The real name of the writer is Erich Paul Remarque.

Erich Remarque was born on June 22, 1898, in the provincial town of Osnabrück (Germany), into a Catholic family. His father, Peter Franz Remarque, worked as a bookbinder. The writer's mother, Anna Maria Remarque, raised children. Erich had two sisters, Erna and Elfrida, and a brother, Theodore, who was destined to live only five years.

From 1904 to 1912, Remarque studied at public schools - Domshule and Johannisshule. Then he receives a three-year preparatory stage for studying at the Catholic Teachers' Seminary, which trains teachers of public schools. From 1915, before being drafted into the army, Remarque studied at the teacher's seminary in Osnabrück. An important role in the life of Remarque was played by the artist, poet and philosopher, Fritz Hörstemeyer. In his circle, "Shelter of Dreams", Remarque, together with everyone, discussed, developed artistic and philosophical views on the problems of being. The entire classical and romantic period in German literature was a miracle for the young Remarque. He carried these books with him and constantly reread them.

The first publication of the writer about the joys and worries of youthful life came out when the writer was 18 years old.

In 1916, Remarque was drafted into the army; On June 17 of the same year, he was sent to the Western Front. A year later, he is wounded in the neck and arms, as a result of grenade fragments hit him. One wound turned out to be so serious that for many years it reminded of itself. In the same year, Remarque's mother dies. In 1918, the writer was discharged from the infirmary and transferred to a reserve battalion of an infantry regiment. Remarque continues his studies at the Catholic Teachers' Seminary, is the secretary of the student association. At the age of nineteen, Remarque, now a former soldier, began to think about how to transform the impressions received into a “novel”, turning to his comrades who still remained in the trenches for help. The attempt to create a literary text dragged on for ten years.

After passing the teacher's qualification exam, Remarque works as a teacher in various schools. After the end of the war, Remarque had to master various professions - an accountant, correspondent, employee, journalist. He writes reviews for newspapers, composes short stories and poems for the Schönheit magazine. At this time, his novel "Shelter of Dreams" was published.

In 1921, Remarque wrote a desperate letter to Stefan Zweig asking for an impartial assessment of his literary ambitions and merits. Zweig answered the completely unfamiliar author with understanding and benevolence.

In 1922, Remarque moved to Hanover to take the place (until 1924) of the editor of the Echo Continental magazine. In it, for the first time, he signs the name Erich Maria Remarque - Remark. Throughout the year, the writer has been working on the novel "Gam".

In 1924, Remarque met with Edith Derry, the daughter of Kurt Dery, the founder of the Sport im Bild publication. Subsequently, Edith will contribute to Remarque's move to Berlin. Their marriage did not take place, because. the girl's parents prevented this. Soon Remarque marries the dancer Ilse Yutte (Jeanne) Zambona. Big-eyed, thin Jutta - she suffered from tuberculosis - will become the prototype for several of his literary heroines, including Pat from "Three Comrades".

In 1928, Remarque became the editor-in-chief of the Berlin magazine "Sport im Bild" and the "Journal of High Society". Remarque, together with his predecessor as chief editor, E. Elert, turned the glamorous magazine into the mouthpiece of the leading writers of the Weimar Republic.

From 1916 to 1928, 250 separate publications by Erich Maria Remarque were published.

In 1928, the writer begins work on his main work - All Quiet on the Western Front. The main and best work in Remarque's life was written in four weeks, in the evenings, in his free time from editorial work. Then, for six months, the writer worked on the text. As the writer noted: "The manuscript should lie down."

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque depicted the tragedy of a generation forced to kill their own kind in order to survive. The soldiers who survived the war could not fully live because of the crippled psyche. Remarque wrote: "The shadows of war overtook us even when we were mentally far from it." In his book, Remarque explains the impending danger - the danger of self-destruction. Awareness of this threat is the first step to overcome it. Subsequently, the writer received confirmation of this in numerous responses to the novel.

The Samuel Fischer Verlag publishing house refuses Remarque to publish a book with comments that no one will be interested in reading about the war. Remarque is helped by his friend, Fritz Meyer, who shows the manuscript to a relative of the Ulsteins. So the novel makes its way, and in August 1928, the Ulstein concern accepts the manuscript All Quiet on the Western Front with the condition that if the novel is unsuccessful, then Remarque will work out his initial fee advance in the concern. A trial fragment of the novel is published in the Vossiye Zeitung newspaper, owned by the concern. Almost immediately, Remarque receives a notification that he has been fired from the post of editor-in-chief.

