All Quiet on the Western Front: A BBC Radio Drama characters

Appears from the start

A nineteen-year-old German soldier and former student who narrates his experience of the First World War. Urged into the army by his schoolmaster, he has already learned that survival at the front depends on practical instinct, companionship, and emotional restraint. The destruction of his company and the suffering of his wounded friend Kemmerich expose how completely military life has displaced the future he once expected.

Also known as Kat

Appears from the start

The oldest member of Paul's close group, a forty-year-old reservist with a family and a remarkable talent for finding food and useful supplies. Experienced, observant, and resourceful, he acts as an informal mentor to the younger soldiers and is the companion Paul trusts most.

Appears from the start

One of Paul's former classmates and closest comrades. Small and intellectually sharp, he is often the most analytical of the group and readily sees the contradictions in the arguments used to justify the war.

Appears from the start

A former classmate serving with Paul, practical and persistent even amid the destruction around him. He still carries schoolbooks and talks about examinations, while also fixing his attention on the fine boots that the dying Kemmerich will no longer need.

Appears from the start

A thin young locksmith in Paul's company whose enormous appetite makes him a comic presence among the men. He has a deep grievance against Corporal Himmelstoss, who used humiliating punishments in an unsuccessful attempt to cure his bed-wetting during training.

Appears from the start

One of Paul's school friends, now lying in a military hospital after his leg has been amputated. He is gravely ill but does not initially understand that he is dying, while his friends struggle with grief and with the harsh practical question of who should inherit his boots.

Appears from the start

A fellow former student in Paul's circle. He is mature-looking for his age and maintains a lively interest in women, one of the fragments of ordinary youthful life that the soldiers carry into the front lines.

Appears from the start

A powerfully built peat-digger serving in Paul's company. His physical strength and good humor make him a valued comrade, and unlike the former students he can imagine the regular army offering a better livelihood than the exhausting work he knew at home.

Appears from the start

A peasant farmer and one of Paul's older comrades. Quiet and deeply attached to his land, animals, and wife, he judges the war through the rural life from which it has removed him.

Appears from the start

Paul's former schoolmaster, whose patriotic lectures pressed Paul and his classmates to enlist together. Safe at home while urging adolescents toward military glory, he represents the authority figures whose confidence collapsed when confronted with the young men's actual experience.

First appears in chapter 2

A former postman promoted to training corporal, small-minded and severe with the recruits under his control. He singles out Paul and his friends for relentless drills and humiliations, teaching them to distrust military authority before they ever reach the front.

First appears in chapter 7

Paul's seriously ill mother, whom he visits while on leave. Gentle and anxious about her son, she tries to understand his life at the front, but Paul cannot bring himself to tell her what he has endured.

First appears in chapter 9

A French soldier who takes shelter in the same shell crater as Paul during a patrol. In the darkness Paul sees him first as an immediate threat; trapped beside him afterward, he must confront the individual human being behind the enemy uniform.