Erich maria remarque author biography graphic organizer

German-born novelist (–)

Erich Maria Remarque
Remarque in
Born	Erich Paul Remark ()22 June Osnabrück, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	25 September () (aged&#;72) Locarno, Switzerland
Occupation	Novelist
Citizenship	Germany (–) Stateless (–) United States (–)
Spouse	Ilse Jutta Zambona &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#; Ilse Jutta Zambona &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#;

Erich Maria Remarque (; German:[ˈeːʁɪçmaˈʁiːaʁəˈmaʁk]^ⓘ;^[1] born Erich Paul Remark;^[2] 22 June &#;– 25 September ) was a German-born novelist.

His landmark novel All Quiet on the Western Front (), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during Society War I, was an international bestseller which created a modern literary genre of veterans writing about conflict.

The book was adapted to film several times. Remarque's anti-war themes led to his condemnation by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as "unpatriotic". He was able to utilize his literary success and fame to relocate to Switzerland as a refugee, and to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen.

Early life

Remarque was born on 22 June , as Erich Paul Remark, to Peter Franz Remark and Anna Maria (née&#;Stallknecht), a working-class Roman Catholic family in Osnabrück.^[3] He was never close with his father, a bookbinder, but he was close with his mother and he began using the middle name Maria after World War&#;I in her honor.^[4] Remarque was the third of four children of Peter and Anna.

His siblings were his older sister Erna, older brother Theodor Arthur (who died at the age of five or six), and younger sister Elfriede.^[5]

The spelling of his last label was changed to Remarque when he published All Quiet on the Western Front in honor of his French ancestors and in order to disassociate himself from his earlier novel The Dream Room (Die Traumbude).^[6] His grandfather had changed the spelling from Remarque to Remark in the 19th century.^[7] Research^[when?] by Remarque's childhood and lifelong comrade Hanns-Gerd Rabe proved that Remarque had French ancestors&#;&#; his great-grandfather Johann Adam Remarque, who was born in , came from a French family in Aachen.^[8] This is contrary to the falsehood&#;&#; perpetuated by Nazi propaganda&#;&#; that his real last designate was Kramer ("Remark" spelled backwards) and that he was Jewish.^[9][10]

Military service

During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the Imperial German Army at the age of On 12&#;June , he was transferred to the Western Front, 2nd&#;Company, Reserves, Field Depot of the 2nd&#;Guards Reserve Division at Hem-Lenglet.

On 26&#;June he was posted to the 15th&#;Reserve Infantry Regiment, 2nd&#;Company, Engineer Platoon Bethe, and fought in the trenches between Torhout and Houthulst. On 31&#;July he was wounded by shell shrapnel in his left leg, right arm and neck, and after being medically evacuated from the field was repatriated to an army hospital in Duisburg, where he recovered from his wounds.

In October , he was recalled to military service, but the war's armistice a month later place an end to his military career.^[11]

Post-war employment

After the war he continued his teacher training and worked from 1&#;August as a primary-school teacher in Lohne, at that time in the county of Lingen, now in the county of Bentheim.

From May he worked in Klein Berssen in the former County of Hümmling, now Emsland, and from August in Nahne, which has been a part of Osnabrück since On 20&#;November he applied for leave of absence from teaching.

He worked at a number of different jobs in this phase of his being, including librarian, businessman, journalist, and editor.

His first paid writing job was as a technical writer for the Continental Rubber Company, a German tire manufacturer.^[12]

Writing career

Remarque had made his first attempts at writing at the age of Among them were essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in as The Dream Room (Die Traumbude).

Between and he also scripted a comic series, Die Contibuben, drawn by Hermann Schütz, published in the magazine Echo Continental, a publication by the rubber and tire company Continental&#;AG.^[13]

After coming back from the war, the atrocities of war along with his mother's death caused him a great deal of mental trauma and grief.

In later years as a professional writer, he started using "Maria" as his middle name instead of "Paul", to commemorate his mother.^[5] When he published All Quiet on the Western Front, he had his surname reverted to an earlier spelling&#;&#; from Remark to Remarque&#;&#; to disassociate himself from his novel Die Traumbude.^[6]

In , he published the novel Station at the Horizon (Station am Horizont).