All Quiet on the Western Front was a huge success. The circulation of the book, in Germany alone, amounted to one million two hundred thousand. To the question - what is the actual total circulation of the book - Remarque found it difficult to answer. Since 1929, the novel has been published with a total circulation of approximately 10 to 30 million copies; has been translated into 50 languages. Already in 1929, the novel appears in Russia. Remarque will say about publications in our country later: “In Russia, everything I write is stolen, publishing my books in colossal editions, they don’t pay money.” Russian publishers turned to Remarque only with requests to write introductions to translations of the novel and send photographs.

And Remarque, after his literary triumph, continued to live in a two-room apartment for several more years; the writer only allowed himself to buy a new car.

From an interview with Remarque: “How funny I would look if I considered one single book a sufficient basis for self-delusion. First, I need to soberly assess my own abilities. And for this I need to work, namely, to work, and not to talk and discuss. In various articles about myself, I come across the expression "successful author Remarque." Hateful word! How I would like to be called "writer Remarque." And that's positive." He knew that a high level of skill was expected of him. And as he himself admitted in an interview with Friedrich Luft, "skill is still missing."

In 1930, Hollywood made a film based on the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The film received an Oscar. The director of the film is a 35-year-old native of Ukraine, Lev Milshtein, known in the USA as Lewis Milestone. In December 1930, the German premiere took place and, almost immediately, the film was banned by the censor. Goebbels promises Remarque protection from the Nazi Party in return for the fact that the writer will blame the release of the film on "Jewish firms" - the Ulstein concern and Universal. The writer refuses these intrigues.

Remarque is hinted that he needs to write a second book, although his desire has already matured. Remarque's initial creative path was an attempt to grope for his own style, and now, the groped style is fixed in the writer's work and remains almost unchanged. Remarque is eager to write a second book - "Return". Despite the author's suggestion that the new book would be blown to smithereens, the book received positive reviews. A purely human theme was raised in the novel - eighteen-year-old young people, whose lives should be turned to the future, rush towards death.

In 1931, under pressure from the Nazis, Remarque, realizing a threat to his own life, was forced to leave Germany with his wife and move first to Switzerland, to the city of Tessin, and then to France. Remarque opened the gates of his villa in Porto Ronco to provide shelter for German refugees: having received financial assistance, they continued on their way.

In 1933, both Remarque's books were publicly burned. The pacifism of a truthful, cruel book did not please the German authorities. Hitler, who was already gaining strength, declared the writer a French Jew Kramer (reverse reading of the surname Remarque). The writer was also accused of being an agent of the Entente, and that he had stolen the manuscript from a murdered comrade. Remarque never spoke out with a refutation of any lie. In one letter, he wrote: “My surname is Remarque, her family has been wearing it for several hundred years, this surname was corrected only once: according to the German phonetic tradition, “Remarque” appeared in the form of Remark. I am neither Jewish nor leftist. I am a militant pacifist." And after Hitler officially came to power, the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" was banned as "undermining the national spirit and belittling the heroism of the German soldier."

The new novel "Pat" was completed by the author in 1933; it took another three years for the novel to appear under the new title "Three Comrades". Male friendship and love as a last resort against hostile forces is the tragic concept of the novel.

The main woman in Remarque's life was the famous movie star Marlene Dietrich, whom he met in the south of France. A compatriot of Remarque, she also left Germany, and since 1930 she has been successfully filmed in the USA. Their romance was incredibly painful for the writer, but Remarque was desperately in love.

In 1938, Remarque was officially deprived of citizenship. His ex-wife (divorced 1929), Ilza, was also deprived of citizenship. But he was not threatened with expulsion from Switzerland, which could not be said about his ex-wife, and he remarries her. In 1939, with the help of Dietrich, Remarque received visas to America for himself and Ilse. War in Europe was already on the threshold. In 1941, the writer takes American citizenship, and is already legally residing in the United States. Finally breaking up with Marlene Dietrich, Remarque moved to New York (1942).

