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0:00
RED: I can't help but feel like most of us are kind of... over war these days. At least here in the U.S. I don't know if this is a controversial angle or whatever, but the U.S has been at war for about 222 years total and it kind of feels like all of the glory has been bleached out of it The increased awareness of PTSD and the other psychological tolls of war, plus the frequently poor conditions of post-war life for veterans, definitely serves to take a lot of the shine out of the concept.
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But if you think we're sick of war now, try taking a look at post-1918 Germany. Now World War I, alias the Great War and, more ironically, "The War to End All Wars," is historically one of the biggest, bloodiest, and most thoroughly pointless wars in human history. What started as a highly localized beef cascaded into a giant mess of interconnected alliances all trying to murder each other for barely any reason. BLUE: Hiya Red! RED: Oh, hey dude!
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BLUE: Are you talking about some history over here? RED: Yeah, World War I. Why, do you want to take over? BLUE: Hmmm..... Normally I'd run screaming for the hills, but I think I got this. RED: Sweet, take your time dude, I've got five seasons of Clone Wars to rewatch. BLUE: Sweet! So, here's the deal with the first World War. In a sentence, few anticipated a war between the Great Powers and no one wanted it, but after that spark was lit, everybody suffered.
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See, Europe in the early 1900's was doing great. A century had passed since the Napoleonic Wars swept the land, And nations everywhere got to enjoy the benefits of a newly industrialized world. For the half century long Belle Epoque as it was known Life was good and there was peace between the nation/empires of Europe. That peace was maintained through a series of complex defensive alliances which, on the whole, produced two main groups: the Central powers composed of Germany,
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Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later the Ottomans; And the Entente, composed of England, France, Russia, and Serbia. The idea was basically that no one would be short sighted enough to declare war on half of Europe, so no one would declare war period. But, let's be real, when has stupidity ever been a limiting factor in world history? Things got dicey in 1914 when Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand took a wrong turn during a drive
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though Sarajevo and ran into an assassin who was on his way home after giving up on his earlier assassination attempt. Bad luck. So anyway, boom goes the Archduke and Austria declared war on Serbia, so Germany declared war on France, so England declared war on Germany, so Austria declares.... Look, you, you get the point. This rapidly spun out of control and the empires of Europe were at each other's throats overnight. But while we're here,
2:08
take a second to just appreciate the simplicity of this map. Because it won't EVER be this easy again. Ever. One thing to note here is that nobody thought this war was going to last. Everyone thought they'd be home by Christmas, probably because all these European colonial powers just straight up weren't used to fighting wars on even footing anymore. With the exception of the Napoleonic Wars, the current empires were used
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to steam rolling their smaller neighbors and colonizing with minimal effort. They had certainly planned for the possibility of a great power conflict, but no one really knew what to expect when they were all used to war being easy, glorious, and grossly unbalanced. Not so with World War I, where everyone was running at roughly the same level of technological development and infrastructure, and the resulting conflict was anything but glorious. Now,
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to grossly over simplify for the sake of time, the First World War was operating with an as of then inconceivable level of firepower. So rather than subject your army to the unspeakable horror of guns that actually shoot where you point them, everybody hunkered down in long defensive fortifications. These trenches became a defining feature of the Great War, for reasons that should become apparent very soon. And that's the general gist of the First World War. RED: Thanks, dude!
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Gotta say, I'm really impressed. That was really modern for you. BLUE: Tell me about it. Give me a holler if you need, but I'm gonna go jump in a pile of Odysseys to recoup. RED: Now World War I was a lot of things, but miserable sums it up pretty well. Casualties topped out at around 40 million dead or wounded, including the victims of a number of diseases that spread as a result of terrible and unsanitary conditions Chemicals weapons had been chucked around willy-nilly
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during the war with long lasting health consequences even with the survivors. Germany suffered serious civilian losses from famine, and was placed under heavy sanctions that left them militarily deprived and economically devastated. And Russia had so many problems in the aftermath, that the whole country basically burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp. Monty Python Peasant (as Russia): I got better It was not a fun war, and it was not a popular war.
