No change on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque

No change on the Western Front. Return

No change on the Western Front

This book is neither an accusation nor a confession. This is only an attempt to tell about the generation that was destroyed by the war, about those who became its victims, even if they escaped from the shells.

We are standing nine kilometers from the front line. Yesterday we were replaced; Now our stomachs are full of beans and meat, and we all walk around full and satisfied. Even for dinner, everyone got a full pot; On top of that, we get a double portion of bread and sausage - in a word, we live well. This hasn’t happened to us for a long time: our kitchen god with his crimson, like a tomato, bald head himself offers us more food; he waves the ladle, inviting passers-by, and pours out hefty portions to them. He still won’t empty his “squeaker,” and this drives him into despair. Tjaden and Müller obtained several basins from somewhere and filled them to the brim - in reserve. Tjaden did it out of gluttony, Müller out of caution. Where everything that Tjaden eats goes is a mystery to all of us. He still remains as skinny as a herring.

But the most important thing is that the smoke was also given out in double portions. Each person had ten cigars, twenty cigarettes and two bars of chewing tobacco. Overall, pretty decent. I exchanged Katchinsky’s cigarettes for my tobacco, so now I have forty in total. You can last one day.

But, strictly speaking, we are not entitled to all this at all. The management is not capable of such generosity. We were just lucky.

Two weeks ago we were sent to the front line to relieve another unit. It was quite calm in our area, so by the day of our return the captain received allowances according to the usual distribution and ordered to cook for a company of one hundred and fifty people. But just on the last day, the British suddenly brought up their heavy “meat grinders”, most unpleasant things, and beat them on our trenches for so long that we suffered heavy losses, and only eighty people returned from the front line.

We arrived at the rear at night and immediately stretched out on our bunks to first get a good night's sleep; Katchinsky is right: the war would not be so bad if only one could sleep more. You never get much sleep on the front line, and two weeks drag on for a long time.

When the first of us began to crawl out of the barracks, it was already midday. Half an hour later, we grabbed our pots and gathered at the “squeaker” dear to our hearts, which smelled of something rich and tasty. Of course, the first in line were those who always had the biggest appetite: short Albert Kropp, the brightest head in our company and, probably for this reason, only recently promoted to corporal; Muller the Fifth, who still carries textbooks with him and dreams of passing preferential exams: under hurricane fire, he crams the laws of physics; Leer, who wears a thick beard and has a weakness for girls from brothels for officers: he swears that there is an order in the army obliging these girls to wear silk underwear, and to take a bath before receiving visitors with the rank of captain and above; the fourth is me, Paul Bäumer. All four were nineteen years old, all four went to the front from the same class.

Immediately behind us are our friends: Tjaden, a mechanic, a frail young man of the same age as us, the most gluttonous soldier in the company - for food he sits thin and slender, and after eating, he stands up pot-bellied, like a sucked bug; Haye Westhus, also our age, a peat worker who can freely take a loaf of bread in his hand and ask: “Well, guess what’s in my fist?”; Detering, a peasant who thinks only about his farm and his wife; and, finally, Stanislav Katchinsky, the soul of our squad, a man with character, smart and cunning - he is forty years old, he has a sallow face, blue eyes, sloping shoulders and an extraordinary sense of smell about when the shelling will begin, where you can get food and how It's best to hide from your superiors.

Our section headed the line that formed near the kitchen. We began to get impatient as the unsuspecting cook was still waiting for something.

Finally Katchinsky shouted to him:

- Well, open up your glutton, Heinrich! And so you can see that the beans are cooked!

The cook shook his head sleepily:

- Let everyone gather first.

Tjaden grinned:

- And we are all here!

The cook still didn't notice anything:

- Hold your pocket wider! Where are the others?

- They are not on your payroll today! Some are in the infirmary, and some are in the ground!

Upon learning of what had happened, the kitchen god was struck down. He was even shaken:

- And I cooked for a hundred and fifty people!

Kropp poked him in the side with his fist.

“That means we’ll eat our fill at least once.” Come on, start the distribution!

At that moment, a sudden thought struck Tjaden. His face, sharp as a mouse, lit up, his eyes squinted slyly, his cheekbones began to play, and he came closer:

- Heinrich, my friend, so you got bread for a hundred and fifty people?

