All Quiet on the Western Front
Radio 3
THE awful experience of the Great War takes a long time to digest. As Remembrance Sunday approached, we were steeped in it all again. The BBC worked vigorously to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice. This was right and proper, although, inevitably, the focus was on historic “events” and the appalling suffering and loss of it all. The political and economic structures that led to the complex of destruction in August 1914 were hardly explored in public debate.
We need to go back to the 19th century. Economic rivalries developed into territorial and colonial rivalries. There was also intense harm to European harmony resulting from the Franco-Prussian war; the loss of Alsace and Lorraine that left France seething with resentment; Bismarck’s secret diplomacy in his system of protective alliances against a French war of revenge; the growing might of German industry; Kaiser Wilhelm II’s dismissal of Bismarck and the growth of Germany’s ambitions to become an international power; the Anglo-German naval rivalry and the series of crises in the Balkans and North Africa that involved putative German interference. All this was while Austria and Germany grew closer together and matters in the Balkan states grew to fever pitch.
Then came the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and all the rest followed. Ever since the Armistice, we have tried to understand these things and come to terms with what people are capable of doing and how to stop it ever happening again. Absorption, apprehension, awareness and understanding of matters of such enormity take time. In 1929, 10 years after the Great War, three masterpieces were produced that are landmarks in our understanding of 1914-18: RC Sherriff’s Journey’s End, Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That and Erich Marie von Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front.
Incredible though it seems, this radio dramatisation by Dave Sheasby of All Quiet on the Western Front was the first time BBC radio has tackled this disturbing masterpiece. And not a moment too soon. Remarque was a veteran of the war and his harrowing account of the military experiences of a bunch of doomed young German soldiers had a universal appeal. They were egged on by their highly orthodox schoolteacher, using the emotional appeal of patriotism and duty.
The dreadful sense of the pointlessness of it all is perceived through the eyes of Paul Baumer, as the novel takes the form of his diary. But this is an old and universal story. It sold 2.5 million copies in 25 languages within 18 months. It was filmed in 1930 in the United States and banned in Nazi Germany. But the story always needs telling and the BBC is to be thanked for telling it.
As radio drama, it worked well. A good cast was headed by Robert Lonsdale and directed by David Hunter. The dramatisation by prolific radio playwright Sheasby was gripping and coherent. This splendid production should be issued in CD audio form and used in all schools and colleges. Lessons still have not been learned. Our own recent history tells us that.
Robert Giddings
