How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from All Quiet on the Western Front.
Quote #1
KANTOREK: You are the life of the fatherland, you boys. You are the iron men of Germany. You are the gay heroes who will repulse the enemy when you are called upon to do so.
Chauvinism impresses the idea that country is the only thing that matters. The individual students don't matter to Kantorek because all he can see in them is the "life of the fatherland."
Quote #2
MUELLER: I think maybe the Kaiser wanted a war.
TJADEN: You leave us out of this.
KAT: I don't see that. The Kaiser's got everything he needs.
PETER: Well, he never had a war before. Every full-grown emperor needs one war to make him famous. Why, that's history.
PAUL: Yeah, generals, too. They need war.
MUELLER: And manufacturers. They get rich.
ALBERT: I think it's more a kind of fever. Nobody wants it in particular and then, all at once, here it is. We didn't want it. The English didn't want it. And here we are fighting.
The characters are considering possible origins for the war, and in doing so, potential origins for the chauvinism consuming their country. The first is that the chauvinism was manufactured so various people and organizations could profit. The second is that chauvinism is a type of thought virus, spread from one person to another like the flu.
Quote #3
PAUL: It isn't customary to ask for salutes here. But I'll tell you what we'll do. We're going to attack a town that we tried to take once before. Many killed and many wounded. It was great fun. This time you're going with us. If any of us stops a bullet, before we die, we're going to come to you, click our heels together and ask stiffly, "Please, Sergeant Himmelstoss, may we go?"
The treatment of Himmelstoss shows us how much Paul and his friends have changed since the film's opening. In Kantorek's class, they were all about the grand adventure and dying for the fatherland. But if we see Himmelstoss as representing militarism and nationalism, then Paul's disregard for his authority demonstrates that his chauvinistic ideals are gone.