The dumbfounded cook nodded absently.

Tjaden grabbed him by the chest:

- And sausage too?

The cook nodded again with his head as purple as a tomato. Tjaden's jaw dropped:

- And tobacco?

- Well, yes, that's it.

Tjaden turned to us, his face beaming:

- Damn it, that's lucky! After all, now everything will go to us! It will be - just wait! – that’s right, exactly two servings per nose!

But then the Tomato came to life again and said:

- It won’t work that way.

Now we, too, shook off our sleep and squeezed closer.

- Hey, carrot, why won’t it work? – asked Katchinsky.

- Yes, because eighty is not one hundred and fifty!

“But we’ll show you how to do it,” Muller grumbled.

“You’ll get the soup, so be it, but I’ll give you bread and sausage only for eighty,” Tomato continued to persist.

Katchinsky lost his temper:

“I wish I could send you to the front line just once!” You received food not for eighty people, but for the second company, that’s it. And you will give them away! The second company is us.

We took Pomodoro into circulation. Everyone disliked him: more than once, through his fault, lunch or dinner ended up in our trenches cold, very late, since even with the most insignificant fire he did not dare to move closer with his cauldron and our food bearers had to crawl much further than their brothers from other mouths. Here is Bulke from the first company, he was much better. Although he was as fat as a hamster, if necessary, he dragged his kitchen almost to the very front.

We were in a very belligerent mood, and, probably, things would have come to a fight if the company commander had not appeared at the scene. Having learned what we were arguing about, he only said:

- Yes, yesterday we had big losses...

Then he looked into the cauldron:

– And the beans seem to be quite good.

The tomato nodded:

- With lard and beef.

The lieutenant looked at us. He understood what we were thinking. In general, he understood a lot - after all, he himself came from our midst: he came to the company as a non-commissioned officer. He lifted the lid of the cauldron again and sniffed. As he left, he said:

- Bring me a plate too. And distribute portions for everyone. Why should good things disappear?

Tomato's face took on a stupid expression. Tjaden danced around him:

- It’s okay, this won’t hurt you! He imagines that he is in charge of the entire quartermaster service. Now get started, old rat, and make sure you don’t miscalculate!..

- Get lost, hanged man! - Tomato hissed. He was ready to burst with anger; everything that happened could not fit into his head, he did not understand what was going on in this world. And as if wanting to show that now everything was the same to him, he himself distributed another half a pound of artificial honey to his brother.

Today turned out to be a good day indeed. Even the mail arrived; almost everyone received several letters and newspapers. Now we slowly wander to the meadow behind the barracks. Kropp carries a round margarine barrel lid under his arm.

On the right edge of the meadow there is a large soldiers' latrine - a well-built structure under a roof. However, it is of interest only to recruits who have not yet learned to benefit from everything. We are looking for something better for ourselves. The fact is that here and there in the meadow there are single cabins intended for the same purpose. These are quadrangular boxes, neat, made entirely of boards, closed on all sides, with a magnificent, very comfortable seat. They have handles on the sides so the booths can be moved.

We move three booths together, put them in a circle and leisurely take our seats. We won't get up from our seats until two hours later.

I still remember how embarrassed we were at first, when we lived in the barracks as recruits and for the first time we had to use a common restroom. There are no doors, twenty people sit in a row, like on a tram. You can take one look at them - after all, a soldier must always be under surveillance.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with what was written in 1929 and read its summary. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the title of the novel that interests us. The author of the work is Remarque. The writer's photo is presented below.

The following events begin the summary. "All Quiet on the Western Front" tells the story of the height of the First World War. Germany is already fighting against Russia, France, America and England. Paul Boyler, the narrator of the work, introduces his fellow soldiers. These are fishermen, peasants, artisans, schoolchildren of various ages.

The company rests after the battle

The novel tells about soldiers of one company. Omitting the details, we have compiled a brief summary. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is a work that mainly describes a company, which included the main characters - former classmates. It has already lost almost half of its members. The company is resting 9 km from the front line after meeting with the British guns - “meat grinders”. Because of the losses suffered during the shelling, the soldiers receive double portions of smoke and food. They smoke, eat, sleep and play cards. Paul, Kropp and Müller head to their wounded classmate. These four soldiers ended up in one company, persuaded by their class teacher Kantorek, with his “sincere voice.”

