Erich Maria Remarque nationality. Erich Maria Remarque: biography, interesting facts. Stories by Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque is one of the most famous German writers. Mostly he wrote novels of the war and post-war years. In total, he wrote 15 novels, two of them were published posthumously. Quotes by Erich Remarque are widely known and attract with their accuracy and simplicity.

After reading the biography of Erich Maria Remarque, you will be able to form your own opinion about the life and work of this wonderful author.

Childhood and early years

The future writer was born on June 22, 1898 in the city of Osnabrück (Germany). Erich's father worked as a bookbinder. Of course, thanks to this, there were always enough books in their house, and young Erich became interested in literature from early childhood.

Already as a child, Erich enthusiastically read books by Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoevsky (read the biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky). It is these authors who in the future will play a vital role in the biography of Erich Maria Remarque. When Erich was 6 years old, he went to school. Already at such a young age at school he received the nickname “dirty”, as he loved to write a lot. After completing his studies there, he entered the Catholic Teachers' Seminary. There he spent three years (1912-1915), and then entered the royal seminary. It was there that he first met the poet and philosopher Fritz Hörstemeier. Erich Remarque became a member of Fritz's community, which was called the “Shelter of Dreams”. There he debated, discussed artistic views, difficulties arising in society and in life in general. It was Fritz Hörstemeier who inspired Remarque to seriously think about making literature the main calling in his life.

Years of the First World War

Military service is also of great importance in the biography of Erich Maria Remarque. At the age of 22 he was called up to serve in the army. Almost immediately he was sent to the Western Front, but a year later he was seriously wounded. He spent the rest of the war years treated in a military hospital. Having not yet completed his treatment, he was assigned to work in the office. That same year, Remarque experienced a great loss. His mother (Anna-Marie Remarque), with whom he had a very good, warm relationship, died of cancer. This was the reason that he changed his middle name to Maria. The next year again dealt a strong blow to Remarque. His best friend and mentor of sorts, Fritz Hörstermeier, died.

After Remarque recovered from a wound received in 1917, he was assigned to an infantry regiment, where a few weeks later he was awarded the Cross 1st degree. In 1919, Remarque unexpectedly refused the award due to him and resigned from the army.

The three years (1916-1919) that Remarque spent in the army greatly influenced his worldview. Then his point of view on war, friendship, love was really formed. It was this perception that was reflected in his future novels. He wrote a lot about the senselessness of war and the imprint it leaves on people.

Literary activity and personal life

Remarque published his first novel at the age of 22. It was called "Attic of Dreams". Even then, quotes from Erich Remarque were a success. And this book is strikingly different from Remarque’s other works. In it, the young writer describes his idea of ​​love. The book received mostly negative reviews from critics, but in fact it occupied an important place in the biography of Erich Remarque. It is surprising that later Remarque was even ashamed of his first book and tried to buy up all the remnants of its circulation.

At that time, literary activity did not bring income to the writer, and he very often worked somewhere. During this time, he managed to work as a seller of grave monuments, and also played the organ for money in a chapel at a medical institution for the mentally ill. It was these two works that formed the basis of the novel “Black Obelisk”.

Notes and quotes from Erich Remarque began to be published in various magazines, and Remarque even got a job as an editor in one of them. There he first published one of his notes under the pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque, instead of the correct German spelling "Remark". In 1925, Remarque got married. His chosen one was Ilsa Jutta Zambone, who was a dancer. His wife suffered from tuberculosis for many years. It was she who later became the prototype of the heroine Pat from the novel “Three Comrades.” In those years, Remarque tried to hide his low origins. He began to lead a luxurious life - he dined in the most expensive restaurants, attended theatrical performances, bought stylish clothes, communicated with famous racing drivers. In 1926, he even bought himself the title of nobleman. In 1927, his second novel, “Station on the Horizon,” was published, and two years later, a novel was published that gained enormous popularity even then, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Later it became one of the three novels of the “lost generation”. An interesting note is that Remarque partially wrote this novel in the house of a familiar actress, Leni Riefenstahl. Who would have imagined then that just a few years later they would be on opposite sides of the barricades. Remarque will become a banned writer, and his numerous books will be burned in public squares in Germany, and Leni will be a director, zealously glorifying fascism.

