[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/all-quiet_0_8499.jpg]]

->''"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war."''

'''''All Quiet on the Western Front''''' (''Im Westen Nichts Neues''[[note]]Which translates far better as "''Nothing New on the Western Front''", but the first English translators thought this wouldn't be snappy enough[[/note]]) is a 1929 anti-war novel, set during WorldWarI, by famous German author and war veteran Erich Maria Remarque. It's considered to be one of the greatest and most important works in the genre.

Many of the elements of the narrative correspond to Remarque's own experiences, and the book has strong autobiographic undertones.

''All Quiet on the Western Front'' is narrated by a young soldier, former grammar school student [[TheEveryman Paul Bäumer]]. [[WarIsHell The horrors of trench warfare are described in a brutally realistic fashion]]. Further themes are [[BandOfBrothers comradeship]] and the soldiers' detachment from civilian life.

The book was a best-seller when it was first released. Initial German reaction was mixed, with reactionary Germans furious at this "disrespectful" "cowardly" and "treasonous" look at the German Army. Left-wing intellectuals, as well as many war veterans, on the other hand, praised the book highly, and its international reception was adoring, both for its excellent quality of writing and its stark look at the horrors of war. ThoseWackyNazis were less than pleased - believing the book would "soften" Germany, they added it to their list of proscribed books, and it was burned publicly in 1933. Remarque fled to Switzerland and, in 1941, his sister was beheaded by the Nazis as a stand in for him. They [[JerkAss sent the 500,000RM bill for her imprisonment and execution]] [[KickTheDog to him in Davos]].

In 1930, an American film adaptation was made, directed by Lewis Milestone. It won the Best Picture [[AcademyAward Oscar]] and is often considered to be the TropeMaker of the modern war drama. An equally good TV adaptation was made in 1979, and a new film adaptation is currently in the works.

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!! ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' and its film adaptations contain examples of:

* AFatherToHisMen: Lt. Bertinck; it helps that he was [[FieldPromotion field promoted]] from the ranks.
* AnArmAndALeg: Paul's former classmate Albert Kropp has his leg amputated when they're wounded together. This makes him contemplate suicide, but he eventually accepts his fate. Earlier, Franz Kemmerich, another classmate of Paul's has his leg amputated, but he doesn't survive.
* ArmchairMilitary: A lot of the people back home.
* BadAss: Kat. Also, Lt. Bertinck, who despite being mortally wounded lived long enough to make sure the enemy flamethrower was destroyed.
* BannedInChina: The book was banned in Nazi Germany after 1933 for being anti-war. Even before, screening of the films in Germany were disrupted by Nazi supporters who released rats into the theaters.
** Ironically, the same book and film got banned in several countries that Imperial Germany annexed or seized for being ''pro''-German (portraying German soldiers as normal, likable people.
* BigEater: Tjaden. It's remarked that he's also as skinny as a rail, despite his eating.
* BornLucky: Tjaden is frequently referred to as being considerably lucky. [[spoiler:He's the only main character who isn't explicitly killed off, injured, or jailed by the story's end.]]
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Paul muses that they didn't learn anything useful at school: "nobody ever taught us how to light a cigarette in a storm of rain, nor how a fire could be made with wet wood - nor that it is best to stick a bayonet in the belly because there it doesn't get jammed, as it does in the ribs."
* BringMyBrownPants: A new recruit craps himself in his first fight. The veterans quietly tell him how to deal with it, and ask if he really thinks he's the first soldier ever to get the gun-shits.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday:
** At the beginning, Paul sits at the bed of his friend, Kemmerich, who had his leg amputated. When he realizes that Kemmerich is dying, he runs for the doctor:
--->'''Paul:''' Come quick, Franz Kemmerich is dying!
--->'''Doctor:''' ''(to an orderly)'' Which will that be?
--->'''Orderly:''' Bed 26, amputated thigh.
--->'''Doctor:''' How should I know anything about it? I've amputated five legs today!
** [[spoiler: Paul]] is killed on a day that was "so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: [[TitleDrop All quiet on the Western Front]]."
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: In the movie, when Paul goes home he sees his sister's butterfly collection. In the final scene [[spoiler: Paul is shot and killed while reaching for a butterfly]].
* CloudCuckooLander: This is one of few works which [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the trope, using Paul as an example.
* CoolOldGuy: Kat. He's 40, but still counts, as he's old compared to the people around him.
* CurbStompBattle: On the enemy side near the end of the war. The Germans are out of trained soldiers, proper food and ammunition while their enemies have plenty of highly advanced tanks and planes that are practically impossible to defeat.
* DeadHandShot: The 1930 film depicts [[spoiler: Paul's death]] like that.
* DeadMansTriggerFinger: A rather horrifying example involving a flamethrower.
* DeathIsSuchAnOddThing: Despite having been ConditionedToAcceptHorror, Paul isn't able to fully comprehend how the world can still be working and at the same time Kat can be dead.
--> Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle, and I stand in the midst. All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died.
* DespairEventHorizon: Paul has crossed it by the end of the book. He describes his feelings like this: "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear."
** Detering has one when he sees [[spoiler:the cherry blossoms in bloom. This causes him to desert the army and try to return home to his wife and farm. He's arrested and never heard from again.]]
* DistractedFromDeath: [[spoiler:Kat dies while being carried to the hospital, and Paul doesn't notice until a medic at the hospital points it out.]]
* DoesThatSoundLikeFunToYou: In the 1930 film, when on leave, Paul goes back to his old classroom to see Kantorek using the same speech he told his class on another group of young innocent students. Excited to see one of his former students drop in, Kantorek encourages Paul to tell them how grand being in the front lines are. To his credit, Paul was really uncomfortable and insisted he had nothing to say, but caved to his teacher's demands... and flat out told the students that WarIsHell and [[TakeThat that their teacher was going to send them to their deaths like his class before them]].
* TheDogBitesBack: The teacher Kantorek is called up to service as a reserve soldier. He meets one of his old students who now outranks him, and forces him to drill. The former-student torments him by lecturing him with the same sayings and phrases he would make as a schoolteacher.
* DownerEnding
* DrillSergeantNasty: Corporal Himmelstoss, who trained Paul and his friends. Himmelstoss does a HeelFaceTurn after having been forced to actually serve in the trenches.
* DwindlingParty: Starts off slow, but picks up the pace near the end.
* DiesWideOpen: The French soldier that Bäumer stabs dies like this.
* EatsBabies: The German soldiers, according to French propaganda eat Belgian children.
* FakeNationality: In the film versions, American and British actors play the German characters.
* FatalFamilyPhoto: After Paul kills a French soldier, he finds pictures of his wife and daughter (which makes him feel even more guilty).
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: A newbie in the trenches is getting hysterical to the point of trying to leave the bomb shelter. Everybody else in the shelter beats him up until he doesn't try to leave any more. Paul tells us that it's not pleasant, but it's the only thing that helps.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Tjaden is occasionally described as "delivering the most famous quote from ''Theatre/GotzVonBerlichingen''." Quoting Goethe seems harmless enough, right? Wrong, since the quote in question is: [[spoiler: "Er aber, sags ihm, er kann mich im Arsche lecken". This is German for "But he, tell him that, he can lick me inside my arse!"]]
* GrayAndGrayMorality : Full stop.
* {{Heroic BSOD}} : Paul has a very memorable one [[spoiler:after stabbing the French soldier trapped with him in a crater to death and then listening to him slowly die during the entire sleepless night. [[MustMakeAmends After he examines the dead soldier's personal belongings, he repentantly promises to secretly support his family once the war ends]]. [[TearJerker Then he realizes he can't, because they'd eventually find out who's the mysterious donor and realize he's the one who killed their relative]].]]