How Joseph Bem was killed

Joseph Böhm, the hero of the work “All Quiet on the Western Front” (we describe the summary), did not want to go to war, but, fearing refusal to cut off all paths for himself, he signed up, like others, as a volunteer. He was one of the first to be killed. Because of the wounds he received in his eyes, he was unable to find shelter. The soldier lost his bearings and was eventually shot. Kantorek, a former mentor to soldiers, sends his regards to Kropp in a letter, calling his comrades “iron guys.” So many Kantoreks fool young people.

Death of Kimmerich

Kimmerich, another of his classmates, was found by his comrades with an amputated leg. His mother asked Paul to look after him, because Franz Kimmerich was “just a child.” But how can this be done on the front lines? One look at Kimmerich is enough to understand that this soldier is hopeless. While he was unconscious, someone stole his favorite watch, received as a gift. There were, however, some good leather English knee-length boots left, which Franz no longer needed. Kimmerich dies in front of his comrades. The soldiers, depressed by this, return to the barracks with Franz's boots. Kropp becomes hysterical on the way. After reading the novel on which the summary is based ("All Quiet on the Western Front"), you will learn the details of these and other events.

Replenishment of the company with recruits

Arriving at the barracks, the soldiers see that they have been replenished with new recruits. The living replaced the dead. One of the new arrivals says that they ate only rutabaga. Kat (the breadwinner Katchinsky) feeds the guy beans and meat. Kropp offers his own version of how combat operations should be conducted. Let the generals fight on their own, and the one who wins will declare his country the winner of the war. Otherwise it turns out that others are fighting for them, those who do not need the war at all, who did not start it.

The company, replenished with recruits, goes to the front line for sapper work. The recruits are taught by the experienced Kat, one of the main characters in the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” (the summary only briefly introduces readers to him). He explains to recruits how to recognize explosions and shots and how to avoid them. He assumes, having listened to the “roar of the front,” that they will “be given a light at night.”

Reflecting on the behavior of soldiers on the front line, Paul says that they are all instinctively connected to their land. You want to squeeze into it when shells whistle overhead. The earth appears to the soldier as a reliable intercessor; he confides his pain and fear to her with a cry and a groan, and she accepts them. She is his mother, brother, only Friend.

Night shelling

As Kat thought, the shelling was very dense. The pops of exploding chemical shells are heard. Metal rattles and gongs announce: “Gas, gas!” The soldiers have only one hope - the tightness of the mask. All funnels are filled with “soft jellyfish”. We need to get up, but there is artillery fire there.

The comrades count how many people from their class are left alive. 7 killed, 1 in a mental hospital, 4 wounded - a total of 8. Respite. A wax lid is attached above the candle. Lice are dumped there. During this activity, the soldiers reflect on what each of them would do if there was no war. The former postman, and now the main torturer of the guys during the Himmelstoss exercises, arrives at the unit. Everyone has a grudge against him, but his comrades have not yet decided how to take revenge on him.

The fighting continues

The preparations for the offensive are further described in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque paints the following picture: coffins smelling of resin are stacked in 2 tiers near the school. Corpse rats have bred in the trenches, and they cannot be dealt with. It is impossible to deliver food to the soldiers due to the shelling. One of the recruits has a seizure. He wants to jump out of the dugout. The French attack, and the soldiers are pushed back to a reserve line. After a counterattack, they return with the spoils of booze and canned food. There is continuous shelling from both sides. The dead are placed in a large crater. They are already lying here in 3 layers. All living things became stupefied and weakened. Himmelstoss is hiding in a trench. Paul forces him to attack.

Only 32 people remained from a company of 150 soldiers. They are being taken further to the rear than before. Soldiers smooth out the nightmares of the front with irony. This helps to escape from insanity.

