Erich Maria Remarque

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Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque (1928)
Born
22 June 1898
Osnabrck, Lower Saxony,Germany
Died
25 September 1970 (aged 72)
Locarno, Switzerland
Occupation
Novelist
Nationality
German
Citizenship
American (from 1947)
Notable works
All Quiet on the Western Front
Spouse
Ilse Jutta Zambona (1925-1930 and 1938-1957)
Paulette Goddard (19581970)
Erich Maria Remarque
[1]
(22 June 1898 25 September 1970), born Erich Paul Remark, was
a German author who created many works, with his best-known novel being All Quiet on the
Western Front.
Contents
[hide]
1 Life and work
o 1.1 First World War
o 1.2 Teacher
o 1.3 Other jobs
o 1.4 Novelist
o 1.5 Nazi era
o 1.6 Switzerland
2 Marriages and death
3 Casa Monte Tabor
4 List of works
o 4.1 Novels
o 4.2 Other works
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Life and work[edit]
Erich Maria Remarque was born on 22 June 1898 into a working class family in the German city
of Osnabrck to Peter Franz Remark (b. 14 June 1867, Kaiserswerth) and Anna Maria (ne
Stallknecht; born 21 November 1871, Katernberg).
First World War[edit]
During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the army at the age of 18. On 12 June 1917,
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 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.
[2]

Teacher[edit]
After the war he continued his teacher training and worked from 1 August 1919 as a primary
school teacher in Lohne, at that time in the county of Lingen, now in the county ofBentheim. From
May 1920 he worked in Klein Beren in the former County of Hmmling, now Emsland, and from
August 1920 in Nahne, which has been a part of Osnabrck since 1972. On 20 November 1920
he applied for leave of absence from teaching, bringing this period of his life to an end.
Other jobs[edit]
Remarque worked at a number of different jobs, 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.
[3]

Novelist[edit]

Remarque in Davos, 1929.
At the age of 16, Remarque had made his first attempts at writing; this included essays, poems,
and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as The Dream
Room (Die Traumbude). When he published All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque changed
his middle name in memory of his mother and reverted to the earlier spelling of the family name
to dissociate himself from his novelDie Traumbude.
[4]
The original family name, Remarque, had
been changed to Remark by his grandfather in the 19th century.
In 1927, Remarque made a second literary start with the novel Station at the Horizon (Station am
Horizont), which was serialised in the sports journal "Sport im Bild" for which Remarque was
working. It was published in book form only in 1998. His best-known work, All Quiet on the
Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), was written in a few months in 1927, but Remarque
was not immediately able to find a publisher.
[5]
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 (Der Weg zurck), Remarque bought a villa in Porto
Ronco, Switzerland, planning to live both there and in France.
[citation needed]

His next novel, Three Comrades (Drei Kameraden), spans the years of the Weimar Republic,
from the hyperinflation of 1923 to the end of the decade. Remarque's fourth novel, Flotsam (in
German titled Liebe deinen Nchsten, or Love Thy Neighbour), 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, first published in 1945 in English, and the next year in German as Arc de Triomphe, was
another instant best-seller and reached worldwide sales of nearly five million.
Nazi era[edit]
On 10 May 1933, the German government, on the initiative of the Nazi propaganda
minister, Joseph Goebbels, banned and publicly burned Remarque's works. Remarque finally left
Germany to live at his villa in Switzerland. The Nazis continued to decry his writings and claimed
that he was a descendant of French Jews and that his real surname name was Kramer, a Jewish-
sounding name, and his original name spelled backwards. This is still cited in some biographies
despite the complete lack of evidence. The Nazis also claimed, falsely, that Remarque had not
seen active service during World War I. In 1938, Remarque's German citizenship was revoked
and then in 1939 after he and his ex-wife were remarried to prevent her repatriation to Germany,
they left Porto Ronco, Switzerland for the United States.
[6]
They became naturalized citizens of
the United States in 1947.
[7]

In 1943, the government 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 morale" for stating that she
considered the war lost. Court President Roland Freisler declared, "Ihr Bruder ist uns leider
entwischtSie aber werden uns nicht entwischen" ("Your brother is unfortunately beyond our
reachyou, however, will not escape us"). Scholz was beheaded on 16 December 1943, and the
cost of her prosecution, imprisonment and execution495.80 Reichsmarkwas billed to her
sister Erna.
[8]

Switzerland[edit]
In 1948, Remarque returned 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, 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, 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 directed the
film A Time to Love and a Time to Die in Germany, based on Remarque's novel. Remarque made
a cameo appearance in the film in the role of the Professor.
In 1955, 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 (1950) by Michael Musmanno. In 1956, Remarque wrote a drama for the
stage, Full Circle (Die letzte Station), which played successfully in both Germany and on
Broadway. An English translation was published in 1974. Heaven Has No Favorites was
serialised (as Borrowed Life) in 1959 before appearing as a book in 1961 and was made into the
1977 film Bobby Deerfield. The Night in Lisbon (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.
[citation needed]