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Now Germany's role in World War I became very relevant in the sequel: "World War II: Electric Boogaloo" Where the rise of the Nazi Party turned Germany's social and economic devastation into motivation for a nationalist movement of cartoonish evil. They took over Germany, re-armed the army, and set about trying to conquer the world and murder everybody that they didn't like in the name of that tasty German nationalism. But there was one problem. Okay, a lot of problems,
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but one problem right out the gate: A good chunk of Germany didn't want another war. World War I sucked hard, and most people weren't hyped for the sequel. Nationalism turned into an unexpectedly hard sell for some of the population, and there's no book that illustrates why more thoroughly than "All Quiet On The Western Front" Written in 1928, by German World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, "All Quiet On The Western Front" is the fictional, but heavily autobiographical account
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of one Paul Bäumer, a protagonist very similar to Remarque aside from a couple key details. It is a ridiculously depressing novel, that dives into the psychological toll the war took on its soldiers, and how the German "Lost Generation" was left adrift and empty in a world that had lost all meaning. And guess what? The Nazis didn't like that very much! The book and its sequel, "The Road Home", were banned and burned under the rule of Nazi Germany.
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And while Remarque wisely got out of dodge as soon as the Nazis started getting prickly, some of his family wasn't so lucky. His younger sister Elfriede was tried at Hitler's Extraconstitutional People's Court in 1943 and found guilty of 'undermining morale' by suggesting that they weren't going to win the war. And in case you thought maybe it wasn't personal, they told her: "Your brother is unfortunately beyond our reach, but you will not escape us."
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And cut off her head, whereupon the Nazis sent her sister, Erna, the bill for the cost of her execution. Because guess what? Nazis are dicks! Who knew? So yeah, "All Quiet On The Western Front"'s intense anti-war and anti-nationalist themes make it a very interesting read if you want to contextualize that unique interval in European History between the World Wars, and if you feel like you haven't had a nice good cry recently. So let's dive on in!
5:30
So our story begins with Paul enthusiastically telling us that they're getting double rations today, a rare treat in the strictly rationed army, And it's all thanks to the unexpected shelling bombardment that serendipitously wiped out half their company, dropping their number from 150 down to 80. The cook didn't catch on in time, so woohoo! Double rations for everyone! Yay! Before we get too far into this, let's establish some recurring characters. Alongside Paul, there's Albert Kropp:
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A smart, little guy already disillusioned with the war Müller, who still carries his textbooks and has stress dreams about physics class, and Leer, who seems to be the most popular with the ladies. All four of them are nineteen, and enlisted in the army at the same time 2 years ago, thanks to the urging of their school teacher, Kantorek, a small, shrewish man, who talked a big game about glory and fighting for the Motherland,
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and was apparently so convincing, that the entire class of 20 enlisted, although not everyone was actually enthusiastic, as Paul remembers his classmate, Joseph Behm, who didn't want to enlist but was scared of being ostracized or called a coward. So he enlisted with the others, and was promptly shot in the face and left for dead in No Man's Land Nice. Anyway, here's the rest of his army buddies: "AC/DC - Highway to Hell"
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The impromptu leader of Paul's crew is Stanislaus Katczinsky, thankfully shortened to Kat. A forty-something dude with a nose for danger, and an uncanny ability to sniff out anything edible in the area to supplement inadequate army rations. Now Paul may be hyped to have a proper meal for the first time in a while, but he's not that hyped in general. In fact, he's pretty subdued and melancholy for most of the book. He's long since stopped thinking war was anything like he was promised,
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and talks about he and the others feel betrayed by their teachers and the other adults in their lives, they talked a big glorious game about them coming back heroes, but the first time one of them DIED, it kinda shattered the illusion, and the kids realized they've been sacrificed, marched off to die for their country without ever understanding what they'd signed up for. So after Paul and friends fill up on rations and take in the gorgeous scenery,
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they go off and visit their friend Kemmerich in the field hospital. Kemmerich is another one of their classmates, who had the bad luck to be too close to an exploding shell, and had his leg amputated from the knee down. They can all tell that Kemmerich isn't going to recover, and probably isn't going to last more than a day or two, but Müller is much more focused on Kemmerich's boots, which are very high quality, and, obviously he's not gonna be using them anymore, so maybe he can... I dunno...