Paul goes home

In the office where Paul was summoned, he is given travel documents and a vacation certificate. He looks at the “border pillars” of his youth from the window of his carriage with excitement. Here, finally, is his house. Paul's mother is sick. Showing feelings is not customary in their family, and the mother’s words “my dear boy” say a lot. The father wants to show his friends his son in uniform, but Paul does not want to talk to anyone about the war. The soldier craves solitude and finds it over a glass of beer in quiet corners of local restaurants or in his own room, where the atmosphere is familiar to him to the smallest detail. His German teacher invites him to the beer hall. Here, patriotic teachers, acquaintances of Paul, talk brilliantly about how to “beat up the Frenchman.” Paul is treated to cigars and beer, while plans are made on how to take over Belgium, large areas of Russia and the coal areas of France. Paul goes to the barracks where the soldiers were trained 2 years ago. Mittelstedt, his classmate, who was sent here from the infirmary, reports the news that Kantorek has been taken into the militia. According to his own scheme, the class teacher is trained by a career military man.

Paul is the main character of the work "All Quiet on the Western Front." Remarque writes about him further that the guy goes to Kimmerich’s mother and tells her about the instant death of her son from a wound to the heart. The woman believes his convincing story.

Paul shares cigarettes with Russian prisoners

And again the barracks, where the soldiers trained. Nearby there is a large camp where Russian prisoners of war are kept. Paul is on duty here. Looking at all these people with the beards of the apostles and childish faces, the soldier reflects on who turned them into murderers and enemies. He breaks his cigarettes and passes them in half to the Russians through the net. Every day they sing dirges, burying the dead. Remarque describes all this in detail in his work (“All Quiet on the Western Front”). The summary continues with the arrival of the Kaiser.

Arrival of the Kaiser

Paul is sent back to his unit. Here he meets with his people. They spend a week racing around the parade ground. On the occasion of the arrival of such an important person, soldiers are given a new uniform. The Kaiser doesn't impress them. Disputes are beginning again about who is the initiator of wars and why they are needed. Take, for example, the French worker. Why would this man fight? The authorities decide all this. Unfortunately, we cannot dwell in detail on the author’s digressions when compiling a summary of the story “All Quiet on the Western Front.”

Paul kills a French soldier

There are rumors that they will be sent to fight in Russia, but the soldiers are sent to the front line, into the thick of it. The guys go on reconnaissance. Night, shooting, rockets. Paul is lost and does not understand which direction their trenches are located. He spends the day in a crater, in mud and water, pretending to be dead. Paul has lost his pistol and is preparing a knife in case of hand-to-hand combat. A lost French soldier falls into his crater. Paul rushes at him with a knife. When night falls, he returns to the trenches. Paul is shocked - for the first time in his life he killed a man, and yet he, in essence, did nothing to him. This is an important episode of the novel, and the reader should certainly be informed about it when writing a summary. “All Quiet on the Western Front” (its fragments sometimes perform an important semantic function) is a work that cannot be fully understood without turning to the details.

Feast in Time of Plague

Soldiers are sent to guard a food warehouse. From their squad, only 6 people survived: Deterling, Leer, Tjaden, Müller, Albert, Kat - all here. In the village, these heroes of the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque, briefly presented in this article, discover a reliable concrete basement. Mattresses and even an expensive bed made of mahogany, with feather beds and lace are brought from the homes of escaped residents. Kat and Paul go on reconnaissance around this village. She is under heavy fire from In the barn they discover two frolicking piglets. There's a big treat ahead. The warehouse is dilapidated, the village is burning due to shelling. Now you can get anything you want from it. Passing drivers and security guards take advantage of this. Feast in Time of Plague.

Newspapers report: "No change on the Western Front"

Maslenitsa ended in a month. Once again the soldiers are sent to the front line. The marching column is being fired upon. Paul and Albert end up in the monastery infirmary in Cologne. From here the dead are constantly being taken away and the wounded are being brought back again. Albert's leg is amputated all the way down. After recovery, Paul is again on the front line. The position of the soldiers is hopeless. French, English and American regiments advance on the battle-weary Germans. Muller was killed by a flare. Kat, wounded in the shin, is carried out from under fire on his back by Paul. However, while running, Kata is wounded in the neck by a shrapnel, and he still dies. Of all his classmates who went to war, Paul was the only one left alive. There is talk everywhere that a truce is approaching.

