Remarque's works: list in order. Favorite women of Eric Remarque Erich Maria Remarque the first

On September 25, 1970, the outstanding German writer Erich Maria Remarque died at the St. Agnes Hospital in the Swiss city of Locarno at the age of 72. A romantic, a lover of women and Calvados, whose fate was scorched in the hellish crucible of the First World War, he, along with Ernesto Hemingway, became the spokesman for the thoughts of the first lost generation 20th century.

It was in the USSR and Russia that Remarque found his grateful reader. His works, full of piercing love, irony and bitter sadness, ineradicable humanity and tenderness in an era of greed and cynicism, were loved by readers of one sixth of the land. Be gentle - the world will be gentle. Don’t get bogged down in everyday life, career, power, money, this is so far from your dream! This is stated in the novels of an incorrigible romantic with an unusual fate. "RG" presents little known facts from life German writer.

1. Erich Paul Remarque was born in Osnabrück, Germany, into the family of the owner of a small bookbinding workshop. As a child, Remarque collected butterflies, stones and stamps. He was interested in painting and music, playing the piano and organ. At the age of 18, he gave private music lessons in order to have pocket money to buy clothes. He believed that you need to dress beautifully and elegantly, and then success in society is guaranteed. He had a particular affinity for large ties and Panama-style hats. At the age of 19, in memory of his deceased mother, he changed his middle name from Paul to Maria.

2. During World War I, he was wounded at the front five times, including in the arm. Thus the planned serious music career. In the hospital, Erich Maria started an affair with his doctor’s daughter and composed music for the lyrical poems of his contemporaries. Remarque later admitted that all his works were written under the influence of music, and he chose the words according to their sound. In 1918 he was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. Remarque called himself a convinced pacifist, which was at odds with his appearance in those years: an energetic, athletic blond, not a true Aryan.

3. In the twenties, when greed and profit reigned in Germany, Remarque chose philanthropy, eccentricity, and irony. At one time he lived in a gypsy camp. He roamed the streets selling pieces of fabric. He worked in a bureau for the production of grave monuments. Later he will write about this in the novel "Black Obelisk". He composed humorous advertising texts and poems for comics about the adventures of naked beauties. He kindly shared with readers of the newspaper where he worked the secrets of preparing alcoholic cocktails.

4. Remarque preferred to write his works with sharply sharpened pencils. The cult novel "On western front without change", which brought Remarque incredible success, he wrote in just 6 weeks. In Germany, the novel sold one and a half million copies in just a year! In the First World War, the writer saw not only shots and battles: he showed how shells exploding at the fronts cripple faith and ideals of young people. The Nazis turned the book into a “political problem,” believing that a real German could not have defeatist sentiments. Remarque was called a “Traitor of the Motherland.” He was accused of stealing the idea of ​​​​the book from his dead comrade. Ideological the campaign against Remarque was led personally by Dr. Goebbels.In 1933, Remarque's books flew into the satanic Nazi fire after Marx's Capital.

5. Two years earlier, Remarque had already left Germany. It's a small world. The sister of his first wife Jutta, with whom he lived for 4 years, divorced and fictitiously remarried in order to get her out of Nazi Germany, was married to a relative of Goering. A few weeks after the writer left Germany, the corpulent Goering burst into a chic Berlin restaurant where Remarque was dining. Plunging into a chair, one of the Nazi leaders demanded that the waiter bring him a bottle of wine of the kind that the disgraced writer loved to taste. The waiter spread his hands and answered: Remarque did not leave Germany until he had “eaten” all the wine of this variety.

6. Unable to reach the writer, the Nazis decided to take it out on his relatives. His older sister was arrested and executed for "unpatriotic statements" in 1943. “Your brother left us, but you can’t leave,” the prosecutor said in court. Elfrida was executed by guillotine, and the Nazis sent a bill to Remarque demanding payment of the “executioner's fee.”

