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What did Erich Maria Remarque do in the war?
A student at the University of Munster, Remarque was drafted into the German army at the age of 18. He fought on the Western Front during World War I and was wounded no fewer than five times, the last time seriously.
What did Erich Maria Remarque do after the war?
Remarque was drafted into the German army at the age of 18 and was wounded several times. After the war he worked as a racing-car driver and as a sportswriter while working on All Quiet on the Western Front.
Why was Erich Maria Remarque important?
In 1929, Remarque scored his greatest, and most lasting, success with the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues). The work graphically depicted the horrors and brutality of World War I (1914-1918) through the tragic experiences of a group of young German soldiers.
Was Erich Maria Remarque a pacifist?
Erich Maria Remarque was a German writer and pacifist who became world-famous for his anti-war novel Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) (1928).
What happened to the author of All Quiet on the Western Front?
Over the course of the book, Paul himself is injured and hospitalized, goes home on leave and returns to the front, only to be killed a week or so before the armistice in 1918. From November 10 to December 9, 1928, All Quiet on the Western Front was published in serial form in Vossische Zeitung magazine.
Why is All Quiet on the Western Front important?
All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the many books burned by the Nazi Party after Hitler took power, because of its representation of German soldiers as disillusioned and its perceived negative representation of Germany. The book was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
Who said All Quiet on the Western Front?
Erich Maria RemarqueAll Quiet on the Western Front sold 2.5 million copies in 22 languages in its first 18 months in print....All Quiet on the Western Front.First edition coverAuthorErich Maria RemarqueCover artistErich Maria RemarqueCountryGermanyLanguageGerman13 more rows
How accurate is All Quiet on the Western Front?
Despite its basis in truth, All Quiet on the Western Front is fiction — its war, however historically accurate, is an imaginary one.
Is All Quiet on the Western Front worth reading?
All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest novels of all time, a personal favourite of mine and one I believe ought to be read by every generation.
Which event was the spark that started World War I?
The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (June 28, 1914) was the main catalyst for the start of the Great War (World War I). After the assassination, the following series of events took place: • July 28 - Austria declared war on Serbia.
How many books Remarque wrote?
All Quiet on the Western Front1928Three Comrades1936Arch of Triumph1945Heaven Has No Favorites1959The Night in Lisbon1962A Time to Love and a Time to Die1954Erich Maria Remarque/Books
Where Did Erich Maria Remarque live?
OsnabrückErich Maria Remarque / Places lived
Where is Erich Maria Remarque buried?
the Ronco CemeteryDeath. Remarque died of heart failure at the age of 72 in Locarno on 25 September 1970. His body was buried in the Ronco Cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland.
When was the last German offensive of the Western Front?
1918The Spring Offensives of 1918 were Germany's last attempt to defeat the British and French armies on the Western Front, and thereby win total victory. Their failure by the mid-summer left the German army fatally weakened, demoralized and facing its own imminent and inevitable defeat through an Allied counteroffensive.
How long did it take to write All Quiet on the Western Front?
five weeksDrawn to local social events, he developed a reputation for high living. Im Westen nichts Neues (literally "In the West, nothing new"), his first and most famous work of fiction, was written in five weeks in 1927. Following serial publication in a magazine, the book was published in January 1929.
Where Did Erich Maria Remarque live?
OsnabrückErich Maria Remarque / Places lived
Where was Erich Remarque born?
Erich Maria Remarque was born on 22 June 1898 into a working class Roman Catholic family in the German city of Osnabrück to Peter Franz Remark (b. 14 June 1867, Kaiserswerth) and Anna Maria ( née Stallknecht; born 21 November 1871, Katernberg). Remarque was the third of four children of Peter and Anna.
Who is Remarque's sister?
Remarque was the third of four children of Peter and Anna. His other siblings were his older sister Erna, older brother Theodor Arthur (who died at the age of five), and younger sister Elfriede (born 1903).
How did Remarque die?