They lived together with Jutta for only four years. In 1929, their divorce was announced. But it is worth noting that their relationship did not end there. Jutta runs like a thin thread through Remarque’s entire life. In 1938, to help Jutta leave Nazi Germany, Remarque married her again. This played a big role, and she managed to move to Switzerland. Subsequently, they moved to the USA together again. Surprisingly, only after 19 years they dissolved their fictitious marriage. But even this did not end their relationship. Until the end of his life, Remarque paid her an allowance, and after his death he bequeathed a large sum of money.

A year after the book All Quiet on the Western Front appeared, a film was made based on it. The film was a great success, as was the book. The profit from this helped Remarque accumulate a good fortune. A year later, for writing this novel, he was honored to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Moving to Switzerland and later life

In 1932, when Remarque was working on writing the novel “Three Comrades,” he began to have problems with the authorities. He was forced to move to live in Switzerland. A year later, his books were publicly burned in his homeland. Remarque was accused of being an Entente intelligence officer. There are opinions that Hitler called the writer “the French Jew Kramer” (reverse to the name Remarque). Despite the fact that some claim this as a fact, there is no documentary evidence of it. But the entire German campaign against Remarque was based on the fact that Remarque changed the spelling of his last name from Remark to Remarque. The Germans argued that a person who changed the spelling of his surname to the French style could not be a real Aryan.

In 1936, Remarque finished writing the novel “Three Comrades,” which lasted four whole years. The novel describes the life of three young friends after returning from the front. Despite the death that permeates them, the novel describes the lust for life and what the main characters are willing to do for the sake of true friendship. The very next year, a film was made based on the book. A short review of "Three Comrades"

All of his work bears the trace of the tragic events of the writer’s life - first of all, participation in the First World War.

Remarque and war

The normal course of young Erich’s life was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Thanks to the efforts of the media, the public consciousness has formed the idea of ​​the just flared up world massacre as a just campaign against evil.

Remarque was called up to the front in 1916. In 1917, the future writer was seriously injured. He spent the rest of the war in the hospital.

The defeat of Germany and the harsh conditions that followed influenced Remarque's fate. To survive, he tried dozens of different professions. The writer even had to work as a seller of tombstones.

Remarque's first novel was published in 1920. This is just the source from which all subsequent works of Remarque originate. The list of them is very numerous. Erich Maria became known in Germany as a melancholy artist, depicting war in truthful and gloomy colors.

Remarque's first novel

At what point should you start counting Remarque's works? The list opens with a 1920 novel called “The Asylum of Dreams.” Oddly enough, there is not a word about war in this book. But it is filled with allusions from the works of German classics, reflections on the value of love and its true essence.

The background for the development of the plot is the house of a provincial artist, in which young people find shelter. They are naive and pure in their simplicity. The writer talks about his first love experiences, betrayals and quarrels.

Lost work

Due to the failure of his first novel, Remarque never published the book “Gam” written in 1924. In this work, the young author raised gender issues, making a strong-willed woman the main character.

The novel "Gam" is forgotten when Remarque's best works are listed. The list remains without this interesting work, which even today remains relevant and raises controversial issues.

"Station on the Horizon"

Few people, even those who regularly read Remarque’s novels, will add this book to their list of works. “Station on the Horizon” is one of the most “anti-Remarque” works of this

The main character of the novel is a typical representative of the golden youth. Kai is young, handsome and girls like him. He is a typical perekatipol man: the young man is not attached to material conditions, to people, or to things. Deep down, he still dreams of a quiet life, peace of mind. But this desire is suppressed by the daily storm of bright events.

