The director of the first German film adaptation of the classic 1928 anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front has said he hopes that a “German perspective” on the impact of war on the aggressor country would leave its mark.
Asked in an interview in Spiegel magazine why it had taken so long to have a German adaptation of a German literary classic, Berger said: “In Germany, the memory of world war one was displaced by memories of German atrocities committed in world war two.”
Consequently, there had for decades been little or no appetite for making a German version of the film.
Bäumer lies about his age to fight for Germany, responding with euphoria to a patriotic appeal by his teacher.