Remarque died of heart failure at the age of 72 in Locarno on 25 September 1970. His body was buried in the Ronco Cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland. Paulette Goddard, Remarque's wife, died in 1990 and her body was interred next to her husband's. She left a bequest of US$20 million to New York University to fund an institute for European studies, which is named in honour of Remarque.
What was the first job that Remarque had?
His first paid writing job was as a technical writer for the Continental Rubber Company, a German tire manufacturer.
What was the name of the German army that Remarque was in?
During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the German Imperial Army at the age of 18. On 12 June 1917, he was transferred to the Western Front, 2nd Company, Reserves, Field Depot of the 2nd Guards Reserve Division at Hem-Lenglet. On 26 June 1917 he was posted to the 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 2nd Company, Engineer Platoon Bethe, and fought in the trenches between Torhout and Houthulst. On 31 July 1917 he was wounded by shell shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck, and after being medically evacuated from the field was repatriated to an army hospital in Germany where he spent the rest of the war recovering from his wounds, before being demobilized from the army.
When did Remarque return to Switzerland?
Remarque in 1961. In 1948, Remarque returned to Switzerland, where he spent the remainder of his life. There was a gap of seven years – a long silence for Remarque – between Arch of Triumph and his next work, Spark of Life ( Der Funke Leben ), which appeared both in German and in English in 1952.
Why did Paul use Maria as his middle name?
In later years as a professional writer, he started using "Maria" as his middle name instead of "Paul," to commemorate his mother.
Who is Erich Maria Remarque?
Erich Maria Remarque Biography. To the biographer and student of literature, Erich Maria Remarque, who has been called the "recording angel of the Great War," was an enigma, a man rife with contradictions and contrasts. He admired stylish women, Impressionist art, an antique Lancia convertible and a racy Bugatti, ...
What did Remarque do after his mother died?
After mustering out on a medical discharge in 1918, Remarque suffered postwar trauma and disillusionment, complicated by regret that his wounds ended his hopes for a career as a concert pianist, and by grief over his mother 's death. For a time, he posed illegally as a much-decorated first lieutenant, accompanied by Wolf, his shepherd dog. Occasionally, Remarque dressed extravagantly and wore a monocle. For the next ten years, he would cast about for a life's work, but for now he settled into a special veteran's seminary, where he chaired a student association that rebelled against the practice of treating war veterans like teenagers.
What did Remarque do when time allowed?
When time allowed, he collected butterflies, stones, and stamps, joined a gymnastics club, fished for sticklebacks in the Poggenbach River, performed magic tricks, and composed poems and essays. Except for school teaching, few professional choices lay ahead for men of Remarque's social class.
What was the name of the car that Remarque bought?
The next decade brought further turmoil to Remarque's life. Long a seeker of affluence, he bought a Lancia convertible and dressed the part of the bon vivant.
What party was Remarque in?
The strongest voices against Remarque belonged to the National Socialist party , an ultranationalist group, who accused him of deliberately creating an antihero to denigrate war and of degrading Germany by victimizing manufacturers and medical staff as incompetent and opportunistic.
What was the name of the book that Remarque wrote in 1928?
Within five weeks, Remarque, keeping alert on strong coffee and cigars, composed Im Westen nichts Neues (literally, In the West Nothing New ), which was serialized in the magazine Vossische Zeitung from November 10 to December 9, 1928, then appeared in novel form the next year in English as All Quiet on the Western Front. Although publishers were skeptical that the postwar reader was still interested in World War I, Remarque's pacifist bestseller sold a million and a half copies that same year and in time was translated into twenty-nine languages. His countrymen, who bought most of the first printing, raised a confusing barrage of enthusiasm and criticism, stating that Remarque simultaneously dramatized pacifism by overstating wartime dangers, enriched himself by glamorizing the German battlefield, and promoted communism. The German Officers League, on hearing talk of a Nobel Prize nomination for Remarque, challenged the Swedish committee's wisdom in considering the proposal. The strongest voices against Remarque belonged to the National Socialist party, an ultranationalist group, who accused him of deliberately creating an antihero to denigrate war and of degrading Germany by victimizing manufacturers and medical staff as incompetent and opportunistic. Refusing his critics the satisfaction of verbal confrontation, Remarque rejected interviews, labeling his work nonpolitical so as to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. However, Remarque had touched a nerve, and the themes and ideas of this first best-seller would echo through his writing for the rest of his life.
