The Ace: Though he develops into a Broken Ace as his moral standards have become incompatible with war brutality and seriously starts thinking that all this warfare has no sense at all.
Sole Survivor: At the end of the narration he's the only one of the five who still lives since Friedhelm and Greta have died in 1945, though Viktor and Charlotte have survived the war and died of old age.
Will They or Won't They?: With Charlotte. Friedhelm hints more than once that he should reveal his feelings towards Charlotte but he never does because he think he'll break her heart if he dies; their relationship is left ambiguous at the ending.
Charlotte (Miriam Stein)
All Love Is Unrequited: She's been deeply in love with Wilhelm since childhood. Though he does reciprocate, he won't show his feelings because he thinks he's probably going to die at war.
Break the Cutie: Like Friedhelm, the horrors of the war take a large toll on her.
Cannot Spit It Out: She has feelings for Wilhelm, but is unable to bring herself to tell him.
Girlish Pigtails: Before she starts her work as a nurse. She later has it tied back in a bun.
May–December Romance: She has a brief affair with her boss while believing Wilhelm has died.
The Medic: She is a nurse serving near the front line.
Naïve Newcomer: As a nurse at the Eastern Front. The freezing look that the chief nurse gives her speak for itself.
Rape as Drama: She is subjected to Attempted Rape when the Red Army advances on the field hospital she works at, before a Soviet officer (whom she turned in for being a Jew when she worked there) intervenes to stop the soldiers.
Death Seeker: Implied he becomes one; when a Russian bomber flies over the squad's position, his fellow soldier tells him to put his cigarette out. Instead, he takes a long, ostentatious drag.
Dressing as the Enemy: He disguises himself as a Soviet soldier to escape the enemy lines.
Suicide by Cop: [[Near the end of the war, he's in command of a Volksturm unit comprising of an old man and children. Rather than see them die, he attacks the Red Army by himself and gets shot but as he dies, he sees his subordinates surrender.]]
