The rich biography of the writer Erich Maria Remarque is no less interesting and fascinating than his work. During his life, he managed to work on a variety of things and master several professions, but the events of the First World War had a great influence on his life. It was the impressions received by the military proud that later became the leitmotif of many of his famous works.
The real second name of Erich Remark is Paul, not Maria. He had four brothers and sisters. One of the favorite writers of Erich Maria Remarque was Fyodor Dostoevsky. When Remarque was only 18 years old, he was drafted into the army and soon sent to the front. The following year, he was wounded by fragments of a grenade, and until the end of the war he remained treated in a military hospital. In childhood, before the war, Erich Maria Remarque wanted to become a teacher. A little later, while studying at the seminary, one of his mentors inspired him to become a writer. When Remarque was 18 years old, before he was taken to the army, he gave private piano lessons to earn some money. He was a pretty good musician.
Erich Remarque changed his middle name to “Maria” in honor of his dead mother when he was 19 years old. All his life Remarque loved to dress elegantly, he always looked after himself and looked good. He had a particular passion for broad ties. Many literary critics compare the work of Erich Maria Remarque with the works of another representative of the “lost generation” – Ernest Hemingway. According to Remarque himself, he wrote his works under the impression of this or that music. In his youth, Erich Maria Remarque was a strong and athletic young man. However, he hated war with all his soul and called himself a pacifist. For his participation in the fighting on the fronts of the First World War, Remarque received the honorary award of Germany – Iron Cross of the first degree. At one time in the postwar years, Remark lived in a gypsy camp.
Not recognizing the typewriter, he wrote mostly by hand, and only with a pencil. The peak of creativity Erich Maria Remarque, adorning his biography, the majority of readers believe the novel “On the Western Front without Change.” He wrote it in just six weeks. After that, great fame came to Remarque, and in his native Germany the book quickly sold out with a circulation of 1.5 million copies. Proponents of the Nazi movement in Germany called Erich Maria Remarque a traitor who cultivated defeatism in society for publishing this novel. Personally, Joseph Goebbels, who later became known as the propagandist of the Third Reich, launched an extensive campaign against Remarque, seeking to discredit his work. Remarque’s first wife’s sister was married to one of Reich Marshal Hermann Goering’s relatives. Having divorced his first wife, Erich Maria Remarque later remarried, though a fictitious one. This gave him the opportunity to take his wife out of Germany, from where he himself had already managed to get over. In 1943, the German authorities executed Remarque’s sister, accusing her of anti-government statements, and sent the writer himself a letter demanding to pay for the services of the executioner. After moving to the United States back in 1939, Remark received American citizenship only 8 years later.
One of Erich Maria Remark’s friends was the famous film actor Charlie Chaplin. In the life of Erich Maria Remarque, there was an affair with a famous film actress of that time. Marlene Dietrich. True, she was not faithful to him, as it turned out, and their relationship ended. But they communicated until the death of Remarque. Remarque’s second wife was Paulette Goddard, who had been Charlie Chaplin’s wife for 6 years before. The writer had a passion for antiques. When he moved from Germany to Switzerland, before immigration to the United States, he bought a house there and furnished it with ancient furniture from different countries. He highly appreciated and painting. In the personal collection of Remarque there were even works by Renoir and Van Gogh. Erich Maria Remarque was so ashamed of his first story, considering it unsuccessful, that he later bought and destroyed all her circulation. On the business cards of Remarque, the crown was depicted because he had bought the baronial title from an impoverished aristocrat. Half a year passed between the completion of work on the Western Front and its sending to the publishing house. Why the writer is so pulling with the publication is unclear. Throughout his life, Erich Maria Remarque collected images and statues of angels.