In October 1918, Paul was killed. At this time it was quiet, and military reports came in as follows: “No change on the Western Front.” The summary of the chapters of the novel that interests us ends here.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front was published in 1929. Many publishers doubted his success - he was too frank and uncharacteristic of the ideology of glorification of Germany, which lost the First World War, that existed in society at that time. Erich Maria Remarque, who volunteered for the war in 1916, in his work was not so much the author as a merciless witness of what he saw on the European battlefields. Honestly, simply, without unnecessary emotions, but with merciless cruelty, the author described all the horrors of the war that irrevocably destroyed his generation. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is a novel not about heroes, but about victims, among whom Remarque counts both young people who died and those who escaped from shells.

Main characters works - yesterday's schoolchildren, like the author, who went to the front as volunteers (students of the same class - Paul Beumer, Albert Kropp, Müller, Leer, Franz Kemmerich), and their older comrades (the mechanic Tjaden, the peat worker Haye Westhus, the peasant Detering, Stanislav Katchinsky, who knows how to get out of any situation) - they don’t so much live and fight as they try to escape from death. Young people who fell for the bait of teacher propaganda quickly realized that war is not an opportunity to valiantly serve their homeland, but the most ordinary massacre, in which there is nothing heroic and humane.

The first artillery shelling immediately put everything in its place - the authority of the teachers collapsed, taking with it the worldview that they instilled. On the battlefield, everything that the heroes were taught in school turned out to be unnecessary: physical laws were replaced by the laws of life, which consist in the knowledge of “how to light a cigarette in the rain and wind” and what’s the best way... to kill - “It is best to strike with a bayonet in the stomach, and not in the ribs, because the bayonet does not get stuck in the stomach”.

The First World War not only divided nations - it severed the internal connection between two generations: while "parents" they also wrote articles and made speeches about heroism, "children" passed through hospitals and dying people; while "parents" still placed service to the state above all else, "children" already knew that there is nothing stronger than the fear of death. According to Paul, awareness of this truth did not make any of them "neither a rebel, nor a deserter, nor a coward", but it gave them a terrible insight.

Internal changes in the heroes began to occur even at the stage of barracks drill, which consisted of meaningless trumping, standing at attention, pacing, taking guard duty, turning right and left, clicking heels and constant abuse and nagging. Preparation for war made young men “callous, distrustful, ruthless, vindictive, rude”- the war showed them that these were the qualities they needed in order to survive. Barracks training developed future soldiers “a strong feeling of mutual cohesion, always ready to be translated into action”- the war turned him into "the only good thing" what she could give to humanity - "partnership" . But at the time of the beginning of the novel, only twelve people remained from former classmates instead of twenty: seven had already been killed, four were wounded, one ended up in an insane asylum, and at the time of its completion - no one. Remarque left everyone on the battlefield, including his main character, Paul Bäumer, whose philosophical reasoning constantly broke into the fabric of the narrative in order to explain to the reader the essence of what was happening, understandable only to a soldier.

The war for the heroes of “All Quiet on the Western Front” takes place in three art spaces: at the forefront, at the front and in the rear. The worst thing is where shells are constantly exploding, and attacks are replaced by counterattacks, where flares burst "rain of white, green and red stars", and the wounded horses scream so terribly, as if the whole world was dying with them. There, in this "ominous whirlpool" which draws a person in, "paralyzing all resistance", the only "friend, brother and mother" For a soldier, the earth becomes, because it is in its folds, depressions and hollows that one can hide, obeying the only instinct possible on the battlefield - the instinct of the beast. Where life depends only on chance, and death awaits a person at every step, anything is possible - hiding in coffins torn apart by bombs, killing your own to save them from suffering, regretting bread eaten by rats, listening to people screaming in pain for several days in a row. a dying man who cannot be found on the battlefield.

The rear part of the front is a borderline space between military and civilian life: there is a place for simple human joys - reading newspapers, playing cards, talking with friends, but all this one way or another passes under the sign of something ingrained in the blood of every soldier "coarsening". A shared restroom, theft of food, the expectation of comfortable boots passed from hero to hero as they are wounded and die - completely natural things for those who are used to fighting for their existence.