The action of the book revolves around endless car racing against the backdrop of the carefree life of the upper classes.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" - a requiem for a lost generation

Remarque is not known for his books about aristocrats. The list of books and works about the tragedy of the lost generation in the writer’s bibliography begins precisely with the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, published in 1929.

The main characters are young men torn from ordinary life. The war does not spare them: patriotic illusions are quickly replaced by severe disappointment. Even those guys who were not touched by the shells were crippled spiritually by the militaristic machine. Many were never able to find a place for themselves in peaceful life.

All Quiet on the Western Front clashed with the jingoistic works that filled bookstores. During the reign of the Nazis, the book was banned.

"Return"

After the stunning success of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque did not stop creating works. We will continue the list of incredibly touching books about fate with the novel “Return”.

The war is drawing to a close. The soldiers are seized with unrest: they say a revolution has happened in Berlin. But the main characters don't seem to care about politics at all. They only want to return home as soon as possible. After many years spent at the front, it is difficult for young people to leave the trenches...

The country, engulfed in unrest, does not greet the “heroes” warmly. How can they now build their lives on the ruins of a destroyed empire?

Critics greeted this book differently: they admired its humanistic pathos, others criticized it for its insufficient disclosure of the political situation in Germany. The nationalists fiercely disliked this work, seeing in it an evil pamphlet on heroic soldiers.

"Three Comrades"

Our readers’ acquaintance with this writer often begins with the novel “Three Comrades.” It’s not for nothing that people admire: what amazingly subtle works Erich Maria Remarque wrote! We continue the list of books with this incredibly sad and touching book.

Events take place in pre-fascist Germany. In all its ugliness we see a society in deep crisis. But even in such darkness there is a place for real feelings - the selfless friendship of front-line friends and selfless love.

The main characters of the book survived the war. To survive in peacetime, they open a car repair shop. Time tests their character and principles to the limit. This book was never published in Germany. Remarque began work on this work in 1933 and finished writing it in 1936. “Three Comrades” was first released in Denmark.

"Love thy neighbour"

This is where the “republican” works of Erich Remarque ended. The list will continue with a book that tells about another, more cruel and barbaric time.

Who doesn’t know this main postulate of our civilization: “Love your neighbor”? The Nazis questioned altruism, replacing it with ruthless competition in all areas of life.

The novel “Love Thy Neighbor” introduces us to the world of German emigrants forced to hide from the Nazi regime. How did their lives turn out outside their long-suffering homeland? They starve and freeze on the streets, and are often left homeless. They are always haunted by thoughts of loved ones who ended up in concentration camps for “re-education.”

“Is it possible to remain a highly moral person in such conditions?” - this is the question Remarque poses. Each reader finds the answer for himself.

"Triumphal Arch"

There are countless books written on this topic by Erich Maria Remarque. The list of “refugee literature” continues with the novel “Arc de Triomphe.” The main character is an emigrant forced to hide in Paris (where the attraction indicated in the title is located)

Ravik survived imprisonment in a concentration camp - torture, beatings and humiliation. Once upon a time he chose the meaning of life - to save people from diseases. He now considers the murder of a Gestapo man no less useful.

"Spark of Life"

Now Remarque is interested in the events that unfolded at the very end of the war. “Spark of Life” replenishes Remarque’s anti-fascist works, the list becomes more complete and voluminous.

Now the focus is on one of the terrible concentration camps at the end of the war. The writer himself was never in a concentration camp. He made all the descriptions from the words of eyewitnesses.

The central character was once the editor of a liberal newspaper that was disliked by the brutal Nazi dictatorship. They tried to break him by placing him in inhuman conditions and pushing him to the brink of existence. The prisoner did not give up and now senses the imminent collapse of the German war machine.

Remarque said that he created this work in memory of his sister, who was beheaded by the Nazis in 1943.

"A time to live and a time to die"

Remarque in the novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” impartially analyzes the psychology of a German soldier. The army was defeated in 1943. The Germans are retreating to the west. The main character understands perfectly well that for him now it is only “time to die.” Is there a place to live in this wonderful world?

