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Biography

Early years

Erich Paul Remarque was the second child in the family of bookbinder Peter Franz Remarque (-) and Anna Maria Remarque, née Stahlknecht (-). His older brother Theodore Arthur (1896-1901) died at the age of five; Erich Paul also had sisters Erna (1900-1978) and Elfriede (1903-1943).

In his youth, Remarque was interested in the works of Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust and Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In 1904 he entered a church school. After graduating from public school in 1912, Erich Paul Remarque entered the Catholic Teachers' Seminary to become a teacher, and already in 1915 he continued his studies at the Royal Seminary of Osnabrück, where he met Fritz Hörstemeier, who inspired the future writer to literary activity. At this time, Remarque became a member literary society"Circle of Dreams", led by a local poet.

At the front

At the end of the same year, the novel “Return” was published. The last two anti-war novels, a number of short stories and a film adaptation did not go unnoticed by Hitler, who spoke of Remarque as “the French Jew Kramer.” The writer himself later answered: “I was neither a Jew nor a leftist. I was a militant pacifist."

The literary idols of their youth - Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig - also did not approve of the new book. Many received the novel and the film with hostility. They even said that the manuscript was stolen by Remarque from a deceased comrade. With the rise of Nazism in the country, the writer was increasingly called a traitor to the people and a corrupt hack. Experiencing constant attacks, Remarque drank a lot, but the success of his books and film gave him wealth and the opportunity to lead a prosperous life.

There is a legend that the Nazis declared: Remarque is a descendant of French Jews and his real name is Kramer(the word “Remarque” is backwards). This “fact” is still cited in some biographies, despite the complete lack of any evidence to support it. According to data obtained from the Writer's Museum in Osnabrück, Remarque's German origin and Catholic religion were never in doubt. The propaganda campaign against the writer was based on his changing the spelling of his last name from Remark on Remarque. This fact has been used to make statements: a person who changes German spelling to French cannot be a real German. [ ]

The younger of his two sisters, Elfriede, married to Scholz, who remained in Germany, was arrested in 1943 for anti-war and anti-Hitler statements. At her trial she was found guilty and was guillotined on December 30, 1943. Her elder sister Erna Remarque was sent an invoice to pay for Elfrida’s detention in prison, the trial and the execution itself, in the amount of 495 marks and 80 pfennigs, which was required to be transferred to the appropriate account within a week. There is evidence that the judge told her: “ Your brother, unfortunately, escaped from us, but you cannot escape" Remarque learned about the death of his sister only after the war and dedicated his novel “Spark of Life”, published in 1952, to her. 25 years later, a street in her was named after Remarque’s sister. hometown Osnabrück.

Erich Maria Remarque died on September 25, 1970, at the age of 73, from an aortic aneurysm. The writer is buried in the Ronco cemetery in the canton of Ticino. Paulette Goddard, who died twenty years later, on April 23, 1990, is buried next to him.

Remarque bequeathed 50,000 dollars each to Ilsa Jutta, his sister, as well as the housekeeper who took care of him for many years in Ascona.

Remarque belongs to the writers of the “lost generation”. This is a group of “angry young men” who went through the horrors of the First World War (and saw the post-war world not at all as it was seen from the trenches) and wrote their first books, which shocked the Western public. Such writers, along with Remarque, included Richard Aldington, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

Selected bibliography

Novels

Shelter of Dreams (translation option - “Attic of Dreams”) (German: Die Traumbude) ()
Gam (German: Gam) () (published posthumously in)
Station on the horizon (German: Station am Horizont) ()
All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues) ()
Return (German: Der Weg zurück) ()
Three comrades (German: Drei Kameraden) ()
Love your neighbor (German: Liebe Deinen Nächsten) ()
Arc de Triomphe (French: Arc de Triomphe) ()
Spark of life (German: Der Funke Leben) ()
A time to live and a time to die (German) Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben) ()
Black Obelisk (German: Der schwarze Obelisk) ()
Life on loan ():
- German Geborgtes Leben - magazine version;
- German Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge(“There are no chosen ones for heaven”) - full version
Night in Lisbon (German: Die Nacht von Lisbon) ()
Shadows in Paradise (German: Schatten im Paradies) (published posthumously in 1971. This is an abridged and revised version of the novel “The Promised Land” by Droemer Knaur.)
The Promised Land (German: Das gelobte Land) (published posthumously in 1998. The novel remained unfinished.)

