If you are a fan of this famous author like Erich Maria Remarque, best books is now at your disposal. List by rating and popularity from the most famous works to the lesser known.

Arc de Triomphe

The main character, an illegal refugee from Germany, arrives in Paris before the outbreak of World War II. The townspeople are acutely aware of the inexorable approach of disaster. A poignant love story between a talented surgeon hiding from Nazi persecution and an irresistible, daring Italian actress. Further

Black Obelisk

1923 Germany has still not recovered from the consequences of the First World War. Ludwig Bodmer, a former soldier, increasingly asks himself questions about the meaninglessness of human existence. An employee of a company that sells tombstones plays the organ in the church of a psychiatric hospital on weekends. There he meets a charming girl, Genevieve, who suffers from a split personality. Further

Three comrades

Germany, late 1920s. The plot centers on the difficult fate of three friends, representatives of the so-called “ lost generation" Robert Lokamp, ​​together with his friends Otto and Gottfried, owns a small auto repair shop. A chance meeting with Patricia Holman, a sophisticated beauty from high society, completely turns Robbie's life upside down. Further

The writer dedicated the novel to his older sister Elfriede, who was executed by the Nazis during World War II. Events take place in a concentration camp located near the fictional city of Mellern. A person is able to overcome even the most monstrous trials if at least a weak spark of life remains in his heart, capable of illuminating the pitch darkness. Further

Klerfe, a young racing driver, admires the love of life and courage of his new friend Lilian. A patient at a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients knows that she will soon die. A terminally ill heroine decides to turn the rest of her days into a bright, unforgettable holiday. To help charming girl, Klerfe postpones his long-awaited vacation. Further

Time period: 1944. German soldier Ernst Graeber has not been home since the beginning of the war. Having received a vacation, main character goes to his hometown, almost completely destroyed by bombing. Graeber's house has been turned into ruins, and there is no news about the fate of his parents. While searching for his relatives, Ernst encounters the very young Elisabeth Kruse. Imbued with the girl’s plight, the hero decides to help her. Further

No change on the Western Front

The height of the First World War. The story is told on behalf of Paul Bäumer, a German soldier recruit. The main character was barely 19 years old when he, along with his former classmates, volunteered to serve in the army. Once on Western Front, young warriors faced the harsh and dangerous everyday life of military life. Further

Love your neighbor

When the Nazis seized power in Germany, an endless stream of illegal immigrants, victims of the inhumane regime, poured into other European countries. Deprived of all rights, Jews who left their homeland were forced to seek refuge abroad. At the center of the plot - hard fates emigrants who found themselves in a foreign land against their will. Further

The main character, persecuted by the Nazi regime, is forced to flee Germany. Tomorrow morning he will leave Europe forever, sailing on a ship to distant America. A person has only one night left to spend in Lisbon. A chance meeting with a stranger forces him to open his soul, bleeding from pain, to the first person he meets. Further

Shelter of Dreams

Germany. 1920s. Talented composer and painting, Fritz Schramm calls his bachelor apartment “The Shelter of Dreams.” Every evening a group of young people gather here, dreaming of forgetting about the difficulties of real life at least for a few hours. The characters talk about art, share their love experiences, worries and hopes with the hospitable host. But everything changes when Fritz dies. Further

Station on the horizon

The main characters of E.M. Remarque's early novel are racing drivers. These courageous, fearless people are representatives of the “lost generation”, who never recovered from the horrors of the First World War. Every day they put their lives at mortal risk in order to drown out at least a few moments. heartache. Further

Return

Western Front. German soldiers learn about the revolutionary situation in Berlin. The main characters, exhausted by the hardships of the trenches, are not interested in politics; they dream of returning to their families as soon as possible. However, it is difficult for young people to wean themselves from military life and adapt to a peaceful existence. Front-line soldiers are shocked by the changes that have taken place in their hometown. Further

Shadows in Paradise

After the end of World War II, the main character comes to New York. A journalist by profession, he meets local emigrants, who represent a very diverse society. Alcoholic writer, cynical doctor, enthusiastic actress, arrogant fashion model, member of the Resistance. All these people, desperately homesick, are trying in vain to adapt to life in America. Further