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Persuade him to part with them or something? Paul tells us that Müller is not callous by nature, it's just that the rigid practicalities of war and the struggle for survival kind of eclipse everything else. And they are really good boots. Anyway, Paul starts reminiscing about his pre-war life and how unreal it feels to him now, he's got a dresser at home, full of poems and the start of a novel, which is straight out of Remarque's real life by the way,
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but now that stuff feels really distant and meaningless. Because they enlisted so young, unlike their older comrades, with wives and jobs back home, they only have a vague and short prior civilian life. Just school, their parents, maybe a couple siblings, and a very nebulous impression of what they wanted to do with their lives when they grew up. But by getting dropped directly into, frankly, one of the most horrible things that can happen to a person,
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they've grown up very fast, lost that childhood, and now have no idea what they have to go back to. This is a theme in the books, so keep an eye on it for maximum sadness later. Anyway, Kemmerich has caught on that his leg has been amputated, and that he's dying, so he bequeaths his good boots to Müller and cries for an hour before dying. The company gets some reinforcements, but a good chunk of them are very green, and just seventeen. You know what I mean.
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Paul and the others immediately feel VERY old and very protective of the new kids, but... Well... Let's... Try not to get too attached, okay? Paul and the others talk about their former corporal, Himmelstoss, A postman in his civilian life who took to his stripes like woah, and was a right abusive dickhead to everyone under his command. Kat suggests that it's just human nature for people to abuse each other when in relative positions of power,
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and the army is so strictly regimented, that everyone has power over someone. Anyway, turns out Himmelstoss is being sent to the front as punishment for his rampant abuse finally being reported. And the gang ponders on how to make him as miserable as possible once he arrives. Paul and the rest of the second company are sent to the front to lay new barbed wire under cover of dark, and then get shelled like crazy, causing one of the new recruits to panic and huddle into Paul for support.
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The kid reminds Paul of Kemmerich, so he shelters him as best he can, and once the shelling stops, the kid calms down and realizes he should have probably brought the brown pants. Unfortunately, on the way back from the front, they get unexpectedly bombarded en route, and then gassed, and while Paul shields himself and gets his mask on in time, the little recruit with the pants problem gets nailed in the hip by flying shrapnel and doesn't make it.
9:18
Back at camp, Müller asks the others what they'll do when the war is over, and, disturbingly, none of them can give him a serious answer. Some of the older recruits plan to return home to their jobs, but the younger ones can only think in the short term, sleep in a nice bed, get laid, etc. None of them can even conceive of peace. Albert glumly says that there will never be peace, which doesn't really lighten the mood any.
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Albert also says that it's probably a universal problem every european their age is facing, living through a war in your formative years is not good for your outlook on life, and they don't call them the lost generation for nothing. Responding to rumors of an offensive, the company's directed to the front, which is basically just pure monotonous misery. You wouldn't think getting constantly bombed would get boring, but apparently when you have literally no say in whether or not you survive,
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you start checking out of the situation. They get shelled for days, without being able to leave the bunker, which causes a few of the new recruits to claustrophobia crazy and make a break for it, which, doesn't go well. But eventually, the shelling moves past them, and that means its time for classic trench warfare! Trench warfare isn't boring, but its just as miserable as getting shelled non-stop. They're fighting over the famously awful No Man's Land
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and predictably, their progress is minimal, their losses are heavy, and worst of all, the reinforcements are all new recruits, who straight up don't have the battlefield experience needed to survive. Paul finds Himmelstoss curled up in a corner, pretending to be injured, and kicks the crap out of him before shoving that to actually fight. Although Himmelstoss does redeem himself slightly in Paul's eyes, by dragging Haie Westhus to safety after a shell destroys his back. Although, you guessed it,
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Haie doesn't make it. When they finally leave No Man's Land, there are only 32 of them left. They attend to a field depot in a french town to get reorganized, and while there, Paul and a few of his friends make nice with the trio of french girls on the other side. Though Paul bitterly notes that they're only interested in them as soldiers, the one he gets close to doesn't care when he tells her he's going on leave and will never see her again, she only cares if he's going off to fight.
