Following the desperate events at the front, Chapter Five creates a quiet mood of camaraderie among the group and especially between Paul and Kat. As the chapter opens, Tjaden rigs up a lid from a boot-polish tin, a wire, and a candle in order to kill lice. While they are relaxing, the group discusses a rumor that Himmelstoss has arrived at the front, transferred because he was too hard on recruits. Tjaden ponders his revenge.
In quiet moments, they discuss what they would do if peace occurred. Kropp says he would get drunk; Kat would go home to his wife and children; and Westhus would find a woman and a bed and then become a soldier with the Prussians, reasoning that, as a soldier, he would at least have food, a bed, clean underwear, clothes, and pubs in the evening. Tjaden ponders what he will do to Himmelstoss, and Detering worries about the harvest.
Himmelstoss arrives and he and Tjaden have an insult contest, with Himmelstoss demanding respect and Tjaden insulting him and eventually mooning him. As a result, Himmelstoss storms out, threatening a court-martial and Tjaden laughs so hard he dislocates his jaw, causing Kropp to hit him in order to realign it. They wonder if Himmelstoss will report Tjaden, who laughs that he could sit out the war in prison. The confrontation ends in the Orderly Room where Lt. Bertink gives Tjaden and Kropp a fair hearing and the bed-wetting incident is recounted. Tjaden gets three days open arrest behind a barbed wire fence, and Kropp gets one day. This is a light sentence; the others are able to visit the prisoners and play cards with them.
Chapter Five also includes a scene of friendship and affection between Paul and Kat. They go after a goose and end up killing, roasting, and eating it in a shed away from the others. It is a quiet moment of contentment, in which Paul declares to himself, “We are brothers.” They take some of the meat to share with Tjaden and Kropp. As the chapter ends, Paul considers the contrast between their evening and the events of the war: “We are two men, two minute sparks of life; outside is the night and the circle of death.” Then he sleeps.