Gam

In this novel, Remarque tries to comprehend the nature of a free woman, independent of men. Beauty Gam went on an endless journey, she traveled all over Europe, visited exotic Asian and African countries. Main character wanders around the world in search of new experiences and all-consuming, passionate love. Further

Promised land

The novel, which tells about the fate of German emigrants in the United States, was published after Remarque’s death. People who miraculously escaped death fled from the fascist regime overseas in the hope of finding freedom and independence in a foreign country. However, America greeted the fugitives with polite indifference. Desperately trying to rebuild their lives, the heroes learn to rely only on their own strength. Further

Collection early works Erich Maria Remarque. The stories are written in a poetic, decadent style, unusual for the writer, popular in Germany in the 1920s. The main themes of the short stories are love, death, futility human life, lack of true mutual understanding between people, spiritual quests of the younger generation. Further

The novel tells about the dire consequences of the war for ordinary German people, exhausted by the hardships of life. Ernst and his comrades were not home for four years. The heroes, full of hope for the future, return to their hometown. But former soldiers very difficult to re-adapt to peaceful life. Further

1942 The main character, having escaped Nazi Germany, arrives in Lisbon. The man hopes to get on a ship sailing to America, but the poor man is unable to get money to pay for false documents. An unknown man promises the narrator to give him two tickets for tomorrow's flight if he stays with the stranger all night and listens to his confession. Further

The collection includes Remarque’s only play, “The Last Stop,” and the film script, “The Last Act,” which vehemently denounces ordinary people in Germany who contributed to the Nazi regime with their indifference. Remarque pronounces a merciless verdict on all ordinary people who allegedly did not know what was happening in the country. Further

So, it was Erich Maria Remarque - the best books. The list by rating and popularity is now always at your fingertips. Do you have his favorite books? Share in the comments. 😉

Erich Maria Remarque is the pseudonym of the famous German writer Erich Paul Remarque, who brought with him the concept of the “lost generation” to literature.

Remarque was born in 1898, and in 1929 he wrote the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which made him popular. In this work, the author showed from the inside the whole nightmare of the war, all the misfortunes and losses that the soldiers saw, and not the pathos and slogans that the authorities proclaimed.

The leitmotif of Erich Maria's entire work was the collapse of established standards, a complete revolution of the European world. He had many successful popular works, but forever the standard that eclipsed others with its glory remained his first great novel.

Remarque was born into a poor family in the province of Lower Saxony. His family roots were French, but in the 19th century his ancestors moved to Germany. Father famous writer Peter Franz Remarque worked as a bookbinder. He earned little, and the family did not have much income. Despite the fact that his father was not particularly interested in science and literature and had a deep interest in the occult and the otherworldly, Erich Maria grew up as a very smart, well-read boy. He was the best student in the class, and also showed remarkable talent for music. They had a piano at home, and as a child, six-year-old Erich was predicted to have a successful musical career.

Studying at the University of Munster was interrupted by the war. Remarque was drafted into the army and went to the front at the age of 18. He fought for his country and was wounded several times, which is why he had to spend the rest of the war in the hospital. Before the end of the war, he took a teaching course for veterans and soon after took a job in a school. After working for a year, he moved to Berlin and tried to arrange his life and find his place in society. He worked as a bricklayer, a test driver for a tire company, a professional race driver, a journalist, transported tombstones, and played the organ in a chapel located at a clinic for the mentally ill.

He didn't stay anywhere for long. While working as a journalist, he wrote sports reports for the Sports Illustrated magazine. This was his driving force literary creativity. In 1919, immediately after the end of the war, Remarque published a story called “A Woman with Young Eyes.” A year later it was followed by a novel called “The Attic of Dreams.” Already in these first works there was present Remarque’s characteristic manner of presenting events simply, uncomplicatedly, in clear language with wittily noted details. But at first post-war years this was not appreciated by readers, and the novels went unnoticed in the mass of pulp literature. In 1925, the writer received a position as editor in a sports newspaper, for which he wrote reports.