In the novels Love thy neighbor (1939-1941) and Arc de Triomphe (1945), Remarque develops the theme of personal revenge. The outcasts of Europe are left with only one choice - "to take their rights into their own hands." In the novel Arc de Triomphe, Remarque gave the main character, named Joan Madou, many of Marlene's features. The novel broke all previous circulation records. Hollywood made a film version of the novel starring Ingrid Bergman.

Remarque turned from a purely German writer into an international writer. Fees flowing to him from all over the world ensured financial independence. In America, the writer supports the victims of National Socialism: he helped the writer, Albert Ehrenstein, until his death.

Only at the beginning of 1946 did Remarque find out that two and a half years ago, on the basis of a denunciation and accusations, the so-called People's Court of Justice sentenced his sister, Elfrida, to death. Judge Roland Freisler said: "Your brother has escaped us, but you will not succeed." Twenty-five years later, a street in her hometown of Osnabrück will be named after Elfriede Scholz.

Remarque started the novel The Spark of Life in 1946; he dedicated it to his executed sister. The novel tells about the crimes of National Socialism on the example of one of the concentration camps. It was the first book about what he himself had not experienced. However, the writer collected such extensive and reliable material, attracted such a number of witnesses that he even had to weed out and limit himself in the selection of information. Every detail of this story is true.

At the peak of the Cold War, the Swiss publisher refused to publish this novel: he was afraid of a boycott of his publishing houses; other publishers pressed for a remake of the novel. But the book was nevertheless printed on the initiative of the publisher Josef Kaspar Witsch (1952). The reaction to the novel was hostile, cautious and reserved. The fact is that Germany wanted to quickly forget the period of time 1933-1945. Forget without repentance...

Since 1948, when Remarque returned to Europe, he spent some time annually in Germany. From the same time, the writer began to collect German textbooks. They are too sparingly about what happened at that time, so the writer writes again and again about old Germany. For thirteen years the writer was prevented from publishing his books in his own country. Remarque had to focus on translations, but not a single translation can match the original in all respects: the rhythm and sound of the native language cannot be translated into a foreign language.

The writer's novels The Spark of Life, A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1954), The Black Obelisk (1956), the play The Last Stop (1956) and the script for the film The Last Act (1955), which depicts Hitler's last days in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery, is the author's effort to educate and re-educate the Germans by purely creative methods. This program continues in the writer's essay "Be vigilant!", "The temptation of the look."

In the 50s, Remarque returned to his original literary delights: “The sky knows no favorites” (Life on loan) (1959-1961), the continuation of the novel “Station on the Horizon” (1927-1928).

Remarque met his future wife, Paulette Godard, in 1951 in New York. Paulette was 40 at the time. Her ex-husbands were the wealthy industrialist Edgar James, the famous Charlie Chaplin and Burges Meredith. Superstar, Clark Gable, offered her a hand and a heart, but Paulette preferred Remarque. The writer believed that this cheerful, clear, spontaneous and uncomplexed woman had character traits that he himself lacked. The writer was happy with her, but wrote in his diary that he suppresses his feelings, forbids himself to feel happiness, as if it were a crime. The novel "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" - a collective image of the "lost generation" of the Second World War" he dedicated to Paulette. A film was made based on the book, in which the writer also took part.

Remarque, against his own will, who became a citizen of the world, lost contact with his homeland for 30 years. And now he himself chose this status: he looked at Germany not only as a German, but also as an American, as a Swiss. He said that the FRG, even 30 years later, had not resolved the issue of the citizenship of emigrants. Remarque considered himself "exiled, deprived of the protection of the law."

The novels "Night in Lisbon" (1961-1962) and "Shadows in Paradise" (1971) Remarque linked with his works about emigration - "Love your neighbor" and "Arc de Triomphe". "Night in Lisbon" was published in Russia on the basis of a publication in the newspaper "Welt am Sontag". Remarque noted that the version that saw the light does not correspond to the author's.

In 1954, Remarque bought a house near Locarno on Lago Maggiore, where he spent the last sixteen years. In the last years of his life, Remarque limited himself to his interviews, where he criticized the practice of rehabilitating Nazi leaders.

The main condition for the existence of self-esteem remained for the writer Remarque the history of his life, closely connected with his undying memories of her.

