Erich Remarque was born in Osnabrück on June 22, 1898. The first education in Remarque's biography was received at a church school. He then studied at a Catholic seminary. In 1916 he went to war and was wounded. In the post-war period, several professions were tried in the biography of Erich Remarque. He was a journalist and correspondent, and also tried himself as a librarian, teacher, and accountant.
Remarque's first works were written in 1916. Later, the writer took the pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque - in honor of his deceased mother. Remarque depicted his impressions of the cruelty of war in the work “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 1929. In addition, he published several more similar works, but they were all burned by the Nazis in 1933. In the same year, Remarque moved to Switzerland.
Novel " Triumphal Arch"Remarque wrote in 1945 under the impression of his relationship with Marlene Dietrich. In 1939, in the biography of Erich Maria Remarque, he moved to the United States, where eight years later he received citizenship. In 1958, he married for the second time, now to actress Paulette Godard (Remarque’s first wife was dancer Jutta Zambona). Immediately after this, he and his wife settled in Switzerland and lived there until the end of their lives.
Other famous works by Erich Maria Remarque include: “Three Comrades”, “A Time to Live and a Time to Die”, “Black Obelisk”, “Life on Borrow” and many others.
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In 1943, by verdict of a fascist court, 43-year-old dressmaker Elfried Scholz was beheaded in a Berlin prison. She was executed "for outrageously fanatical propaganda in favor of the enemy." One of the clients reported: Elfrida said that German soldiers were cannon fodder, Germany was doomed to defeat, and that she would willingly put a bullet in Hitler’s forehead. At the trial and before her execution, Elfrida behaved courageously. The authorities sent her sister an invoice for Elfrida’s detention in prison, trial and execution, and they didn’t even forget the cost of the stamp with the invoice - a total of 495 marks 80 pfennigs.
After 25 years, a street in her hometown of Osnabrück will be named after Elfriede Scholz.
When pronouncing the sentence, the chairman of the court said to the convict:
Your brother, unfortunately, disappeared. But you can't escape from us.
The elder and only brother of the deceased was the writer Erich-Maria Remarque. At this time he was far from Berlin - in America.
Remarque - French surname. Erich's great-grandfather was a Frenchman, a blacksmith born in Prussia, near the French border, who married a German woman. Erich was born in 1898 in Osnabrück. His father was a bookbinder. For the son of a craftsman, the path to the gymnasium was closed. The stage directions were Catholic, and Erich entered the Catholic Normal School. He read a lot, loved Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Goethe, Proust, Zweig. At the age of 17 he began to write himself. He joined the literary “Circle of Dreams”, which was led by a local poet - a former painter.
But we would hardly know the writer Remarque today if Erich had not been drafted into the army in 1916. His unit did not end up in the thick of it, on the front line. But he drank through front-line life in three years. He carried a mortally wounded comrade to the hospital. He himself was wounded in the arm, leg and neck.
After the war, the former private behaved strangely, as if asking for trouble - he wore a lieutenant's uniform and an Iron Cross, although he had no awards. Returning to school, he became known as a rebel there, heading the union of students - war veterans. He became a teacher and worked in village schools, but his superiors did not like him because he “could not adapt to those around him” and for his “artistic tendencies.” In his father's house, Erich equipped himself with an office in the turret - there he drew, played the piano, composed and published his first story at his own expense (later he was so ashamed of it that he bought up the entire remaining edition).
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Not having taken root in the state teaching field, Remarque left hometown OK. At first he had to sell tombstones, but soon he was already working as an advertising writer for a magazine. He led a free, bohemian life, was fond of women, including those of the lowest class. He drank quite a bit. Calvados, which we learned about from his books, was indeed one of his favorite drinks.
In 1925 he reached Berlin. Here the daughter of the publisher of the prestigious magazine “Sports in Illustrations” fell in love with the handsome provincial man. The girl's parents prevented their marriage, but Remarque received an editor's position in the magazine. Soon he married dancer Jutta Zambona. Big-eyed, thin Jutta (she suffered from tuberculosis) will become the prototype of several of his literary heroines, including Pat from Three Comrades.
The capital's journalist behaved as if he wanted to quickly forget his “raznochin past.” He dressed elegantly, wore a monocle, and tirelessly attended concerts, theaters, and fashionable restaurants with Jutta. I bought a baronial title for 500 marks from an impoverished aristocrat (he had to formally adopt Erich) and ordered Business Cards with a crown. He was friends with famous racing drivers. In 1928 he published the novel Stopping on the Horizon. According to one of his friends, it was a book “about first-class radiators and beautiful women.”
And suddenly this dapper and superficial writer, with one spirit, in six weeks, wrote a novel about the war, “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Remarque later said that the novel “wrote itself”). For six months he kept it in his desk, not knowing that he had created the main thing and best work In my life.
It is curious that Remarque wrote part of the manuscript in the apartment of his friend, the then unemployed actress Leni Riefenstahl. Five years later, Remarque's books will be burned in public squares, and Riefenstahl, having become a documentary film director, will film famous movie"Triumph of the Will", glorifying Hitler and Nazism. (She has survived safely to this day and has just visited Los Angeles. Here, a group of her fans honored the 95-year-old woman, who put her talent in the service of a monstrous regime, and presented her with an award. This, naturally, caused loud protests, especially from Jewish organizations...)
In defeated Germany, Remarque's anti-war novel became a sensation. One and a half million copies were sold within a year. Since 1929, it has gone through 43 editions all over the world and has been translated into 36 languages. In 1930, Hollywood made a film based on it, which received an Oscar. The director of the film, 35-year-old native of Ukraine Lev Milstein, known in the USA as Lewis Milestone, also received the award.
The pacifism of the truthful, cruel book did not please the German authorities. Conservatives were outraged by the glorification of the soldier who lost the war. Hitler, who was already gaining strength, declared the writer a French Jew, Kramer (a reverse reading of the name Remarque). Remarque stated:
I was neither Jewish nor leftist. I was a militant pacifist.
The literary idols of his youth, Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann, also did not like the book. Mann was irritated by the advertising hype around Remarque and his political passivity.
Remarque was nominated for Nobel Prize, but was prevented by the protest of the League of German Officers. The writer was accused of having written a novel commissioned by the Entente, and of stealing the manuscript from a murdered comrade. He was called a traitor to his homeland, a playboy, a cheap celebrity.