Stories

Collection “Anneta’s Love Story” (German: Ein militant Pazifist):

The Enemy (German: Der Feind) (1930-1931)
Silence around Verdun (German: Schweigen um Verdun) (1930)
Karl Breger in Fleury (German: Karl Broeger in Fleury) (1930)
Josef's Wife (German: Josefs Frau) (1931)
Annette's love story (German) Die Geschichte von Annettes Liebe) (1931)
The strange fate of Johann Bartok (German) Das seltsame Schicksal des Johann Bartok) (1931)

Other

The Last Stop (1953), play
The Return of Enoch J. Jones (1953), play
Last act (German: Der letzte Akt) (), play
The Last Stop (German: Die letzte Station) (), film script
Be careful!! (German: Seid wachsam!!) ()
Episodes at the Desk (German: Das unbekannte Werk) ()
Tell me that you love me... (German. Sag mir, dass du mich liebst...) ()

Translations into Russian

Memory

The “Ring of Erich Maria Remarque” was established in Osnabrück.

Publications about Remarque

In 1943, by verdict of a fascist court, 43-year-old dressmaker Elfried Scholz was beheaded in a Berlin prison. She was executed "for outrageously fanatical propaganda in favor of the enemy." One of the clients reported: Elfrida said that German soldiers were cannon fodder, Germany was doomed to defeat, and that she would willingly put a bullet in Hitler’s forehead. At the trial and before her execution, Elfrida behaved courageously. The authorities sent her sister an invoice for Elfrida’s detention in prison, trial and execution, and they didn’t even forget the cost of the stamp with the invoice - a total of 495 marks 80 pfennigs.

After 25 years, a street in her hometown of Osnabrück will be named after Elfriede Scholz.

When pronouncing the sentence, the chairman of the court said to the convict:

Your brother, unfortunately, disappeared. But you can't escape from us.

The elder and only brother of the deceased was the writer Erich-Maria Remarque. At this time he was far from Berlin - in America.

Remarque is a French surname. Erich's great-grandfather was a Frenchman, a blacksmith born in Prussia, near the French border, who married a German woman. Erich was born in 1898 in Osnabrück. His father was a bookbinder. For the son of a craftsman, the path to the gymnasium was closed. The stage directions were Catholic, and Erich entered the Catholic Normal School. He read a lot, loved Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Goethe, Proust, Zweig. At the age of 17 he began to write himself. He joined the literary "Circle of Dreams", which was led by a local poet - a former painter.

But we would hardly know the writer Remarque today if Erich had not been drafted into the army in 1916. His unit did not end up in the thick of it, on the front line. But he drank through front-line life in three years. He carried a mortally wounded comrade to the hospital. He himself was wounded in the arm, leg and neck.

After the war, the former private behaved strangely, as if asking for trouble - he wore a lieutenant's uniform and an Iron Cross, although he had no awards. Returning to school, he became known as a rebel there, heading the union of students - war veterans. He became a teacher and worked in village schools, but his superiors did not like him because he “could not adapt to those around him” and for his “artistic tendencies.” In his father's house, Erich equipped himself with an office in the turret - there he drew, played the piano, composed and published his first story at his own expense (later he was so ashamed of it that he bought up the entire remaining edition).

Best of the day

Not having settled down in the state teaching field, Remarque left his hometown. At first he had to sell tombstones, but soon he was already working as an advertising writer for a magazine. He led a free, bohemian life, was fond of women, including those of the lowest class. He drank quite a bit. Calvados, which we learned about from his books, was indeed one of his favorite drinks.

In 1925 he reached Berlin. Here the daughter of the publisher of the prestigious magazine “Sports in Illustrations” fell in love with the handsome provincial man. The girl's parents prevented their marriage, but Remarque received an editor's position in the magazine. Soon he married dancer Jutta Zambona. Big-eyed, thin Jutta (she suffered from tuberculosis) would become the prototype of several of his literary heroines, including Pat from Three Comrades.