Erich Maria was married, but was not exceptionally faithful, as was his wife. It was an open marriage. His wife Ilsa Jutta Zambona herself said that the prototype of the heroines of her husband’s books was his friend Leni Riefenstahl. She was known for producing propaganda films about Hitler and Nazism. This outrageous lady was, like the heroines of Remarque’s novels, beautiful, slender, always brightly and tastefully dressed.

The writer's longest affair on the side connected him with Marlene Dietrich, whom he met in Venice in the late 30s of the 20th century.

Remarque was glorified by his third novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which was very relevant in the post-war period and caused aggressive political disagreements. The publisher initially rejected the book, but when he finally began publishing in a Berlin newspaper in 1928, he created a sensation. The book sold 1.2 million copies in its first year alone.

Many critics called the book the best work about war in history (of all centuries). It very simply, in the first person, like most of his works, tells about the war and its nightmares. The work is partly autobiographical, since the author experienced all the horrors of war himself. Its main character, Paul, is a private in the German army, like the author, called to serve at a young age.

The language is simple, the picture is not pompous, without clots, everything is as it is - without excessive sentimentalism. The author does not delve into the soul of the hero; he simply, one might even say, sparingly describes the realities of this terrible and unnatural phenomenon for man - war.

The title of the novel justifies itself, the changes in storyline there are few, everything is terribly monotonous, the days are similar to one another.

The language in which Remarque describes this is amazingly direct, simple, and precise. He is even dry in his description of the bloody events, which contributes to the veracity of the story, naturalness and vitality. This style is influenced by expressionism, popular in the literature of the First World War.

The author often addresses on behalf of the first person plural. This pronoun “we” was a moral consolation for millions of readers who, like the main character, lost all their friends, but went through the war and had to move on, get used to living with it and look for their place in society.

Remarque wanted to show, emphasize, highlight that people do not need war, it is senseless, unnatural, inhumane, this should not happen again. The author conveyed the tragedy of people who were forced to fight and kill. People whose ideals were crumbling, the world was collapsing, and salvation could only be found in pure human relationships, in friendship, love, fidelity. Pacifist appeals are felt throughout the book.

The novel touched the hearts of the majority, because the war touched almost every family. Someone lost relatives because of these terrible events, someone went through this hell and had to live with terrible memories, with pictures of dead comrades in their heads. Therefore, the novel was translated into almost all European languages. In 1929 it was first published in Russian.

The next novel, “Return,” was published in 1931 and appeared in the wake of the success of the previous one. In it, the writer seems to continue the theme he started; he describes the first time after the war. There is devastation, uncertainty: what next? The meaning of everything that happened, what you had to go through? Here one can feel even more clearly the melancholy and hopelessness of people tormented by war and thrown into the world without a hint or clue on how to live on. The novel tells about the life of the main character Ernest and his comrades.

The cruel reality oppressed, pressed, forced some to say goodbye to this world, others doomed to a painful existence.

No one in the world values ​​land as much as a soldier. Nowhere does he feel so protected, so warm and comfortable as when he hugs the earth, buries his face and whole body in it, hiding in fear from death. She is like a reliable friend, a loving mother who protects, shelters, and protects from terrible things. He opens up to her, trusts her with a cry distorted from fear, a hopeless cry, a desperate howl filled with hope.

And for a few seconds it lets go, it becomes easier, sometimes this peace becomes eternal. If you manage to survive - a new surge, a new attack, a new attack of fear.

Remarque himself admitted that although he escaped from the shells, he became its direct victim, a representative of a generation crippled by war. His novel All Quiet on the Western Front was made into a film directed by Lewis Milestone. But the director of the film was categorically against the ending of the book, where the main character dies heroically. Therefore, the film adaptation of the book has a more optimistic ending - a hand that reaches for a butterfly.

But during the reign of the Nazi forces, both of Remarque’s novels, as well as the film based on one of them, were banned, burned, and at the premiere of the film, soldiers staged a pogrom. Remarque was accused of pacifism.

