Outside Verdun

Characters

In the order of their appearance

PRIVATE WERNER BERTIN, son of a Kreuzberg Jew, a young trainee lawyer and writer now of the German Army Service Corps (ASC).

PRIVATE WILHELM PAHL, from Berlin, a typsetter by trade and a socialist; also of the ASC.

PRIVATE KARL LEBEHDE, in civilian life a Berlin inn-keeper, now of the ASC.

COLONEL STEIN, an old cavalryman, commandant of the Steinbergquell ammunitions depot.

LIEUTENANT BENNDORF, acting captain and adjutant to Colonel Stein.

ACTING LIEUTENANT GRASSNICK, veteran of the Serbian campaign, in command of the labour company attached to the ammunitions depot; known to his subordinates as Panje of Vranje.

ACTING SERGEANT MAJOR GLINSKY, formerly an insurance agent.

PRIVATES OF THE ASC: HILDEBRANDT, a blacksmith; VEHSE, an upholsterer;

STRAUSS, a shopkeeper; FANNRICH and REINHOLD.

SPERLICH, an orderly-room clerk.

BRUNO NAUMANN, barber, a socialist.

IGNAZ NAUMANN, the company fool, formerly a packer in a warehouse.

DR. BINDEL, a civilian doctor in uniform.

CORPORAL SCHNEE, from the Sanitary Corps.

SERGEANT BÖHNE, once a postman.

SERGEANT SCHULZ, an ammunitions expert.

SERGEANT CHRISTOPH KROYSING, a Nürnberger, a young poet who stood up against injustice.

AXEL KROG, a Swedish war correspondent, a fervent admirer of France.

LEPAILLE, a French gunner.

WUERFURTH, a clerk.

CORPORAL NÄGLEIN, formerly a farmer.

CORPORAL ALTHANS, a Reservist in possession of a permanent travel pass.

LIEUTENANT EBERHARD KROYSING, Christoph Kroysing’s elder brother, by profession a civil engineer, now a sapper and recipient of the Iron Cross, first class.

CAPTAIN ALOIS NIGGL, in civilian life a retired civil servant from Weilheim, Bavaria, now of the ASC and with ambitions for decoration.

MAJOR JANSCH, a Prussian from Berlin, embittered nationalist and anti-Semite, editor of Army and Fleet Weekly, now of the ASC.

LIEUTENANT PSALTER, formerly a headmaster in Neuruppen, now of the lorry park.

PROFESSOR CARL GEORG MERTENS, an eminent legal scholar, judge advocate of the court martial at Montmédy.

SEARGEANT PORISCH, Judge Advoate Mertens’ deputy.

LANCE CORPORAL SIECK, clerk to the judge advocate.

SERGEANT ERICH SÜSSMANN, a Berlin Jew, a schoolboy in years but a veteran in service.

OTTO SCHNEIDER, a telephone operator.

CORPORAL FRIEDRICH STRUMPF, a switchboard operator, once a park-keeper near Heidelberg.

SERGEANT-MAJOR LUDWIG FEICHT, formerly purser on a Bavarian lake steamer.

LIEUTENANT SIMMERDING, second in command in Captain Niggl’s company.

DILLINGER, orderly-room clerk.

LIEUTENANT PAUL SCHANZ, from Russian Poland, now of the artillery.

CORPORAL KARL KILIAN, from Baden, a switchboard operator, once a worker in a tobacco factory.

FATHER BENEDIKT LOCHNER, of the Order of St Francis, a broad-minded representative of the Catholic Church, now serving as field chaplain.

SEERGEANT KNAPPE, an ammunitions expert.

JEAN-FRANCOIS ROUARD, a French painter, now in the French air corps.

PRIVATE PRZYGULLA, formerly a farmhand.

THE CROWN PRINCE OF GERMANY, Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Army.

LIEUTENANT VON ROGGSTROH, an officer in the Royal Guard Artillery.

SERGEANT KROPP, a peasant from Uckermark.

KRAWIETZ, the company tailor.

SERGEANT BÜTTNER, an industrialist in civilian life.

SERGEANT-MAJOR PFUND, an old regular, embezzler of canteen funds.

STAFF SERGEANT SUSEMIHIL, a policeman in civilian life.

STAFF SERGEANT POHL, in civilian life a schoolteacher.

SERGEANT SCHNEEVOIGT, hospital orderly and a barber by trade.

SERGEANT SCHWERDTLEIN, in charge of a construction squad.

SERGEANT ALEXANDER FÜRTH, a Berlin barrister, a Jew, known to his fellow corps members as Pelican, now of the railway transport office.

SERGEANT EMIL BARKOPP, a tavern-keeper from Hamburg, leader of an ill-fated working party.

CORPORAL DIEHL, a primary schoolteacher, clerk to Major Jansch,

KUHLMANN, a messenger.

SISTER KLÄRE, daughter of the well-known Pidderit family of the Rhineland, wife of Colonel Schwersenz, and now a nurse at Dannevoux field hospital.

LIEUTENANT METTNER, a mathematician, now in hospital.

LIEUTENANT FLACHSBAUER, son of a factory owner, now in hospital.

SISTER MARIECHEN, of the Dannevoux hospital unit.

DR POSNANSKI, a Jew from Brandenburg, judge advocate and successor to Professor Mertens; known as Mopsus to fellow corps members.

ADLER, Berlin barrister, clerk to Dr Posnanski.

LIEUTENANT WINFRIED, nephew of his Excellency General von Lychow.

SERGEANT-MAJOR PONT, a master builder from Kalkar on the Rhine.

PECHLER, Dannevoux hospital bath orderly.

DR BAER, Jewish chaplain at Dannevoux hospital.

KELLER, a blind cuirassier, now telephone operator for Dannevoux hospital.

PHILIPPE, pilot of a French bombing plane.

LENORE BERTIN, Werner Bertin’s wife.