Who is himmelstoss

The former postman, whose name means "heaven-knocker," overexerts his authority and is reported by the son of a local magistrate. As a result, the tormentor is sent to the front to fight alongside the men he intimidated with his petty drills and sadistic punishments.

Adorned with a twitching red mustache and aware that his role as drill instructor leaves him open to a vengeful shot in the back, he opens the way for insubordination by pressing veteran soldiers for meaningless parade-ground courtesies. Paul labels Himmelstoss' zealotry a "raging book of army regulations. The comeuppance for Himmelstoss provides the novel with a rare instance of poetic justice. After a drubbing by Tjaden and his pals, Himmelstoss continues to lord his authority through complaint to the commandant.

Before the war Himmelstoss used to be a postman, but was promoted to drill sergeant. From the get-go Himmelstoss disliked Paul and would give him rigorous tasks to try and break him. Some of those tasks included: making his bed multiple times in a day, shoveling snow with a broom and dust pan, and doing drill exercises for hours at a time.

He would also give Paul ridiculous punishments for the slightest mistake. It is clear to say that their relationship is based on a rank status. Himmelstoss sees himself higher than Paul. Already have an account?

Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Themes All Themes. Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. A postman in civilian life, Corporal Himmelstoss abuses young recruits in his wartime role as a trainer at boot camp.

He was particularly cruel to Tjaden , a bedwetter, whom Himmelstoss made share a bed with another bedwetter, Kindervater. Kat theorizes that ordinary men like Himmelstoss come to be so cruel because all men have something cruel and barbaric in them, and this dark inner nature is released by the rigid power hierarchy of the military.

Himmelstoss, however, is a dynamic character: after he is moved to a combat position at the front and experiences the horrors of trench warfare, he softens up and tries to make amends with the men he had terrorized at boot camp. In another wrinkle of complexity, Paul wonders if the cruel treatment Himmelstoss doled out actually made them better able to survive the war. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:.

Chapter 2 Quotes. Related Themes: Comradeship.