And the film was broadcast for mass viewing only in the 50s.

Due to clashes with the authorities in 1938, Remarque was deprived of citizenship. He left from home country. First he lived in Switzerland, and then in the USA, where he received citizenship. He made many acquaintances in Hollywood, where he met his future wife Paulette Gaddard. They married in 1958, after two marriages to the same woman, Jutta Tsambona.

After World War II, the writer moved to Switzerland again, bought himself a house and wrote his last play. Depicting the fall of the Third Reich, The Last Stop was shown in Berlin in 1956.

Remarque wrote a lot more about the war, about subsequent events in the country, the world, and people's lives. But not a single novel has become so famous, has not thundered with the same force as the first and most outstanding. And in all subsequent works, Remarque retains his characteristic restrained, simple, understandable, witty style. He also masterfully creates interesting characters, ornate plots, he always knew the limit in the combination of realistic descriptions and romantic, sentimental experiences.

“Three Comrades” is perhaps Remarque’s most touching and sentimental novel, published in 1937. Frank Borzag based it on a novel of the same name. It affects the most thin strings souls, leaving no one indifferent. Love that saves from illness of the soul, from loneliness of the heart. Love is all-conquering, overcoming, but so defenseless before the cruelty of this world. F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on the film's script. He was so carried away by the plot that, having problems with alcohol, he was absolutely sober throughout the entire production of the film.

Remarque's subsequent novels deal with struggle and life during Nazi rule. One of them is “ Arc de Triomphe", written in 1946, is about an actress and doctor who is a refugee from Germany. Based on the book, Charles Boyer made a film in which leading role starring Ingrid Bergman.

In 1954, Remarque wrote the novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die,” and in 1958 he played one of the main roles in its film adaptation. The work again raises the theme of war. The author moves back to his homeland in Germany. There comes an awareness of the mistakes made, fear for the future, a desire to warn, warn. This is clearly evident in all of his subsequent works.

For a long time, Remarque suffered from an aneurysm and after many months of treatment, the great writer died in 1970 at the age of 72.

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 V rural areas. 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 activity. Not limiting himself to the company magazine, he began to publish in such magazines as Jugend and the leading sports magazine Sport im Bild, which willingly 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 and 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 in 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 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 a dazzling admirer 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 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 appear: "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 depicts the German war against 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 hometown Remarque during the 1920s, but also deals with the preconditions for the rise of fascism and attacks the moral and political reconstruction after the Second World War.

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 Nobel Prize, and its film adaptation comes out next year. 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.

(estimates: 3 , average: 5,00 out of 5)

Erich Maria Remarque was born on June 22, 1898 in Prussia. As the writer later recalls, little attention was paid to him as a child: his mother was so shocked by the death of his brother Theo that she practically did not pay attention to her other children. Perhaps it was this - that is, virtually constant loneliness, modesty and uncertainty - that made Erich an inquisitive nature.

Since childhood, Remarque read absolutely everything that came into his hands. Not understanding books, he literally devoured the works of both classics and contemporaries. A passionate love of reading awakened in him the desire to become a writer - but neither his relatives, nor teachers, nor peers accepted his dream. No one became Remarque’s mentor, no one suggested which books to give preference to, whose works were worth reading and whose to throw away.

In November 1917, Remarque went to fight. When he returned, he seemed not at all shocked by the events at the front. Rather, on the contrary: it was at this time that the writer’s eloquence awakens in him, Remarque begins to tell incredible stories about the war, “confirming” their valor with other people’s orders.

The pseudonym "Maria" first appears in 1921. Remarque thus emphasizes the significance of the loss of a mother. At this time, he conquers Berlin at night: he is often seen in brothels, and Erich himself becomes a friend of many priestesses of love.

His book became literally the most famous at the time. She brought him true fame: now Remarque is the most famous German writer. However, political events during this period are so unfavorable that Erich leaves his homeland... for as long as 20 years.

As for the romance between Remarque and Marlene Dietrich, it was more of a test than a gift of fate. Marlene was charming, but fickle. It was this fact that hurt Erich most of all. In Paris, where the couple often met, there were always people who wanted to gawk at the lovers and gossip.