The book and film brought Remarque money, he began collecting carpets and Impressionist paintings. But the attacks brought him to the brink of a nervous breakdown. He still drank a lot. In 1929, his marriage to Jutta broke up due to the endless infidelities of both spouses. The next year, he made, as it turned out, a very right step: on the advice of one of his lovers, an actress, he bought a villa in Italian Switzerland, where he moved his collection of art objects.
In January 1933, on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power, Remarque’s friend handed him a note in a Berlin bar: “Leave the city immediately.” Remarque got into the car and, in what he was wearing, drove off to Switzerland. In May, the Nazis publicly burned the novel All Quiet on the Western Front "for literary betrayal of the soldiers of the First World War," and its author was soon deprived of German citizenship.
The bustle of metropolitan life gave way to a quiet existence in Switzerland, near the town of Ascona.
Remarque complained of fatigue. He continued to drink heavily, despite his poor health - he suffered from lung disease and nervous eczema. He was in a depressed mood. After the Germans voted for Hitler, he wrote in his diary: “The situation in the world is hopeless, stupid, murderous. Socialism, which mobilized the masses, was destroyed by these same masses. The right to vote, for which they fought so hard, eliminated the fighters themselves. Man is closer to cannibalism, than he thinks."
However, he still worked: he wrote “The Way Home” (the continuation of “All Quiet on the Western Front”), and by 1936 he finished “Three Comrades.” Despite his rejection of fascism, he remained silent and did not denounce it in the press.
In 1938, he committed a noble act. To help your ex-wife To get Jutte out of Germany and give her the opportunity to live in Switzerland, he married her again.
But the main woman in his life was the famous film star Marlene Dietrich, whom he met at that time in the south of France. A compatriot of Remarque, she also left Germany and, since 1930, successfully acted in the USA. From the point of view of generally accepted morality, Marlene (just like Remarque) did not shine with virtue. Their romance was incredibly painful for the writer. Marlene came to France with her teenage daughter, her husband Rudolf Sieber and her husband's mistress. They said that the bisexual star, whom Remarque nicknamed Puma, cohabited with both of them. In front of Remarque's eyes, she also started a relationship with a rich lesbian from America.
But the writer was desperately in love and, having started Arc de Triomphe, gave her heroine, Joan Madu, many of the features of Marlene. In 1939, with Dietrich's help, he received a visa to America and went to Hollywood. War in Europe was already on the threshold.
Remarque was ready to marry Marlene. But Puma greeted him with a message about her abortion from actor Jimmy Stewart, with whom she had just starred in the film Destry Is Back in the Saddle. The actress's next choice was Jean Gabin, who came to Hollywood when the Germans occupied France. At the same time, having learned that Remarque had transported his collection of paintings to America (including 22 works by Cezanne), Marlene wished to receive Cezanne for her birthday. Remarque had the courage to refuse.
In Hollywood, Remarque did not at all feel like an outcast. He was received as a European celebrity. Five of his books have been made into films, starring major stars. His financial affairs were excellent. He enjoyed success with famous actresses, including the famous Greta Garbo. But the tawdry splendor of the film capital irritated Remarque. People seemed fake and overly vain to him. The local European colony, led by Thomas Mann, did not favor him.
After finally breaking up with Marlene, he moved to New York. The Arc de Triomphe was completed here in 1945. Impressed by his sister's death, he began working on the novel "Spark of Life", dedicated to her memory. This was the first book about something he himself had not experienced - a Nazi concentration camp.
In New York he met the end of the war. His Swiss villa survived. Even his luxury car, which was parked in a Parisian garage, was preserved. Having safely survived the war in America, Remarque and Jutta chose to obtain American citizenship.
The procedure did not go very smoothly. Remarque was groundlessly suspected of sympathizing with Nazism and communism. His “moral character” was also questioned; he was questioned about his divorce from Jutta and his relationship with Marlene. But in the end, the 49-year-old writer was allowed to become a US citizen.
Then it turned out that America never became his home. He was drawn back to Europe. And even Puma’s sudden offer to start all over again could not keep him overseas. After a 9-year absence, he returned to Switzerland in 1947. I celebrated my 50th birthday (about which I said: “I never thought I would live”) at my villa. He lived in solitude while working on “The Spark of Life.” But he could not stay in one place for long and began to leave the house often. Traveled all over Europe, visited America again. From his Hollywood days he had a lover, Natasha Brown, a Frenchwoman of Russian origin. The affair with her, just like with Marlene, was painful. Meeting in Rome or New York, they immediately began to quarrel.
Remarque's health deteriorated; he fell ill with Meniere's syndrome (a disease of the inner ear leading to imbalance). But the worst thing was mental confusion and depression. Remarque turned to a psychiatrist. Psychoanalysis revealed to him two reasons for his neurasthenia: inflated demands in life and a strong dependence on the love of other people for him. The roots were found in childhood: in the first three years of his life, he was abandoned by his mother, who gave all her affection to Erich’s sick (and soon died) brother. This left him with self-doubt for the rest of his life, the feeling that no one loved him, and a tendency toward masochism in relationships with women. Remarque realized that he was avoiding work because he considered himself a bad writer. In his diary, he complained that he was causing himself anger and shame. The future seemed hopelessly bleak.
But in 1951 in New York he met Paulette Godard. Paulette was 40 years old at the time. Her ancestors on her mother's side came from American farmers, immigrants from England, and on her father's side they were Jews. Her family, as they say today, was “dysfunctional.” Godard's grandfather, a real estate dealer, was abandoned by his grandmother. Their daughter Alta also ran away from her father and in New York married Levi, the son of a cigar factory owner. In 1910, their daughter Marion was born. Soon Alta separated from her husband and went on the run because Levi wanted to take the girl away from her.
Marion grew up very pretty. She was hired as a children's clothing model at the luxury Saks 5 Avenue store. At the age of 15, she was already dancing in the legendary Ziegfeld variety revue and changed her name to Paulette. Ziegfeld beauties often found rich husbands or admirers. Paulette married wealthy industrialist Edgar James a year later. But in 1929 (the same year that Remarque divorced Jutta), the marriage broke up. After the divorce, Paulette received 375 thousand - huge money at that time. Having acquired Parisian toilets and an expensive car, she and her mother set out to storm Hollywood.