The capital's journalist behaved as if he wanted to quickly forget his “raznochinsky past.” He dressed elegantly, wore a monocle, and tirelessly attended concerts, theaters, and fashionable restaurants with Jutta. I bought a baronial title for 500 marks from an impoverished aristocrat (he had to formally adopt Erich) and ordered business cards with a crown. He was friends with famous racing drivers. In 1928 he published the novel Stopping on the Horizon. According to one of his friends, it was a book “about first-class radiators and beautiful women".

And suddenly this dapper and superficial writer, with one spirit, in six weeks, wrote a novel about the war, “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Remarque later said that the novel “wrote itself”). For six months he kept it in his desk, not knowing that he had created the main and best work of his life.

It is curious that Remarque wrote part of the manuscript in the apartment of his friend, the then unemployed actress Leni Riefenstahl. Five years later, Remarque's books will be burned in public squares, and Riefenstahl, having become a documentary film director, will film famous movie"Triumph of the Will", glorifying Hitler and Nazism. (She has survived safely to this day and has just visited Los Angeles. Here, a group of her fans honored the 95-year-old woman, who put her talent in the service of a monstrous regime, and presented her with an award. This, naturally, caused loud protests, especially from Jewish organizations...)

In defeated Germany, Remarque's anti-war novel became a sensation. One and a half million copies were sold within a year. Since 1929, it has gone through 43 editions all over the world and has been translated into 36 languages. In 1930, Hollywood made a film based on it, which received an Oscar. The director of the film, 35-year-old native of Ukraine Lev Milstein, known in the USA as Lewis Milestone, also received the award.

The pacifism of the truthful, cruel book did not please the German authorities. Conservatives were outraged by the glorification of the soldier who lost the war. Hitler, who was already gaining strength, declared the writer a French Jew, Kramer (a reverse reading of the name Remarque). Remarque stated:

I was neither Jewish nor leftist. I was a militant pacifist.

The literary idols of his youth, Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann, also did not like the book. Mann was irritated by the advertising hype around Remarque and his political passivity.

Remarque was nominated for Nobel Prize, but was prevented by the protest of the League of German Officers. The writer was accused of having written a novel commissioned by the Entente, and of stealing the manuscript from a murdered comrade. He was called a traitor to his homeland, a playboy, a cheap celebrity.

The book and film brought Remarque money, he began collecting carpets and Impressionist paintings. But the attacks brought him to the brink of a nervous breakdown. He still drank a lot. In 1929, his marriage to Jutta broke up due to the endless infidelities of both spouses. The next year, he made, as it turned out, a very right step: on the advice of one of his lovers, an actress, he bought a villa in Italian Switzerland, where he moved his collection of art objects.

In January 1933, on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, Remarque's friend handed him a note in a Berlin bar: “Leave the city immediately.” Remarque got into the car and, in what he was wearing, drove off to Switzerland. In May, the Nazis publicly burned the novel All Quiet on the Western Front "for literary betrayal of the soldiers of the First World War," and its author was soon deprived of German citizenship.

The bustle of metropolitan life gave way to a quiet existence in Switzerland, near the town of Ascona.

Remarque complained of fatigue. He continued to drink heavily, despite his poor health - he suffered from lung disease and nervous eczema. He was in a depressed mood. After the Germans voted for Hitler, he wrote in his diary: “The situation in the world is hopeless, stupid, murderous. Socialism, which mobilized the masses, was destroyed by these same masses. The right to vote, for which they fought so hard, eliminated the fighters themselves. Man is closer to cannibalism, than he thinks."

However, he still worked: he wrote “The Way Home” (the continuation of “All Quiet on the Western Front”), and by 1936 he finished “Three Comrades.” Despite his rejection of fascism, he remained silent and did not denounce it in the press.

In 1938, he committed a noble act. To help your ex-wife To get Jutte out of Germany and give her the opportunity to live in Switzerland, he married her again.