In 1967, when the German ambassador to Switzerland presented him with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, the writer already had two heart attacks. German citizenship was never returned to Remarque. When the writer turned 70, Ascona made Erich Maria Remarque her honorary citizen. Remarque spent the last two winters of his life with Paulette in Rome. In the summer of 1970, the writer's heart failed again, he was admitted to a hospital in Locarno. There Remarque died on September 25. Erich Maria Remarque was buried in the Swiss cemetery of Ronco, in the canton of Ticino.

A year later, the last novel of the writer, Shadows in Paradise, was published.

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

German writer of the 20th century, representative of the "lost generation"

short biography

(given the name at birth Erich Paul Remarque) is a 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 of a church school, since 1915 - a Catholic teacher's seminary. In his younger 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 as a conscript, he went to the front in the army, where he happened to spend two years. In June 1817, Remarque was on the Western Front, in July he was wounded, and 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 a variety of activities: he was a teacher, he sold tombstones, he worked as an organist in a chapel on weekends, an accountant, a librarian, a reporter. In 1921, he took the chair of the editor of the Echo Continental. One of his letters contains an indication that at that time he took the literary pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque with a slightly different spelling of the surname from the original.

From the end of the autumn of 1927 to the end of the winter of 1928, the novel "Station on the Horizon" was published in parts in the magazine Sport im Bild, of which he was at that time an editorial staff member. However, real fame, and immediately world-class, came to the writer after the publication in 1929 of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, in which wartime events, its cruelty, and unpleasant sides 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 person. It is known that he spent quite a lot of money on the acquisition of paintings by 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 writings and defiantly set them on fire. After that, living in Germany for Erich Maria became impossible. The elder sister who remained at home was arrested and executed for anti-fascist statements; there is evidence that at the trial regret was expressed at the impossibility of subjecting her brother to the same punishment. The novel "Spark of Life", written in 1952, the writer dedicated to his dead sister.

Since 1939, Remarque lived in America, since 1947 he had the status of a US citizen. During this period of creative activity, the famous novels "Three Comrades" (1938), "Arc de Triomphe" (1946) were written. For some time, Remarque was depressed, he had a period of creative downtime associated with a dramatic novel that appeared in his life after meeting Marlene Dietrich. The meeting in 1951 with the actress Paulette Godard breathed new strength into Remarque and allowed him to return to literary activity, which did not stop until the end of his life. So, in 1956, he wrote the novels "A Time to Live and a Time to Die", "The Black Obelisk", one way or another touching on the theme of the Second World War. In 1958, Remarque married Godard, who remained his companion until his death. From the same year, his biography was associated with Switzerland, where he found his last refuge.

The famous countryman was not forgotten at home. In 1964, he received a medal of honor from a delegation from his home town. In 1967, the German ambassador to Switzerland presented him with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, although Remarque remained without German citizenship. Remarque remained true to the principles of truthful coverage of events and humanity in his latest works: they were the novels Life on Loan (1959) and Night in Lisbon (1963). 72-year-old Erich Maria Remarque died in Locarno, Switzerland in September 1970; they buried him in the canton of Ticino, in the cemetery of Ronco.

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 XX century, representative of the "lost generation". His novel All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the big three Lost Generation novels published in 1929, along with A Farewell to Arms! Ernest Hemingway and Richard Aldington's Death of a Hero.

Erich Paul Remarque was the second of five children of bookbinder Peter Franz Remarque (1867-1954) and Anna Maria Remarque, nee Stalknecht (1871-1917). In his youth, Remarque was fond of the work of Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Marcel Proust and Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In 1904 he entered a church school, and in 1915 - in a Catholic teacher's seminary.

On November 21, 1916, Remarque was drafted into the army, and on June 17, 1917 he was sent to the Western Front. July 31, 1917 was wounded in the left leg, right arm, 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 seller of tombstones and a Sunday organist in a chapel at a hospital for the mentally ill. 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 the magazine Echo Continental. At the same time, as one of his letters testifies, he takes a pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque, written according to the rules of French orthography - which is an allusion to the Huguenot origin of the family.

In October 1925, Remarque married Ilsa 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 a little 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. They later moved to the US together. Officially, the divorce was issued only in 1957. Remarque paid Jutta a cash allowance until the end of his life, and also bequeathed to her 50 thousand dollars.