Of course, she was hired only as an extra, that is, as a silent extra. But the mysterious beauty, who showed up for the shoot in arctic fox-trimmed trousers and luxurious jewelry, soon attracted attention powerful of the world this. She gained influential patrons - first director Hal Roach, then president of United Artists studio Joe Schenk. One of the founders of this studio was Charles Chaplin. In 1932, Paulette met Chaplin on Schenck's yacht.
The fame of 43-year-old Chaplin was enormous. By that time, he had already shot such masterpieces as “Baby”, “Gold Rush”, and had just released “City Lights”.
He had two unsuccessful marriages behind him. In 1918, he married 16-year-old extra Mildred Harris, from whom he separated 2 years later. In 1924, 16-year-old aspiring actress Lita Gray also became his chosen one. They had two sons. But in 1927 a divorce followed - noisy, scandalous, inflated by the press. The process traumatized Chaplin and cost him dearly, not only in monetary terms.
Maybe that’s why, having fallen in love with Paulette, Chaplin did not advertise their marriage, which they secretly entered into 2 years later, on a yacht at sea. But Paulette immediately moved into Chaplin's house. She became friends with his sons, who adored her. As a hostess she received (with the help of seven servants) his guests. Who hasn't visited them! English writers H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley, composer George Gershwin. In Chaplin's living room, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Vladimir Horowitz played the piano, and Albert Einstein played the violin. The leader of the dockers' union, communist Harry Bridges, also came. Paulette treated them all to caviar and champagne, and Chaplin had endless conversations with the guests.
Charlie was not a leftist. “He just loved and knew how to talk,” Paulette would later say about him. - It’s funny to consider him a communist, because he was an inveterate capitalist.
Chaplin knew that Paulette had a fortune - which means she was not after his money. True, screenwriter Anita Luus, author of the famous satirical novel“Gentlemen prefer blondes,” said Paulette, with all her love for champagne, diamonds, furs and Renoir paintings, “always somehow managed to do without the labor that goes into acquiring them.” Gossips they argued that Paulette, who did not want to have children, did not know how to cook and did not have a love of reading, was only pretending to be an exemplary wife. There was probably only a grain of truth in this. Paulette was sincerely attached to Chaplin - at least in the early years of their marriage. In order to “fit in,” she even considered going to study at the university’s Faculty of Philology. However, this idea somehow died out on its own when Chaplin, having bought out her contract from Hal Roach, gave her the main role. female role in his next film. It was "Modern Times", one of the best films of the brilliant comedian - the story of a little tramp and a girl from poor neighborhoods who looked like a mischievous teenager.
Paulette always said that working with Chaplin was her acting school. In preparation for the role, she diligently practiced dance, theater skills, even voice training, although the film was silent. The lessons of the great director, however, were not only this.
Paulette showed up for the first shoot in an expensive dress from Russian fashion designer Valentina, with glued eyelashes and a careful hairstyle. At the sight of this spectacle, Chaplin took a bucket of water and, coolly dousing his partner from head to toe, said to the operator:
Now take it off.
The film, released in 1936, was a huge success. She did not make Paulette a superstar, but the charming, spontaneous girl with a dazzling smile could firmly count on a career in Hollywood. And Paulette, perhaps the only one of Chaplin’s on-screen partners, did not miss her chance. She will star in just one more film in her “Pygmalion.” But over the next two decades, she would play about forty film roles and enjoy a well-deserved reputation as a good professional actress.
After Modern Times, Chaplin wanted to make a film about the adventures of a Russian emigrant and an American millionaire with Paulette and Harry Cooper in the lead roles. Then this plan did not come true, and only 30 years later, “The Countess from Hong Kong,” where Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando played, would become the last and not very successful work of the 77-year-old director. Paulette in 1938 joined the fight for main role in the historical epic about Civil War"Gone With the Wind". The competition was enormous, and the preparation for the film was advertised as the main event in Hollywood. Paulette was hampered by her Jewish origin - Scarlett O'Hara was supposed to personify the aristocracy of the American South. But the producers wanted to find a “new face”, Paulette’s screen tests turned out to be excellent, and in the end she was approved for the role. They had already started making costumes for Paulette, she was in seventh heaven. But the happiness lasted only a week. At the last moment, a young Englishwoman, Vivien Leigh, appeared and captivated the producers so much that she got the coveted role.
The famous director Alexander Korda, who emigrated to Hollywood from Hungary (his films “The Thief of Baghdad” and “Lady Hamilton” were incredibly successful in the USSR), in 1939 proposed to Chaplin the idea of a satirical anti-Nazi film “The Great Dictator”. Hitler, who still seemed then nothing more than a dangerous buffoon, was asking for ridicule. Chaplin played the roles of doubles - a modest Jewish barber and the Fuhrer Hynkel - a brilliant parody of Hitler. Paulette starred as Hannah (that was the name of Chaplin's mother), the hairdresser's lover. The film was released in the fall of 1940 and was well received. Chaplin and Paulette were invited to visit President Roosevelt at the White House.
But by this time their marriage was already doomed. Quarrels and disagreements began about three years earlier. And although, speaking at the premiere of The Great Dictator, Chaplin publicly called Paulette his wife for the first time, it was clear that divorce was inevitable.
They parted with dignity, without scandals and mutual revelations. The last time they saw each other was when in 1971, 82-year-old Chaplin was awarded an honorary (the only one in his life!) Oscar and he came from Europe to the ceremony. Paulette kissed Charlie, calling her “dear baby,” and he hugged her back affectionately.
The 40s were especially successful for the still very young actress (at the time of her divorce from Chaplin, Paulette was just over thirty). She acted a lot, and in 1943 she received an Oscar nomination. She flew to India and Burma to perform in front of American soldiers, who greeted her enthusiastically. She was very popular in Mexico, where her fans were the artist Diego Rivera and the country's president Camacho (from one trip there she returned with a gift from the president - an Aztec emerald necklace, museum value). She was cheerful and sharp-tongued. In Mexico, at a bullfight, one matador dedicated a bull to her. Someone disparagingly remarked that this matador was an amateur. “But the bull is a professional,” Paulette responded. From 1944 to 1949, she was married to the famous and respected actor Burgess Meredith (many remember him from his role as a coach in Stallone's film "Rocky"). Meredith adhered to left-liberal beliefs, and together with her husband Paulette joined the anti-McCarthyite Committee for the Defense of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution after the war. They say she was being followed by the FBI.