7. With the royalties from the sale of the book All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque began buying antiques. Having moved to Porto Ronco, Switzerland, the writer bought himself a house, which he called “Remarque’s Palace.” The house, in elegant style, was decorated with ancient Chinese and Egyptian bronze figures, Venetian mirrors and Persian carpets, as well as an excellent collection of paintings (Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh), miraculously exported from Germany. Before World War II in 1939, Remarque decided to move to the United States. He immediately went to Hollywood to see Marlene Dietrich, whom he met back in 1930 in his native Germany. He was given American citizenship only in 1947. The Americans did not like the “moral character” of the freedom-loving writer, who had made influential friends in Hollywood. Remarque said that in the company of Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Ernest Hemingway he felt like a small person.

8. The affair with Dietrich cost Remarque many nerves. The actress called Remarque the most attractive man she had seen in her life. Remarque wrote letters to her every day when she left for the USA. Their acquaintance, after 10 years, grew into passion. The whirlwind romance, which began in 1940, continued, intermittently, until 1946. It ended when Dietrich, in response to an offer to tie the knot with the writer, admitted to him that she had recently had an abortion from a famous American actor. However, they communicated and corresponded until the writer’s death in 1970.

9. Erich Maria Remarque tied the knot with his second official wife, the famous American actress Paulette Godard, in 1958. They remained inseparable until the writer's death. Remarque admitted that his second wife cured him of severe depression, into which the writer plunged thoroughly after breaking up with Dietrich. Paulette Godard, whose first husband of 6 years was Charlie Chaplin, was supposed to play the lead role in the legendary epic Gone with the Wind, but at the last moment the director chose Vivien Leigh. All three main women in Remarque’s life, two wives and Dietrich, were similar: big eyes and eyelashes, hair in curls falling from the shoulders, a magnificent figure...

10. Having learned that Remarque had lost his father, a reporter rushed to the writer’s house, hoping at least after such grief to see the merry fellow Remarque sad and drooping. The writer told the taken aback journalist: “You know, my father died of a heart attack. At 83. He caught a cold in church because he wasn’t wearing a coat. He didn’t put on a coat so as not to disappoint his girlfriend. When he returned home, he was shivering. Mine his sister asked him: “Would you like to drink some cognac, dad?” He nodded and died. So is there a better death than dying while waiting for cognac?

11. Remarque spent the last years of his life in Switzerland, suffering from frequent heart attacks. Panickingly afraid of death, during this period he found literary creativity especially fascinating. Erich Maria Remarque was buried according to Catholic rites in a Swiss cemetery in the town of Porto Ronco.

Legendary sayings of Remarque

The worst enemies become the best friends.

True love does not tolerate strangers.

A man without love is a dead man on vacation.

Women should either be idolized or abandoned. Everything else is a lie.

People become sentimental more out of grief than out of love.

The worst thing, brothers, is time. Time. A moment that we experience, but which we never own.

A man cannot live for love. But he can live for another person.

Life is a disease and death begins at birth.

Conscience usually does not torment those who are guilty.

You can truly learn a person's character when he becomes your boss.

A miracle always awaits us somewhere next to despair.

A woman becomes wiser from love, but a man loses his head.

She had two admirers. One loved her and gave her flowers. She loved another and gave him money.

Any dictator begins his activity by simplifying all concepts.

When you die, you become somehow unusually significant, but while you’re alive, no one cares about you.

Everything that can be settled with money is cheap.

How little we can say about a woman when we are happy. And how much when you are unhappy.

A heart that has once merged with another will never experience the same with the same strength.

The world is not crazy. Only people in it.

If you don't laugh at the twentieth century, you might shoot yourself.

Nothing is lasting - not even memories.

One of the two always leaves the other. The question is who will get ahead of whom.

Only the simplest things console. Water, breath, evening rain. Only those who are lonely understand this.

