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Erich Maria Remarque (born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German author
German literature

German literature comprises those literature texts written in the German language.This includes literature written in Germany itself as well as German-language Swiss literature and Austrian literature, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora....
.

h Paul Remark was born on 22 June 1898 in a working-class family in the German city of Osnabrück
Osnabrück

Osnabr?ck is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of M?nster, and some 100 km due west of Hannover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehengebirge and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest....
, the son of Peter Franz Remark (b. 14 June 1867, Kaiserswerth) and Anna Maria Remark, nee Stallknecht (b. 21 November 1871, Katernberg). He later took the middle name Maria in honor of his mother.






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Erich Maria Remarque (born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German author
German literature

German literature comprises those literature texts written in the German language.This includes literature written in Germany itself as well as German-language Swiss literature and Austrian literature, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora....
.

Life

Erich Paul Remark was born on 22 June 1898 in a working-class family in the German city of Osnabrück
Osnabrück

Osnabr?ck is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of M?nster, and some 100 km due west of Hannover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehengebirge and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest....
, the son of Peter Franz Remark (b. 14 June 1867, Kaiserswerth) and Anna Maria Remark, nee Stallknecht (b. 21 November 1871, Katernberg). He later took the middle name Maria in honor of his mother. At the age of sixteen or seventeen he also made his first attempts at writing: essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as The Dream Room
The Dream Room

The Dream Room was Erich Maria Remarque's first novel. He started writing it at the age of sixteen and completed it after his service in World War I....
 (Die Traumbude).

At the age of eighteen Remarque was conscripted into the army. On 12 June, 1917 he was transferred to the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Empire army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France....
, 2nd Company, Reserves, Field Depot of the 2nd Reserves Guards Division
2nd Guard Reserve Division (German Empire)

The 2nd Guard Reserve Division was a reserve infantry division of the German Army in World War I. Despite its name, it was not a reserve formation of the Prussian Guards like the 1st Guard Reserve Division ....
 at Hem-Lenglet. On 26 June he was posted to the 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 2nd Company of Trench Battalion Bethe, and was stationed between Torhout and Houthulst. On 31 July he was wounded by shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck, and was repatriated to an army hospital in Germany where he spent the rest of the war.

After the war he changed his last name to Remarque, which had been the family name until his grandfather changed it in the 19th century. He worked at a number of different jobs, including librarian, businessman, teacher, journalist and editor. He married his first wife, the actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in 1925. The marriage was stormy and, on both sides, unfaithful. After a divorce, they remarried each other in 1938.

In 1927 Remarque made a second literary start with the novel Station at the Horizon (Station am Horizont), which was serialized in the sports journal "Sport im Bild" for which Remarque was working. It was published in book form only in 1998. His most famous book, All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, a Germany veteran of World War I. The book shows the war's horrors and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front....
 (Im Westen nichts Neues) was written in a few months in 1927, but Remarque was not immediately able to find a publisher. The novel, published in 1929, described the experiences of German soldiers during World War I. A number of similar works followed; in simple, emotive language they described wartime and the postwar years.

In 1931, after finishing The Road Back
The Road Back

The Road Back is a novel by Germany author Erich Maria Remarque. The novel was first serialized in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung between December 1930 and January 1931, and published in book form in April 1931 in literature....
 (Der Weg zurück) Remarque left Germany. He bought a villa in Porto Ronco in Switzerland and lived both there and in France until 1939, when he left Europe for the United States of America with his wife and they became naturalized citizens of the United States in 1947.

In 1933, the Nazis
Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
 banned and burned Remarque's works, and issued propaganda stating that he was a descendant of French Jews and that his real last name was Kramer, a Jewish-sounding name, his original name spelled backwards. This is still listed in some biographies despite the complete lack of evidence. Also despite clear evidence to the contrary, their assertion that he had never seen active service remains in some references. In 1943 the Nazis arrested his sister Elfriede Scholz, who had stayed behind in Germany with her husband and two children. After a short trial in the "Volksgerichtshof" (Hitler's extra-constitutional "People's Court") she was found guilty of "undermining morality." Evidence supports the contention that the verdict and the associated death sentence were issued to punish her brother: Court President Roland Friesler declared, "Ihr Bruder ist uns leider entwischt - Sie aber werden uns nicht entwischen" (your brother has unfortunately escaped us - you, however, will not escape us).. Elfriede Scholz was decapitated by axe on 16 December 1943.