From November 1927 to February 1928 his novel station on the horizon» is published in the journal Sport im Bild where the writer worked at the time.

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

Based on the novel All Quiet on the Western Front The film of the same name was released in 1930. The profit 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, the Nobel Committee rejected this proposal. The Union of German Officers protested against the nomination, arguing that the novel offended the German army.

In 1932, Remarque left Germany and settled in Switzerland. In 1933, the Nazis banned, and students burned his works, chanting “No - to the hacks who betray the heroes of the World War. Long live the education of the youth in the spirit of genuine historicism! I set fire to 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 reversed). This "fact" is still given in some biographies, despite the complete absence of any evidence to support it. According to data obtained from the Writer's Museum in Osnabrück, Remarque's German origin and Catholic religion have never been in doubt. The propaganda campaign against Remarque was based on changing the spelling of his last name from Remark on the Remarque. This fact was used to make claims: a person who changes the spelling of German to French cannot be a real German.

In 1937, Remarque met the famous actress Marlene Dietrich, with whom he began a stormy and painful romance. Many consider Dietrich a 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 younger sister Elfrida Scholz, who remained in Germany, was arrested in 1943 for anti-war and anti-Hitler statements. At the trial, she was found guilty and guillotined on December 30, 1943. big sister Erne Remarque an invoice was sent to pay for the maintenance of Elfrida in prison, legal proceedings and the execution itself, in the amount of 495 marks and 80 pfennigs, which needed to be transferred to the appropriate account within a week. There is evidence that the judge told her: Your brother unfortunately hid from us, but you can't get away.". Remarque found out about the death of his sister only after the war and dedicated his novel The 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 the Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard (1910-1990), Charlie Chaplin's ex-wife, who helped him recover from his break 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 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 former complexes. Remarque tried to suppress his feelings and continued to drink. In his diary, he wrote 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. In the 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 Polman in the American film A Time to Love and a Time to Die based on his 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 starred in a film based on Alberto Moravia's book The Indifferent. Remarque managed to defeat 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 the assignment of these awards, German citizenship was never returned to the writer).

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

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

The last two winters of Remarque's life he and Paulette spent 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 to Ilse Jutta, his sister, as well as the housekeeper, who took care of him for many years in Ascona.

Remarque refers to the writers of the "lost generation". This is a group of "angry young people" who went through the horrors of the First World War (and saw the post-war world at all as it was seen from the trenches) and wrote their first books that shocked the Western public. These writers, along with Remarque, included Richard Aldington, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

Selected bibliography

Novels

• Shelter of Dreams (translation option - “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)
• 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)
• Black obelisk (German: Der schwarze Obelisk) (1956)
• Borrowed Life (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 Lissabon) (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.)

22 June 1898 Osnabrück - 25 September 1970 Locarno
German writer, real name Erich Paul Remarque.

Friends called him Bonnie, the Nazis Kramer, and Marlene Dietrich - Ravik.

From birth, fate offered Remarque to become a writer. He was born in the family of bookbinder Peter Franz Remarque. In the future, Erich's best friend, Fritz Hörstemeier, persuaded him to write and agitated to join a literary club. Not immediately, but gradually, this led Erich Remarque to a literary triumph.

For a deeper study of the biography of Erich Maria Remarque, I advise you to read the book “E. M. Remarque. The secret of success "N. Ya. Nadezhdina

Facts about the writer - Erich Maria Remarque.