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So yeah, Paul is given 2 weeks of leave and travels home by train, which, you'd think would be nice, right? Y'know, like a nice break from the nightmare and go home, relax, eat good food, be with your family, get mentally refreshed. Well... You'd think that's how it would work, but apparently not. Paul is disturbed by how familiar everything is, his town hasn't changed at all, he tries to feel at home, but he can't. He's completely disconnected from the people around him,
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none of them understand what he's been through, his dad and teachers ask him casual question about heroism at the front, has he killed anyone yet? Why don't they just punch through the english line already? It's not that hard! Obviously none of these go over well, and Paul finds he's most comfortable either alone or with his mother, whose health is starting to fail. She doesn't ask him uncomfortable questions, but she clearly understands something of the horror he's living through.
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Paul realizes just how much the war has crushed him, without him ever realizing it. He's home, it's idyllic, it's beautiful, but he can't enjoy any of it, nobody around him understands him anymore, none of his past interests work anymore! The books that used to burn up his imagination with dreams and inspiration are just paper, the magic is all gone. Also worth noting, is the classic PTSD and CPTSD symptoms Paul displays,
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the tram makes him dive for cover, since it sounds like a descending shell, and his crippling aloneness and discomfort around others, plus his dissociation from the present and his loss of faith in general, are all pretty textbook for CPTSD, which is impressive, since the medical concept for PTSD wouldn't be codified for another several decades, back then, they called it Shell shock, and thought it was caused by a lack of moral fiber.
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Paul visits another one of his former classmates, , who now runs the local squad of territorials, basically a home guard. And enthusiastically tells Paul that how their teacher, Kantorek was drafted into the territorials, so he uses his position of power to utterly humiliate him as vengeance for him being directly responsible for their enlistment. He brings up Joseph Bemm again, and told Kantorek that, because of him,
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Bemm died 3 months before his 18th birthday, when he would have been drafted anyway. And he holds him personally responsible for Bemm's premature death. Speaking of premature death, Paul goes and tells Kemmerich's mother about his death, but lies about how it happened, to tell her it was quick and painless. She demands to know the truth, and he can't help but feel a bit pissed about the whole thing. He's dead either way, so why does it matter how it happened?
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His last night of leave, Paul's mother comes into his room, despite being in a lot of pain from her illness and asks him if he's afraid. And Paul HATES that he can't answer honestly. He's still a child, or at least he was just a little while ago! He's sleeping in his childhood bedroom, his little boy pants are right there in the wardrobe, so why does he have to be so adult? Paul decides that he never should have come home on leave.
