All Quiet on the Western Front

[Guest Simon Bull]

I am just listening to "All Quiet on the Western Front" as a book on tape - think it is superb.

Anyone know if it is meant to be set in any particular location on the Western Front and what the time period is?

So far (not finished yet) I know that the narrator is fighting the French and that the time period is post the Battle of the Somme. I presume that it probably pre-dates the early 1918 German offensives, but that is a bit of a guess.

Or is it not meant to be set in any particular location or timeframe?

[Paul Hederer]

Hello,

The time-period is 1916 till October 1918. Paul does mention the French but sorry, I couldn't give you a location.

I think your last sentence is correct. It's meant to represent the war experience in general.

Paul

[Landsturm]

I`ve been thinking the same. And I`ve also been thinking the same question while watching the movies (both versions). I`m not sure if it`s mentioned in the book (it`s been a long time), but Paul mentions "class of 1916", either this referring to his school OR German army class, in this case (due the drain on manpower) class of 1915 was called up between April and June 1915 and "class of 1916" between August and November. This kept going on... (class of 1917 in January 1916, class of 1918 in September 1916, class of 1919 in summer 1917... etc.)

When you watch the movies you notice that in the beginning of Paul`s war service he uses a pickelhaube and later receives a Stahlhelm-helmet (German troops started to receive them in early 1916). His French opponents are in horizon blue and wear Adrian-helmets (which they started to receive during late summer 1915). So I think Paul could REALLY be in "class of 1916" and could have entered the Western Front late 1915. I know this is a long shot, but I actually think this kind of stuff.

I agree with October 1918, it`s written in the book.

[Paul Hederer]

Heya Landstrum,

I don't think class of 1916 is mentioned in the book, though it is in the movie. Paul and his friends volunteered, they weren't called up though.

In the movie they graduated, but in the book (or maybe it's in "The Road Back,") he mentions that he did not graduate.

I've had the same thought in even trying to figure out what unit it might have been as he mentions his training camp and that he is mixed with Friesian fisherman--then I thought to myself that perhaps I was thinking about it too much .

Paul

[Landsturm]

Paul and his friends volunteered, they weren't called up though.

Point taken

[CROONAERT]

One actual place name that I can recall mentioned in the book is "Langemark".

Dave.

[Guest Simon Bull]

One actual place name that I can recall mentioned in the book is "Langemark".

Dave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for all the help gents.

Since I posed the question I have heard Langemark mentioned as I carried on listening to the tape, although it is odd in that I would have thought that this would be when the British were in the Allied line there.

[AOK4]

Hello,

The book is not a fact book, it's a fiction book. There are some autobiographical things in from Remarque himself f.i. the barbed wire task, the stay in the hospitals, Bikschote at the end (this was where he was wounded in 1917). Remarque didn't spend any time in the "real" frontline. He was wounded in July 1917 as a recuit doing a barbed wire job or digging second line trenches (that's how German recruits were getting used to the front). He was a hospital orderly or something similar for the rest of the war. His book is believed to be a kind of summary of stories he personnally had and of stories he heard at the hospital.

Jan

[AOK4]

Heya Landstrum,

  I don't think class of 1916 is mentioned in the book, though it is in the movie.  Paul and his friends volunteered, they weren't called up though.

  In the movie they graduated, but in the book (or maybe it's in "The Road Back,")  he mentions that he did not graduate.

  I've had the same thought in even trying to figure out what unit it might have been as he mentions his training camp and that he is mixed with Friesian fisherman--then I thought to myself that perhaps I was thinking about it too much  .

Paul

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Paul,

Remarque was from Braunschweig (X. Armeekorps), to which East Frisia belongs too. Remarque is supposed to have served with either RIR 73 or RIR 78 IIRC.

Jan

[Paul Hederer]

Jan,

Thanks for the information. I find Remarque an interesting character in relation to his books. Like Stephen Crane he seems to have written a powerful war novel based mostly second-hand accounts, and more importantly his imagination.

Shows that perhaps the sensitivity of the author and imagination are more poweful tools than 1st-hand experience when writing novels. Hmm, I feel a thesis coming on .

Paul

[Chris Best]

Gents

An observation in the thread on electrified wire: Maj and Mrs Holt's guide to Ypres states that Remarque (aka Kramer) [is thought to have] served closed to the Totemuhle.

Chris

[AOK4]

Gents

An observation in the thread on electrified wire:  Maj and Mrs Holt's guide to Ypres states that Remarque (aka Kramer) [is thought to have] served closed to the Totemuhle.

Chris

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, that's not completely correct...

[bernardmcilwaine]

Well, that's not completely correct...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

wasnt his real name eric kramer,and the pen name he used was,his christian name,maria being his mothers name and remarque his way of francophiling his name,[is that the right word]wasnt he romantically involve with a famous hollywood actress,bernard

[PilgrimDuke]

]wasnt he romantically involve with a famous hollywood actress,bernard

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/...,745860,00.html

He was involved with Marlene Dietrich. Link to article above.

[bernardmcilwaine]

thanks pilgrim,bernard

[ceebee]

There is a huge amount of information published about Erich Maria Remarque and All Quiet on the Western Front. Despite this, Remarque's military career is somewhat cloudy. The following material is compiled from a variety of sources that can be found from internet searches.

Remarque was born on 22 June 1898 in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, and christened Erich Paul Remark, the son of Peter Franz Remark and Anne Maria Remark (nee Stallknecht). His ancestors came from the French-German border area with Aachen. Later he was to change his name by deleting the Paul (the main character of AQWF), adding his mother's name, Maria, and Gallicising his surname to Remarque.

