long while they were doing exercises on the track field (a reference to “Der Weg ins Freie”). Paul sits with Kemmerich, who tells him to give Müller (the new recruit) his boots so that Müller can have something nice since he’s coming from home where there are probably many things like this which will be valuable now that you’re here. He dies, and Paul runs home, gives Müller the boots, then goes back out into battle.
Twenty-five new recruits arrive at the front line. Paul thinks one of them, Kat, is a great soldier because he can always find food for everyone. He also knows that Corporal Himmelstoss will be coming up to the front soon and he doesn’t like him very much because he punished Tjaden when Tjaden wet his bed. The men decided to get revenge on Himmelstoss before they left for the front by ambushing him and beating him up while they had the chance (this happened in chapter 10).
Soldiers are sent to the front lines with barbed wire. At night, during artillery attacks, they dive for cover. They set up the wire and wait for more shelling. Shells tear up their position, but it’s not as bad as expected. The soldiers climb into trucks and head home after a few casualties from gas attacks.
Some of the men are worried about Himmelstoss, who was removed from training for his brutal tactics and sent to the front. He arrives, and he and Tjaden insult each other. The men remember Kantorek, a teacher they had before the war started. They realize that some of them will have trouble with their jobs after returning from war because they never did those jobs before going to war. Tjaden is put on trial in the evening for insulting Himmelstoss earlier in the day. The lieutenant lectures him about inappropriate behavior, but then lets him off with open arrest since he’s new at this job anyway (he only joined recently). At night, Kropp visits Tjaden and tells him what happened during his trial; Kat also goes to visit them both while Paul cooks dinner for all three of them together when they get back from visiting Tjaden/Kropp—Kat even steals a goose for dinner! After eating together as friends, Paul realizes how intimate he has become with Kat over time—they have known each other intimately now for quite some time by this point…
A rumor spread that the army will send more men to the front lines. Rats enter their trenches and eat their food. The enemy attacks with artillery for days without a full-scale assault, so no one can bring back food. A few recruits go insane from hunger. Finally, the bombardment stops and an attack begins on French troops in no man’s land; Paul stares into his opponent’s eyes before throwing a grenade at him, but he misses and kills German soldiers instead of French ones. The Germans reach the line of French troops and repel them successfully; they continue to fight until they’ve lost many more lives than gained ground against the French forces; some wounded soldiers die out in no man’s land because it is too dangerous to retrieve them from there alive (this sentence might be better as: “Some wounded soldiers died out in no man’s land because it was too dangerous to retrieve them from there alive.”); new recruits are brought in, but they die quickly due to carelessness or mistakes made by other people (newcomers). Haie is severely injured when shrapnel hits his back during combat; eventually Second Company has only 32 members left after all this fighting between Germany and France ends.