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The painful irony here, of course, being that they fought the war so they could come home. Paul heads to a training camp overlooking a russian prison, and contemplates how there's no inherent reason for he and these russians to be enemies, some higher up they'll never meet decided they had to fight and kill each other. Paul gives them half his cigarettes and continues to be quietly depressed about everything. Paul gets shipped back to the front to reunite with his company,
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to find them in a frenzy of polishing and cleanup. Apparently, the Kaiser himself is coming by for inspection, so they have to be super presentable. None of the soldiers are particularly impressed with the Kaiser, which is historically accurate. Kaiser Wilhelm was so unpopular with the army by the end of the war, he abdicated in 1918 and ran off to the Netherlands. Anyway, Paul and a couple others go off to scout the enemy fortifications, but Paul loses track of where their trench is,
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and when a shell abruptly lands near him, he freezes into a panic attack and can't bring himself to move, no matter what. It's only hearing the distant voices of his comrades that brings him back to reality, and he ends up sheltering in a shell hole as the bombardment intensifies, and the enemy soldiers move around up top. During their retreat, one of them falls into his shell hole, and Paul reacts instantly and stabs him. The machine gun fire is too intense for him to leave the hole,
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so Paul is stuck in the hole with this dying frenchman for an entire day, and it is not good for his mental health. Paul has never killed someone in hand-to-hand combat before, and at first he tries to ignore him, then he desperately tries to stop him from bleeding out, then he gets caught up in thinking about what's this guy's life is like and how he might have lived for decades more if he hadn't had the sheer bad luck to fall into his hole.
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When the dude finally dies, Paul sifts through his possessions, and finds photo's and letters to his loved ones, and has an emotional breakdown, begging the corpse for forgiveness, and pledging to help his family. But don't worry, this doesn't last long, then in a couple of hours Paul calms down into a... Healthier? Attitude of better you than me. Which is Yikes! Anyway, he makes it back to the friendly trench after dark,
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and has a much more sedate breakdown where he tells Albert and Kat about the dead guy, and they reassure him that there was nothing he could do. The gang gets reassigned to a relatively cushy job, they have to guard a supply depot in a bombed out village, which basically means they get uninterrupted access to all the food and goodies in the supply depot and village for the duration of their time there.
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And this involves properly cooking full meals, smoking officer's cigars, and drinking real coffee. But the cushy job comes to an end, and the gang is reassigned to evacuate a french town. But are unexpectedly shelled, and Albert and Paul get injured. Paul takes some shrapnel in the arm and leg, an injury Remarque actually sustained in real life, while Albert gets nailed just above the knee and stops being able to move his leg.
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Paul bribes various authorities to ensure he and Albert stay together as they're transported to a hospital, where Albert has his leg amputated. Paul gradually recovers and becomes well enough to move around the hospital, where he sees all kinds of wounded soldiers in various states of really not okay. Paul gets well enough that he's deemed fit to return to duty, while Albert is depressed at the loss of his leg, but doesn't seem suicidal anymore, which is, something, at least.
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Paul moves back to the front, and we're nearing the end of the book, so let's say things aren't going well for the germans. And we explore together and the only thing anyone's thinking about is staying alive. But they're all frighteningly aware that this coping mechanism is fragile, and sometimes they just collapse without warning. The German Army is running low on troops and formerly unfit soldiers are being called for active duty.
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And they're running on so little real food and ammo it just seems they're just postponing the end, the only real comfort any of them have is each other. Speaking of each other, here's how all of Paul's friends get taken out! "Enya - Only Time"
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By the time the summer of 1918 rolls around, the soldiers are hearing rumors of peacetalks or armistice, but are still being shipped off to the frontlines to fight and die, which nobody likes, because at this point, they're not fighting FOR anything. When they're on a food run, Kat gets nailed in the leg by shrapnel, and Paul is ABSOLUTELY determined to keep him alive. At this point, Kat is all he's got. But though Paul manages to get him back to the medical station,
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one of the orderlies mildly informs him he shouldn't have bothered, Kat's clearly dead. Turns out, during the journey back, he got nailed by a tiny piece of shrapnel in the back of the head, and that's all it took. And with that, Paul checks out entirely. He makes it to Autumn, where while on short leave recovering from minor gas exposure, he ponders that peace and armistice are coming soon, but he really has no idea what he's gonna do when it arrives,
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since he's so thoroughly disconnected from reality at this point and basically all his friends are dead. The good news is, he doesn't have to figure it out! As he gets shot one uneventful day, where the only field report reads: "All Quiet On The Western Front"
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Don't do war, kids.
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