Give a woman a few days to live a life that you usually cannot offer her, and you will probably lose her. She will try to find this life again, but with someone else who can always provide for her.

😉 Greetings my dear readers! In the article “Erich Maria Remarque: biography,” Interesting Facts"—the main stages in the life of the outstanding German writer.

One of the popular writers of the German Empire of the twentieth century is undoubtedly Remarque. He represented the “lost generation” - a period when, at the age of eighteen, very young boys were drafted to the front, and they were forced to kill. This time later became the main motive and idea of ​​the writer’s work.

Biography of Remarque

In the city of Osnabrück of the German Empire on June 22 (zodiac sign - Cancer) 1898 in large family The future literary genius Erich Paul Remarque was born.

His father worked as a bookbinder, so their house was always filled with a lot of books. WITH early years little Erich was fond of literature and read with enthusiasm a lot and often. He was especially attracted to the works of Goethe and Marcel Proust.

As a child, he was interested in music, loved to draw, and collected butterflies, stones and stamps. The relationship with my father was complicated; they had different views on life. With his mother everything was different - he doted on her. When Erich Paul was nineteen years old, she died of cancer.

Erich took the loss seriously. This tragedy prompted him to change his name Paul to Maria (that was his mother's name).

Erich Maria studied at a church school (1904). Upon graduation, he entered the Catholic seminary (1912), followed by years of study at the Royal Teachers' Seminary.

Here the writer becomes a member of one of the literary circles, where he finds friends and like-minded people. In 1916, Remarque went to the front. A year later, he was wounded five times, and the rest of the time he was in the hospital.

The beginning of creativity

In his father's house, Erich equipped a small office where he studied music, drew and wrote. It was here in 1920 that his first work, “Shelter of Dreams,” was written. For a year he worked as a teacher in Lona, but later abandoned this profession.

He had many jobs in his city before he started making money as a writer. Erich worked part-time as an accountant, taught piano, worked as an organist in a chapel, and was even a seller of tombstones.

In 1922 he left Osnabrück and went to Hanover, and began work here for the magazine Echo Continental. He wrote slogans, PR texts and various articles. Remarque was also published in other magazines.

Working for the magazine Sport im Bild opened the door for him to literary world. In 1925, he went to Berlin and began working as an illustration editor for this magazine. His novel “Station on the Horizon” is published here.

In 1926, one of the magazines published his novels “From Youthful Times” and “The Woman with Golden Eyes.” This was the beginning of his creative path. From that moment on, he did not stop writing, creating new masterpieces.

Literary career

In 1929, the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” was published. Remarque in it described all the horror and ruthlessness of the war through the eyes of a nineteen-year-old boy. The work was translated into thirty-six languages, it was published forty times.

In Germany, the book created a sensation. More than one million copies of it were sold in just one year.

In 1930, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for this book. However, German officers were against this, because they believed that this work insulted their army. Therefore, the proposal for the award was rejected by the committee.

During the same period, a film was made based on the novel. This allowed the writer to get rich, and he began to buy paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh and other artists. In 1932 he left Germany and settled in Switzerland.

In 1936, another work of the writer was published, which became popular - “Three Comrades”. It was published in Danish and English languages. A film was made based on the novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die,” in which Erich plays in one of the episodes. In 1967, for his services, the writer was awarded the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Meser Medal.

Remarque: personal life

The first wife, Ilsa Jutta Zambona, was a dancer. They cheated on each other, so their marriage lasted only four years. In 1937, Remarque began a passionate affair with a popular actress

Marlene Dietrich and Erich Maria Remarque

She helped the writer obtain an American visa, and he went to Hollywood. Here his life was quite bohemian. Lots of money, alcohol and different women, among which was

Paulette Goddard and Erich Maria Remarque

In 1957, he married actress Paulette Goddard, his ex-wife, with whom he remained until his death. She had a positive effect on her husband, helped restore strength and get rid of depression.

