The Psychology of War and Hunger in All Quiet On The Western Front

S Ananya

When one first watches the German anti-war film ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, one is staggered by the extensive, expertly crafted colour grading and cinematography of the film. The second and third times one watches it, they focus on the writing and research behind the film - most of which was based on a book by the same name by Erich Maria Remarque that was released in 1928 and translated in 1929 by A. W. Wheen. The psychology of war (and of war propaganda) that is expertly depicted in the movie cannot be overstated.

We are introduced to the brutality of war in the opening scene, where a young soldier by the name of Heinrich struggles to find his footing in a losing war. As he lays curled up in the relative safety of the German trenches, he watches his comrades get shot or blown up with state-of-the-art French explosives (which, as is constantly hinted at throughout the film, the German army lacks). Heinrich is pulled up by his lieutenant and shoved onto the battlefield, much to his chagrin. As he crawls through the front, he tries to assist a struggling soldier, but it is all in vain as the fellow is shot. The scene cuts to the opening credits and the grotesque nature of this Oscar-nominated movie is set in stone: this is a strict, anti-war film that will not budge from its realistic portrayal.

We watch the evolution of Paul Baumer, played by the inimitable theatre artist Felix Kammerer, from a young schoolboy who rebels against his family in order to enrol in the army to a broken-hearted German soldier who has lost his sanity (but not his humanity) in the deadly trenches of the Great War. What struck me the most was the superb way in which an officer travels to the German school Baumer and his friends study in, knowing fully well that a fresh recruit on the western front survives, on average, for six weeks, and still manages to deliver an enthralling speech that rouses the blood and (tragic) optimism of the students he addresses. There is an ethical conundrum subtly hinted at in this scene: it is the duty of the officer to increase enrollment in the army in what is already the third year of war, when, as we see in the later scenes, he mournfully sits in an office close to the front, listening to the names and birth dates of dead soldiers being called out, some who enrolled in the army the second they turned eighteen. It is evident that he regrets his job as he performs it.

Jostling happily through the German countryside with his mates, Paul Baumer bellows war songs dedicated to the beloved with much vigour. As they step foot on the front, the naive schoolboys welcome each other to Paris - that beloved dream of the Germans going all the way back to the Franco-Prussian wars and even Napoleon Bonaparte. The grappling reality of war dawns upon them within a day of their arrival, however, and Ludwig, a timid, spectacled school friend of Baumer’s, weeps like an infant as the barrage of bombs and artillery shakes their bunker. Ludwig’s leg is blown off in the consequent artillery barrage, and he is found dead by Baumer who was on ‘gathering duty’ - a rather inhuman name for the everyday job of collecting the nametags of dead soldiers so that their demise can be recorded in official war records. Baumer breaks down, but is not even allowed the time to mourn his friend, as a fellow soldier harks at him to get on with his work.

Hunger in the German trenches (as compared to opulence in the French ones) is a recurring theme throughout the film. Baumer misses his breakfast before the gathering duty on the day Ludwig dies, and is handed a miserable-looking piece of stale bread by his senior, Katinscky, that he is forced to shove inside his pocket in order to make time for official duties. Katinscky, or ‘Kat’, with Baumer by his side, rob a French farm of a goose and a few eggs. They bring their loot back to the German army camp, where they are forced to cook the animal in hiding, so that the other, very hungry soldiers don’t catch a whiff of the feast. Their drive for hunger dictates their actions to the point where, as is shown in the second half of the film, Kat’s team lays down their rifles in the middle of the opposing French trenches to feast on the leftover French food - a several course meal of cheese, jams, baguettes, and spreads in contrast to the dreary German stale bread. In a tragic turn of events, it is revealed that the rats got to the food before the Germans did. In a heart-wrenching letter sent to the front, which is read out by Baumer owing to Kat’s illiteracy, Kat’s wife describes the food she has sent him upon request and asks when her husband can send some money back home - depicting the meagre wages that the army men earn. In a far more pivotal turn, Kat dies in the process of robbing the farm with Baumer as the timeline of the ceasefire is declared.

The pompous and almost delusional nature of the German command is shown excellently. As Herr Erzeburger who lost his son in the war says, “The only thing that is keeping us from capitulating is false pride as I see it.” Even after accepting the fatal conditions of surrender on a train far away from the front with the French chief of command (who sneeringly keeps stale croissants on the meeting table), the German high command feel that they should end the war with a ‘German victory’. It is in the course of this last surge against the French that Baumer, battle-hardened (or should one say ‘softened’?) with two years of war experience under his belt, loses his life. In a sort of prophetic, self-declarative manner (which proves to be futile, of course, with the second world war happening in two decades almost directly as a consequence of the first), the time from which the ceasefire is declared to be effective is the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day. Baumer is stabbed a few seconds before this angel number. The personal agenda the German officer leading the western front has is also revealed in the course of the second half: his father was a war-hero who won three wars against the French under the great German leader Bismarck and marched on Paris. He believes he is a victim of circumstance as he was a soldier during peacetime, and wants to make his mark in this Great War. He says, before he announces the last surge against the French: “I see German soldiers running away like cowards.” But as Paul, ever mourning and ever observant, asks reproachfully in the midst of ceasefire celebrations, “Are there any sergeants left?”

When Baumer mourns his friends during the celebration of ceasefire in the second half of the film, he says to Kat, “Ludwig is dead. Franz is dead. Albert is–”

Before Paul can finish his sentence, however, Kat tells him in a classic representation of his upbringing rooted in Russian philosophy, “They don’t suffer anymore. They are at peace.” This shows the effect war can have on cognitive dissonance and how many soldiers resort to complex philosophies to quell it.

The pitiful psyche of an injured comrade of Baumer’s - Tjaden - is seen when he takes his own life by stabbing himself with a fork: he does not want to live as a ‘cripple in post-war Germany’. When one considers the euthanization of such souls that took place under the Nazi regime barely a decade after, we understand the man in a better context.

The most human part of the film, however, has to be the sequence where Paul brutally kills his most significant kill - a French typographer with a wife and a daughter whose passport he takes in order to repent after the war - in an attempt to protect himself from being shot. He knifes the man in his signature style, but the victim does not die immediately. Caught in a sort of makeshift oasis in the middle of the battlefield with nowhere to go, Paul is forced to watch the man splutter blood from his mouth and die a painful death - a harsh reminder of the sin he has committed. He eventually tries his best to nurse the wounds he has inflicted upon the Frenchman, who screams (at least as much as he can with his injuries) at the prospect of being touched once more by his murderer. In an effort to convey his emotions over the lost translations of language, Baumer begs, pointing to himself: “Comrade!” which is ironic, considering he is the murderer of this man.

The film aims to bring out the insignificance of humanity and humaneness in the midst of the war that was supposed to end all wars, and one might daresay it has triumphantly succeeded at.