First edition cover
| Genre | War novel |
| Set in | Western Front and Germany, 1916–18 |
| Publisher | Propyläen Verlag |
| Publication date | January 29, 1929 |
Who is Kat in All Quiet on the Western Front?
In ''All Quiet on the Western Front,'' Stanislaus Katczinsky, or Kat, is main character Paul Baumer's closest comrade on the battlefields of World War I. Read on for a short summary of the character and how his relationship with Paul is important to the themes of the novel!
What does All Quiet on the Western Front mean?
All Quiet on the Western Front ( German: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit. 'Nothing New in the West') is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I.
Who is Kat Katczinsky and what does he do?
Stanislaus 'Kat' Katczinsky is one of the older men serving in the war for Germany. At about 40 years old, Kat is the father figure and leader for many of the younger men. He helps out his younger comrades -- fellow soldiers -- and teaches them many things about how to survive in war.
Who are the main characters in All Quiet on the Western Front?
All Quiet on the Western Front. 1 Paul Bäumer. A young German soldier fighting in the trenches during World War I. Paul is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He is, at heart, a ... 2 Stanislaus Katczinsky. 3 Albert Kropp. 4 Müller. 5 Tjaden. More items
Who is Katczinsky why is he so important to Paul and his friends?
Stanislaus (Kat) Katczinsky is an old soldier in the Imperial German Army. Kat has the most positive influence on Paul and his comrades on the battlefield. Katczinsky was a cobbler in civilian life; he is older than Paul Bäumer and his comrades, about 40 years old, and serves as their leadership figure.
For what does Katczinsky have a reputation?
Kat, as he is affectionately known, is famed amongst the men for his resourcefulness, able to scrounge up food in the remotest of places. This usefulness makes him loved by and invaluable to the other soldiers.
What happens to Katczinsky?
Unfortunately, Kat sustains another injury—shrapnel in his brain—while Paul is carrying him and dies almost instantly. This death is among the most shocking for Paul; he had assumed his friend was only slightly wounded.
How does Katczinsky get killed?
After Kat dies from a shrapnel splinter in the head, the loss of "Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky" seems all the more intolerable, as though the final prop has been knocked from beneath Paul, leaving him defenseless in the face of the interminable war.
What is Katczinsky sixth sense?
What is Katczinsky's sixth sense? Katczinsky's sixth sense is that he is able to find anything, especially food, supplies, and shelter. Compare Katczinsky's idea of how to end the war with Kropp's. Katczinsky believes that if soldiers and officers have the same amount of food and pay, the war will be over in a day.
How does Paul feel about Katczinsky?
Paul feels particularly close to Kat, seeing him as a brother and treating him as a father figure, and when Kat is killed in the war, Paul falls into depression.
How is Himmelstoss a bully?
He's a training officer at the training camp the boys must attend before being deployed to the front lines, and he's universally hated because he's a bully. He's cruel, plans sadistic punishments, and throws his weight around. He does this because he's insecure about his job as a postman before the war.
Who dies in All Quiet on the Western Front?
PaulAfter years of fighting, Paul is finally killed in October of 1918, on an extraordinarily quiet, peaceful day. The army report that day contains only one phrase: “All quiet on the Western Front.” As Paul dies, his face is calm, “as though almost glad the end had come.”
Who beat Himmelstoss?
Following their former tormentor along a road from a pub on a dark night, the four soldiers joyfully wrapped Himmelstoss in a bedspread and, with Haie leading the attack, beat him mercilessly with kicks and punches and a whip, smothering his outcries with a pillow.
How old is Katczinsky?
forty years oldStanislaus Katczinsky Kat, as he is known, is forty years old at the beginning of the novel and has a family at home.
What happens to Kantorek?
What has happened to Kantorek? He has been called up as a territorial. Mittlestaedt rules over him and pays him back for all of the degrading that Kantorek did to him in school.
How does Paul react to Kat's death?
How does Paul respond to Kat's death? He is delirious and hopeless. He can barely stand, and his eyes nearly role back in his head.
What does Paul's panic over Kat's death reveal?
Paul’s panic over Kat’s possible death reveals the kinds of bonds that war forms. Paul, a young man barely out of his teens, and Kat, a man in his forties, would never have been friends in civilian life.