Marriages and death[edit]
His first marriage was to the actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in 1925.
[9]
Their marriage was stormy and
unfaithful on both sides. Remarque and Zambona divorced in 1930, but in 1933 they fled together
to Switzerland.
[10]
In 1938 they remarried, to prevent her from being forced to return to Germany,
and in 1939 they emigrated to the United States where they both became naturalised citizens in
1947.
[11]
They divorced again on 20 May 1957, this time for good. Ilse Remarque died on 25 June
1975.
[citation needed]

During the 1930s, Remarque had relationships with Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr and then
with Marlene Dietrich,
[12]
and in the 1940s with Greta Garbo.
[4]
The love affair with Dietrich began
in September 1937 when they met on the Lido while in Venice for the film festival and continued
through at least 1940, maintained mostly by way of letters, cables and telephone calls. A
selection of their letters were published in 2003 in the book "Sag Mir, Dass Du Mich Liebst"("Tell
Me That You Love Me")
[13][14]
and then in the 2011 playPuma.
[15]

Remarque married actress Paulette Goddard in 1958 and they remained married until his death
in Locarno on 25 September 1970, aged 72.
[16]
Remarque was interred in the Ronco Cemetery
in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland. Goddard died in 1990 and was interred next to her husband. She
left a bequest of $20 million to New York University to fund an institute for European studies,
which is named in honour of Remarque.
[17]
The first Director of The Remarque Institute was
Professor Tony Judt.
[18]
Remarque's papers are housed at NYU's Fales Library.
[19]
NYU also
named an undergraduate dormitory building after her: Paulette Goddard Hall.
Casa Monte Tabor[edit]
Efforts to raise CHF 6.2M ($7M), to buy and save the villa of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette
Goddard from almost certain demolition are underway. The intent is to transform the Casa Monte
Tabor into a museum and home to an artist-in-residence programme, focused on creativity,
freedom and peace.
[20]

List of works[edit]
Note: the dates of English publications are those of the first publications in a book form.
Novels[edit]

Im Westen nichts Neues, 1929 original version.
(1920) Die Traumbude. Ein Knstlerroman; English translation: The Dream Room
(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 (1929)
(1931) Der Weg zurck; English translation: The Road Back (1931)
(1936) Drei Kameraden; English translation: Three Comrades (1937)
(1939) Liebe deinen Nchsten; English translation: Flotsam (1941)
(1945) Arc de Triomphe; English translation: Arch of Triumph (1945)
(1952) Der Funke Leben; English translation: Spark of Life (1952)
(1954) Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben; English translation: A Time to Love and a Time to
Die (1954)
(1956) Der schwarze Obelisk; English translation: The Black Obelisk (1957)
(1961) Der Himmel kennt keine Gnstlinge (serialized as Geborgtes Leben); English
translation: Heaven Has No Favorites (1961)
(1962) Die Nacht von Lissabon; English translation: The Night in Lisbon (1964)
(1970) Das gelobte Land; English translation: The Promised Land
(1971) Schatten im Paradies; English translation: Shadows in Paradise (1972)
Other works[edit]
(1931) Der Feind; English translation: The Enemy (19301931); 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
See also[edit]

Biography portal
Exilliteratur
References[edit]
1. Jump up^ German pronunciation: [e maia emak]; /rk mri rmrk/
2. Jump up^ Remarque Frieden-Schiessen.
3. Jump up^ "Exactly as it happened... (the story of an encounter in Ticino with Remarque and
the coach-built Lancia Dilambda, which, following the commercial success of All Quiet on the
Western Front, he purchased in 1931 and retained till the late 1960s)". Motor 3506: pages
2630. 30 August 1969.
4. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Afterword by Brian Murdoch, translator of 1996 English edition of All Quiet on
the Western Front. London: Vintage Books. 1996. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-09-953281-1.
5. Jump up^ Robertson, William. "Erich Remarque". Retrieved 2009-06-25.
6. Jump up^ "Finding Aid for Erich Maria Remarque Papers, 1938-1973." M.E. Grenander
Department of Special Collections and Archives, University of Albany/ State University of New
York. 2009. Accessed 31 July 2012. http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/ger077.htm
7. Jump up^ Schneider, Thomas (1991). Erich Maria Remarque: Ein Chronist des 20.
Jahrhunderts, Eine Biographie in Bildern und Dokumenten. Germany: Rasch Verlag
Bramsche. pp. 9495.
8. Jump up^ "Elfriede Scholz Obituary" (in German). Osnabrck Cultural Website. 15
December 2005. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
9. Jump up^ "Erich Maria Remarque". Retrieved 2009-06-25.
10. Jump up^ Taylor, Marvin J. The life and writings of Erich Maria Remarque. New York: Fales
Library, New York University, 2011. Accessed 29 July
2012.http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/exhibits/remarque/documents/bio6.html
11. Jump up^ Bloom, Harold (2001). "Chronology". Modern Critical Interpretations: Erich Maria
Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. p. 157.
12. Jump up^ Connolly, Kate. "Marlene and the wall." The Guardian, 18 April
2002.http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/apr/18/culturaltrips.germany