But main woman In his life became the famous film star Marlene Dietrich, whom he met at that time in the south of France. 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 (just like Remarque) did not shine with virtue. Their romance was incredibly painful for the writer. Marlene came to France with her teenage daughter, her husband Rudolf Sieber and her husband's mistress. They said that the bisexual star, 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.

But the writer was desperately in love and, having started Arc de Triomphe, gave her heroine, Joan Madu, many of the features of Marlene. In 1939, with Dietrich's help, he received a visa to America and went to Hollywood. War in Europe was already on the threshold.

Remarque was ready to marry Marlene. But Puma greeted him with a message about her abortion from actor Jimmy Stewart, with whom she had just starred in the film Destry Is Back in the Saddle. The actress's next choice was Jean Gabin, who came to Hollywood when the Germans occupied France. At the same time, having learned that Remarque had transported his collection of paintings to America (including 22 works by Cezanne), Marlene wished to receive Cezanne for her birthday. Remarque had the courage to refuse.

In Hollywood, Remarque did not at all feel like an outcast. He was received like a European celebrity. Five of his books have been made into films, starring major stars. His financial affairs were excellent. He enjoyed success with famous actresses, among whom was the famous Greta Garbo. But the tawdry splendor of the film capital irritated Remarque. People seemed fake and overly vain to him. The local European colony, led by Thomas Mann, did not favor him.

After finally breaking up with Marlene, he moved to New York. Here in 1945 the Arc de Triomphe was completed. 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 that he himself had not experienced - about Nazi concentration camp.

In New York he met the end of the war. His Swiss villa survived. Even his luxury car, which was parked in a Parisian garage, was preserved. Having safely survived the war in America, Remarque and Jutta chose to obtain American citizenship.

The procedure did not go very smoothly. Remarque was groundlessly suspected of sympathizing with Nazism and communism. Raised doubts about him too" moral character", he was asked about his divorce from Jutta, about his relationship with Marlene. But in the end, the 49-year-old writer was allowed to become a US citizen.

Then it turned out that America never became his home. He was drawn back to Europe. And even Puma’s sudden offer to start all over again could not keep him overseas. After a 9-year absence, he returned to Switzerland in 1947. I celebrated my 50th birthday (about which I said: “I never thought I would live”) at my villa. He lived in solitude while working on “The Spark of Life.” But he could not stay in one place for long and began to leave the house often. Traveled all over Europe, visited America again. From his Hollywood days he had a lover, Natasha Brown, a Frenchwoman of Russian origin. The affair with her, just like with Marlene, was painful. Meeting in Rome or New York, they immediately began to quarrel.

Remarque's health deteriorated, he fell ill with Meniere's syndrome (a disease of the inner ear leading to imbalance). But the worst thing was mental confusion and depression. Remarque turned to a psychiatrist. Psychoanalysis revealed to him two reasons for his neurasthenia: inflated demands in life and a strong dependence on the love of other people for him. The roots were found in childhood: in the first three years of his life, he was abandoned by his mother, who gave all her affection to Erich’s sick (and soon died) brother. This left him with self-doubt for the rest of his life, the feeling that no one loved him, and a tendency toward masochism in relationships with women. Remarque realized that he was avoiding work because he considered himself a bad writer. In his diary, he complained that he was causing himself anger and shame. The future seemed hopelessly bleak.

But in 1951 in New York he met Paulette Godard. Paulette 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. Her family, as they say today, was “dysfunctional.” Godard's grandfather, a real estate dealer, was abandoned by his grandmother. Their daughter Alta also ran away from her father and in New York married Levi, the son of a cigar factory owner. In 1910, their daughter Marion was born. Soon Alta separated from her husband and went on the run because Levi wanted to take the girl away from her.

Marion grew up very pretty. She was hired as a children's clothing model at the luxury Saks 5 Avenue store. At the age of 15, she was already dancing in the legendary Ziegfeld variety revue and changed her name to Paulette. Ziegfeld beauties often found rich husbands or admirers. Paulette married wealthy industrialist Edgar James a year later. But in 1929 (the same year that Remarque divorced Jutta), the marriage broke up. After the divorce, Paulette received 375 thousand - huge money at that time. Having acquired Parisian toilets and an expensive car, she and her mother set out to storm Hollywood.