• Young Remarque worked as an organist in a hospital for the mentally ill, lived in a gypsy camp and was a seller of tombstones, he will write about this period of his life in the novel The Black Obelisk. During his wanderings, Erich Maria falls in love with the daughter of the editor-in-chief of the prestigious newspaper Sports in Illustrations. He even tries to marry a girl, but her father is against marriage. The marriage did not take place, but the future famous writer received a position in the newspaper.
• The first works "A Woman with Young Eyes" and "Attic of Dreams" were not noticed by the public. Remarque was shy about them and personally bought all the copies.
• “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the third work of Erich Maria Remarque, which is considered the most successful in his career. To print this book, the German writer had to conclude a risky contract with the Fossische Zeitung publishing house. If the book had not been realized, then Remarque would have to work for free for six months for a publishing house.
• But fate was favorable and All Quiet on the Western Front sold a million copies in a year. From that moment on, the writer receives fame and fortune.
• Remarque collected antiques and paintings by the Impressionists (Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas). He took great care of the antiques, and during the transportation he himself took care of their packaging.
• Erich was eccentric. Once he redeemed the title of baron from a distressed aristocrat for only 500 marks. Then he placed a crown on his business cards.
• After the resounding triumph of All Quiet on the Western Front, the author fell into disgrace. The government condemned the anti-war views of the writer. The Nazis inspired the society that the novel was written not by Remarque, but by Kramer (surname, on the contrary, of Jewish origin). And even the fact that he stole the manuscript from one of his military comrades.
• All these circumstances forced Erich Maria to leave Germany in 1931. He moved to Switzerland in Porto Rocco, where he bought a house, which he called "Remarque's Palace".
  Villa in Switzerland
• In 1939, it was not safe for the “literary traitor” to live in Europe, and Remarque moved to the USA with Marlene Dietrich. In America, he learns that his books are set on fire in his homeland. Heinrich Heine in the 19th century foresaw the consequences: “It was only a prelude. Where books are burned, people are also burned.
• The writer was able to save his first wife Yuta from the hands of the Nazis. Erich entered into a second, but already fictitious marriage with her and moved her from Germany. Sister Elfrida could not be saved. She was executed on a false denunciation, and the bill for the costs of the execution was sent to Remarque himself. Erich will write a book about his sister, The Spark of Life.
• The life of emigrants in America is described in the novel Shadows in Paradise. Like all the writer's books, the novel is partly biographical. Life in exile of the lost generation was like the existence of shadows, and he was part of them.
• The writer felt the strongest feelings for Marlene Dietrich, he repeatedly made marriage proposals to her, but she refused him. It took a lot of mental strength from Erich to survive the countless intrigues of "Puma" (the affectionate nickname of Marlene).
• Relationship with Pollet Godard, the ex-wife of Charlie Chaplin, became saving for him. She courted Remarque, and he himself admitted that without her he would have died of despair.
  
• Erich Maria Remarque loved to read Dostoevsky, Proust, Goethe, Zweig.
• He always carried several notebooks and sharpened pencils with him.
• He preferred Panama hats and dressed stylishly.
• Abuse alcohol. From drinks preferred Calvados.
• Favorite strong word "ass".
• Remarque was characterized by some sentimentality, both in books and in life. He collected figurines of angels and believed that this would keep him out of trouble.
• He was said to be funny. When his father died, he told the press: "What could be better than dying while waiting for cognac."

Erich Maria Remarque suffered from frequent heart attacks at the end of his life, but did not stop creating. He took the audience with sincerity and non-fictional stories, but slightly embellished. Remarque sincerely believed that "War spares only those who are truly guilty of it" and this thought runs through all his work.

Remarque Erich Maria (06/22/1898 - 09/25/1970) - German writer. His novels and Remarque himself are referred to as the "lost generation". Author of popular works "Three Comrades", "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Black Obelisk", etc.

Youth

Erich Paul Remarque (real name) was born in the German city of Osnabrück in a modest family of book binders. He had French roots. He was the second oldest of five children. He studied at a church school, in 1915 he was educated at a Catholic seminary. From childhood he loved to read, among the authors he preferred S. Zweig, F. Dostoevsky, J. Goethe. The young man studied diligently, showed musical abilities.

In 1916 he went to the army, six months later he got to the Western Front. After staying there for a month, he was wounded in the arm, leg and neck. He was hospitalized until the end of the war. After the war, he took up employment. He changed several professions: he was a teacher, a seller of tombstones, a church musician.

Literary activity

In search of a vocation, Remarque managed to work as a journalist. This profession was the impetus for his work. Remarque's first stories did not resonate with readers. Since 1921, he became the editor of the Echo Continental. At the same time, Paul changed his middle name to Maria in honor of his mother.

In the 1929 novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the writer reflected his own military experience. The work became a world-class literary asset, the author was nominated for the Nobel Prize. The novel was immediately filmed. The book and the film brought Remarque a good income, but were negatively received by representatives of the German army, who believe that they were insulted. The rest of the citizens could not remain indifferent to such an accurate reflection of the terrible military reality, expressed in the simplest style.