* HeroicSacrifice / LastStand: Lt. Bertinck is mortally wounded in battle; before he dies, he makes sure to disable the enemy flamethrower with his pistol.
* HumiliationConga: Himmelstoss gets this early on in the book as revenge for his harsh boot camp rituals.
* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: A pair of good boots are passed around among the soldiers.
* InMediasRes: The story starts with the characters already in the trenches. Paul later reminiscences about their training.
* InsertCameo: In the 1930 film, [[spoiler: Paul's death scene shows his hand reaching for a butterfly; then a shot is heard, and the hand goes limp in death.]] The hand in the scene belonged to director Lewis Milestone.
* InstantDeathBullet: Averted; a character is shot shot point-blank in the stomach with a flare gun, and he is dying for half an hour "quite conscious and in terrible pain".
* [[spoiler:KillEmAll:]] [[AnAesop Just to drive the point home]] that [[FinaglesLaw war is absurd, unpredictable]]... and with NO real [[WarIsGlorious glory]] in store for anyone...
* LastNameBasis
* LudicrousGibs: Very few characters die in subtle ways.
* MadDoctor: The doctor at the Catholic hospital is rumored to be one.
* TheNeidermeyer: Himmelstoss comes very close to this. Once he's assigned to duty at the front, he softens a bit because of warnings that front soldiers might just [[UnfriendlyFire shoot him in the back]]. Later after actually seeing combat he softens further into a full HeelFaceTurn. (Presumably from a new appreciation of camaraderie.)
* NewMeat: Paul says that the new recruits are almost useless, because they have no knowledge about trench warfare; "A man would like to spank them, they are so stupid, and to take them by the arm and lead them away from here where they have no business to be."
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: In the 1930 film, the German characters are played by American actors, who speak with American accents. This, however, is intentional TranslationConvention, in order to show American movie-goers [[NotSoDifferent just how much like us the German protagonists really are]].
* OldSoldier: Kat.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted. A character dies from a leg injury, another is hit by a shrapnel on his hip, and quickly bleeds to death.
* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap : An interesting non-sci-fi example. One of the soldiers in the story is overjoyed when he discovers ''an actual cherry tree in bloom'' during a march across the countryside to a new position. Since he (and the others) have spent entire weeks at the frontline, this is hardly suprising - the frontline being [[{{Mordor}} a lifeless war-torn muddy wasteland]] and all.
* PeacefulInDeath: When [[spoiler: Paul]] dies at the end, his facial expression is described as "calm, as though almost glad the end had come."
* PetTheDog: Paul is willing to forgive Himmelstoss after seeing him carry a wounded Haie off the battlefield. [[ThroughHisStomach Of course, there's also the officer's food he has to offer.]]
* PoliticallyMotivatedTeacher: Kantorek, who encourages his students to join the army, greatly romanticizing it as [[WarIsGlorious something glorious.]] [[ForegoneConclusion Of course, he couldn't be farther from the truth.]]
* PopculturalOsmosis: The famous "butterfly" scene from the film is parodied by people who may well have never heard of the film, let alone the book.
* PrecisionFStrike: in the (unabridged) English translation, the word "fuck" appears only once. Other profanities are not terribly common (with "shit" being used sparingly).
* PutOnABus: Tjaden departs the story close to the end. With his being the lucky character, this is probably deliberate. In the British stage adaptation, he dies trying to save a dog that had become caught on some barbed wire.
* RedShirtArmy: As the protagonist explains it, the training of the time didn't really prepare soldiers for the war, so newbies got mowed down by the score. A few survived by blind luck long enough to learn proper survival strategies, and they formed a core constantly supplemented with NewMeat.
* TheScrounger: Kat. His ability to find decent food and shelter is treated as something of a sixth sense. According to Paul "if for one hour in a year something eatable were to be had in some one place only, within that hour, as if moved by a vision, he would put on his cap, go out and walk directly there, as though following a compass, and find it."
* SerratedBladeOfPain: The narrator mentions that veterans on the front take away from new soldiers any sawtooth bayonets they find on them, as anyone captured with them is killed outright rather than taken prisoner.
* ShellShockedVeteran: All characters became such people.
* ShovelStrike: The experienced soldiers sharpen their shovels into bladed weapons (a bit like a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk%27s_spade monk's spade]]), and use them against anyone who tries to rush their trench. The inexperienced soldiers use their cruddy bayonets in melee and die horribly.
* SkewedPriorities: The protagonists insist on finishing their cooking, even as shrapnel is literally whizzing past their heads.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Corporal Himmelstoss was a mere postman before the war began. The soldiers philosophize about this. Paul remarks how strange it is that in their seeking revenge against him, their greatest goal in life has become to "knock the conceit out of a postman."
* SoldiersAtTheRear: Corporal Himmelstoss, until he is sent to the front. More-so, an unnamed officer who catches Paul wearing his uniform while on home leave and forces him to parade and salute a bit before letting him go on his way.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Paul feels like this, when he visits home.
* TitleDrop: On the last page. A cable from the High Command stating this is sent, at the end of the war [[spoiler: the main character apparently died nearly the last day, like Real Life anti-war British poet soldier [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen Wilfred Owen]]]].
* UnfriendlyFire: The German soldiers are frequently in danger of being hit by their own artillery. Not from miscalculation, but because the barrels are worn.
* WarIsHell: The original title is literally "Nothing New in the West". Now think about what happened, the setting, and ''why'' there's nothing new.
* WideEyedIdealist: One MauveShirt character.

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