It was serialised in the sports journal Sport im Bild for which Remarque was working. (It was first published in book shape in ) All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) (), his career-defining work, was also written in Remarque was at first unable to find a publisher for it.^[3] Its text described the experiences of German soldiers during World War&#;I.

On publication it became an international bestseller and a landmark work in twentieth-century literature. It inspired a brand-new genre of veterans writing about conflict, and the commercial publication of a wide variety of war memoirs. It also inspired dramatic representations of the war in theatre and cinema, in Germany as well as in countries that had fought in the conflict against the German Empire, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States.

Riding on the tail of the success of All Quiet on the Western Front, a number of similar works followed from Remarque. In simple, emotive language, they described wartime and the postwar years in Germany. In , after finishing The Street Back (Der Weg zurück), he bought a villa (Casa Monte Tabor) in Ronco, Switzerland with the substantial financial wealth that his published works had brought him.

He planned to inhabit both there and in France.^{[citation needed]}

On 10 May , at the initiative of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Remarque's writing was publicly declared as "unpatriotic" and was banned in Germany.

Copies were removed from all libraries and restricted from being sold or published anywhere in the country.

Germany was rapidly descending into a totalitarian society, leading to mass arrests of elements of the population of which the new governing order disapproved.

Remarque left Germany to live at his villa in Switzerland. His French background as well as his Catholic faith were also publicly attacked by the Nazis. They continued to decry his writings in his absence, proclaiming that anyone who would change the spelling of his name from the German "Remark" to the French "Remarque" could not be a true German.

The Nazis further made the false claim that Remarque had not seen active service during World War&#;I. In , Remarque's German citizenship was revoked. In , he and his ex-wife were remarried to prevent her repatriation to Germany.

A boy from a strict Catholic family woke up accepted after publishing his landmark novel All Quiet on the Western Front. A former veteran himself, Remarque explored soul-destroying insanity of warfare and the main victim of any military action — the ordinary soldier. The future novelist was born in the family of a poor bookbinder as Erich Paul Remark in Osnabruck, Germany. His parents were the descendants of devoted French Catholic who moved to Germany after the French revolution.

Just before the outbreak of Planet War&#;II in Europe, they left Porto Ronco, Switzerland, for the United States.^[14] They became naturalised citizens of the United States in ^[15]

Remarque continued to inscribe about the German experience after WWI.

His next novel, Three Comrades (Drei Kameraden), focuses on life in Weimar Republic in the years of and His fourth novel, Flotsam (in German titled Liebe deinen Nächsten, or Love Thy Neighbour), first appeared in a serial version in English translation in Collier's magazine in He spent another year revising the text for its book publication in , both in English and German.

His next work, the novel Arch of Triumph, was first published in in English, and the next year in German as Arc de Triomphe. Another instant bestseller, it reached worldwide sales of nearly five million.

His final novel was Shadows in Paradise. He wrote it while living at East 57th Lane in New York City. The apartment building "played a prominent role in his novel".^[16]

In , the Nazis arrested his youngest sister, Elfriede Scholz, who had stayed behind in Germany with her husband and two children.

After a trial at the notorious Volksgerichtshof (Hitler's extra-constitutional "People's Court"), she was found ashamed of "undermining morale" for stating that she considered the war lost. Court President Roland Freisler declared, "Ihr Bruder ist uns leider entwischt—Sie aber werden uns nicht entwischen" ("Your brother is unfortunately beyond our reach&#;&#; you, however, will not escape us.") Scholz was beheaded on 16 December ^[17] Remarque later said that his sister had been involved in anti-Nazi resistance activities.^[18]

In exile, Remarque was unaware of his sister Elfriede's fate until after the war.

He would dedicate his novel Spark of Life (Der Funke Leben) to her. The dedication was omitted in the German version of the book, reportedly because she was still seen as a traitor by some Germans.^[19]

Later years

In , Remarque returned to Switzerland, where he spent the remainder of his life.

