Erich Maria Remarque

@Novelists, Family and Personal Life

Erich Maria Remarque was a German writer best known for his novel 'All Quiet on the Western Front.' This biography profiles his childhood, life, works, career and timeline.

Jun 22, 1898

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: June 22, 1898
  • Died on: September 25, 1970
  • Nationality: German
  • Famous: Writers, Novelists
  • Spouses: Paulette Goddard
  • Siblings: Elfriede Scholz, Erna
  • Known as: Erich Paul Remark

Erich Maria Remarque born at

Osnabrück, Saxony, Germany

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Birth Place

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.

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Personal Life

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.

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Personal Life

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.

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Personal Life

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.

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Childhood & Early Life

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.

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Childhood & Early Life

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.

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Career and Later Life

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.

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Career and Later Life

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.

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Career and Later Life

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.

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Career and Later Life

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.

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Career and Later Life

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.

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Major Works

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.

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Major Works

“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.

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Major Works