Young Remarque

In the next work "Return" in 1931, the author refers to the post-war period. He again conveys experienced uncertainty and despair. But his work is not understood by the government. In 1932, he was forced to move to Switzerland, the military burned his books, deprived of citizenship. Five years later, the writer moves to America. After eight years in the United States, in 1947 the writer became an American citizen.

The novel "Three Comrades" is the most sentimental of all works. The story of defenseless love in a world full of cruelty also did not leave the reader indifferent. The script for the film adaptation was written by F. Fitzgerald, who was so carried away by his work that he forgot about his addiction to alcohol. In a film based on his own work, Remarque even had a chance to play a role in 1958 (“A Time to Love and a Time to Die”).

Remarque is one of the outstanding writers in the world, the author of 15 novels, has a collection of short stories. His bibliography contains several essays, a play, a script. Along with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Aldington, he is referred to as the "lost generation" - people who at a young age had to comprehend all the horrors of war, and then seek shelter with a wounded soul.

Personal life

In 1925 he married I. Zambona, the prototype of a wife can be found in several works by Remarque, including Three Comrades. The young lived together for four years, Ilse suffered from tuberculosis. When the ex-wife of the writer needed to move to Switzerland, they again entered into a marriage, which was dissolved only in 1957. Remarque supported Ilsa all his life and left her a good inheritance.

Since 1937, he had a long romantic relationship with the famous actress Marlene Dietrich, who may have become the prototype of the heroine of the Arc de Triomphe. In 1943, his sister Elfrida was executed in Germany for anti-Hitler propaganda. The writer dedicated the work "The Spark of Life" to her. Later, one of the streets in her hometown was named after her.

Remarque with his wife Paulette, 1958

In 1951, Remarque met the Hollywood star Paulette Goddard, who was previously married to C. Chaplin. The woman helped him survive the breakup with Dietrich and saved him from a depressive state, after which the writer again had the strength to create. After filing a divorce from Remarque's first wife, they were able to get married. Together they went to Switzerland, where they bought a house and lived the rest of their lives. The writer died in Locarno, Switzerland from an aneurysm at the age of 72.

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, portrayed 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 the same reader's interest in the 21st.

Over the course of a long creative career, Remarque wrote 14 novels, he was in demand, famous, rich, successful with women, moreover, with chic women. The writer died at the age of 72, retaining the ability to write until his last days. 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 youth

On June 22, 1898, in the German city of Osnabrück (province of Hannover), the second son Erich Paul was born to the Remarques. Much later, in memory of his beloved mother, a nineteen-year-old boy would change his middle name. He will become Erich Maria Remarque and will glorify this name throughout the world.

But so far, the heights of the literary Olympus are still very far away. Young Erich Paul grows up like all ordinary children: he collects butterflies, stamps, stones, passionately loves his mother and suffers bitterly because of her lack of attention (Maria Remarque is forced to devote a lot of time to her painful 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 Remarque house, and therefore children have free access to samples of ancient, classical and modern literature. Young Erich early shows creative inclinations - he is fond of painting, music, reading and writing. For his addiction to the latter in elementary school, Remarque is called a "dirty man", because he always writes something and is smeared with ink.

As a future specialty, Remarque chooses a career as a teacher. He receives professional skills in the Catholic, and then in the royal teacher's seminaries. In the seminary years, Erich acquires like-minded friends. With them, he talks for a long time in the "Attic of Dreams" on Liebechstrasse and visits the "Circle of Dreams" for novice writers.

With the outbreak of World War I, Remarque went to the front. Based on the experience gleaned from historical and artistic works, the consciousness of the young man painted the war in a heroic areola. Three years of service (1917-1919) revealed to Erich the true face of the war. And it turned out to be ugly. The young Remarque faced a soldier's life, full of hardships and injustice, lost his comrades and himself was on the verge of death. Since then, Remarque has become a staunch 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 criticized him sharply. Remarque left his homeland, but not his 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 the parent becomes Erich Maria. Two years later, he finally breaks with the army and moves into the spacious house of his father, who by this time already manages to remarry. Here Erich Maria creates the first novel "Attic of Dreams". The creative debut was only 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 remnants of the circulation.