Remarque's next novel, Three Comrades
Three Comrades (novel)

Three Comrades is a novel first published in 1936 by the Germany author Erich Maria Remarque. It is written in first person by the main character Robert Lohkamp, whose somewhat disillusioned outlook on life is due to his horrifying experiences in the trenches of the World War I French-German front....
 (Drei Kameraden) spans the years of Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
, from the hyperinflation of 1923
Inflation in the Weimar Republic

The inflation in the Weimar Republic was a period of hyperinflation in Germany during 1921-1923.The hyperinflation episode in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s was not the first hyperinflation, nor was it the only one in early 1920s Europe....
 to the end of the decade. Remarque's fourth novel, Flotsam (Liebe deinen Nächsten), first appeared in a serial version in English translation in Collier's magazine in 1939, and Remarque spent another year revising the text for its book publication in 1941 both in English and German. His next novel Arch of Triumph
Arch of Triumph (novel)

Arch of Triumph is a 1946 in literature novel by Erich Maria Remarque. In it, he writes about stateless refugees' life in Paris before World War II....
, first published in 1945 in English translation and published in German as Arc de Triomphe in 1946, was another instant best-seller and reached worldwide sales of nearly five million copies.

In 1948 Remarque went back to Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life. There was a gap of seven years—a long silence for Remarque—between Arch of Triumph and his next work, The Spark of Life (Der Funke Leben), which appeared both in German and in English in 1952. While he was writing The Spark of Life Remarque was also working on a novel he called Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben (Time to Live and Time to Die). It was published first in English translation in 1954 with the not-quite-literal title A Time to Love and a Time to Die. In 1958, Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk

Douglas Sirk was a Germany film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s....
 directed the film A Time to Love and a Time to Die
A Time to Love and a Time to Die

A Time to Love and a Time to Die is a book written by the German author, Erich Maria Remarque This book was made into a drama film in 1958 directed by Douglas Sirk and starring John Gavin....
 in Germany, based on Remarque's novel A Time to Live and a Time to Die. Remarque makes a cameo appearance in this film in the role of the Professor.

In 1955 Remarque wrote the screenplay for an Austrian movie, The Last Act (Der letzte Akt), about Hitler's final days in the bunker
Führerbunker

The F?hrerbunker is a common name for a complex of subterranean rooms in Berlin, Germany, where German dictator Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun Death of Adolf Hitler during World War II....
 of the Reich Chancellery
Reich Chancellery

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2005-1017-526, Berlin, Reichskanzlei.jpgThe Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Germany Chancellor of Germany ....
 in Berlin, which was based on the book Ten Days to Die (1950) by Michael Musmanno
Michael Musmanno

Michael Angelo Musmanno was an United States jurist, politician, and naval officer.Musmanno was born in Stowe Township, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, an industrial neighborhood a few miles west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
. In 1956 Remarque wrote a drama for the stage, Full Circle (Die letzte Station), which played successfully both in Germany and on Broadway; an English translation was published in 1974. The Night in Lisbon
The Night in Lisbon

The Night in Lisbon is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1962 in literature. It revolves around the plight of two German refugees in the opening months of World War II....
 (Die Nacht von Lissabon), published in 1962 is the last work Remarque finished. The novel sold some 900,000 copies in Germany and was a modest best-seller abroad as well.

He married the Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child Model and in several Broadway theatre productions as Ziegfeld Follies, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s....
 in 1958 and they remained married until his death in hospital at Locarno on 25 September 1970 at the age of 72. He was interred in the Ronco cemetery in Ronco
Ronco sopra Ascona

Ronco sopra Ascona is a Municipalities of Switzerland near Locarno in the Cantons of Switzerland of Ticino in Switzerland.The painter Antonio Ciseri was born there in 1821....
, Ticino
Ticino

Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost cantons of Switzerland of Switzerland. The written language is Italian language in almost the entire cantons of Switzerland ....
, Switzerland after a Catholic funeral. Goddard is also interred there. Goddard left a bequest of $20 million to New York University
New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
 to fund an institute for European studies which is named after Remarque. The first Director of The Remarque Institute was Professor Tony Judt
Tony Judt

Tony Judt is a British historian, author and university professor. He specializes in European history and is the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University and Director of NYU's Erich Maria Remarque Institute....
.

