The theme is the brutality of war and the effect it had on the young generation who went to fight in it. The theme relates to today because of how the people are enlisted in the military and how their family is affected greatly.
From November 10 to December 9, 1928, All Quiet on the Western Front was published in serial form in Vossische Zeitung magazine. It was released in book form the following year to smashing success, selling a million and a half copies that same year. Although publishers had worried that interest in the Great War had waned more than 10 years