After her divorce from Meredith, Paulette's film career began to decline. Major studios no longer offered her $100,000 per film. But she did not sit without work. I was filming little by little. On stage she played Cleopatra in Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Poverty did not threaten her. She owned four houses and an antique store in the best areas of Los Angeles. She still had a brilliant reputation, among her friends were John Steinbeck, Salvador Dali, superstar Clark Gable (who played Rhett in " Gone with the wind"), who offered her his hand and heart. But Paulette preferred Remarque.
Just as it was with Chaplin, Paulette, who, according to Remarque, “radiated life,” saved him from depression. The writer believed that this cheerful, clear, spontaneous and uncomplicated woman had character traits that he himself lacked. Thanks to her, he finished "Spark of Life". The novel, where Remarque first equated fascism and communism, was a success. Soon he began work on the novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die.” “Everything is fine,” the diary entry reads. “No neurasthenia. No feelings of guilt. Paulette works well on me.”
Together with Paulette, he finally decided to go in 1952 to Germany, where he had not been for 30 years. In Osnabrück I met with my father, sister Erna and her family. The city was destroyed and rebuilt. There were still military ruins in Berlin. For Remarque everything was alien and strange, as if in a dream. People seemed like zombies to him. He wrote in his diary about their “raped souls.” The chief of the West Berlin police, who received Remarque at his home, tried to soften the writer’s impression of his homeland, saying that the horrors of Nazism were exaggerated by the press. This left a heavy aftertaste on Remarque’s soul.
Only now has he gotten rid of the obsession named Marlene Dietrich. She and the 52-year-old actress met and had dinner at her home. Then Remarque wrote: “The beautiful legend is no more. It’s all over. Old. Lost. What a terrible word.”
He dedicated “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” to Paulette. I was happy with her, but I couldn’t completely get rid of my previous complexes. He wrote in his diary that he suppresses his feelings, forbids himself to feel happiness, as if it were a crime. That he drinks because he can’t communicate with people sober, even with himself.
In the novel "Black Obelisk" the hero falls in love in pre-war Germany with a patient in a psychiatric hospital suffering from a split personality. This was Remarque's farewell to Jutta, Marlene and his homeland. The novel ends with the phrase: “Night fell over Germany, I left it, and when I returned, it lay in ruins.”
In 1957, Remarque officially divorced Jutta, paying her 25 thousand dollars and assigning a lifetime maintenance of 800 dollars a month. Jutta went to Monte Carlo, where she remained for 18 years until her death. The following year, Remarque and Paulette got married in America.
Hollywood was still faithful to Remarque. “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” was filmed, and Remarque even agreed to play Professor Pohlman himself, a Jew who dies at the hands of the Nazis.
In his next book, “The Sky Has No Favorites,” the writer returned to the theme of his youth - the love of a race car driver and a beautiful woman dying of tuberculosis. In Germany, the book was treated as a lightweight romantic trinket. But the Americans are filming it too, although almost 20 years later. The novel will be turned into the film "Bobby Deerfield" with Al Pacino in the title role.
In 1962, Remarque, visiting Germany again, contrary to his custom, gave an interview on political topics magazine "Die Welt". He sharply condemned Nazism, recalled the murder of his sister Elfrida and how his citizenship was taken away from him. He reaffirmed his continued pacifist position and opposed the newly built Berlin Wall.
On next year Paulette filmed in Rome - she played the mother of the heroine, Claudia Cardinale, in the film based on Moravia's novel "Indifferent". At this time, Remarque had a stroke. But he recovered from the illness, and in 1964 he was able to receive a delegation from Osnabrück, which came to Ascona to present him with a medal of honor. He reacted to this without enthusiasm, wrote in his diary that he had nothing to talk about with these people, that he was tired, bored, although he was touched.
Remarque remained more and more in Switzerland, and Paulette continued to travel around the world, and they exchanged romantic letters. He signed them “Your eternal troubadour, husband and admirer.” It seemed to some friends that there was something artificial and feigned in their relationship. If Remarque started drinking while visiting, Paulette would defiantly leave. I hated it when he spoke German. In Ascona, Paulette was disliked for her extravagant style of dressing and was considered arrogant.
Remarque wrote two more books - "Night in Lisbon" and "Shadows in Paradise". But his health was deteriorating. In the same 1967, when the German ambassador to Switzerland presented him with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, he had two heart attacks. His German citizenship was never returned to him. But the next year, when he turned 70, Azcona made him her honorary citizen. He did not even allow his former friend from his youth from Osnabrück to write his biography.
Remarque spent the last two winters of his life with Paulette in Rome. In the summer of 1970, his heart failed again and he was admitted to a hospital in Locarno. There he died on September 25. He was buried in Switzerland, modestly. Marlene sent roses. Paulette didn't put them on the coffin.
Marlene later complained to playwright Noel Caurad that Remarque left her only one diamond, and all the money to “this woman.” In fact, he also bequeathed 50 thousand each to his sister, Jutta, and his housekeeper, who had looked after him for many years in Ascona.
For the first 5 years after her husband’s death, Paulette was diligently involved in his affairs, publications, and production of plays. In 1975 she became seriously ill. The tumor in the chest was removed too radically, several ribs were taken out, and Paulette's arm was swollen.
She lived another 15 years, but they were sad years. Paulette became strange and capricious. Started drinking and taking too many medications. Donated 20 million to New York University, but was constantly worried about money. She began to sell off the collection of impressionists collected by Remarque. Tried to commit suicide. The owner of the house in New York where she rented an apartment did not want to have an alcoholic among the tenants and asked her to leave for Switzerland. In 1984, her 94-year-old mother died. Now Paulette was surrounded only by servants, a secretary and a doctor. She suffered from emphysema. Not a trace of beauty remained - the skin of her face was affected by melanoma.
On April 23, 1990, Paulette demanded that a Sotheby's auction catalog be given to her in bed, where her jewelry was to be sold that day. The sale brought in a million dollars. Three hours later, Paulette died with the catalog in her hands.
While Paulette was still alive, her biography was published in America. 5 books have been written about Remarque. The author of the latest (1995), a “double” biography of the couple, Julie Gilbert teaches at the very New York University to which Paulette was so generous.
Thank you
russalka 17.07.2006 07:49:13
I recently became interested in Remarque. I was staying with a friend in Kursk during the May holidays and, having nothing better to do, read the novel “Life on Borrow.” The following "nothing to do" days summer holidays in July they introduced me to the Arc de Triomphe. I’m currently reading “Love Thy Neighbor.” A random selection of what was on the shelf in the store. From your biography I realized that only the Arc de Triomphe belongs to the most famous works. But I'm glad I discovered this writer.