Thanks to Paulette, he was able to continue his writing career. In total, he wrote 15 novels, 6 stories, a play, and a film script.

The literary genius died at the age of seventy-three in 1970 in Switzerland, where he was buried. Paulette, who died twenty years later, rests next to him.

Erich Maria Remarque: biography (video)

One of the popular writers of the German Empire of the twentieth century is Erich Maria Remarque. The publicist, whose statements became immortal, represented the “lost generation” - a period when, at the age of eighteen, very young guys were drafted to the front, and they were forced to kill. This time later became the main motive and idea of ​​the writer’s work.

Childhood and youth

Erich Maria Remarque was born on June 22, 1898 in the city of Osnabrück (German Empire). The writer's father worked as a bookbinder, so the house of the future publicist was always full of a large number of books. From an early age, little Erich was interested in literature. Especially young genius attracted creativity, and.

From the biography of the literary genius it is known that in childhood Remarque was also interested in music, loved to draw, and collected butterflies, stones and stamps. Relations with my father were strained due to different views on life. When Erich was nineteen years old, his mother, with whom the writer always had warm, trusting communication, died of cancer.

Erich Maria studied at a church school, after which the young man entered a Catholic seminary. This was followed by years of study at the Royal Teachers' Seminary. There the writer became a member of a literary circle, in which he found friends and like-minded people.

In 1916 Remarque went to the front. A year later, he was wounded five times and spent the rest of the time in the hospital. Upon returning to his native land, Erich equipped an office in his father’s house, in which he studied music, drew and wrote. It was here in 1920 that his first work, “Shelter of Dreams,” was created.

For a year, Erich taught at a local school, but later abandoned this profession. The writer changed many jobs before he began making money as a writer. So at different times he worked as an accountant, tutor, organist, and even sold tombstones.

In 1922, Remarque left Osnabrück and went to Hanover. There he got a job at the Echo Continental magazine, where he wrote slogans, PR texts and various articles for a couple of months.

It is known that Erich also published in other magazines. So work in the publication “Sport im Bild” opened the door to the literary world for him. In 1925, the self-taught journalist went to Berlin to become the magazine's illustration editor.

Literature

In 1928, the novel “Stopping on the Horizon” was published. According to a friend of the writer, it was a book about first-class radiators and beautiful women. A year later, the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” was published. Remarque in it described all the horror and ruthlessness of the war through the eyes of a nineteen-year-old boy.

The work was translated into thirty-six languages, it was published forty times. In Germany, the book made a splash (one million copies were sold in a year). In the 1930s, a film was made based on the work.

The year 1931 was marked by the publication of the novel “The Return,” which tells the story of the lives of yesterday’s schoolchildren who returned from the war. Five years later, the book “Three Comrades” appears on the shelves. It was published in Danish and English.

In 1938, Remarque began work on the work “Love Thy Neighbor,” which was completed in 1939. At the same time, Collier’s magazine began publishing the writer’s work in parts.

In May 1946 in Zurich at German The novel “Arc de Triomphe” was published, and in mid-summer Remarque finished work on the work “Spark of Life”. The following year, the premiere of a new film based on the story “On the Other Side” took place (the film was called “Another Love”).

The 1950s became the year of the break in relations with Natasha Palais (Brown) after ten years of constant meetings, quarrels and reconciliations. During the same period, work began on the novel “The Promised Land” (“Shadows in Paradise”) and “Black Obelisk.”

In 1954, the anti-war novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” was published; in 1959, the work “Life on Borrow” was published in the Hamburg magazine “Kristall”, and in 1962, a separate edition of the novel “Night in Lisbon” appeared on the shelves.

Personal life

In 1925, Remarque reached Berlin. There, the daughter of the publisher of a prestigious magazine, where he worked for a short time, fell in love with a handsome provincial man. True, the girl’s parents prevented their wedding, despite the fact that the writer received an editor’s position in the publication.