The vacation given to Paul Bäumer and his immersion into the space of peaceful existence finally convince the hero that people like him will never be able to return back. Eighteen-year-old boys, just getting acquainted with life and beginning to love it, were forced to shoot at it and hit themselves right in the heart. For people of the older generation who have strong ties to the past (wives, children, professions, interests), the war is a painful, but still temporary break in life; for the young, it is a stormy stream that easily tore them out of the shaky soil of parental love and children's rooms. with bookshelves and carried it to who knows where.

The pointlessness of war, in which one person must kill another just because someone from above told them that they were enemies, forever cut off yesterday’s schoolchildren’s faith in human aspirations and progress. They believe only in war, so they have no place in peaceful life. They believe only in death, which sooner or later everything ends, so they have no place in life as such. The “Lost Generation” has nothing to talk about with their parents, who know the war from rumors and newspapers; The “lost generation” will never pass on their sad experience to those who come after them. You can only learn what war is in the trenches; the whole truth about it can only be told in a work of art.

All Quiet on the Western Front is the fourth novel by Erich Maria Remarque. This work brought the writer fame, money, and a worldwide calling, and at the same time deprived him of his homeland and exposed him to mortal danger.

Remarque completed the novel in 1928 and initially tried unsuccessfully to publish the work. Most leading German publishers considered that a novel about the First World War would not be popular with modern readers. Finally, the work was published by Haus Ullstein. The success caused by the novel anticipated the wildest expectations. In 1929, All Quiet on the Western Front was published in 500 thousand copies and translated into 26 languages. It became the best-selling book in Germany.

The following year, a film of the same name was made based on the best-selling military book. The film, released in the United States, was directed by Lewis Milestone. She won two Oscars for best film and director. Later, in 1979, a TV version of the novel was released by director Delbert Mann. The next release of a film based on Remarque's cult novel is expected in December 2015. The film was created by Roger Donaldson and Daniel Radcliffe played the role of Paul Bäumer.

An outcast in his homeland

Despite worldwide recognition, the novel was negatively received by Nazi Germany. The unsightly image of the war drawn by Remarque ran counter to what the fascists presented in their official version. The writer was immediately called a traitor, a liar, a falsifier.

The Nazis even tried to find Jewish roots in the Remarque family. The most widely circulated “evidence” turned out to be the writer’s pseudonym. Erich Maria signed his debut works with the surname Kramer (Remarque vice versa). The authorities spread a rumor that this clearly Jewish surname was real.

Three years later, the volumes “All Quiet on the Western Front,” along with other inconvenient works, were betrayed to the so-called “satanic fire” of the Nazis, and the writer lost his German citizenship and left Germany forever. Physical reprisals against everyone’s favorite, fortunately, did not take place, but the Nazis took revenge on his sister Elfriede. During World War II, she was guillotined for being related to an enemy of the people.

Remarque did not know how to dissemble and could not remain silent. All the realities described in the novel correspond to the reality that the young soldier Erich Maria had to face during the First World War. Unlike the main character, Remarque was lucky enough to survive and convey his artistic memoirs to the reader. Let's remember the plot of the novel, which brought its creator the most honors and sorrows at the same time.

The height of the First World War. Germany is engaged in active battles with France, England, the USA and Russia. Western Front. Young soldiers, yesterday's students, are far from the strife of the great powers, they are not driven by the political ambitions of the powers that be, every day they are simply trying to survive.

Nineteen-year-old Paul Bäumer and his schoolmates, inspired by the patriotic speeches of class teacher Kantorek, signed up to volunteer. The young men saw the war in a romantic aura. Today they are already well aware of her true face - hungry, bloody, dishonest, deceitful and evil. However, there is no turning back.

Paul writes his simple war memoirs. His memoirs will not be included in the official chronicles, because they reflect the ugly truth of the great war.

Fighting side by side with Paul are his comrades - Müller, Albert Kropp, Leer, Kemmerich, Joseph Boehm.

Müller does not lose hope of getting an education. Even on the front line, he does not part with physics textbooks and crams the laws under the whistle of bullets and the roar of exploding shells.

Paul calls short Albert Kropp “the brightest head.” This smart guy will always find a way out of a difficult situation and will never lose his composure.

Leer is a real fashionista. He doesn’t lose his shine even in a soldier’s trench; he wears a thick beard to impress the fair sex, which can be found on the front line.