I want to thank you for your well-written biography. Knowing nothing about the author and judging him only by the themes of the works and the thoughts expressed in them, I became so curious about what could happen to a person in life and what his life was like that he left such works to the world. For some reason it seemed to me that he himself was a doctor or a refugee. Where do these female images come from? Full of beauties and femme fatales. But it turns out that the prototype of Joan Madu was Marlene Dietrich herself. And there were enough women in his life to write about. In a word, your biography is written very vividly, vividly and completely. I received answers to all my questions. I especially liked the paragraph about psychoanalysis and Remarque’s diagnosis. This is something I didn't expect at all.
It's nice to find quality articles on the Internet! Good luck to you in this field!
s
Anatoly 24.11.2014 07:02:42
But in my opinion the writer is mediocre. And the plot is almost the same from book to book.
Remark
Olga 25.11.2014 04:03:54
Thanks for the detailed biography! Very interesting! Indeed, I imagined a completely different person from the works. Of course, such a great writer could not have easy fate. He is beautiful. There will most likely never be such writers again...
Erich Maria Remarque is an outstanding prose writer of the 20th century, a representative of the writers of the “lost generation”, one of the most famous Germans, who was not afraid to openly oppose the ideas of Nazism. He spoke on uncomfortable topics, depicted the horrors of war through the eyes of ordinary soldiers, showed the life of emigrants, looked into smoky taverns, cheap hotels, midnight restaurants, soldiers' trenches, German concentration camps, cold prison cells. And he did it so talentedly, so artistically and stylistically competently that, despite the topicality in the first half of the 20th century, his works continue to enjoy constant reader interest in the 21st.
Over many years creative career Remarque wrote 14 novels, he was in demand, famous, rich, and enjoyed success with women, and chic women at that. The writer died at the age of 72, before last days maintaining the ability to write. Expelled from Nazi Germany, he became a real star of his time. And this brilliant story began in Osnabrück in 1898.
Erich Paul Remarque: childhood and adolescence
On June 22, 1898, in the German city of Osnabrück (province of Hanover), the Remarque couple gave birth to their second son, Erich Paul. Much later, in memory of his beloved mother, a nineteen-year-old boy will change his middle name. He will become Erich Maria Remarque and glorify this name throughout the world.
But we are still very far from reaching the heights of the literary Olympus. Young Erich Paul grows up like all ordinary children: he collects butterflies, stamps, stones, passionately loves his mother and suffers bitterly due to the lack of her attention (Maria Remarque is forced to devote a lot of time to her sickly first-born Theodore Arthur, who, alas, died at the age of five ).
Erich's father, Peter Franz, works as a bookbinder. There are always a lot of books in the Remarques' house, and therefore children have free access to examples of ancient, classical and modern literature. Young Erich shows creative inclinations early on - he is interested in painting, music, reading and writing. Because of his passion for the latter, in elementary school Remarque is called a “dirty boy” because he is always writing something and is smeared with ink.
Remarque chooses a teaching career as his future specialty. He acquired professional skills in the Catholic and then in the royal teachers' seminaries. During his seminary years, Erich made like-minded friends. He talks with them for a long time in the “Attic of Dreams” on Liebechstrasse and attends the “Circle of Dreams” for aspiring writers.
With the outbreak of the First World War, Remarque went to the front. Based on experience gleaned from historical and artistic works, the young man’s consciousness portrayed the war in a heroic arena. Three years of service (1917–1919) revealed to Erich the true face of the war. And it turned out to be ugly. Young Remarque faced a soldier's life full of hardships and injustice, lost his comrades and himself came close to death. From then on, Remarque became a convinced pacifist. In his works, he condemned any manifestation of violence, spoke of the senselessness and hatred of war. He did not change his point of view even when the Nazi government sharply criticized him. Remarque left his homeland, but not his own life principles.
The path to self-determination. Choice of profession
In 1917, Erich Paul buries his mother, who died of cancer, and in memory of his parent becomes Erich Maria. Two years later, he finally breaks with army service and moves to the spacious house of his father, who by this time has already managed to remarry. Here Erich Maria creates her first novel, Attic of Dreams. The creative debut was just a test of the pen. Subsequently, Remarque did not like to remember his youthful creation and made a lot of efforts to personally buy up the remainder of the circulation.
Remarque decides to put off writing. Being a certified teacher, he tries himself in the teaching field, but soon becomes disillusioned with his chosen profession. Remarque continues his search - he works as an accountant, teaches piano, plays the organ in the hospital chapel and even sells tombstones. Finally, the future writer finds himself in a journalistic environment and, after lengthy ordeals, finds his calling. Now it’s decided - he will write!
In 1927, the novel “Station on the Horizon” was published in the pages of Sport im Bild, and two years later, in 1929, the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” was published. An anti-war work based on real experience Remarque the Soldier was a stunning success and brought its author fame, money and a strong place in world literature. One and a half million copies were sold within a year. And already in 1930, the American film studio Universal Pictures released a film of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone. The film received two Oscars in the categories Best movie And Best Director.
But at home, the anti-war work turned out to be inappropriate. The Berlin premiere of the film was disrupted on the personal orders of Goebbels - auditorium They were bombarded with stinking bombs and mice. Three years later, Remarque was subjected to severe persecution. His books were publicly set on fire, and the publication of new works by the writer was out of the question.
The author of “All Quiet on the Western Front” joined the cohort of writers of the so-called “lost generation”, those who, having gone through the hardships of war in their youth, acutely hated violence and were unable to fully adapt to peaceful life. John Dos Passos, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Aldington, Ernest Hemingway and others poured out similar bitter experiences on the pages of their works.
Fortunately, when Remarque fell out of favor with the Nazis, he was already recognized by the world. The writer successfully emigrated to Switzerland and then to the USA, where eight years later he received American citizenship. Erich Maria Remarque published continuously, was a very wealthy man, paid great attention to clothing, and therefore became known as one of the most stylish representatives of literary bohemia. “Money,” Remarque ironically, “does not bring happiness, but it has a very calming effect.”
Personal life and hobbies
He transferred his childhood passion for collecting to a slightly different plane, replacing butterflies and pebbles with antique carpets and paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, and Paul Cezanne. Remarque's life was always visible. He was surrounded by celebrities: Ruth Albu, Paulette Goddard, Greta Garbo... and just look at his long-term affair with Marlene Dietrich and the collection of letters addressed to her!
