Conflict between Tjaden and Himmelstoss

The conflict between Tjaden and Himmelstoss is one of the most personal and bitterly comic antagonisms in the novel, rooted in the sadistic training methods of a petty disciplinarian and erupting into open defiance once the front line overturns the barracks' power structure. It exposes the gulf between parade-ground authority and the reality of trench warfare, and becomes a vehicle for the soldiers' accumulated rage against the system that shaped them.

Origins in Barracks Humiliation

The enmity begins during basic training under Corporal Himmelstoss, a former postman who prides himself on being the strictest disciplinarian in the camp. Tjaden suffers from bed-wetting in his sleep, a condition Himmelstoss refuses to recognize as medical and instead treats as sheer laziness. To "cure" him, Himmelstoss hunts up another bed-wetter named Kindervater from a neighboring unit and quarters him with Tjaden in a bunk bed, arranging them so that one night the man on top urinates on the man below, and the next night they swap positions to retaliate. The scheme accomplishes nothing except forcing one of them to sleep on the cold floor, where he frequently catches cold. This degrading "system of self-education" becomes the foundation of Tjaden's lasting hatred.

Escalation at the Front

When Himmelstoss arrives at the front, the power dynamic shifts dramatically. The soldiers are no longer helpless recruits but hardened veterans who know that the front line is not a parade ground. Tjaden, seeing his tormentor approach, turns red with excitement and stretches out on the grass, shutting his eyes in anticipation. When Himmelstoss tries to assert authority, Tjaden delivers the insult he has been storing up for months: "Wouldn't you like to know what you are? A dirty hound, that's what you are. I've been wanting to tell you that for a long time." When Himmelstoss commands him to stand at attention, Tjaden responds by ventilating his backside in the well-known classical gesture of contempt. Himmelstoss storms off to report him, threatening a court-martial.

The Thrashing and Its Aftermath

The conflict reaches its physical climax the night before the company leaves for the front. Tjaden, along with Paul Bäumer, Albert Kropp, and Haie Westhus, ambushes Himmelstoss on a dark road, throws a bed-cover over his head, and beats him thoroughly. Haie Westhus delivers the first blow, which would have felled an ox, while Tjaden unbuttons Himmelstoss's braces, pulls down his trousers, and whips him with a vengeance. The scene is described as a "wonderful picture": Himmelstoss on the ground with his striped postman's backside gleaming in the moonlight, Haie bending over him with a fiendish grin, and Tjaden towering like a woodcutter. Afterward, Haie stands him up and delivers two well-aimed box on the ears, one with each hand. Himmelstoss never discovers who attacked him, though he scores a bed-cover from the incident. The beating gives the soldiers a sense of satisfaction as they leave for the front, and an old officer describes them as "young heroes."

Resolution Through Shared Danger

After Himmelstoss has experienced the front line, the conflict softens. He has "the bounce knocked out of him" and tries to get on good terms with the group. Paul Bäumer is willing to reconcile, having seen Himmelstoss bring the wounded Haie Westhus in under fire. Himmelstoss proves decent enough to treat them in the canteen and, when he takes over as sergeant-cook, provides them with two pounds of sugar and a half-pound of butter specially for Tjaden. Only Tjaden remains reserved and suspicious, but even he is won over when Himmelstoss details them to the cook-house for potato and turnip peeling, where they receive real officers' fare. The conflict is formally adjudicated when Lieutenant Bertinck hears the case, lectures Himmelstoss about the front not being a parade-ground, and gives Tjaden three days' open arrest—which Tjaden treats as a rest. The enmity, born in the barracks and consummated in a beating, dissolves not through forgiveness but through the shared experience of danger and the practical necessities of survival.