What does Paul notice about Kat?
Paul notices that Kat has become quiet and morose and fears an incoming attack. Since Kat is an older veteran, the younger men trust his judgment, using him as a metric for how things are going. Kat will continue to serve as the glue for this group of comrades throughout the story. His loss would be devastating.
Who is Katczinsky?
Kat has the most positive influence on Paul and his comrades on the battlefield. Katczinsky, a recalled reserve militiaman, was a cobbler ( shoemaker) in civilian life; he is older than Paul Bäumer and his comrades, about 40 years old, and serves as their leadership figure. He also represents a literary model highlighting the differences between the younger and older soldiers. While the older men have already had a life of professional and personal experience before the war, Bäumer and the men of his age have had little life experience or time for personal growth.
What is the book "All Quiet on the Western Front" about?
The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers ...
What did Paul feel about the Western Front?
Paul feels that he has no aims or goals left in life and that their generation will be different and misunderstood. In October 1918, Paul is finally killed on a remarkably peaceful day. The situation report from the frontline states a simple phrase: "All quiet on the Western Front.".
What is the title of the book "Im Westen nichts Neues"?
The English translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen gives the title as All Quiet on the Western Front. The literal translation of "Im Westen nichts Neues" is "Nothing New in the West, " with "West" being the Western Front; the phrase refers to the content of an official communiqué at the end of the novel.
How many copies of All Quiet on the Western Front were sold?
The book and its sequel, The Road Back (1930), were among the books banned and burned in Nazi Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front sold 2.5 million copies in 22 languages in its first 18 months in print. In 1930, the book was adapted as an Academy Award-winning film of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone.
Why was All Quiet on the Western Front banned?
In contrast, All Quiet on the Western Front was trumpeted by pacifists as an anti-war book.
Who is Lieutenant Bertinck?
Lieutenant Bertinck is the leader of Bäumer's company. His men have a great respect for him, and Bertinck has great respect for his men. In the beginning of the book, he permits them to eat the rations of the men that had been killed in action, standing up to the chef Ginger who allowed them only their allotted share. Bertinck is genuinely despondent when he learns that few of his men had survived an engagement.
How old is Katczinsky?
One of Paul’s closest friends. Katczinsky, or Kat, at 40 years old, is the oldest of Paul’s friends at the front and by far the cleverest. Kat has a knack for rounding up food and supplies in even the most barren conditions.
Who was the postman in boot camp?
A postman in civilian life, Corporal Himmelstoss abuses young recruits in his wartime role as a trainer at boot camp. He was particularly cruel to Tjaden, a bedwetter, whom Himmelstoss made share a bed… read analysis of Corporal Himmelstoss
Who is Johann Lewandowski?
Johann Lewandowski (YOH-hahn LAY-vahn-DOW-skee) A forty-year-old Polish veteran, he has occupied a ward in the Catholic hospital for ten months while recovering from an abdominal wound.
What is the name of the ward mate in Little Peter?
He resists being taken to the "Dead Room," then amazes his buddies by becoming the first patient to return. Franz Wächter ( frahnz VEHK-tuhr) A ward mate, he suffers an arm wound that hemorrhages during the night.
What is the name of the peasant who hates horses?
Detering (DEE-tuh-rihng) An Oldenburg peasant who hates to hear horses bellowing from pain and is plagued by worries about his wife, who must tend their farm alone. Filled with longing for home, when cherry trees are in bloom, he deserts. After his capture, he is sent before a field tribunal and never heard from again.
Who is Paul's friend?
Mittelstaedt (MIHT-tuhl-shteht) Paul's friend who commands the home guard and uses his authority to humiliate Kantorek, their former schoolmaster, even parroting some of Kantorek's favorite sneers. To circumvent punishment, Mittelstaedt relies on his ongoing relationship with the daughter of his superior officer.
Who was the most powerful soldier in the Second Company?
Berger (BAYR-guhr) The most powerful soldier in the Second Company. During the summer of 1918, he commits an error in judgment and is wounded while trying to rescue a messenger dog under fire. Gérard Duval (zhuh-RAHRD doo-VAHL) A French soldier, a typesetter in civilian life, he is knifed to death by Paul.