There was a gap of seven years&#;&#; a long silence for Remarque&#;&#; between Arch of Triumph and his next work, Spark of Life (Der Funke Leben), which appeared both in German and in English in While he was writing The Spark of Life he was also active on a novel Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben (Time to Live and Hour to Die).^{[citation needed]} It was published first in English translation in with the not-quite-literal title A Time to Love and a Time to Die.

In , Douglas Sirk directed the film A Time to Adore and a Time to Die in Germany, based on Remarque's novel. Remarque appeared in the film as an honorable mentor in hiding from the Nazis.^[20]

In , Remarque wrote the screenplay for an Austrian film The Last Act (Der letzte Akt), about Hitler's final days in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, which was based on the book Ten Days to Die () by Michael Musmanno.

In , Remarque wrote a drama Full Circle (Die letzte Station) for the stage, which played in both Germany and on Broadway. An English translation was published in Heaven Has No Favorites was serialised (as Borrowed Life) in before appearing as a publication in and was made into the film Bobby Deerfield.

The Night in Lisbon (Die Nacht von Lissabon), published in , is the last work Remarque finished. The novel sold about , copies in Germany.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Remarque's first marriage was to the actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in ^[21] The marriage was stormy and unfaithful on both sides.

Remarque and Zambona divorced in , but in they fled together to Switzerland.^[22] In , they remarried, to avoid her from being forced to return to Germany, and in they emigrated to the Together States, where they both became naturalized citizens in ^[23] They divorced again on 20&#;May , this time for good.

Ilse Remarque died on 25&#;June

During the s, Remarque had relationships with Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr, Mexican actress Dolores del Río,^[24] and German actress Marlene Dietrich.^[25] The affair with Dietrich began in September , when they met on the Lido while in Venice for the production festival, and continued until at least , maintained mostly by way of letters, telegrams and telephone calls.

A selection of their letters was published in in the book Sag mir, daß du mich liebst ("Tell Me That You Love Me")^[26][27] and then in the engage Puma.^[28]

Remarque married actress Paulette Goddard in ^[29]

Death and legacy

Remarque died of heart failure at the age of 72 in Locarno on 25 September ^[30] His body was buried in the Ronco Cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland.^[31]

Goddard, Remarque's wife, died in , and her body was interred next to her husband's.

She left a bequest of US$20&#;million to New York University to fund an institute for European studies, which is named in honour of Remarque,^[32] as well as funding "Goddard Hall" on the Greenwich Village campus in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

The first director of The Remarque Institute was Professor Tony Judt.^[33] Remarque's papers are housed at NYU's Fales Library.^[34]

After Erich Maria Remarque's death in , his wife Paulette Goddard lived in the villa until her death in The villa was bequeathed to New York University as part of the estate of Paulette Goddard.^{[citation needed]} Since New York University was not prepared to pay the related inheritance tax of 18 million Swiss francs to the Canton of Ticino, the villa was confiscated by the canton.

The canton offered the villa at an auction around , but there was initially no buyer, probably due to the lofty price and the high costs of modernizing the property.^{[citation needed]} However by , the property was finally purchased by a German couple who wish to preserve Casa Monte Tabor as a place to promote calm and preserve the legacy of Erich Maria Remarque.

It will continue to be used for events on peace topics. The villa has been extensively renovated in

List of works

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

Novels

Other works

• () Der Feind; English translation: The Enemy (–); short stories
• () Der letzte Akt; English translation: The Last Act; screenplay
• () Die letzte Station; English translation: Full Circle (); play
• () Die Heimkehr des Enoch J.

  Jones; English translation: The Return of Enoch J. Jones; play

• () Ein militanter Pazifist; English translation: A Militant Pacifist; interviews and essays

See also

References

Further reading

• Parvanová, Mariana (). " das Symbol der Ewigkeit ist der Kreis". Eine Untersuchung der Motive in den Romanen von Erich Maria Remarque (in German).

  München: GRIN-Verlag. ISBN&#;.

• Parvanová, Mariana (). E. M. Remarque in der kommunistischen Literaturkritik in der Sowjetunion und in Bulgarien (in German). Remscheid: ReDiRoma Verlag. ISBN&#;.

External links

Digital collections

Other links