Of course, she was hired only as an extra, that is, as a silent extra. But the mysterious beauty, who showed up for the shoot in arctic fox-trimmed trousers and luxurious jewelry, soon attracted attention powerful of the world this. She gained influential patrons - first director Hal Roach, then president of United Artists studio Joe Schenk. One of the founders of this studio was Charles Chaplin. In 1932, Paulette met Chaplin on Schenck's yacht.

The fame of 43-year-old Chaplin was enormous. By that time, he had already shot such masterpieces as “Baby”, “Gold Rush”, and had just released “City Lights”.

He had two unsuccessful marriages behind him. In 1918, he married 16-year-old extra Mildred Harris, from whom he separated 2 years later. In 1924, 16-year-old aspiring actress Lita Gray also became his chosen one. They had two sons. But in 1927 a divorce followed - noisy, scandalous, inflated by the press. The process traumatized Chaplin and cost him dearly, not only in monetary terms.

Maybe that’s why, having fallen in love with Paulette, Chaplin did not advertise their marriage, which they secretly entered into 2 years later, on a yacht at sea. But Paulette immediately moved into Chaplin's house. She became friends with his sons, who adored her. As a hostess she received (with the help of seven servants) his guests. Who hasn't visited them! English writers H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley, composer George Gershwin. In Chaplin's living room, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Vladimir Horowitz played the piano, and Albert Einstein played the violin. The leader of the dockers' union, communist Harry Bridges, also came. Paulette treated them all to caviar and champagne, and Chaplin had endless conversations with the guests.

Charlie was not a leftist. “He just loved and knew how to talk,” Paulette would later say about him. - It’s funny to consider him a communist, because he was an inveterate capitalist.

Chaplin knew that Paulette had a fortune - which means she was not after his money. True, screenwriter Anita Luus, author of the famous satirical novel “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” said that Paulette, for all her love for champagne, diamonds, furs and Renoir paintings, “always somehow managed to get by without the labor that goes into acquiring them.” Evil tongues they argued that Paulette, who did not want to have children, did not know how to cook and did not have a love of reading, was only pretending to be an exemplary wife. There was probably only a grain of truth in this. Paulette was sincerely attached to Chaplin - at least in the early years of their marriage. In order to “fit in”, she even considered going to study at Faculty of Philology university. However, this idea somehow faded away when Chaplin, having bought her contract from Hal Roach, gave her the leading female role in his next film. It was "Modern Times", one of best films brilliant comedian - the story of a little tramp and a girl from poor neighborhoods, similar to a mischievous teenager.

Paulette always said that working with Chaplin was her acting school. In preparation for the role, she diligently practiced dance, theater skills, even voice training, although the film was silent. The lessons of the great director, however, were not only this.

Paulette showed up for the first shoot in an expensive dress from Russian fashion designer Valentina, with glued eyelashes and a careful hairstyle. At the sight of this spectacle, Chaplin took a bucket of water and, coolly dousing his partner from head to toe, said to the operator:

Now take it off.

The film, released in 1936, was a huge success. She did not make Paulette a superstar, but the charming, spontaneous girl with a dazzling smile could firmly count on a career in Hollywood. And Paulette, perhaps the only one of Chaplin’s on-screen partners, did not miss her chance. She will star in just one more film in her “Pygmalion.” But over the next two decades she would play about forty film roles and enjoy a well-deserved reputation as a good professional actress.

After Modern Times, Chaplin wanted to make a film about the adventures of a Russian emigrant and an American millionaire with Paulette and Harry Cooper in the lead roles. Then this plan did not come true, and only 30 years later, “The Countess from Hong Kong,” where Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando played, would become the last and not very successful work of the 77-year-old director. Paulette in 1938 joined the fight for main role in the historical epic about Civil War"Gone with the Wind" The competition was enormous, and the preparation for the film was advertised as the main event in Hollywood. Paulette was hampered by her Jewish origin - Scarlett O'Hara was supposed to personify the aristocracy of the American South. But the producers wanted to find a “new face”, Paulette’s screen tests turned out to be excellent, and in the end she was approved for the role. They had already started making costumes for Paulette, she was in seventh heaven. But the happiness lasted only a week. At the last moment, a young Englishwoman, Vivien Leigh, appeared and captivated the producers so much that she got the coveted role.