List of Works

Note: the dates of English publications are those of the first publications in a book form

Novels

  • (1920) Die Traumbude. Ein Künstlerroman; English translation: The Dream Room
    The Dream Room

    The Dream Room was Erich Maria Remarque's first novel. He started writing it at the age of sixteen and completed it after his service in World War I....
  • (written 1924, published 1998) Gam
  • (1928) Station am Horizont; English translation: Station at the Horizon
  • (1929) Im Westen nichts Neues; English translation: All Quiet on the Western Front
    All Quiet on the Western Front

    All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, a Germany veteran of World War I. The book shows the war's horrors and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front....
     (1929)
  • (1931) Der Weg zurück; English translation: The Road Back
    The Road Back

    The Road Back is a novel by Germany author Erich Maria Remarque. The novel was first serialized in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung between December 1930 and January 1931, and published in book form in April 1931 in literature....
     (1931)
  • (1936) Drei Kameraden; English translation: Three Comrades
    Three Comrades (novel)

    Three Comrades is a novel first published in 1936 by the Germany author Erich Maria Remarque. It is written in first person by the main character Robert Lohkamp, whose somewhat disillusioned outlook on life is due to his horrifying experiences in the trenches of the World War I French-German front....
     (1937)
  • (1939) Liebe deinen Nächsten; English translation: Flotsam (1941)
  • (1945) Arc de Triomphe; English translation: Arch of Triumph
    Arch of Triumph (novel)

    Arch of Triumph is a 1946 in literature novel by Erich Maria Remarque. In it, he writes about stateless refugees' life in Paris before World War II....
     (1945)
  • (1952) Der Funke Leben; English translation: The Spark of Life (1952)
  • (1954) Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben; English translation: A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1954)
  • (1956) Der schwarze Obelisk; English translation: The Black Obelisk
    The Black Obelisk

    The Black Obelisk is a novel written in 1956 by the Germany author Erich Maria Remarque. This novel paints a portrait of Germany in the early 1920's, a period marked by hyper-inflation and rising nationalism....
     (1957)
  • (1961) Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge (serialized as Geborgtes Leben); English translation: Heaven Has No Favorites
    Heaven Has No Favorites

    Heaven Has No Favorites is a novel by a famous Germany writer Erich Maria Remarque. This novel is a charming story about the passion and love in the background of automobile racing....
     (1961)
  • (1962) Die Nacht von Lissabon; English translation: The Night in Lisbon
    The Night in Lisbon

    The Night in Lisbon is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1962 in literature. It revolves around the plight of two German refugees in the opening months of World War II....
     (1964)
  • (1970) Das gelobte Land; English translation: The Promised Land
  • (1971) Schatten im Paradies; English translation: Shadows in Paradise
    Shadows in Paradise

    Shadows in Paradise is a 1986 in film Finland Black comedy romantic comedy film film written and directed by Aki Kaurism?ki. The film stars Kati Outinen as Ilona and Sakari Kuosmanen as Nikander....
     (1972)


Other works

  • (1931) Der Feind; English translation: The Enemy (1930-1931); short stories
  • (1955) Der letzte Akt; English translation: The Last Act; screenplay
  • (1956) Die letzte Station; English translation: Full Circle (1974); play
  • (1988) Die Heimkehr des Enoch J. Jones; English translation: The Return of Enoch J. Jones; play
  • (1994) Ein militanter Pazifist; English translation: A Militant Pacifist; interviews and essays


Further reading

  • Mariana Parvanova, "... das Symbol der Ewigkeit ist der Kreis." Eine Untersuchung der Motive in den Romanen von Erich Maria Remarque. Tenea, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86504-028-4 (in German)
  • Mariana Parvanova: E.M.Remarque in der kommunistischen Literaturkritik in der Sowjetunion und in Bulgarien. ReDiRoma Verlag, Remscheid 2009, ISBN 978-3-86870-056-5 (in German)


External links