A summary of Erich Maria Remarque’s "The Return"

German writer Erich Maria Remarque’s 1931 novel is a grim account of the fate of former frontline soldiers who returned home after World War I and faced social chaos, domestic unrest, and profound psychological trauma. The profound crisis of an entire generation, who sacrificed their youth to fight for foreign interests, is revealed through the personal tragedies of soldiers attempting to rediscover the meaning of life in peaceful Germany.

This work is part of Remarque’s trilogy about the war and the fate of the post-war generation, the first book of which was the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929), and the final one was "Three Comrades" (1936). In 1937, director James Whale adapted the work for the screen in the United States under the title "The Road Back."

The end of the war and the road home

In November 1918, the remnants of the second platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Ludwig Breyer, gravely ill with dysentery, are waiting in the trenches. Among them are the narrator, Ernst Birkholz, Adolf Bethke, Ferdinand Kosole, Willi Homeyer, Heinrich Wessling, Valentin Lager, Tjaden, Arthur Ledderhose, Max Weil, Karl Breger, and Albert Troske. A wedge of wild geese flying over the trenches evokes dreams of a hot roast among the starving soldiers. Company Commander Heel sends his men to the front lines, where an unexpected silence falls — the arrival of peace.

However, fighting resumes, and in one of the final clashes, a peasant named Wesling is fatally wounded in the stomach. His friends drag him on a tarpaulin to the overcrowded field hospital. There, Wesling dies in Ernst’s arms, having managed to give him a photograph of his wife and personal belongings. Of the 200 men in the company, only 32 survive.

The soldiers begin the long journey home. Along the way, they encounter well-fed American units. The initial tension gives way to an exchange: the veterans trade their combat awards, badges, and buttons for cigarettes, chocolate, and food. Former medic Max Weil brings a newspaper with news of the revolution in Berlin and the Kaiser’s flight to Holland. Company Commander Heel is deeply affected by the army’s collapse, tears off his shoulder straps, and weeps at night from helplessness.

The soldiers elect representatives and cross the German border. Instead of a ceremonial welcome, they encounter the indifference of civilians preoccupied with their own concerns. Having won the battle for seats on an overcrowded freight train, where some passengers perish on the roofs of the cars while passing through tunnels, the front-line soldiers reach their hometown.

The hardships of peaceful days

On the city streets, Ernst and Ludwig immediately clash with revolutionary sailors attempting to rip Lieutenant Breyer’s epaulettes off. They are saved from reprisal by the intervention of the physically strong Willi Homeyer. Ernst is welcomed home by his family, but he feels like an outsider. His parents’ conversations about trivial matters only evoke a dull irritation in him, and his habit of eating with his hands betrays his trench-dwelling savagery.

Each of the war veterans faces their own adversity. Albert Troske’s older brother, Hans, returns from the hospital a cripple with his feet amputated. Adolf Bethke learns that his wife, Maria, has cheated on him out of loneliness and fear during their four-year separation. Willi Homeyer cleverly requisitions a neighbor’s breeding rooster, teaching his mother to cook fricassee according to front-line recipes. Having encountered former company commander Sergeant Major Seelig in a pub, Kozole brutally beats him, avenging his fallen comrade Schröder.

Ernst, Ludwig, and Albert return to the teachers’ seminary to complete their studies. At the ceremonial meeting, the director delivers a pompous speech about "heroic death under green grass." Willi Homeyer interrupts him with anger, stripping away the false pathos and describing the horrific torment of his peers, hanging from barbed wire with their bellies cut open. Ludwig Breyer bluntly declares to the teachers that the soldiers will no longer allow false notions of patriotism to be imposed on them.

The disintegration of the front-line brotherhood

Classes resume, but learning seems pointless to the front-line soldiers. Many of their schoolmates have died or gone mad. Former students visit Gerhardt Gieseke in a psychiatric hospital, who constantly relives the horror of the fighting at Fleury. Karl Breger sells his library, preferring the profits of the liquor trade to his studies.

The brotherhood that bound the soldiers together gradually crumbles under the pressure of social inequality. At a regimental reunion at Konersman’s restaurant, the wealthy veterans look down on them, while the poor feel slighted. Tjaden marries the daughter of a horse meat shop owner, the cunning Arthur Ledderhose becomes a major speculator, and Kozole is unemployed.

The final break with the past occurs when Ernst meets the girl of his youth, Adele. He realizes that she has become a stranger, and a return to his youthful dreams is impossible.

Having barely passed his condensed exams, Ernst goes to teach at a village school. But the job quickly becomes a dead end. Observing the children, Ernst sees that the school curriculum is steeped in the cult of war. Tormented by nightmares in which he kills the English captain again, Ernst dismisses the class and resigns as a teacher.

Tragedies and emotional breakdown

The situation in the city is heating up due to hunger, speculation, and inflation. A mournful march of war invalids — the blind, the shell-shocked, and the crippled on carts — passes through the streets. Soon, a demonstrating workers is shot at by a unit under the command of former company commander Heel. Max Weil is among the dead. The comrades find themselves on opposite sides of the barricades.

Tragedy also befalls Albert Troske. Finding his beloved Lucy in a private room at a cabaret with the wealthy businessman Bartscher, Albert draws a revolver and shoots his rival in the forehead. He then voluntarily surrenders to the police.

Ludwig Breyer, having learned of his syphilis infection, contracted in a brothel during his leave from the front, commits suicide by slitting his wrists in a bathtub of warm water. The loss of Ludwig and Albert’s arrest lead Ernst to a severe nervous breakdown and hallucinations. He sees the ghosts of his fallen comrades and plunges into a prolonged state of unconsciousness.

At Albert’s trial, Willi Hohmeier and Ernst deliver impassioned speeches, accusing the judges and society of first teaching young men to kill and then casting them aside. Albert is sentenced to three years in prison.

Georg Rahe, a former pilot who sought salvation in the Freikorps volunteer units, becomes disillusioned with mercenaries who kill their own citizens. He leaves for France, to the old battlefields, and shoots himself among the grave crosses.

Finding a new path

In the spring, the surviving friends — Ernst, Willy, Kozole, and Valentin — gather together. On a walk in the woods, they encounter a group of teenagers from the "Migratory Birds" organization playing a military attack game under the guidance of a plump instructor. Willy decisively shames the organizer of the war game, urging them to give the children the opportunity to live without military drill.

Homeyer decides to return to teaching in the village to teach children a true love for the land and nature, rather than military slogans.

After spending the night at a village inn, Ernst gradually feels liberated from the ghosts that tormented him. Lying in a meadow among the grass, he finds new life. Ernst understands that his path is one of humble and honest work, repairing the destruction wrought and gradually finding his place in peaceful life.