Soon Erich married dancer Ilse Jutta Zambona, with whom the marriage lasted four years. The big-eyed, thin young lady became the prototype for a couple of his literary heroines, including Pat from Three Comrades.

Then the metropolitan journalist behaved as if he wanted to quickly forget his heterogeneous past: he dressed elegantly, wore a monocle, often attended concerts, theaters, and fashionable restaurants with his wife, and even bought a baronial title from an impoverished aristocrat for 500 marks.

In January 1933, on the eve of coming to power, a friend of Remarque advised the writer to leave the city as quickly as possible. Erich immediately got into the car and, in what he was wearing, left for Switzerland. In May of the same year, the Nazis publicly burned the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and deprived its author of German citizenship.

In 1938, the writer committed Noble act. To help his ex-wife Jutta get out of Germany and give her the opportunity to live in Switzerland, he again entered into a marriage with her, which was dissolved only in 1957.

The main woman in the writer’s life was the famous movie star, who is the prototype of the heroine of the novel “Arc de Triomphe” - Joan Madu. A compatriot of Remarque, she also left Germany and, since 1930, successfully acted in the USA. From the point of view of generally accepted morality, Marlene did not shine with virtue.

Their romance was incredibly painful for the writer. Marlene came to France with her teenage daughter, her husband and her husband’s mistress. They said that the bisexual actress, whom Remarque nicknamed Puma, cohabited with both of them. In front of Remarque's eyes, she also started a relationship with a rich lesbian from America.

Because of his love bordering on madness, Erich was ready to forgive the artist everything, starting life from scratch. When the literary genius asked Marlene to marry him, the woman told her would-be gentleman that she had had an abortion. The child’s father was actor Jimmy Stewart, with whom the freedom-loving lady starred in the film “Destry Is Back in the Saddle.”

When Dietrich learned that Remarque had brought a collection of paintings (including 22 works) to America, Marlene wished to receive at least one painting as a birthday present. After countless humiliations, Remarque had the courage to refuse.

It is also worth noting that the writer did not feel like an outcast in Hollywood. His financial affairs were excellent. He enjoyed success with famous actresses, among whom was the famous one. True, the tawdry splendor of the film capital irritated Remarque. People seemed fake and overly vain to him.

After finally breaking up with Marlene, he moved to New York. The Arc de Triomphe was completed here in 1945. Impressed by his sister’s death, he began working on the novel “Spark of Life,” dedicated to her memory. This was the first book about something he himself had not experienced - a Nazi concentration camp.

In 1951, in New York, the writer met Paulette Godard, who was 40 years old at the time. Her ancestors on her mother's side came from American farmers, emigrants from England, and on her father's side they were Jews.

In 1957, Remarque officially divorced Jutta, paying her $25 thousand and assigning a lifetime maintenance of $800 a month. The following year, Remarque and Goddard legalized their relationship.

Death

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 the writer died on September 25 of the same year. The grave of the creator of the work “Spark of Life” is located in the Swiss Ronco cemetery.

It is known that on the day of the funeral ex-wife sent her ex-husband roses, but Goddard did not place them on the coffin.

For the first 5 years after her husband’s death, Paulette was diligently involved in his affairs, publications, and production of plays. In 1975 she became seriously ill. The tumor in the chest was removed too radically (several ribs were taken out), and the woman’s arm became swollen.

The writer's beloved lived for another 15 years, but these were sad years. Paulette became strange, moody, and on too many medications. During the next depression, the young lady donated $20 million to New York University, and then began to sell off the collection of impressionist paintings collected by Remarque.

It is also known that the ex-wife repeatedly tried to commit suicide. The owner of the house in New York in which she rented an apartment did not want to rent out housing to an alcoholic and asked her to go to Switzerland.