The famous director Alexander Korda, who emigrated to Hollywood from Hungary (his films “The Thief of Baghdad” and “Lady Hamilton” were incredibly successful in the USSR), in 1939 proposed to Chaplin the idea of a satirical anti-Nazi film “The Great Dictator”. Hitler, who still seemed then nothing more than a dangerous buffoon, was asking for ridicule. Chaplin played the roles of doubles - a modest Jewish hairdresser and the Fuhrer Hynkel - a brilliant parody of Hitler. Paulette starred as Hannah (that was the name of Chaplin's mother), the hairdresser's lover. The film was released in the fall of 1940 and was well received. Chaplin and Paulette were invited to visit President Roosevelt at the White House.

But by this time their marriage was already doomed. Quarrels and disagreements began about three years earlier. And although, speaking at the premiere of The Great Dictator, Chaplin publicly called Paulette his wife for the first time, it was clear that divorce was inevitable.

They parted with dignity, without scandals and mutual revelations. IN last time they saw each other when in 1971, 82-year-old Chaplin was awarded an honorary (the only one in his life!) Oscar and he came from Europe to the ceremony. Paulette kissed Charlie, calling her “dear baby,” and he hugged her back affectionately.

The 40s were especially successful for the still very young actress (at the time of her divorce from Chaplin, Paulette was just over thirty). She acted a lot, and in 1943 she received an Oscar nomination. She flew to India and Burma to perform in front of American soldiers, who greeted her enthusiastically. She was very popular in Mexico, where her fans were the artist Diego Rivera and the country's President Camacho (from one trip there she returned with a gift from the President - an Aztec emerald necklace, a museum value). She was cheerful and sharp-tongued. In Mexico, at a bullfight, one matador dedicated a bull to her. Someone disparagingly remarked that this matador was an amateur. “But the bull is a professional,” Paulette responded. From 1944 to 1949, she was married to the famous and respected actor Burgess Meredith (many remember him from his role as a coach in Stallone's film "Rocky"). Meredith held left-liberal beliefs, and together with her husband Paulette joined the anti-McCarthyite Committee for the Defense of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution after the war. They say she was being followed by the FBI.

After her divorce from Meredith, Paulette's film career began to decline. Major studios no longer offered her $100,000 per film. But she did not sit without work. I was filming little by little. On stage she played Cleopatra in Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Poverty did not threaten her. She owned four houses and an antique store in the best areas of Los Angeles. She still had a brilliant reputation, among her friends were John Steinbeck, Salvador Dali, superstar Clark Gable (who played Rhett in " Gone with the wind"), who offered her his hand and heart. But Paulette preferred Remarque.

Just as it was with Chaplin, Paulette, who, according to Remarque, “radiated life,” saved him from depression. The writer believed that this cheerful, clear, spontaneous and uncomplicated woman had character traits that he himself lacked. Thanks to her, he finished "Spark of Life". The novel, where Remarque first equated fascism and communism, was a success. Soon he began work on the novel “A Time to Live and a Time to Die.” “Everything is fine,” it says diary entry. - No neurasthenia. There is no feeling of guilt. Paulette works well on me."

Together with Paulette, he finally decided to go in 1952 to Germany, where he had not been for 30 years. In Osnabrück I met with my father, sister Erna and her family. The city was destroyed and rebuilt. There were still military ruins in Berlin. For Remarque everything was alien and strange, as if in a dream. People seemed like zombies to him. He wrote in his diary about their “raped souls.” The chief of the West Berlin police, who received Remarque at his home, tried to soften the writer’s impression of his homeland, saying that the horrors of Nazism were exaggerated by the press. This left a heavy aftertaste on Remarque’s soul.

Only now has he gotten rid of the obsession named Marlene Dietrich. She and the 52-year-old actress met and had dinner at her home. Then Remarque wrote: “The beautiful legend is no more. It’s all over. Old. Lost. What a terrible word.”

