Paul Bäumer (BOY-muhr) The sensitive twenty-year-old narrator of the novel, who has written poems and a play entitled “Saul.” Paul reaches manhood during three years’ service as a soldier in the Second Company of the German army during World War I. His loss of innocence during the cataclysm is the focus of the author’s antiwar sentiment.
Tjaden (JAH-duhn) A thin, nineteen-year-old soldier with an immense appetite. A former locksmith, Tjaden is unable to control his urine during sleep and draws ridicule from Himmelstoss. Tjaden’s drive for revenge reveals the negative side of an otherwise peaceable personality.
Müller (MEW-luhr) A scholarly young man who continues studying his physics books and thinking of exams. Pragmatic to a fault, he inherits Kemmerich’s soft airman’s boots, then wills them to Paul as Müller lies dying with an agonizing stomach wound.
Stanislaus “Kat” Katczinsky (STAN-ihs-laws kuh-ZIHN-skee) About forty years old, Kat, a crusty, jocular cobbler and veteran of the battlefield, serves as a noncommissioned tutor and father figure to Paul and the others, who depend on him for locating food, arranging for light duties, and helping them cope with the exigencies of survival, such as listening for incoming shells and sensing an attack. Not the least of his skills is the ability to joke in order to take the men’s minds off bombardment.
Albert Kropp (kruhp) The best student in Paul’s class, he joins Paul in rebelling against Himmelstoss’ bullying. Albert is promoted to lance corporal, then threatens suicide after his leg is amputated at thigh level. Taking comfort from his companions, he resigns himself to an artificial limb.
Leer (lair) Paul’s mature schoolmate and math whiz who titillates his comrades with details of sexual intercourse, which the others have yet to experience. In the summer of 1918, Leer bleeds to death from a hip wound.
Franz Kemmerich (frahnz KEHM-muh-rihk) Paul’s slim childhood friend and fellow volunteer who longs to be a forester. In bed 26 at St. Joseph’s, his rapid decline and death from a leg amputation is Paul’s first eyewitness experience with personal loss.
Haie Westhus (HY-ee VEHST-hoos) A nineteen-year-old peat digger, Haie prefers a military career to a lifetime of manual labor but dies of a back wound, never to achieve his ambition to be a village policeman.
Detering (DEE-tuh-rihng) An Oldenburg peasant who hates to hear horses bellowing from pain and is plagued by worries about his wife, who must tend their farm alone. Filled with longing for home, when cherry trees are in bloom, he deserts. After his capture, he is sent before a field tribunal and never heard from again.
Kantorek (KAHN-tow-rihk) The hometown schoolmaster, a chauvinistic sloganeer, who fills his students’ heads with impassioned speeches about duty to the Fatherland and sends them letters that depict them as “Iron Youth.” As a member of the local reserves, he is tormented by his former student Mittelstaedt, who teams him with the school janitor to demonstrate how poor a soldier Kantorek turns out to be.
Corporal Himmelstoss (HIHM-muhl-shtahs) A former postman and wartime drill instructor caught up in an illusion of power, Himmelstoss demonstrates bullying and tyranny, incurring wrath for humiliating two bed-wetters. At the front, Himmelstoss proves a sorry soldier, requiring Paul’s prodding to keep him from cowering in the trenches during an attack. After the company cook goes on leave, Himmelstoss assumes the post and redeems himself by rescuing Haie.
Joseph Behm (YO-suhf baym) A chubby teenager who hesitates to volunteer for the army, then joins three months before he would have been drafted. Blinded on the battlefield, Joseph wanders helplessly into the line of fire and becomes the first of his classmates to die.
Lieutenant Bertink (BAYR-tihnk) Commander of the Second Company, Bertink sets a worthy example for his men, whose respect he earns. He doles out light punishment for Tjaden and Kropp and demonstrates heroism by knocking out an advancing flamethrower.
