Erich Maria Remarque
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Erich Remarque, about 1963. |
Erich Maria Remarque (
June 22,
1898 –
September 25,
1970) was the
pseudonym of
Erich Paul Remark, a
German author.
Erich Paul Remark was born in
Osnabrück into a working-class
Roman Catholic family. At the age of eighteen he went as a soldier to the front lines of
World War I, where he was wounded by stray shell fragments. After the war he changed his last name to Remarque, which had been the family-name until his grandfather. He worked at a number of different jobs, including librarian, businessman, teacher, journalist and editor.
In 1929, Remarque published his most famous work,
All Quiet on the Western Front (
Im Westen nichts Neues) under the name Erich Maria Remarque (changing his middle name in honor of his mother), the novel described the utter cruelty of the war from the perspective of a nineteen-year-old soldier. A number of similar works followed; in simple, emotive language they realistically described wartime and the postwar years.
In 1933, the
Nazis 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, his original name spelled backwards. This is still listed in some biographies despite the complete lack of proof. He had been living in Switzerland since 1931, and in 1939 he emigrated to the
United States of America with his first wife,
Ilsa Jeanne Zamboui, whom he married and divorced twice, and they became
naturalized citizens of the United States in 1947. He married the
Hollywood actress
Paulette Goddard in 1958 and they remained married until his death in 1970.
In 1948 he went to Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life until his death at age 72. He is interred in the Ronco cemetery in
Ronco,
Ticino,
Switzerland, where Goddard is also interred.
Im Westen nichts Neues (
1929)
Der Weg zurück (
1931)
Drei Kameraden (
1937)
Liebe deinen Nächsten (
1941)
Arc de Triomphe (
1946)
Der Funke Leben (
1952)
Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben (
1954)
Der schwarze Obelisk (
1956)
Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge (
1961)
Die Nacht von Lissabon (
1963)
Schatten im Paradies (published posthumously,
1971)
All Quiet on the Western FrontThe Road BackThree Comrades (novel); its movie adaption
Three Comrades (film)FlotsamArch of TriumphThe Spark of LifeA Time to Live and a Time to DieThe Black ObeliskHeaven Has No FavoritesThe Night in LisbonShadows in ParadiseFull CircleHis books have been translated into at least 58 languages.
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Erich Maria Remarque Institute*
Slovak website about Erich Maria Remarquebat-smg:Erich Marija Remark