In 1951, Remarque meets Paulette - his last and true love. Seven years later, the couple celebrated their wedding – this time in the USA. Since then, Remarque has become truly happy, because he found the one he had been looking for all his life. Now Erich no longer communicates with the diary, because he has interesting conversationalist. Luck also smiles on him in his creative work: critics highly appreciated his novels. At the peak of happiness, Remarque's illness makes itself felt again. The last novel“The Promised Land” remained unfinished... On September 25, 1970, in the Swiss city of Locarno, the writer died, leaving his beloved Paulette alone.

German Erich Maria Remarque, born Erich Paul Remarque, Erich Paul Remark

German writer of the 20th century, representative of the “lost generation”

Brief biography

(received the name at birth Erich Paul Remarque) - German writer, one of the most famous and popular national writers of the twentieth century. Born in Saxony, in Osnabrück, June 22, 1898; his father was a bookbinder, and in total there were 5 children in their family. Since 1904, Remarque has been a student at a church school, and since 1915 at a Catholic teachers' seminary. In his young years, Remarque was especially interested in the work of such writers as F. Dostoevsky, Goethe, M. Proust, T. Mann.

In 1916, after graduating from high school, he went to the front as a conscript in the active army, where he spent two years. In June 1817, Remarque found himself on the Western Front, in July he was wounded, and for the rest of the war he was treated in a German military hospital. After his mother died in 1918, he changed his middle name in memory of her.

In the years after the war, Erich Maria Remarque tried the most different types Activities: was a teacher, sold tombstones, worked as an organist in a chapel on weekends, an accountant, a librarian, a reporter. In 1921, he became editor of the Echo Continental magazine. One of his letters indicates that at this time he was taken literary pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque with a slightly different spelling of the surname from the original.

From the end of autumn 1927 to the end of winter 1928, the novel “Station on the Horizon” was published in parts in the magazine Sport im Bild, where he was an editorial staff member at that time. However, real fame, and immediately on a global level, came to the writer after the publication in 1929 of the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” in which the events of wartime, its cruelty, and unpleasant aspects are described through the eyes of a young soldier. In 1930, a film was made based on this novel, which allowed Remarque, along with the income from the book, to become a fairly wealthy man. It is known that he spent quite a lot of money on purchasing paintings. famous painters. In 1931, with his novel, Remarque was nominated for the Nobel Prize, but the committee did not accept his candidacy.

In 1932, the writer moved to France, and later to the USA. The Nazis who came to power imposed a ban on Remarque’s works and pointedly set them on fire. After this, living in Germany became impossible for Erich Maria. The older sister who remained in her homeland was arrested and executed for anti-fascist statements; There is evidence that at the trial, regret was expressed about the impossibility of subjecting her brother to the same punishment. The writer dedicated the novel “Spark of Life,” written in 1952, to his deceased sister.

Since 1939, Remarque lived in America, and since 1947 he had the status of a US citizen. During this period of creative activity, the famous novels “Three Comrades” (1938) and “Arc de Triomphe” (1946) were written. For some time, Remarque was depressed; he had a period of creative downtime associated with a dramatic novel, which appeared in his life after meeting Marlene Dietrich. A meeting in 1951 with actress Paulette Godard breathed new strength into Remarque and allowed him to return to literary activity, which never stopped until the end of his life. So, in 1956, he wrote the novels “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” and “Black Obelisk,” which in one way or another touch on the theme of World War II. In 1958, Remarque married Godard, who remained his companion until her death. From that same year, his biography was connected with Switzerland, where he found his final refuge.

The famous countryman was not forgotten in his homeland. In 1964, he received a medal of honor from a delegation from his hometown. In 1967, the German ambassador to Switzerland awarded him the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, although Remarque remained without German citizenship. Remarque remained faithful to the principles of truthful reporting of events and humanity in his latest works: these were the novels “Life on Borrow” (1959) and “Night in Lisbon” (1963). 72-year-old Erich Maria Remarque died in Locarno, Switzerland in September 1970; He was buried in the canton of Ticino, in the Ronco cemetery.

