All Quiet on the Western Front: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

When the novel begins, the Second Company of the German army has just returned to their camp after two weeks of fighting on the frontlines. Their unit has sustained heavy casualties. Paul Bäumer, the novel’s nineteen-year-old narrator, reports matter-of-factly that over half of the Company’s 150 men were killed the previous day in a shell attack.

Good food is scarce on the front, so Paul and his friends quickly make their way to the camp’s mess tent. Because so many men have died, there are enough extra rations for the soldiers to have double portions. Initially, the cook refuses to give the men the surplus food, saying it is against regulations. The men argue heatedly until the company commander intervenes, telling the cook to distribute the extras.

After eating, Paul and his fellow soldiers pay a visit to the group latrines together. Paul recalls how, when he first joined the army, he was embarrassed about using the latrines in front of the other soldiers. Now, however, such behavior has come to seem completely natural, even enjoyable.

Paul and his friends spend their first afternoon back relaxing, playing cards, and reading letters from home. One of the soldiers, Albert Kropp, has received a letter from his former teacher, Kantorek. We learn that four of the men were schoolmates back in Germany: Paul; the clear-headed Kropp; the brainy but practical Müller; and Leer, the most worldly of the bunch. All of the students had originally joined the army at Kantorek’s urging. (A fifth classmate, Joseph Behm, had resisted at first; finally, under pressure from Kantorek and his community, he reluctantly enlisted as well. Behm was killed horrifically in an early battle.)

Paul says that there were “thousands of Kantoreks” in Germany: people who believed they were doing the right thing by encouraging young men to join the military. This older generation filled young men’s heads with romantic notions about honor, but failed to prepare them for the savagery of war. As students, Paul and his friends looked to Kantorek for guidance. Now, however, their eyes have been opened to the harsh truth. Though men like Kantorek continue to bluster about patriotic duty, Paul knows there is “nothing of their world left.”

In addition to the four students, Paul’s group of friends also includes some older soldiers: the skinny locksmith Tjaden; the gigantic peat-digger Haie; the married peasant Detering; and the resourceful Katczinsky (Kat), who at age forty is the group’s unofficial leader.

Later that day, the soldiers go to visit their wounded friend Kemmerich in the hospital. Though he does not seem to realize it yet, his leg has been amputated and he is obviously dying. His friends try to cheer him up, but they are already planning to divide up his possessions. Müller tries to persuade Kemmerich to give them his beautiful leather boots, but Kemmerich resists. Eventually, Paul steps on Muller’s foot, getting him to drop the subject.

As the soldiers leave the hospital, Paul thinks about the letter he must soon write to Kemmerich’s mother when her son dies. The men walk back through the camp to their huts, preoccupied and mostly silent. Only Kropp becomes visibly upset, tossing away his cigarette and swearing. Müller tries to distract him by asking about the contents of Kantorek’s letter.

Kropp tells them that Kantorek’s letter calls his former students the “Iron Youth,” a title that makes the men smile bitterly. Paul says that while most of them are under twenty years of age, they do not feel young or strong anymore. Their horrific experiences in the war have made them old before their time.