German Soldiers with Universal Ideas

The fact that the soldiers are German does add to the film.  Since this film was viewed mainly by an American audience it was an interesting choice for the director to use Germans in WWI instead of Americans in either  WWI or WWII.  This shows that the director clearly had a reason for picking these particular men to tell his story through.  The German's were viewed as "the enemy" in both WWI and WWII for the Americans.  Therefore, you would think it would be hard for an American audience to sympathize with these men but it is quite the opposite.  The men, though German, are still human and have the universal characteristics that all humans share.  They are humorous, loving, hard-working, caring, and only wish to continue living.  Many of the Germans did not want this war more than anyone else as shown in the scene where the men are eating and discusing who they think wanted this awful war in the first place.  Paul says something along the lines of "Well I have never wanted to kill an Englishman before.  In fact I had never seen one until I came to the front."  This kind of outlook towards the war shows that the Germans were not just ruthless killing machines; they were humans with the same kind of ideas and feelings as the film's audience.