Biography from Wikipedia

Erich Maria Remarque(German: Erich Maria Remarque, born Erich Paul Remarque, Erich Paul Remark; June 22, 1898, Osnabrück - September 25, 1970, Locarno) - German writer of the 20th century, representative of the “lost generation”. His novel All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the big three novels of the Lost Generation published in 1929, along with A Farewell to Arms! Ernest Hemingway and "Death of a Hero" by Richard Aldington.

Erich Paul Remarque was the second of five children of the bookbinder Peter Franz Remarque (1867-1954) and Anna Maria Remarque, née Stahlknecht (1871-1917). In his youth, Remarque was interested in the works of Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust and Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In 1904 he entered a church school, and in 1915 he entered a Catholic teachers' seminary.

On November 21, 1916, Remarque was drafted into the army, and on June 17, 1917, he was sent to the Western Front. On July 31, 1917, he was wounded in the left leg. right hand, neck. He spent the rest of the war in a military hospital in Germany.

After the death of his mother, in her honor, Remarque changed his middle name to Maria. Since 1919, he first worked as a teacher. At the end of 1920, he changed many professions, including working as a salesman. tombstones and Sunday organist in the chapel of the mental hospital. The impressions of this period of life subsequently formed the basis of the writer’s novel “The Black Obelisk.”

In 1921 he began working as an editor in a magazine. Echo Continental. At the same time, as evidenced by one of his letters, he took a pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque, written according to the rules of French spelling - which is a hint at the Huguenot origins of the family.

In October 1925, Remarque married Ilse Jutta Zambona, a former dancer. Jutta suffered from consumption for many years. She became the prototype for several heroines of the writer’s works, including Pat from the novel "Three Comrades". The marriage lasted just over four years, after which the couple divorced. In 1938, Remarque married Jutta again - to help her get out of Germany and get the opportunity to live in Switzerland, where he himself lived at that time. Later they left for the USA together. The divorce was officially finalized only in 1957. Remarque paid Yutta a monetary allowance until the end of his life, and also bequeathed 50 thousand dollars to her.

From November 1927 to February 1928, his novel Station on the horizon» published in the magazine Sport im Bild, where the writer worked at that time.

In 1929, the novel All Quiet on the Western Front was published, describing the brutality of the war from the point of view of a 20-year-old soldier. This was followed by several more anti-war works: in simple and emotional language they realistically described the war and the post-war period.

Based on the novel " No change on the Western Front"A film of the same name was made and released in 1930. The profits from the film and book allowed Remarque to earn a decent fortune, a significant part of which he spent on buying paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Renoir. For this novel he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1931, but when considering the application Nobel Committee rejected this offer. The German Officers' Union protested the nomination, arguing that the novel was an insult to the German army.

In 1932, Remarque left Germany and settled in Switzerland. In 1933, the Nazis banned, and students burned his works, chanting the chant “No - to the scribblers who betray the heroes of the World War. Long live the education of youth in the spirit of true historicism! I commit to the fire the works of Erich Maria Remarque.".

There is a legend that the Nazis declared: Remarque is a descendant of French Jews and his real name is Kramer(the word “Remarque” is backwards). This “fact” is still cited in some biographies, despite the complete lack of any evidence to support it. According to data obtained from the Writer's Museum in Osnabrück, German origin and Remarque's Catholic religion was never in doubt. The propaganda campaign against Remarque was based on his changing the spelling of his last name from Remark on Remarque. This fact was used to make statements: a person who changes German spelling to French cannot be a real German.

In 1937, Remarque met the famous actress Marlene Dietrich, with whom he began a stormy and painful affair. Many consider Dietrich to be the prototype Joan Madu- the heroine of the writer’s novel “Arc de Triomphe”.

In 1939, Remarque went to the United States, where in 1947 he received American citizenship.