Last decade Remarque spends his life in Switzerland. He returns to his beloved Europe with his second wife, actress Paulette Goddard, who became the delight of the writer’s twilight years. Despite the heart problems that tormented Remarque, even in his eighties, he is of sound mind and continues to work. His last novel, Shadows in Paradise, or The Promised Land, was published posthumously.
Erich Maria Remarque died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 72. The writer was buried in the Swiss city of Locarno at the Ronco cemetery.
Over his many years of creative career, Erich Maria Remarque turned to various literary genres. He wrote essays, journalistic notes, film scripts, and stories, but in world art Remarque is known primarily as an outstanding novelist. He has 14 novels to his credit, which continue to be successfully republished to this day.
His debut novel, The Attic of Dreams, also known as The Shelter of Dreams, was published in 1920. The work immerses the reader in the environment of artists - composers, artists and their beautiful muses. Thematically and stylistically, the novel clearly stands out among the writer’s other works. There is still no recognizable Remarque pessimism, midnight restaurants, his famous Calvados, drinking and non-drunk heroes. The author himself was subsequently embarrassed by his debut creation and did not like to mention it.
In 1924, Remarque wrote the novel “Gam” about a fatal beauty who is looking for happiness and new experiences in the most exotic places on the planet. The work, however, saw the light only after the writer’s death in 1998.
In 1928, the prose writer outlined the path for further creativity and wrote the novel “Station on the Horizon.” Its main characters are young racing drivers – representatives of the so-called “lost generation”. They went through the tribulations of the First World War and are now trying to compensate for the lack of adrenaline on the motorway.
The novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” published in 1929, made Remarque’s name. The story is told from the perspective of private soldier Paul Bäumer. He is only 19 years old, he and his classmates are called to the front. Bäumer innocently describes the war without embellishment, in all its ugly ugliness, just as it is.
Continuing the theme of the “lost generation”, Remarque writes “The Return” (1931). Here his soldiers were lucky enough to survive the war, but they fail to return the same. It turns out that there, under the bullets, everything was much simpler and clearer than in this cruel, changed peaceful city.
In 1936, Denmark released the most readable novel Remark "Three Comrades". The theme of the “lost generation” is organically intertwined with tragic love. Prototype main character Pat Holman became the first wife of the writer Jutta Zambona, who, like Patricia, suffered from tuberculosis.
5 years later, in 1941, the book “Love Thy Neighbor” was published as a separate edition. The novel is dedicated to the problems of emigration, persecution of Jews, as well as the problem of survival in “peaceful” times after the great war.
1945 and another masterpiece - the novel Arc de Triomphe. At the center of the work is the love story of a German emigrant engaged in illegal surgical practice, Ravik, and actress Joan Madu. It is noteworthy that the prototype of the main female image became Marlene Dietrich, with whom Remarque had a long and rather painful affair. The choice of name is not accidental central character– Marlene, jokingly, called Remarque Ravik.
Bitterly experiencing the death of his sister Elfrida, who was hanged by the Nazis for her relationship with the disgraced writer, Remarque dedicates the novel to her. The work entitled "Spark of Life" was published in 1952. The setting for the development of the plot is a German concentration camp. The main character, the former editor of a liberal newspaper, has no name, only the number - 509. Behind him is grief, torture, hunger, his body is exhausted, and his soul is tormented, but hope for salvation glimmers in it. And it is very close, because it is 1945.
In 1954, Remarque continued the war theme in the cult novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die”, and later returned to develop themes of post-war survival and sad love on the ruins of the former world in “The Black Obelisk” (1956) and “Life on Borrow” (1959) .
"Night in Lisbon" (1962) became last novel, published during the writer’s lifetime. It tells the story of lovers fleeing Nazi persecution. On the refugees' route, they meet a stranger who agrees to help them only if they listen to his life story.
Next we will analyze the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, dedicated to the same “lost generation”, people who never woke up from the horror of war and were haunted by the past.
In his thirteenth novel, he tried to convey the life of people who found themselves outcasts in Germany after the war, and who sought refuge in foreign lands, enduring persecution and shame.
The novel “Shadows in Paradise” (working title: “The Promised Land”) was published in 1971. He talks about immigrants from different corners war-torn Europe. They all come to the land of dreams - distant, brilliant America. But for many of them, paradise on earth turned out to be not as rosy as it seemed.
German literature
Erich Maria Remarque
Biography
Erich Paul Remarque was born on June 22, 1898 in the city of Osnabrück, in the family of bookbinder Peter Franz Remarque and his wife Anna Maria. While still at school, he decided to connect his life with art: he studied drawing and music. Shocked by the death of his mother, Remarque changes his name to Erich Maria at the age of 19.
In his novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), he portrays her as a caring mother figure to the protagonist Paul Boimar. Remarque's relationship with his father is rather more distant, and they also have different views on the world. Remarque grows up next to his two sisters, Erna and Elfrida.
Having passed his primary school exams (1912), Remarque began working as a teacher, but his work was interrupted by the 1st World War. After short period training, Remarque is sent to the Western Front, where he is wounded in 1917. During his stay in a military hospital, Remarque writes stories and prose. In 1919, at the end of the war, Remarque passed exams and for the next two years taught in various primary schools in the countryside. Leaving his teaching career, he takes on a series of odd jobs within the city of Osnabrück, including work as a tombstone salesman. His autobiographical written novel The Black Obelisk (1956) makes many references to this period.
In the fall of 1922, Remarque left Osnabrück and went to work at the Continental Rubber and Gutta-Percha Company in Hanover, now known as Continental, and began not only to compose slogans, accompanying texts and PR material, but also to write articles for the “home” magazine of the company "Echo-Continental". REMARQUE - written according to the rules of French spelling - an allusion to the Huguenot origin of the family.
Soon Remarque expanded the field of his activities. Not limiting himself to the company magazine, he began to publish in magazines such as Jugend and the leading sports magazine Sport im Bild, which eagerly took his travel notes. A whole essay on cocktails appeared in the magazine Störtebecker - a very original name for a periodical, since Störtebecker was a fifteenth-century Hanseatic pirate, a kind of Robin Hood. Articles in Sport im Bild opened doors to literature to a young writer, and in 1925 Remarque left Hannover and moved to Berlin, where he became the illustration editor of the aforementioned magazine.