Franz Kemmerich is not with his comrades now. He was recently seriously wounded in the leg and is now fighting for his life in a military hospital.

And Joseph Bem is no longer among the living. He was the only one who initially did not believe in the pretentious speeches of teacher Kantorek. In order not to be a black sheep, Beyem goes to the front with his comrades and (the irony of fate!) is among the first to die even before the official conscription begins.

In addition to his school friends, Paul talks about his comrades whom he met on the battlefield. This is Tjaden - the most gluttonous soldier in the company. It’s especially difficult for him because supplies are tight at the front. Even though Tjaden is very thin, he can eat for five people. After Tjaden gets up after a hearty meal, he resembles a drunk bug.

Haye Westhus is a real giant. He may clutch a loaf of bread in his hand and ask, “What’s in my fist?” Haye is far from the smartest, but he is simple-minded and very strong.

Detering spends his days reminiscing about home and family. He hates war with all his heart and dreams of this torture ending as soon as possible.

Stanislav Katchinsky, aka Kat, is the senior mentor of the new recruits. He is forty years old. Paul calls him a real “clever and cunning.” Young men learn from Kata soldier's endurance and combat skills not with the help of blind strength, but with the help of intelligence and ingenuity.

Company commander Bertink is an example to follow. The soldiers idolize their leader. He is an example of true soldier's valor and fearlessness. During combat, Bertink never sits undercover and always risks his life alongside his subordinates.

The day we met Paul and his company comrades was, to some extent, happy for the soldiers. The day before, the company suffered heavy losses, its strength was reduced by almost half. However, provisions were prescribed in the old fashioned way for one hundred and fifty people. Paul and his friends are triumphant - now they will get a double portion of dinner, and most importantly - tobacco.

The cook, nicknamed Tomato, refuses to give out more than the required amount. An argument ensues between the hungry soldiers and the head of the kitchen. They have long disliked the cowardly Tomato, who, with the most trifling fire, does not risk pushing his kitchen to the front line. So the warriors sit hungry for a long time. Lunch arrives cold and very late.

The dispute is resolved with the appearance of Commander Bertinka. He says that there is no good thing to waste, and orders that his wards be given a double portion.

Having had their fill, the soldiers go to the meadow where the latrines are located. Conveniently seated in open cabins (during service these are the most comfortable places for spending leisure time), the friends begin to play cards and indulge in memories of the past, forgotten somewhere in the rubble of peacetime, life.

There was also a place in these memories for the teacher Kantorek, who encouraged young students to sign up as volunteers. He was a “stern little man in a gray frock coat” with a sharp face reminiscent of a mouse’s muzzle. He began each lesson with a fiery speech, an appeal, an appeal to conscience and patriotic feelings. I must say that the speaker from Kantorek was an excellent one - in the end, the whole class went to the military headquarters in an even formation right from their school desks.

“These educators,” Bäumer sums up bitterly, “will always have high feelings. They carry them ready in their vest pocket and hand them out as needed on a per-minute basis. But then we didn’t think about it yet.”

The friends go to the field hospital, where their comrade Franz Kemmerich is located. His condition is much worse than Paul and his friends could have imagined. Franz had both legs amputated, but his health is rapidly deteriorating. Kemmerich is still worried about the new English boots that will no longer be useful to him, and the memorable watch that was stolen from the wounded man. Franz dies in the arms of his comrades. Taking new English boots, saddened, they return to the barracks.

During their absence, newcomers appeared in the company - after all, the dead need to be replaced by the living. The new arrivals talk about the misadventures they experienced, hunger and the rutabaga “diet” that the management gave them. Kat feeds the newcomers the beans he took from Tomato.

When everyone goes to dig trenches, Paul Bäumer discusses the behavior of a soldier on the front line, his instinctive connection with Mother Earth. How you want to hide in its warm embrace from annoying bullets, bury yourself deeper from the fragments of flying shells, and wait out a terrible enemy attack in it!

And again the battle. The company counts the dead, and Paul and his friends keep their own register - seven classmates were killed, four in the infirmary, one in an insane asylum.

After a short respite, the soldiers begin preparations for the offensive. They are drilled by the squad leader, Himmelstoss, a tyrant whom everyone hates.