The soldier receives a 3-day leave and visits his parents in the hope of seeing at least flourishing life in the city of his childhood. But reality cruelly opens his eyes to obvious things. Every day the Germans, who once expanded their living space, endure shelling and die for the illusory ideas of Nazism. The “time to live” has not yet come.

This book enriches Remarque's works with philosophical considerations. The list of anti-fascist, anti-militarist literature does not end there.

"Black obelisk"

The novel "Black Obelisk" takes us back to the 20s - a time of devastation and crisis for Germany. Looking back, Remarque understands that it was at this time that Nazism arose, which aggravated the suffering of his country.

The main character, trying to find his place in life, works in a company that produces tombstones. At the same time, he tries to find the meaning of his life in a meaninglessly cruel world.

"Life on Borrow"

Trying to diversify the themes of his works, Remarque turns to the topic of fatal diseases. As in the situation with anti-war books, the main character here is placed in a borderline situation. She is well aware that death is already knocking on the door. In order not to hear her approach, the heroine wants to spend her last days brightly and eventfully. Race car driver Klairfe helps her with this.

"Night in Lisbon"

Again Remarque addresses the painful topic of German emigration in the novel “Night in Lisbon”.

The main character has been wandering around Europe for five years now. Finally, luck smiled at him and he found his beloved wife. But it seems not for long. He still can’t find tickets for a flight from Lisbon. By the will of fate, he meets a stranger who agrees to give him two steamship tickets for free. There is one condition - he must spend the whole night with a stranger and listen to his complex story.

"Shadows in Paradise"

“Shadows in Paradise” is a work about emigrants from Germany who managed to get to their paradise - America. Remarque talks about their destinies. For some, the United States has become a new home. They were greeted joyfully and given the chance to build a life from scratch. Other refugees were severely disappointed in paradise, becoming only silent shadows in the Eden they themselves had invented.

"Promised land"

This is the name given to the later revised text of the novel “Shadows in Paradise.” This work was not published during his lifetime. It was called the “Promised Land.” The book was published under this title only in 1998.

The novels “Shadows in Paradise” and “The Promised Land” are not usually separated. It's the same storyline. The latest version was more processed by the editors; many unnecessary (in their opinion) fragments were thrown out of it.

The secret of the stunning success of Remarque’s works is, apparently, that they reflect values ​​that are important to every person: loneliness and courage, perseverance and humanity. The themes of his works included a biography of Remarque on their pages. Three tens of millions of his books have been sold worldwide.

Childhood and youth

The future writer was born in Prussia in 1898. As expected, he studied at school and then worked as a teacher. But the war began, and he was called to the front. He quickly received a serious wound in the thigh from shrapnel. Then he was in the hospital for a long time - until the end of October 1918. Remarque's biography will receive the first terrible page, in which an unforgettable trace of the war will be written for life.

After the war

Since 1918, Remarque has been working, changing various professions, and in 1920 his first novel was published. By 1925, he had already learned the basics of working as a professional writer. Remarque moves to Berlin and marries a young beauty suffering from tuberculosis. The girl's name is Jutta, but all her friends call her Zhanna. Her image would later appear in several of his novels. She is best known as Pat from Three Comrades. After living together for four years, they will divorce, and Zhanna will take the blame.

But they will re-marry so that she can leave Nazi Germany. They will no longer live as one family, but Remarque will help Jeanne financially for the rest of his life and will leave her a significant inheritance. He will carry his noble attitude towards a stranger’s woman throughout his life. This is how Remarque’s biography is connected with his first marriage.

A huge success

In 1929, a novel was published that would cause fierce controversy in Germany. It's called All Quiet on the Western Front. The images of war-torn boys who, sitting in the trenches, learned only one thing - to kill and die are stunning. They are not ready for a peaceful life. His next work, The Return (1931), will show this. The first book will be made into a film. From the royalties for huge editions of the book, translated into different languages, and the film, Remarque will receive a decent fortune. In April 1932, the world-famous writer moved to Switzerland. There, free from material problems, he wrote “Three Comrades” (1936) and enthusiastically collected paintings by post-impressionists. Remarque's biography is marked by international success.