Erich Remarque first saw his name in print at the age of twenty, when the magazine Schönheit published his poem “Me and You” and two short stories “The Woman with Golden Eyes” and “From Youthful Times.” From then on, Remarque did not stop writing and publishing almost until his death. These works had everything that Remarque's books would later be distinguished by - simple language, precise dry descriptions, witty dialogues - but they went unnoticed, could not stand out from the streams of pulp literature that filled German shops in the first post-war years.
In 1925, Jutta Ingeborg Ellen Zambona and Erich Maria Remarque were married in Berlin. Jutta Tsambon, who added the name Zhanna to her name, sat next to Remarque all night long while he wrote for himself after working at the publishing house. In 1927, his second novel, Station on the Horizon, was published. It was published and continued in the magazine “Sport im Bild”. It is known that this novel was never published as a separate book. It can also be assumed that over the next year, Jeanne kept him company when he wrote the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” in six weeks. Just as little as Remarque spoke about his marriage, he spoke just as little about the reasons for his divorce, which followed in 1932. They said that she preferred another man, a film producer, known to be an admirer of dazzlingly beautiful women. And although she robbed him completely, after the divorce he sent her flowers, this was typical of him. After Hitler deprived both of their citizenship in 1937, Remarque married Jeanne a second time in order to give her a new passport and Panama papers, and then American ones to replace those lost for one reason only - as punishment for the fact that she was Mrs. Erich Maria Remarque.
1929, Remarque records his experiences of the war and traumatic memories of it in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. When it appeared in pre-print - in the newspaper "Vossische Zeitung" (1928) and in bookstores by January 1929, "All Quiet on the Western Front" captured the imagination of millions. The novel brings Remarque popularity and financial independence, but also political hostility. Three years later, He writes another novel, “Return” (1931), in which he depicts the problems of soldiers after their return to their homeland, where ideas were destroyed, moral foundations were shaken, and industry was destroyed.
In the same year, fearing persecution from the National Socialists, the writer was forced to leave Germany. He moved to Switzerland, buying a house in Porto Ronco, Lago Maggoire. Remarque's last work published before the outbreak of World War II was the novel "Three Comrades", published in 1938, first in America. English language and only then in Holland, in German. In the writer’s homeland by that time, his books (primarily, of course, “All Quiet on the Western Front”) were banned as “undermining the German spirit” and belittling “the heroism of the German soldier.” The Nazis deprived Remarque of German citizenship in 1938. He was forced to flee from Switzerland to France, and from there - through Mexico - to the United States of America. Here his life - in comparison with the life of many other German emigrants - proceeded quite well: high fees, all his books (in 1941 the novel “Love Thy Neighbor”, and in 1946 the famous “Arc de Triomphe”) certainly became bestsellers and were successfully filmed. During the difficult war years, Remarque helped, sometimes anonymously, many of his compatriots - cultural figures who, like him, were fleeing the Hitler regime, but their financial situation was depressing.
In Germany, meanwhile, Remarque's sister became a victim of the barbaric regime. Accused of making remarks against Hitler and his regime, she was sentenced to death in 1943 and executed in Berlin. During the negotiations, the President of the People's Court, Freisler, is reputed to have said that "Your brother may have escaped us, but you will no longer escape it."
In 1968 the City of Osnabrück names a street after Elfriede Scholz.
Having again received German citizenship after the war, Remarque returned to Europe. Since 1947, he lived in Switzerland, where he spent most of the last 16 years of his life. The novels that appeared were Spark of Life (1952), a novel depicting the atrocities of the concentration camps, and A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1954), which depicted Germany's war against the Soviet Union. In 1954, Remarque attends his father's funeral at Bed Rothenfelde near Osnabrück, but does not visit his hometown. Remarque never got over the bitterness of his exile from Germany: “As far as I know, not a single one of the mass murderers of the Third Reich was expelled. The emigrants are therefore even more humiliated.” (Interview 1966). The Black Obelisk appears in 1956. It partly analyzes the spiritual climate within Remarque's home town during the 1920s, but also deals with the preconditions for the rise of fascism and attacks the moral political reconstruction after World War II.
Remarque's only play, "The Last Stop", which was written in 1956. It was about the Russians who broke into Berlin and met there with SS soldiers and prisoners concentration camp. The premiere took place on September 20, 1956 in Berlin; Later the production was carried out in Munich. The success was not worldwide, but the play was taken seriously, and for him this was more important than the attitude of his other works, except for the resonance caused by the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. “Life on Borrow” was published in 1959. In the book “Night in Lisbon” (1961) he returned to the theme of emigration once again. Here the author makes an explicit reference to Osnabrück as the scene of the action. "Shadows in Paradise" becomes the last of Remarque's novels. It was published by Remarque's second wife Paulette Goddard in 1971 after his death.
In 1964, to celebrate Remarque's 65th birthday, the city of Osnabrück presented the author with his most prestigious award, the Moser Medal. Three years later (1967) the writer receives an OBE from the Federal Republic of Germany. He also became an honorary resident of the cities of Ascona and Porto Ronco.
On September 25th, 1970, Erich Maria Remarque died in a hospital in Locarno. After his death, his hometown names a street after Remarque.
There was, of course, another side to Remarque’s life - a scandalous one, connected primarily with his life in America. She is well known (and not only to passionate admirers of the writer’s work): long binges, affaire de Coeur with Marlene Dietrich - emotional dependence writer from a film star was probably akin to a drug addiction, affairs with young Hollywood actresses and, finally, marriage to Pollet Godard - the former Mrs. Charlie Chaplin...
30 million copies of Remarque's books have been sold worldwide. main reason What makes them so unparalleled and unique is that they address universal themes. These are themes of humanity, loneliness, courage and, as Remarque himself put it, “the happiness of short unity.” World events serve in his books only as a frame for action.
Despite the fact that Erich Maria Remarque has not been popular in Germany for a long time - he is remembered only as the author of “All Quiet on the Western Front”, here in Russia Remarque is still very popular. Since 1929, when the novel about Private Paul Bäumer was published in Russian, just a few months after publication in Germany itself, all of E. M. Remarque’s books have invariably enjoyed success in our country. It has been calculated: over 70 years of presence on the domestic literary scene, the total circulation of E. M. Remarque’s books in Russian has exceeded 5 million copies!