Who is Tiejen in the movie?
Tiejen (TEE-juhn) A soldier who calls for his mother and holds off a doctor with a dagger, then falls dead . Sergeant Oellrich (UHRL-rihk) A sniper who takes pride in the accuracy of his shooting. Heinrich Bredemeyer (HYN-rihk BRAY-duh-MY-r) A soldier who informs Paul's mother about front-line dangers.
Who is Müller in the book?
Müller (MEW-luhr) A scholarly young man who continues studying his physics books and thinking of exams. Pragmatic to a fault, he inherits Kemmerich's soft airman's boots, then wills them to Paul as Müller lies dying with an agonizing stomach wound.
What happened to Kemmerich's leg?
After suffering a light wound, Kemmerich contracts gangrene, and his leg has to be amputated. His death, in Chapter Two, marks the reader’s first encounter with the meaninglessness of death and the cheapness of life in the war.
Who was the schoolmaster in Paul's high school?
Kantorek. A pompous, ignorant, authoritarian schoolmaster in Paul’s high school during the years before the war. Kantorek places intense pressure on Paul and his classmates to fulfill their “patriotic duty” by enlisting in the army. Read an in-depth analysis of Kantorek.
Was Himmelstoss a postman?
Before the war, Himmelstoss was a postman. He is a petty, power-hungry little man who torments Paul and his friends during their training. After he experiences the horrors of trench warfare, however, he tries to make amends with them. Read an in-depth analysis of Corporal Himmelstoss.
Storyline
Paul Baumer (Richard Thomas) is a young German who, along with his graduating high school classmates, enlist in the German Imperial Army during World War I.
Did you know
In the scene of Kaiser Wilhelm II ( Denys Graham) pinning medals on the soldiers, the Kaiser uses only his right arm and hand, while an aide holds the soldiers' tunics, an historically accurate detail, since the real Kaiser Wilhelm had a stunted and withered left arm that was virtually useless.
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What is the French language plot outline for All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)?
Overview
Main characters
The central figure in the story.
Kropp was in Paul's class at school and is described as the clearest thinker of the group as well as the smallest. Kropp is wounded towards the end of the novel and undergoes a leg amputation. Both he and Bäumer end up spending time in a Catholic hospital together, Bäumer suffering from shrapnel wounds t…
Title and translation
The English translation by Arthur Wesley Wheen gives the title as All Quiet on the Western Front. The literal translation of "Im Westen nichts Neues" is "Nothing New in the West," with "West" being the Western Front; the phrase refers to the content of an official communiqué at the end of the novel.
Brian Murdoch's 1993 translation rendered the phrase as "there was nothing new to report on th…
Plot summary
The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I. The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to volunteer for the Imperial German Army shortly after the start of The Great War. He didn't have any experience when going into the war but he went in with an open mind and a kind heart. Paul lived with his father, mother, and sister in a charming German village, and attended s…
Themes
One of the major themes of the novel is the difficulty experienced by former soldiers trying to revert to civilian life after having experienced extreme combat situations. This internal destruction can be found as early as the first chapter as Paul comments that, although all the boys are young, their youth has already left them. In addition, the massive loss of life and negligible gains from the fighting are constantly emphasized. Soldiers' lives are thrown away by their commanding officer…
Secondary characters
Kantorek was the schoolmaster of Paul and his friends, including Kropp, Leer, Müller, and Behm. Behaving "in a way that cost [him] nothing," Kantorek is a strong supporter of the war and encourages Bäumer and other students in his class to join the war effort. Among twenty enlistees was Joseph Behm, the first of the class to die in battle. In an example of tragic irony, Behm was the only one who did not want to enter the war.
Publication and reception
From November 10 to December 9, 1928, All Quiet on the Western Front was published in serial form in Vossische Zeitung magazine. It was released in book form the following year to smashing success, selling one and a half million copies that same year. It was the best-selling work of fiction in America for the year 1929, according to Publishers Weekly. Although publishers had worried th…
Adaptations
In 1930, an American film of the novel was made, directed by Lewis Milestone; with a screenplay by Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews, C. Gardner Sullivan; and with uncredited work by Walter Anthony and Milestone. It stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, and Ben Alexander.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 for Universal, the Academy Award for Di…