Some biographers state that his real name was Kramer (which is Remark spelt backwards). This may be based on pre-WW II Nazi propaganda which sought to discredit him by claiming that he was descended from a family of French Jews.

When war broke out in August 1914 he was sixteen. Two years later on 21 November 1916 he was conscripted into the German Army. The following material about Remarque's military career is taken primarily from the website of the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Centre at Osnabruck.

21 Nov 1916 - Replacement recruit for a replacement battalion in Infantry Regiment 78, I Recruit Depot. Military training in the Caprivi Barracks, Osnabruck and in Celle.

20 January 1917 - One year voluntary duty qualifying certificate.

5 May 1917 -Transferred to I Company, I Replacement Battalion, Infantry Regiment 78.

12 June 1917 - Transferred to the Western Front - 2 Company Field Recruit Depot of the 2nd Guard Division in Ham-Lenglet (Belgium).

26 June 1917 - Joined trench troop Bethe, 2nd Company Reserve Infantry Regiment 15, between Thorbut and Houthulst.

31 July 1917 - Wounded by grenade fragments in the left leg, right arm, and neck. [some accounts say he was wounded by long range English artillery and that the event occurred whilst carry an injured soldier out of action. Remarque claims he was wounded several times during his war-time career].

Some time before 25 August 1917 - Transferred from field hospital 309 in Geite-St Josef and in Thorhut to the St. Vinzenz Hospital in Duisburg. It was in this hospital that he was given a position in the orderly room.

9 Sept. 1917 - Mother dies from cancer.

31 October 1918 - Discharged from Duisburg hospital and reassigned to the 1st Replacement Battalion, Infantry Regiment 78 in Osnabruck.

15 November 1918 - Awarded Iron Cross First Class. [in December 1930, the German army minister, General Groener, informed his cabinet colleagues that Remarque was not decorated.]

5 January 1919 - Discharged from army and renounces medals and decorations.

During his military training, Remarque was subjected to the harsh discipline of sergeant Himmelreich, who is characterised as Himmelstoss in AQWF.

In his book Rites of Spring, Modris Eksteins, writes "A man named Peter Kropp maintained that he spent a year in a hospital with the author during the war and that one of the characters in All Quite, Albert Kropp, was modelled on him."

Post war, during the 1920s, Remarque drifted between jobs as a teacher, stonecutter, racing car driver and sports journalist. AQWF was written in 1927 and eventually published in 1929. All Quite and its sequel The Road Back were banned by the Nazi Government and in 1938 Remarque lost his German citizenship.

In 1932 Remarque moved to Switzerland and in 1939 emigrated to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1947.

He was married three times, twice to the same women, Jutta Illse Ingeborg Ellen Zombona, a fashion model, in 1925 and in 1938. In February 1958 he married the film actress Paulette Goddard. His first meeting with Goddard having occurred in 1940. Remarque apparently moved among the famous. Meetings and encounters with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson, Greer Garson, Orson Welles, Cary Grant, and Salvador Dali, to name a few, are documented.

Apart from AQWF, Remarque wrote numerous books including the Three Comrades, The Arch of Triumph, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, The Black Obelisk, and Heaven Has no Favourites. Films of his books included, All Quiet (1930 and 1979); Three Comrades (1938); The Arch of Triumph (1948 and 1985); A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1957); and Bobby Deerfield (1977).

Erich Maria Remarque died on 25 September 1970 in the Clinica Sant' Agnese, Locano, Switzerland.

A detailed year-by-year account of Remarque's life can be found here.

[Landsturm]

Just watched 1979-version again (of course this is going little off topic) but there`s a scene where Kaiser has come to the front. In this scene, the unit is named 150th Infantry Battalion... How can this be?

[Guest Simon Bull]

Thanks for all the extra information Pals - I have been away on holiday and only just seen it.

[Paul Hederer]

Just watched 1979-version again (of course this is going little off topic) but there`s a scene where Kaiser has come to the front. In this scene, the unit is named 150th Infantry Battalion... How can this be?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Chalk that one to Tellybision!

Paul

[CROONAERT]

15 November 1918 - Awarded Iron Cross First Class. [in December 1930, the German army minister, General Groener, informed his cabinet colleagues that Remarque was not decorated

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any mention of when he was , allegedly, awarded the Iron Cross second class?

The EK was a "progressive award" (ie. you couldn't recieve a 1st class if you haven't recieved a 2nd class previously - though it was technically possible to recieve both at the same time).

Dave.

[AOK4]

Well, Remarque was officially because he wore medals he wasn't awarded but I believe he got his Iron Cross from one or other Soldatenrat.

Jan

[ceebee]

Any mention of when he was , allegedly, awarded the Iron Cross second class?

The EK was a "progressive award" (ie. you couldn't recieve a 1st class if you haven't recieved a 2nd class previously - though it was technically possible to recieve both at the same time).

Dave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dave

There is no mention in the material I looked at. However, any event or events that resulted in the awards being issued would have had to occur some time between 12 June 1917, when Remarque was transferred to the Western Front, and 31 July 1917, when he was apparently wounded. According to the material I saw he never returned to active service after 31 August 1917. The dates I use here come from the short biography in my original post.

General Groener's comment that Remarque was not decorated was sourced by Modris Eksteins from cabinet minutes dated 19 December 1930 (Reichskanzlei files R431/1447,383 - Bundesarchiv Koblenz). Eksteins also states that "there was a sustained attempt in 1929 and 1930 to uncover the "real" Remarque, especially to disprove the claim of his publisher, Ullstein, that he was a seasoned soldier." (p.279 Rites of Spring)

Chris