The armouring soldier and writer Werner Bertin is ordered to the Western Front to France during the First World War. The use before Verdun - with all the horrors of war in the period 1916/1917 - brings a fundamental change of consciousness for the academic from Berlin. The intellectual devoted to bravery by fate develops into a disappointed but rebellious being. He sees more and more the injustices of warlike conflicts and their social causes.
Werner Bertin
Leutnant Kroysing
Hauptmann Niggel
Wilhelm Pahl
Karl Lebede
Unteroffizier Glinski
Unteroffizier Süßmann
Christoph Kroysing
Leutnant Mettner
Pater Lochner
Oberst Stein
Major Jantsch
Ernst Schumacher
Leutnant Mahnitz
Feldwebel Feicht
Peter Krieg-Helbig
Schweizer Militärschriftsteller
Unteroffizier Böhme
Gefreiter aus Baden
Hauptmann Lauber
Feldwebel Graßnick
Rechtsanwalt Porisch
Barbier Neumann
General
Axel Krog