His little sister Elfriede Scholz, who remained in Germany, was arrested in 1943 for anti-war and anti-Hitler statements. At the trial she was found guilty and on December 30, 1943 she was guillotined. Big sister Erne Remarque an invoice was sent to pay for Elfrida's maintenance in prison, the trial and the execution itself, in the amount of 495 marks and 80 pfennigs, which was required to be transferred to the appropriate account within a week. There is evidence that the judge told her: “ Your brother, unfortunately, escaped from us, but you cannot escape" Remarque learned about the death of his sister only after the war and dedicated his novel “Spark of Life,” published in 1952, to her. 25 years later, a street in her hometown of Osnabrück was named after Remarque’s sister.

In 1951, Remarque met Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard (1910-1990), ex-wife Charlie Chaplin, who helped him recover after his breakup with Dietrich, cured him of depression and, as Remarque himself said, “ had a positive effect on him" Thanks to improved mental health, the writer was able to finish the novel “ Spark of life"and continue his creative activity until the end of his days. The novel "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" is dedicated to Paulette. She made him happy, but he still could not completely free himself from his previous complexes. Remarque tried to suppress his feelings and continued to drink. He wrote in his diary that, being sober, he could not communicate with people and even with himself.

In 1957, Remarque finally divorced Jutta, and in 1958 he married Paulette. That same year, Remarque returned to Switzerland, where he lived the rest of his life. He remained with Paulette until his death.

In 1958, Remarque played the cameo role of Professor Pohlman in the American film “A Time to Love and a Time to Die” by own novel"A time to live and a time to die."

In 1963, Remarque had a stroke. Paulette was in Rome at that time: she was filming a film based on the book “Indifferent” by Alberto Moravia. Remarque managed to overcome the disease. In 1964, a delegation from the writer’s hometown presented him with an honorary medal. Three years later, in 1967, the German ambassador to Switzerland presented him with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany (but, despite these awards, the writer was never returned to German citizenship).

Remarque's health was deteriorating, and in 1967, at the ceremony of awarding the German Order, he had another heart attack.

In 1968, on the occasion of the writer’s 70th birthday, the Swiss city of Ascona, where he lived, made him its honorary citizen.

He and Paulette spent the last two winters of Remarque’s life in Rome. After another cardiac arrest, in the summer of 1970, Remarque was admitted to a hospital in Locarno.

Erich Maria Remarque died on September 25, 1970, at the age of 73. The writer is buried in the Swiss cemetery "Ronco" in the canton of Ticino. Paulette Goddard, who died twenty years later, on April 23, 1990, is buried next to him.

Remarque bequeathed $50 thousand each to Ilsa Jutta, his sister, as well as the housekeeper who took care of him for many years in Ascona.

Remarque belongs to the writers of the “lost generation”. This is a group of “angry young men” who went through the horrors of the First World War (and saw the post-war world not at all as it was seen from the trenches) and wrote their first books that shocked the Western public. Such writers, along with Remarque, included Richard Aldington, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

Selected bibliography

Novels

• The Shelter of Dreams (translated as “The Attic of Dreams”) (German: Die Traumbude) (1920)
• Gam (German: Gam) (1924) (published posthumously in 1998)
• Station on the Horizon (German: Station am Horizont) (1927)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues) (1929)
• Return (German: Der Weg zurück) (1931)
• Three Comrades (German: Drei Kameraden) (1936)
• Love Thy Neighbor (German: Liebe Deinen Nächsten) (1941)
• Arc de Triomphe (German: Arc de Triomphe) (1945)
• The Spark of Life (German: Der Funke Leben) (1952)
• A Time to Live and a Time to Die (German: Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben) (1954)
• The Black Obelisk (German: Der schwarze Obelisk) (1956)
• Life on Borrow (1959):
  • German Geborgtes leben - magazine version;
  • German Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge ("There are no chosen ones for heaven") - full version
• Night in Lisbon (German: Die Nacht von Lisbon) (1962)
• Shadows in Paradise (German: Schatten im Paradies) (published posthumously in 1971. This is an abridged and revised version of the novel "The Promised Land" by Droemer Knaur.)
• The Promised Land (German: Das gelobte Land) (published posthumously in 1998. The novel remained unfinished.)