Fatal year

In September 1937, two people will meet in Venice, the son of a bookbinder and the daughter of a policeman. The City of Masks gathered celebrities from all over the world for the film festival. At a cafe table, Remarque caught the interested look of a woman.

He knew her companion and approached the couple. The writer introduced himself to the lady: Remarque. After meeting him, his biography will be filled with a disastrous and divine feeling of half-divided love, feeding on the crumbs of love. By this time, the rich and famous Remarque was drinking himself to death. At the time of the meeting he was 39 years old. Women preferred to remain friends with the writer, warrior, rake and dandy. There was discord in my soul. The world was collapsing not only inside, but also outside. The Nazis burned all his books and deprived him of his citizenship.

Game of feelings

A few hours later, Marlene invited him to her room. They talked all night. Oddly enough, Marlene understood him perfectly. She, too, hated fascism with all her heart, just as she hated everything ugly, she, too, was left without a homeland. Circumstances required Dietrich to leave for the United States. Remarque lived only by letters.

I stopped drinking and counted the days until the meeting. They met five months later. Remarque began a new novel about love, him and Marlene. He did not yet know where the plot of Arc de Triomphe would lead him. But Marlene did not promise anything and thereby promised everything. Remarque locked himself in his room and worked on a novel. This was the only way he could avoid the obsessive attention of reporters, parties and, most importantly, Marlene’s shameless flirting.

Precisely flirting. He forbade himself to think about more. Ravik thought for Remarque in Arc de Triomphe. Marlene was an ordinary woman, but Remarque preferred to see her as a queen with her own quirks. He could easily leave an ordinary woman, but he could not leave the queen.

America

The world was also coming to an end. Everyone understood that war was close. Marlene insisted that Remarque move to the United States with her. He hoped to share with Marlene not only holidays, but also everyday life. Remarque proposed to Marlene. She refused. Remarque had the courage to go to a house near Los Angeles. He drowned his melancholy with wine and bombarded Marlene with new letters. Sometimes they met. Marlene swore that she loved him as best she could, but, more precisely, she allowed herself to be loved, and again it seemed to him that happiness was possible. He lived in a state of depression until he met Paulette Goddard in 1951.

In agony and mental anxiety there existed Erich Maria Remarque, whose biography suddenly took a happy turn.

New creative successes

After the publication of Arc de Triomphe he did not write for a long time. But he started working with Paulette again. In 1952, “Spark of Life” was published, a novel dedicated to a sister destroyed by the Nazis. In 1954, a new work, “A Time to Live and a Time to Die,” was published. In 1956, in the novel “Black Obelisk,” Remarque described the real events of his youth. All this time Paulette Goddard is nearby. In this couple, Remarque allowed himself to be loved. Their wedding will take place in 1958, as will their return to Switzerland.

So in the fifties, Remarque’s biography took place on a creative upswing. Briefly speaking, the writer will create two more novels: “Life on Borrow” (1959) and “Night in Lisbon” (1963).

Homeland Awards

Germany appreciates having such an outstanding contemporary writer. The government even awards him an order, but, as if in mockery, does not return his citizenship. This forced recognition of merit does not inspire respect. Living in Switzerland, Erich Maria Remarque, whose short biography spanned seventy-two years, is already more worried about his health under the supervision of his wife. When he dies quietly of a heart attack in a Swiss hospital, Marlene Dietrich will send roses to his funeral. But Paulette will forbid putting them on the coffin.

Today in Germany he is only respected, but in Russia he is still popular. His books have a circulation of approximately five million copies. Such is the biography and work of Remarque. In our country he is loved and read.

Dancer Jutta

The personal life of the famous writer Erich Maria Remarque can hardly be called easy. Modern psychoanalysts would find the answer to the question - why it was so difficult for him to create strong and stable relationships.

