The four-Oscar-winning German film “No Younger Than the Western Front” was preceded by an American version in 1930, also based on the book of the same name, which made its author, Erich Maria Remarque, world famous. It was, however, banned at the time in Germany and some other countries, while his now classic masterpiece itself, the first anti-war best seller, had no better luck in Nazi Germany.

The novel was published in January 1929, but was pre-published in sequels in the autumn of 1928 in the Berlin newspaper “Vossische Zeitung”, which was later closed by the Nazis. Immediately after his enormous success, they denounced the author as a liar, that he never took part in World War I, and spread rumors that he was a Jew named Kramer (an anagram of Remarque). In 1931, the Nazis even blocked his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize on the grounds that he defames the German army. They finally banned and burned the book in 1933 accusing him of “literary treason of the soldiers of the War”. Remarque managed to escape to Switzerland, but his sister was arrested in 1942 and sentenced to death by hanging for spreading “false news that the war was already lost”. However, her brother found out about it after the end of World War II.

The author tells with unnecessary language the story of a group of young German soldiers, who go unprepared from school desks to the front line, on the Western Front, in Flanders, Belgium, as volunteers, overwhelmed by nationalist propaganda. But soon the illusions crumble and they fight primarily for their own survival. One, Paul Boehmer, recounts in a heartbreaking way the horrors of war and the loss not only of his classmates but of an entire generation, which, while preparing for life, found itself faced with death. At the end of the novel a detached narrator refers to his death shortly before the end of the war in October 1918, a day so calm and quiet at the front that the military communique was reduced to the sentence “none younger than the Western Front” which became and title of the book.

The impression that the author is narrating his own experiences does not correspond to reality. Remarque himself later explained that he relied mainly on the experiences of others, including the numerous conversations he had in the Duisburg hospital where he was being treated after his forehead injury.

Describing the brutality of war operations from the perspective of those at God’s mercy and the absurdity of young soldiers’ war, Remarque’s book had a worldwide impact. Readers identified with the fate of the soldiers and were fascinated by the humanity they exuded. Thus, by the summer of 1930, a million copies had been sold, and in the meantime it has been translated into 50 languages ​​and about 20 million have been sold. His film adaptation – now awarded with four Oscars – has rekindled interest in Germany and according to the publishers, sales after its release in cinemas in September 2022 have increased by three times compared to the previous year.

The film “No Younger than the Western Front”, which also received seven BAFTA awards from the British Academy of Film, although it is the first German film based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, comes second internationally. The first was by American director Lewis Milestone and was filmed as early as 1929. The demanding production was praised for the realism of the battle scenes and is now considered a classic anti-war film. But it led to strong reactions both in Germany and in other European countries.

On December 4, 1930, it had its German premiere in Berlin. Only a week later the censorship of the German Reich banned it. There had been a fierce propaganda campaign against the film which, like Remarque’s novel, was targeted by the Nazis for its “unpatriotic propaganda”. Joseph Goebbels, Berlin’s local Nazi chief at the time, organized demonstrations to prevent it from being screened, while members of the National Socialist party rioted in cinemas and blocked screenings with stink bottles. But Milestone’s film was banned that same year in other countries, including Italy, Austria and Japan. France was later added, where it was not allowed to be shown from 1939 to 1963.

Director Eduard Berger’s contemporary film deviates from the book at times, which was criticized by some critics in Germany. “For me it was important that the brutality and the emotion that overwhelms the protagonist, have an effect on the audience for a while and become the trigger for discussions. I definitely wanted to avoid anything heroic, glorifying,” the director countered in an interview with German public radio (DLF). Also, the prestigious newspaper “Die Zeit” wrote that the film lacks “a modern look and a point of view regarding content, aesthetics and visuals. Where Berger deviates from Remarque’s model, he sometimes falls into cliché.’