On April 23, 1990, Paulette demanded that a catalog of the auction where her jewelry was sold that day be given to her in bed. The sale brought in $1 million, and 3 hours after the auction ended, the actress died. The Oscar nominee was buried next to her husband in the Swiss Ronco cemetery.

Bibliography

• 1920 – “Shelter of Dreams”
• 1924 – “Gam”
• 1927 – “Station on the Horizon”
• 1929 – “All Quiet on the Western Front”
• 1931 – “Return”
• 1936 – “Three Comrades”
• 1941 – “Love Thy Neighbor”
• 1945 – “Arc de Triomphe
• 1952 – “Spark of Life”
• 1954 – “A Time to Live and a Time to Die”
• 1956 – “Black Obelisk”
• 1959 – “Life on Borrow”
• 1962 – “Night in Lisbon”

Quotes

“The greatest hatred arises for those who managed to touch the heart and then spat in the soul.”

“The most wonderful city is the one where a person is happy”

“Love does not tolerate explanations. She needs actions"

“It is a mistake to assume that all people have the same ability to feel.”

“It’s better to die when you want to live than to live until you want to die.”

Remarque Erich Maria (06/22/1898 – 09/25/1970) – German writer. His novels and Remarque himself are considered to be the “lost generation”. Author of the 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 into a modest family of a bookbinder. He had French roots. Of five children, he was the second oldest. He studied at a church school and in 1915 received an education at a Catholic seminary. Since childhood, he loved to read; among authors he preferred S. Zweig, F. Dostoevsky, I. Goethe. The young man studied diligently and showed musical abilities.

In 1916 he went to military service, and six months later he ended up on 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 began working. He changed several professions: he was a teacher, a seller of tombstones, and a church musician.

Literary activity

In search of a calling, Remarque also managed to work as a journalist. This profession served as an impetus for his creativity. Remarque's first stories did not find a response from readers. Since 1921 he became editor of the publication 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 war experiences. The work became a world-class literary property, the author was nominated for Nobel Prize. The novel was immediately filmed. The book and film brought Remarque good income, but were negatively received by representatives of the German army, who believed that they had been insulted. The rest of the citizens could not remain indifferent to such an accurate reflection of the terrible military reality, expressed in the simplest syllable.

Young Remarque

In the next work, “Return,” in 1931, the author turns to the post-war period. He again conveys the uncertainty and despair he has experienced. But his work does not find understanding among the government. In 1932, he was forced to move to Switzerland; the military burned his books and deprived him of his citizenship. Five years later, the writer moves to America. After eight years in the United States, the writer became an American citizen in 1947.

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, and has a collection of short stories. His bibliography includes several essays, a play, and a screenplay. Along with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Aldington, he is considered to be a “lost generation” - people who at a young age had to comprehend all the horrors of war, and then seek refuge with a wounded soul.

Personal life

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

Since 1937, he had a long-term 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 Elfriede was executed in Germany for anti-Hitler propaganda. The writer dedicated the work “Spark of Life” to her. Later, one of the streets in her hometown was named in her honor.

Remarque with his wife Paulette, 1958

In 1951, Remarque met Hollywood star Paulette Goddard, who had previously been married to Chaplin. The woman helped him survive his breakup with Dietrich and relieved him of his depression, after which the writer regained 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 out the rest of their lives. The writer died in Locarno, Switzerland, from an aneurysm at the age of 72.

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 ah - Domshule and Johannisshule. 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, together with everyone else, discussed, developed artistic and philosophical views to the problems of life. 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. Trying to create literary text lasted 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 thing 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. Elementary creative path The remarque 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 lies. 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 significance. 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 " 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 match the original in all respects: rhythm and sound native language translation to foreign language don't give in.

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 reproduces last days Hitler in the Reich Chancellery bunker 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 there were the 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 last years In his life, Remarque limited himself to his interviews, where he criticized the practice of rehabilitation of Nazi figures.

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

In 1967, when German Ambassador in Switzerland awarded him 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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