Probably the fact is that Remarque's early childhood was overshadowed by the fact that his mother loved her eldest son Arthur much more than all other children. When Erich was three years old, Arthur died and his mother fell into a deep depression, paying virtually no attention to the children.

Erich forever had the feeling that no one needed him and no one loved him, which brought him many problems in his personal life...

He considered the best cure for his loneliness to be books, which he devoured in huge quantities - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Goethe, Zweig. And reading books sometimes leads to the fact that a person begins to look for a certain bookish ideal that simply does not exist in life...

And Remarque himself, who early began to express his thoughts and desires on paper, created female images, the prototypes of which in reality were not so ideal.

But Remarque always continued to search for his ideal not only in books, but also in life. He was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with the dancer Jutta Tsambona. This fragile, big-eyed girl became the prototype for several of his heroines, including Patricia Holman from Three Comrades. She looked exactly like “friend Pat” - tall, very slender, and “big eyes gave her thin and pale face an expression of passion and strength. She was very good."

And the pallor and slenderness, alas, were the result of tuberculosis from which Jutta suffered.

Their love story was somewhat different from the relationship between the heroes of Three Comrades. Instead of a sublime tragic connection, there is a completely ordinary desire to be close. On October 14, 1925 they got married.

Remarque wrote in one of his letters shortly after the wedding: “It was still a strange step. I was once again convinced that all writers lie. In my action there was much more simply human than a selfish desire to enjoy happiness... The concept of happiness for me has changed so much over the years: instead of a youthful desire to quench thirst, etc. - now a joyful readiness to challenge the follies of existence. Even marriage, the culminating moment in the life of every normal citizen, did not affect this mood of mine. Next to me now is a person who, perhaps, dotes on me, and I will try to remove everything vile and ugly from his path.”

But, as often happens, dreams were shattered by reality. Both spouses very quickly began to cheat on each other, which caused a huge number of quarrels.

Five years later, they decided to separate, but even after the divorce they could not separate completely, for example, they still went on vacation together. Jutta did not want to lose Erich, but at the same time she irritated him.

He wrote in his diary: “There was a quarrel in the morning. Not my fault. A spoiled child, not used to giving in, very vulnerable, sometimes capricious. And always confident in his rightness.” But Remarque always treated his wife gallantly, even when they finally separated, helped her with money, and in 1938 he even married Jutta again to help get out of Nazi Germany.

Luxurious Puma

But the greatest love in Remarque’s life was his relationship with the famous Marlene Dietrich. They met in 1937 in France. Both had already heard a lot about each other, and the romance between the movie star and the famous writer flared up instantly.

Remarque was writing Arc de Triomphe at that time, and the main character of the novel, Joan Madu, received many traits from Marlene Dietrich. This passion was too strong and too tragic - for both Marlene and Erich were very complex natures and, in addition, were distinguished by their love of love, causing pain to each other by betrayal. But it was true love.

Remarque’s letters to Marlene Dietrich or Puma, as he called her, can safely be called the pinnacle of love: “My tender one! My angel from the west window, a bright dream! Golden, my green-eyed one! My wanderer, my little traveler, my hard worker, always making money! Are you always dressed warmly? Does anything care about you? Please don’t forget your gloves, otherwise your fragile fingers will completely freeze... Beloved - I don’t know what will come of this, and I don’t want to know at all. I can't imagine that I will ever love another person. I mean - not like you, I mean - even with a little love.”

However, this one, called by critics “the greatest love story of the 20th century,” ended. But Marlene Dietrich, shortly before her death, said in an interview: “This was the greatest love of my life.”

last love

Remarque was no longer young, and although he met with different women, he did not let anyone into his heart, protecting his peace. In addition, he was haunted by terrible depression, which he fought with alcohol. In his diary, he wrote that the future seemed too gloomy to him and therefore life no longer made sense...

But in 1951, when the writer was already 53 years old, he met another famous actress - Paulette Godard, an ex-wife who “radiated life” and saved Remarque from depression.