Remarque Erich Maria (1898-1970) - German writer, born June 22, 1898 in the German city of Osnabrück. In a family where the father earned money by binding books, there were 5 children, Erich Maria was born second. From 1904 he studied at a church school, and in 1915 he entered the Catholic Teachers' Seminary.
He left to serve in the army in 1916, and in the summer of 1917 he ended up on the Western Front, where less than 2 months later he received several wounds and spent the rest of the war in a military hospital. In the post-war period, he changed many jobs, ranging from a teacher, a seller of tombstones, an organ musician and other professions. In 1921, he got a job as editor of Echo Continental and took the pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque, taking his middle name in honor of his deceased mother.
In 1925, he married Ilse Jutta Zambona, who in the past worked as a dancer, but was married to her for just over 4 years. In 1929, he published his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which was nominated for the Nobel Prize, and the following year its film adaptation was released. Due to the political situation in Germany, Remarque moves to Switzerland, where he begins an affair with Marlene Dietrich. In 1938, he remarried Jutta to help her leave Germany to join him, and then with him to the USA. They officially divorced in 1957.
In 1951, he began an affair with Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard and married her a year later. official divorce with Jutta in 1957. The writer and his wife return to Switzerland, where they become the winner of numerous awards.
Erich Paul Remarque is an outstanding German writer. At the age of 18, he was forced to go to the front, as a result of which he was able to see with his own eyes all the horrors of war.
All these impressions will form the basis of his works, and he himself will become one of the few major writers who will go through the war and be able to capture it in his works.
There are many unusual and exciting events in Erich Remarque. We will tell you about them and many others from his life right now.
So, in front of you short biography Erich Remarque.
Biography of Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque was born on June 22, 1898 in the German Empire in the city of Osnabrück. He grew up in the educated family of bookbinder Peter Franz and Anna Stahlknecht.
In addition to Erich, four more children were born into the Remarque family. WITH early years the boy read with interest the works of Zweig, Mann and Proust.
Childhood and youth
When Erich was 6 years old, he was sent to a church school. He then continued his studies at public school, after which he entered the Catholic Teachers' Seminary. At this time he dreamed of becoming a teacher.
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918), he successfully passed the exams at the Royal Seminary of Osnabrück, but a year later Remarque was called up for service.
Erich Maria Remarque at war While participating in serious battles, he received 5 wounds. The future writer spent the rest of the war in hospitals healing his wounds.
After returning from the front, Remarque was a completely different person.
Arriving home, he took up writing and also became interested in playing musical instruments.
At the beginning of his writing career, Remarque had to work in a variety of places, since his creative passion could not yet feed him.
He worked as a teacher, accountant, musician and even a tombstone salesman.
At the age of 24, Erich Remarque went to Hannover, where he got a job at the Echo Continental publishing house.
In 1926, a turning point came in Remarque’s creative biography. One of the reputable publications agreed to publish his novels “The Woman with Golden Eyes” and “From the Times of Youth.”
After their release, young Remarque received many praises from critics and ordinary readers. From that moment on, he began to seriously engage in writing.
Works by Remarque
In 1929, Remarque published a new novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, in which he masterfully described military events through the eyes of a 19-year-old boy.
He managed to convey the main character in colors. The book became so popular that it was translated into 36 languages. Later, a film was made based on it.
New novels by Erich Maria Remarque will appear soon: “Three Comrades” and “The Return”. These books also describe the horrors of war.
The works received good reviews from critics and were translated into many languages.
During the biography period 1941-1945. Erich publishes 2 novels: “Love Thy Neighbor” and “Arc de Triomphe.”
In 1950, he began writing the novels “The Promised Land” and “The Black Obelisk.” After this, his anti-war work “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” was published, which raised many serious questions.
In addition, he wrote several stories and plays, among which were “Joseph’s Wife”, “ The last act", "Enemy", "Be vigilant" and others.
Personal life
In 1925, Erich Maria Remarque found himself in, where the daughter of the owner of an elite magazine fell in love with him. However, the girl’s parents did not allow them to get married, although at that time the writer worked as an editor.
After this, he met Ilse Jutta Zambone, who was a dancer. Soon their friendship grew into serious relationship, as a result of which they decided to get married. However, their marriage lasted only 4 years.
In 1933, shortly before coming to power, Remarque urgently left on the advice of his friend. He set off in his car without having time to take any things with him.
A few years after his departure, the Nazis publicly burned his book All Quiet on the Western Front, and the writer himself was deprived of German citizenship.
In 1938, Remarque entered into a fictitious marriage with his ex-wife so that she could live in Switzerland. An interesting fact is that this marriage was dissolved only after 19 years.
After some time, the writer fell madly in love with famous actress Marlene Dietrich, who, like him, was forced to leave Germany.
However, after Remarque started dating her, he had to face all sorts of problems. The fact is that Dietrich turned out to be bisexual, which Erich found out a little later.
Despite this, he invited Marlene to become his wife and start life with clean slate. After that, he learned that his beloved had recently become pregnant by an actor with whom she worked on the same set, and had an abortion.
When Dietrich learned that Remarque owned a fairly large collection of paintings, she demanded to give her one of them. Gradually, the requests grew into continuous demands and humiliation.
Ultimately, Remarque still found the strength to refuse her.
It is worth saying that Erich Maria Remarque enjoyed great success with various Hollywood actresses. However, he did not like Hollywood itself, since the people who lived in it seemed proud and unreal to Remarque.
Soon he decides to move to. In 1945, he began working on the novel “Spark of Life,” which he dedicated to his deceased sister.
This book was the first in his biography, which described events that he himself had not experienced. It was about Nazi concentration camps.
In 1951, Erich Maria Remarque met actress Paulette Goddard, with whom he soon fell in love. Deciding to propose to her, the writer officially divorced Jutta, with whom he had not lived for a long time.
Erich Maria Remarque and his wife Paulette Goddard Interestingly, he transferred $25,000 to his ex-wife and also paid her $800 every month.
In 1958, Remarque and Goddard became husband and wife.
Death
In the last years of his life, Erich Remarque and Paulette often vacationed in Rome. In 1970, he began to have serious heart problems, as a result of which the writer was admitted to the hospital.
However, soon the heart could not withstand the stress and stopped.
Erich Maria Remarque died on September 25, 1970 in the Swiss city of Lacorno at the age of 72. Official reason his death was an aortic aneurysm. Remarque was buried in the Ronco cemetery.
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