Erich Maria Remarque Erich Paul Remark n 1898

Erich Maria Remarque Erich Paul Remark n (1898 - 1970) n German author Sources: http: //www. kirjasto. sci. fi/remarque. htm and http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque

Early Life n n n Born on 22 June 1898 in a working-class family in the German city of Osnabruck At the age of sixteen or seventeen he made his first attempts at writing: essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as The Dream Room At age 18, Remarque, a third-year student at a teachers' training college, was drafted into the German army.

Participation in World War I n n n November 1916: Drafted into the German Army Sent to the Western Front (Belgium) Worked in a support unit behind the lines (laying barbed wire and building bunkers and dugouts to fortify gun sites) July 1917: Wounded by shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck while retrieving an injured soldier during an attack Spent the rest of the war recuperating in a hospital in Germany

All Quiet on the Western Front • All Quiet on the Western Front was written in a few months in 1927 • Published in 1929 • Sold 2. 5 million copies in twenty-five languages in its first eighteen months in print. • The story is narrated in first person in a cool style, a contrast to patriotic rhetoric.

Film n n In 1930 the book was turned into an Oscar-winning movie of the same name. The film's premiere was disrupted by Nazi gangs; Remarque was accused of pacifism. It was not until the 1950 s the film was shown again in West Germany. The film was denounced by Goebbels as anti-German, but the Poles banned it for being pro-German. In France it was prohibited until 1962.

Later Life § In 1932 Remarque moved to Switzerland § In 1933, the Nazis banned and burned his works § In 1938 Remarque lost his German citizenship. § In 1939 he emigrated to the United States, where in 1947 he became a citizen. § He died on September 25, 1970 in Switzerland.

Legacy • With All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque became a spokesman of "a generation that was destroyed by war, even though it might have escaped its shells, " as he said himself.