The theme of wandering and persecution in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “Night in Lisbon” is very close to the author himself, who had to leave his homeland because of his rejection of fascism.

You can check out another novel by Remarque, “The Black Obelisk,” which has a very deep and intricate plot that sheds light on the events in Germany after the First World War.

And again, the calculations of the dead after the offensive - out of 150 people in the company, only 32 remained. The soldiers are close to insanity. Each of them is tormented by nightmares. The nerves are gone. It’s hard to believe in the prospect of reaching the end of the war; I want only one thing – to die without suffering.

Paul is given a short vacation. He visits his native places, his family, meets neighbors and acquaintances. Civilians now seem alien to him, narrow-minded. They talk about the justice of war in pubs, develop entire strategies on how to “beat the Frenchman” with hunters and have no idea what is happening there on the battlefield.

Returning to the company, Paul repeatedly ends up on the front line, each time he manages to avoid death. One by one, the comrades pass away: the clever Müller was killed by a flare; Leer, the strongman Westhus and the commander Bertink did not live to see victory. Bäumer carries the wounded Katchinsky from the battlefield on his own shoulders, but cruel fate is adamant - on the way to the hospital, a stray bullet hits Kat in the head. He dies in the arms of military orderlies.

Paul Bäumer's trench memoirs end in 1918, on the day of his death. Tens of thousands of dead, rivers of grief, tears and blood, but official chronicles dryly broadcast - “No change on the Western Front.”

The story is told on behalf of Paul Bäumer, a German youth who, with six of his classmates, volunteered to go to war. This happened under the influence of the patriotic speeches of their teacher Kantorek. But once they got to the training unit, the young people realized that reality was different from school sermons. Meager food, drill from morning to evening, and especially the bullying of Corporal Himmelstoss, dispelled the last romantic ideas about the war.

The story begins with the fact that Paul and his comrades were incredibly lucky. They were taken to the rear to rest and given double rations of food, cigarettes and dry rations. This “luck” was explained by a simple fact. The company stood in a quiet area, but in the last two days the enemy decided to carry out a strong artillery barrage, and from 150 people in the company there were only 80 left. And food was received for everyone, and the cook cooked for the whole company. Soldiers at the front learned to appreciate and take full advantage of such small momentary joys.

Paul and his comrade Müller visit their colleague Kimmerich in the hospital. They understand that the wounded soldier will not last long, and Kimmerich's boots become Müller's main concern. When he dies a few days later, Paul takes the shoes and gives them to Müller. This moment characterizes the relations of soldiers in war. There is nothing that can be done to help a dead person, but a living person needs comfortable shoes. Soldiers at the front live simple lives and simple thoughts. If you think deeply, you can easily die or even more easily go crazy. This idea is one of the main ones in the novel.

What follows is a description of the fighting and the behavior of soldiers on the front line during a multi-day artillery bombardment. People are having a hard time keeping their minds in check, and one young soldier is going crazy. But as soon as the shelling stops and the enemy goes on the attack, the soldiers begin to act. But they act like automatons, without thinking or reflecting. They fire back, throw grenades, retreat, and launch a counterattack. And only by invading other people's trenches do German soldiers show ingenuity. Searching and collecting food. Because in 1918 Germany was already experiencing famine. And even the soldiers on the front line are malnourished.

This is manifested in the fact that after receiving leave and arriving home, Paul Bäumer feeds his sick mother, father and sister with soldier’s rations.

On vacation, he goes to visit his friend Mittelstedt, and discovers that their teacher Kantorek has been taken into the militia, and is being trained under his supervision. Mittelstedt does not miss the opportunity to amuse himself and his friend with the drill of the hated teacher. But this is the only joy of vacation.

With gloomy thoughts, Paul returns to the front. Here he learns that there are even fewer of his comrades left, mostly young men who have not been shot at in the trenches. At the end of the book, Bäumer tries to carry his best friend Katchinsky, who was wounded in the leg, out from under fire. But he brought the dead man, a shrapnel hit his head. Paul Bäumer himself was killed in mid-October 1918. And on November 11, a truce was declared on the Western Front and the global carnage ended.

Remarque's book shows the senselessness and mercilessness of war, teaches us to understand that wars are fought for the interests of those who profit from them.