He wrote, finishing his novel “Spark of Life”: “Everything is fine. No neurasthenia. There is no feeling of guilt. Paulette has a good effect on me.” The writer even decided to go with her to Germany, to his homeland, where he had not been for 30 years - before that it was too difficult for him to return to the places of his youth.

And next to Paulette, he got rid of the obsession of Marlene Dietrich, whom he could never forget. One day he met her and after that he wrote in his diary: “The beautiful legend is no more. Everything is over. Old. Lost. What a terrible word."

For the sake of his marriage to Paulette, he finally officially divorced Jutta, paying her a large sum of money and assigning her lifelong maintenance. In 1958, Paulette and Erich got married.

Paulette had such a beneficial effect on the writer that he even stopped keeping his diary, in which he had previously written in detail about his loneliness and bouts of depression...

He works fruitfully, reads a lot of books and believes in the best. Remarque writes letters to his wife, full of tenderness, which he signs: “Your eternal troubadour, husband and admirer.” Paulette and Erich travel a lot around the world, but the writer's health was deteriorating.

In 1970 he died in Switzerland. Marlene Dietrich sent roses to his grave, but Paulette did not put them on the coffin - even after Remarque's death, women continued to love and be jealous of him. And it’s not surprising - after all, thanks to his books, the love of each of them remained forever...

The writer's real name is Erich Paul Remarque.

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

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

The writer's first publication about the joys and worries of youth 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 hitting him. One wound turned out to be so serious that it remained a reminder for many years. In the same year, Remarque's mother dies. In 1918, the writer was discharged from the hospital and transferred to the reserve battalion of the infantry regiment. Remarque continues his studies at the Catholic Teachers' Seminary and is the secretary of the students' association. At the age of nineteen, Remarque, now a former soldier, began to think about how to transform the impressions he received into a “novel,” turning for help to his comrades who still remained in the trenches. The attempt to create a literary text dragged on for ten years.

After passing the teacher qualification exam, Remarque works as a teacher in different schools. After the end of the war, Remarque had to master different professions - accountant, correspondent, office worker, journalist. He writes reviews for newspapers, and 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. To a complete stranger, Zweig responded with understanding and kindness.

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

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

In 1928, Remarque became editor-in-chief of the Berlin magazine Sport im Bild and the Journal of High Society. Remarque, together with his predecessor as editor-in-chief, 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 began 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 must rest.”

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque depicted the tragedy of a generation forced to kill its own kind in order to survive. The soldiers who survived the war could not live fully due to their crippled psyches. 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 to allow 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 showed the manuscript to a relative of the Ullsteins. 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 off his initial advance payment of the fee for the concern. A trial fragment of the novel is published in the newspaper Fossiye Zeitung, owned by the concern. Almost immediately, Remarque receives a notification that he has been fired from his position as editor-in-chief.

The novel 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. When asked what the actual total circulation of the book was, Remarque found it difficult to answer. Since 1929, the novel has been published in a total circulation of approximately 10 to 30 million copies; has been translated into 50 languages. Already in 1929, the novel appeared in Russia. Remarque will say later about publications in our country: “In Russia they steal everything I’ve written, publishing my books in colossal editions, without paying any money.” Russian publishers approached 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 must soberly assess my own abilities. And for this I need to work, namely, work, and not 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 “the writer Remarque.” And this is a positive thing." He knew that a high level of skill was expected of him. And as he himself admitted in an interview with Friedrich Luft, “there is no skill yet.”

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 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 censor banned the film. Goebbels promises Remarque protection from the Nazi party in return for the writer placing responsibility for the film's release on "Jewish companies" - the Ulstein concern and Universal. The writer refuses these machinations.

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 find his own style, and so, the groped style is consolidated in the writer's work and remains almost unchanged. Remarque is eager to write a second book - “The Return”. Despite the author's assumption that the new book would be torn to smithereens, the book received positive reviews. The novel raised a purely human theme - eighteen-year-old young people, whose lives should be directed towards the future, rush towards death.