Remarque decides to postpone 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 a hospital chapel, and even sells tombstones. Finally, the future writer finds himself in a journalistic environment and, after long ordeals, finds his calling. Now it's decided - he will write!

In 1927, the novel Station on the Horizon was published on the pages of Sport im Bild, and two years later, in 1929, the novel All Quiet on the Western Front was published. The anti-war work, based on the real experience of Remarque as a soldier, was a resounding success and brought fame, money and a firm place in world literature to its author. One and a half million copies were sold in a year. And already in 1930, the American film studio Universal Pictures released the film of the same name, which was directed by Lewis Milestone. The film won two Oscars for Best Picture 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 - the auditorium was bombarded with stinking bombs and mice. Three years later, Remarque was subjected to severe persecution. His books were publicly burned, and there was no question of publishing new works of the writer.

The author of “All Quiet on the Western Front” was included in 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 could not finally adapt to civilian life. A similar bitter experience was poured into the pages of their works by John Dos Passos, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Aldington, Ernest Hemingway and others.

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 United States, where eight years later he received American citizenship. Erich Maria Remarque published continuously, was a very wealthy person, paid great attention to clothing, and therefore was 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, Paul Cezanne. Remarque's life has always been in sight. Celebrities surrounded him: Ruth Albu, Paulette Goddard, Greta Garbo ... and what is the long-term romance with Marlene Dietrich and the collection of letters addressed to her!

Remarque spends the last decade of 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 sunset years. Despite the heart problems that tormented Remarque, he is in his eighties and is in his right 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.

For many years of creative career, Erich Maria Remarque turned to various literary genres. He wrote essays, journalistic notes, screenplays, 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 reprinted to this day.

The debut novel "Attic of Dreams", aka "Shelter of Dreams", was published in 1920. The work plunges the reader into the environment of artists - composers, artists and their beautiful muses. In thematic and stylistic terms, the novel clearly stands out from other works of the writer. There is still no recognizable Remarque pessimism, midnight restaurants, his famous Calvados, drinking and non-drunk heroes. The author himself was later embarrassed by the 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 death of the writer in 1998.

In 1928, the prose writer outlines the paths for further creativity and writes the novel Station on the Horizon. Its main characters are young racing drivers - representatives of the so-called "lost generation". They went through the woes of the First World War and are now trying to make up for the lack of adrenaline on the freeway.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, published in 1929, made Remarque a name. The story is told from the perspective of an ordinary soldier Paul Bäumer. He is only 19 years old, he, along with his classmates, was called to the front. Bäumer ingenuously describes the war without embellishment, in all its ugly ugliness, such 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, Remarque's most widely read novel, Three Comrades, was published in Denmark. The theme of tragic love is organically intertwined with the theme of the “lost generation”. The prototype of the main character Pat Holman was the first wife of the writer Jutta Zambona, who, like Patricia, suffered from tuberculosis.

Five years later, in 1941, the book “Love thy neighbor” was published as a separate edition. The novel is devoted to the problems of emigration, the persecution of Jews, as well as the problem of survival in "peaceful" time after a great war.

1945 and another masterpiece - the novel "Arc de Triomphe". In 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 was Marlene Dietrich, with whom Remarque connected a long and rather painful romance. The choice of the name of the central character is not accidental - Marlene, jokingly, called Remarque Ravik.

Bitterly experiencing the death of his sister Elfrida, who was hanged by the Nazis for being related to the disgraced writer, Remarque dedicates the novel to her. A work called "The Spark of Life" was published in 1952. The place for the development of the plot becomes a German concentration camp. The protagonist, 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 military theme in the cult novel A Time to Live and a Time to Die, and later returned to developing the themes of post-war survival and sad love on the ruins of the former world in Black Obelisk (1956) and Borrowed Life (1959) .

Night in Lisbon (1962) was the last novel published during the writer's lifetime. He talks about lovers who are fleeing Nazi persecution. On the way the refugees meet a stranger who agrees to help them only if they listen to the story of his life.

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 turned out to be outcasts in Germany after the war, and who seek refuge in foreign lands, enduring persecution and shame.

The novel "Shadows in Paradise" (working title - "Promised Land") was published in 1971. He talks about immigrants from different parts of war-torn Europe. All of them come to the land of dreams - distant brilliant America. But for many of them, the earthly paradise was not as rosy as it seemed.