Leer
A worldly schoolmate whose confidence and interest in women cannot protect him from a random wound.
To take whatever pleasure and companionship wartime briefly permits.
The book
At a glance
- About nineteen
- Paul's schoolmate
- Infantryman
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeLeer is one of Paul's classmates and presents himself as more sexually experienced than the others.
His lively presence helps preserve the sense that these soldiers are still very young men.
How the book draws them
- Worldly mannerHe performs experience beyond his age.
- SchoolmateHe shares Paul's lost prewar world.
- Social confidenceHe is more outward than Paul.
- Ordinary youthHis interests resist reducing him to a uniform.
Leer is wounded in the hip during the attack that kills Bertinck and bleeds to death.
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