Change at Lohne

Change at Lohne is a drill invented by Corporal Himmelstoss to teach soldiers how to change trains at the Lohne railway junction, a repetitive and absurd exercise that epitomizes the dehumanizing and arbitrary nature of military training in All Quiet on the Western Front. The exercise, which required men to scramble under their beds on command, became a symbol of the pointless discipline that stripped recruits of their individuality and prepared them for the horrors of the front by breaking their spirits first.

Origin and Purpose

The drill was devised by Corporal Himmelstoss, the strictest disciplinarian in the camp, who was proud of his reputation. Himmelstoss, a postman in civilian life, used the exercise to prepare his men for the real Lohne railway junction, where they would need to pass through a subway to reach the branch line. In the barrack-room, the beds represented the subway, and each man had to stand at attention on the left side of his bed. At the command "Change at Lohne!" everyone scrambled under the bed to the opposite side. This was practiced for hours on end, a monotonous and physically demanding task that served no real purpose beyond instilling blind obedience.

Execution and Absurdity

The drill was a favorite of Himmelstoss, who used it to torment recruits like Paul Bäumer and Albert Kropp. The exercise was not only physically exhausting but also psychologically demeaning, as it reduced soldiers to automatons performing meaningless actions. The absurdity of the drill was compounded by the fact that it was practiced in the barracks, far from the actual junction, and the men were forced to repeat it until they could perform it without thought. This kind of training, as Paul reflects, was designed to break down the individual and replace him with a soldier who would obey without question, a process that was both necessary for survival in the trenches and destructive to the human spirit.

Connection to Military Language and Culture

The drill is part of a broader military culture that Paul describes as being on friendlier terms with the stomach and intestines than other men. The soldier's vocabulary is derived from these regions, and the latrine becomes a place for gossip and rumor, known as "latrine-rumour." This crude, bodily language is a universal tongue among soldiers, and it reflects the way in which the army reduces men to their most basic functions. The Change at Lohne drill, with its focus on physical movement and obedience, is a manifestation of this same reductionist logic, where the body is trained to respond to commands without the interference of the mind.

Thematic Significance

The drill represents the broader theme of the dehumanization of soldiers in the war. Paul and his comrades are subjected to endless parade-ground soldiering, which they often howl with rage at, but which ultimately makes them hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, and tough. These attributes, while necessary for survival, also cut them off from their former lives and from the civilian world they left behind. The Change at Lohne drill is a microcosm of this process, a small but potent example of how the army systematically destroys the individuality of its recruits, turning them into the "Iron Youth" that Kantorek and others celebrate, but who are in fact hollowed out by the war. The drill also foreshadows the way in which the soldiers will later be treated as expendable, their lives reduced to statistics and their deaths to a line in an army report.