Erich Maria Remarque

Remarque married actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in 1925. They both were unfaithful to each other, and the marriage ended in divorce five years later. However, they fled together to his home in Switzerland when the Nazis took over Germany.

His love affair with Marlene Dietrich began in 1937 when they met in Venice for the film festival. It continued via letters, cables and telephone calls.

In 1938, Remarque and his ex-wife Ilse Jutta Zambona remarried in Switzerland as a protective measure to prevent her from being forced to return to Germany. They migrated to the US two years later.

Erich Maria Remarque was born Erich Paul Remark on 22 June 1898, to Peter Franz Remark and Anna Maria Stallknecht belonging to a lower class family. His father was a licensed bookbinder and pressman.

He tried writing for the first time at the age of 16. His writings included essays, poems, and a novel, “The Dream Room” (“Die Traumbude”), that he finished writing and published in 1920.

During World War I, Remarque was drafted into the army at the age of 18. On 12 June 1917, he was transferred to the Western Front, at Hem-Lenglet, and then was stationed between Torhout and Houthulst.

On 31 July 1917, he was wounded by shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck, and was sent to an army hospital in Germany where he spent the rest of the war.

He trained to become a teacher, and worked as a primary school teacher from August 1919. He ended his teaching stint, and tried different jobs including as a technical writer for Continental Rubber Company.

He changed his middle name from “Paul” to “Maria” in memory of his mother, and reverted to the family’s earlier spelling of “Remarque”. The Germans claimed that his real surname was Kramer - “Remark” spelled backwards.

Remarque wrote the 1927 “Station at the Horizon” (“Station am Horizont”), serialised in the sports journal “Sport im Bild” for which he was working. It was published in book form only after his death.

His novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Im Westen nichts Neues), was written in 1927, and published two years later. It describes the experiences of German soldiers during World War I.

His 1945 novel, “Arch of Triumph” was first published in English. The next year it was published in German as “Arc de Triomphe”. It was a best-seller, reaching worldwide sales of nearly five million.

“The Night in Lisbon” or “Die Nacht von Lissabon” was published in 1962. It was the last of his works. It sold some 900,000 copies in Germany, and was a modest best-seller abroad as well.