In 1931, under pressure from the Nazis, Remarque, really feeling 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 of Remarque's books were publicly burned. The pacifism of the truthful, cruel book did not please the German authorities. Already, Hitler, who was gaining strength, declared the writer a French Jew Kramer (a reverse reading of the name Remarque). The writer was accused of being an agent of the Entente and of stealing the manuscript from a murdered comrade. Remarque never came out with a refutation of any lie. In one letter he wrote: “My surname is Remarque, the family has had 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 the last refuges against hostile forces is the tragic concept of the novel.

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

In 1938, Remarque was officially deprived of his citizenship. His ex-wife (divorced in 1929), Ilza, was also deprived of citizenship. But he was not threatened with deportation from Switzerland, which could not be said about his ex-wife, and he would remarry her. In 1939, with the help of Dietrich, Remarque obtained visas to America for himself and Ilsa. War in Europe was already on the threshold. In 1941, the writer accepted American citizenship and already legally resides in the United States. Having finally parted ways 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 only choice left to the outcasts of Europe is to “take their rights into their own hands.” In the novel Arc de Triomphe, Remarque gave the main character, Joan Madu, many of the features of Marlene. 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 a writer of international scale. The fees that flowed 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 learn that two and a half years ago, based on denunciations and accusations, the so-called People's Trial Chamber sentenced his sister, Elfrida, to death. Judge Roland Freisler said: “Your brother escaped from us, but you will not succeed.” Twenty-five years later, a street in her hometown of Osnabrück would be named after Elfriede Scholz.

Remarque began writing the novel “Spark of Life” in 1946; he dedicated it to his executed sister. The novel tells about the crimes of National Socialism using the example of one of the concentration camps. This was the first book about something that 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 sift 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 insisted on reworking the novel. But the book was nevertheless published on the initiative of the publisher Joseph Kaspar Witsch (1952). Reaction to the novel was hostile, cautious and reserved. The fact is that Germany wanted to quickly consign the period of time 1933-1945 to oblivion. Forget without repentance...

Since 1948, when Remarque returned to Europe, he spent some time in Germany every year. From that time on, the writer began collecting German textbooks. They talk too sparingly about what happened at that time, so the writer writes again and again about old Germany. For thirteen years the writer was not allowed to publish his books in his own country. Remarque had to rely on translations, but not a single translation can correspond in all respects to the original: the rhythm and sound of the native language cannot be translated into a foreign language.

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

In the 50s, Remarque returned to his original literary delights: “The Sky Knows No Favorites” (Life on Borrow) (1959-1961), a 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 years old at the time. Her ex-husbands were wealthy industrialist Edgar James, the famous Charlie Chaplin and Burgess Meredith. Superstar, Clark Gable, proposed marriage to her, but Paulette preferred Remarque. The writer believed that this cheerful, clear, spontaneous and uncomplicated woman had character traits that he himself lacked. The writer was happy with her, but wrote in his diary that he suppressed his feelings, forbade himself to feel happiness, as if it were a crime. He dedicated the novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die,” a collective image of the “lost generation” of the Second World War period, to Paulette. A film was made based on the book, in which the writer 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 had chosen this status: he looked at Germany not only as a German, but also as an American, as a Swiss. He said that Germany, even 30 years later, had not resolved the issue of citizenship of emigrants. Remarque considered himself “exiled, deprived of the protection of the law.”

Remarque linked the novels “Night in Lisbon” (1961-1962) and “Shadows in Paradise” (1971) with his works about emigration - “Love Thy Neighbor” and “Arc de Triomphe”. “Night in Lisbon” was published in Russia based on a publication in the newspaper “Welt am Sontag”. Remarque noted that the version that was released does not correspond to the author's.

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

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

In 1967, when the German ambassador to Switzerland presented him with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, the writer had already had two heart attacks. German citizenship was never returned to Remarque. When the writer turned 70, Azcona 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 and 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 writer's last novel, Shadows in Paradise, was published.

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