How did Remarque die?
He was treated for minor shrapnel injuries and later died of a head wound from a shrapnel splinter while he was being carried to a medic.
What was Erich Paul Remark's last name?
The family was Roman Catholic. When he was eighteen, he had to go to war. The Army sent him the front lines of World War I. He was wounded there, by stray shell fragments. After the war, he changed his last name to Remarque. This had been the family-name until his grandfather's time. He worked at a number of different jobs. He also took the jobs of librarian, businessman, teacher, journalist and editor, at some time.
What was Erich Maria Remarque's most famous book?
In 1929, Remarque published his most famous work, All Quiet on the Western Front ( Im Westen nichts Neues) under the name Erich Maria Remarque. He Changed his middle name to honour his mother. The novel described the utter cruelty of the war from the perspective of a twenty-year-old soldier. A number of similar works followed; in simple, emotive language they realistically described wartime and the postwar years. An opposite view is found in Storm of Steel ( In Stahlgewittern) by Ernst Jünger .
Why did the author change his middle name?
He Changed his middle name to honour his mother. The novel described the utter cruelty of the war from the perspective of a twenty-year-old soldier. A number of similar works followed; in simple, emotive language they realistically described wartime and the postwar years.
What did Remarque do after the war?
After the war he worked as a racing-car driver and as a sportswriter while working on All Quiet on the Western Front.
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Overview
Writing career
Remarque had made his first attempts at writing at the age of 16. Among them were essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as The Dream Room (Die Traumbude). Between 1923 and 1926 he also scripted a comic series, Der Contibuben, drawn by Hermann Schütz, published in the magazine Echo Continental, a publication by the rubbe…
Early life
Remarque was born on 22 June 1898, as Erich Paul Remark, to Peter Franz Remark and Anna Maria (née Stallknecht), a working-class Roman Catholic family in Osnabrück. He was never close with his father, a bookbinder, but he was close with his mother and he began using the middle name Maria after World War I in her honor. Remarque was the third of four children of Peter and Anna. His siblings were his older sister Erna, older brother Theodor Arthur (who died at the age o…
Military service
During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the Imperial German Army at the age of 18. On 12 June 1917, he was transferred to the Western Front, 2nd Company, Reserves, Field Depot of the 2nd Guards Reserve Division at Hem-Lenglet. On 26 June 1917 he was posted to the 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 2nd Company, Engineer Platoon Bethe, and fought in the trenches between Torhout and Houthulst. On 31 July 1917 he was wounded by shell shrapnel in the left leg, right ar…
Later years
In 1948, Remarque returned to Switzerland, where he spent the remainder of his life. There was a gap of seven years – a long silence for Remarque – between Arch of Triumph and his next work, Spark of Life (Der Funke Leben), which appeared both in German and in English in 1952. While he was writing The Spark of Life he was also working on a novel Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben (Time …
Personal life
Remarque's first marriage was to the actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in 1925. The marriage was stormy and unfaithful on both sides. Remarque and Zambona divorced in 1930, but in 1933 they fled together to Switzerland. In 1938, they remarried, to prevent her from being forced to return to Germany, and in 1939 they emigrated to the United States, where they both became naturalized citize…
Death
Remarque died of heart failure at the age of 72 in Locarno on 25 September 1970. His body was buried in the Ronco Cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland. Paulette Goddard, Remarque's wife, died in 1990, and her body was interred next to her husband's. She left a bequest of US$20 million to New York University to fund an institute for European studies, which is named in honour of Remarque, as well as funding "Goddard Hall" on the Greenwich Village campus in New York City.
Legacy
The first director of The Remarque Institute was Professor Tony Judt. Remarque's papers are housed at NYU's Fales Library.
In November 2010, efforts to raise 6.2 million Swiss francs (US$7M), to buy and save the villa of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard from almost certain demolition were underway. The intent was to transform the "Casa Mon…