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Minor characters

Kantorek

Kantorek was the schoolmaster of Paul and his friends, including Kropp, Leer, and Müller. Behaving "in a way that cost [him] nothing," Kantorek is a strong supporter of the war and encourages Bäumer and other students in his class to join the war effort. Among twenty enlistees was Joseph Behm, the first of the class to die in battle. In an example of tragic irony, Behm was the only one who did not want to sacrifice his life in the line of duty. Kantorek is essentially a hypocrite, urging the young men he teaches to fight in the name of patriotism, while not voluntarily enlisting himself. In a twist of fate, Kantorek is later called up as a soldier as well. He very reluctantly joins the ranks of his former students, only to be grilled and taunted by Mittelstädt, one of the students he had earlier persuaded to enlist.

Leer

Leer is a soldier in Bäumer's company, and one of his classmates. He is very popular with women; when he and his comrades meet three French girls, he is the first to seduce one of them. Bäumer describes Leer's ability to attract girls by saying "Leer is an old hand at the game". In chapter 11, Leer is hit by a shell fragment, which also hits Bertinck. The shrapnel tears open Leer's hip, causing him to bleed to death quickly. His death causes Paul to ask himself, "What use is it to him now that he was such a good mathematician in school?"

Bertinck

Lieutenant Bertinck, often referred to as the company commander, is the leader of Bäumer's company. His men have a great respect for him, and Bertinck has great fondness for his men. He permits them to eat the rations of the men that had been killed in action, standing up to the chef who would only allow them their allotted share. Bertinck is genuinely despondent when he learns that few of his men had survived an engagement. When he and the other characters are trapped in a trench under heavy attack, Bertinck spots a flamethrower team advancing on them, which will certainly kill them all. Although already shot in the chest and hit in the chin by the same shell fragment that killed Leer, Bertinck manages to kill the flamethrower team, and right afterward he mutters "good", assured that his men will live, and slumps down dead.

Himmelstoss

Remarque's portrayal of Himmelstoss easily raises the ire of the reader. Before enlisting in the war he was a post-man. He is a power-hungry corporal with special contempt for Paul and his friends, taking sadistic pleasure in punishing the minor infractions of his trainees during their basic training in preparation for their deployment. However, Bäumer and his comrades have a chance to get back at Himmelstoss, mercilessly whipping him on the night before they board trains to go to the front. Himmelstoss later joins them at the front, revealing himself as a coward who shirks his duties for fear of getting hurt or killed, and pretends to be wounded because of a scratch on his face. Bäumer beats him and when a lieutenant comes along looking for men for a trench charge, Himmelstoss joins and leads the charge. He carries Haie Westhus' body to Bäumer after he is fatally wounded. Matured and repentant through his experiences Himmelstoss later asks for forgiveness from his previous charges. As he becomes the new staff cook, to prove his friendship he secures two pounds of sugar for Bäumer and half a pound of butter for Tjaden.

Detering

Detering was a young farmer who loved his wife and farm and constantly longed to return to them. He is especially fond of horses and is angered when seeing them used in combat. He says, "It is of the vilest baseness to use horses in the war," when the group hears several wounded horses writhe and scream for a long time before dying. He tries to shoot them to put them out of misery, but is stopped by Kat. He is driven to desert when he sees a cherry blossom, which reminds him of home too much and inspires him to leave. He is found by military police and court-martialled, and is never heard of again.

Josef Hamacher

Hamacher is a patient at the Catholic hospital where Paul and Albert Kropp are temporarily stationed. He has an intimate knowledge of the workings of the hospital. He also has a "shooting license," certifying him as sporadically not responsible for his actions due to a head wound, though he is clearly quite sane and exploiting his license so he can stay in the hospital and away from the war as long as possible.

Franz Kemmerich

Kemmerich had enlisted in the army for WWI along with his best friend and classmate, Bäumer. Kemmerich is shot in the leg early in the story; his injured leg had to be amputated, and he dies shortly thereafter. In anticipation of Kemmerich's imminent death, Müller was eager to get his boots. While in hospital, someone stole Kemmerich's watch from him, causing him great distress, prompting him to ask about his watch every time his friends came to visit him in the hospital.

Joseph Behm

A student in Paul's class. Behm was the only student that was not quickly influenced by Kantorek's patriotism to join the war. Eventually, due to pressure from friends and Kantorek, he joins the war. He is the first of Paul's friends to die, and he dies in a horrifying fashion: He is blinded in no man's land and cut down by enemy fire.

Gérard Duval

Duval is the first person whom Paul kills in hand-to-hand combat. As a civilian, Duval was a French printer, married and with a child. When Duval dives into a sodden shell hole occupied by Paul while retreating from a failed attack, Paul stabs Duval three times in the chest. As they sit, trapped together in a shell hole in No-Man's Land, Duval dies slowly and Paul experiences profound remorse, even swearing to devote his life to Duval's family. Kropp and Kat later comfort Paul by noting the professional exaltation with which the German snipers kill many times each day, and Paul resolves to suppress in his mind the encounter with Duval, along with the other horrors he has endured.