He dedicated “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” to Paulette. I was happy with her, but I couldn’t completely get rid of my previous complexes. He wrote in his diary that he suppresses his feelings, forbids himself to feel happiness, as if it were a crime. That he drinks because he can’t communicate with people sober, even with himself.

In the novel "Black Obelisk" the hero falls in love in pre-war Germany with a patient in a psychiatric hospital suffering from a split personality. This was Remarque's farewell to Jutta, Marlene and his homeland. The novel ends with the phrase: “Night fell over Germany, I left it, and when I returned, it lay in ruins.”

In 1957, Remarque officially divorced Jutta, paying her 25 thousand dollars and assigning a lifetime maintenance of 800 dollars a month. Jutta went to Monte Carlo, where she remained for 18 years until her death. The following year, Remarque and Paulette got married in America.

Hollywood was still faithful to Remarque. “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” was filmed, and Remarque even agreed to play Professor Pohlman himself, a Jew who dies at the hands of the Nazis.

In his next book"The sky has no favorites" the writer returned to the theme of his youth - the love of a race car driver and beautiful woman dying of tuberculosis. In Germany, the book was treated as a lightweight romantic trinket. But the Americans are filming it too, although almost 20 years later. The novel will be turned into the film "Bobby Deerfield" with Al Pacino in the title role.

In 1962, Remarque, visiting Germany again, contrary to his custom, gave an interview on political topics magazine "Die Welt". He sharply condemned Nazism, recalled the murder of his sister Elfrida and how his citizenship was taken away from him. He reaffirmed his continued pacifist position and opposed the newly built Berlin Wall.

On next year Paulette filmed in Rome - she played the mother of the heroine, Claudia Cardinale, in the film based on Moravia's novel "Indifferent". At this time, Remarque had a stroke. But he recovered from the illness, and in 1964 he was able to receive a delegation from Osnabrück, which came to Ascona to present him with a medal of honor. He reacted to this without enthusiasm, wrote in his diary that he had nothing to talk about with these people, that he was tired, bored, although he was touched.

Remarque remained more and more in Switzerland, and Paulette continued to travel around the world, and they exchanged romantic letters. He signed them “Your eternal troubadour, husband and admirer.” It seemed to some friends that there was something artificial and feigned in their relationship. If Remarque started drinking while visiting, Paulette would defiantly leave. I hated it when he spoke German. In Ascona, Paulette was disliked for her extravagant style of dressing and was considered arrogant.

Remarque wrote two more books - "Night in Lisbon" and "Shadows in Paradise". But his health was deteriorating. In the same 1967, when the German ambassador to Switzerland presented him with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, he had two heart attacks. His German citizenship was never returned to him. But the next year, when he turned 70, Azcona made him her honorary citizen. He didn’t even allow me to write his biography former friend youth from Osnabrück.

Remarque spent the last two winters of his life with Paulette in Rome. In the summer of 1970, his heart failed again and he was admitted to a hospital in Locarno. There he died on September 25. He was buried in Switzerland, modestly. Marlene sent roses. Paulette didn't put them on the coffin.

Marlene later complained to playwright Noel Caurad that Remarque left her only one diamond, and all the money to “this woman.” In fact, he also bequeathed 50 thousand each to his sister, Jutta, and his housekeeper, who took care of him for many years in Ascona.

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 Paulette's arm was swollen.

She lived another 15 years, but they were sad years. Paulette became strange and capricious. Started drinking and taking too many medications. Donated 20 million to New York University, but was constantly worried about money. She began to sell off the collection of impressionists collected by Remarque. Tried to commit suicide. The owner of the house in New York where she rented an apartment did not want to have an alcoholic among the tenants and asked her to leave for Switzerland. In 1984, her 94-year-old mother died. Now Paulette was surrounded only by servants, a secretary and a doctor. She suffered from emphysema. Not a trace of beauty remained - the skin of her face was affected by melanoma.

On April 23, 1990, Paulette demanded that a Sotheby's auction catalog be given to her in bed, where her jewelry was to be sold that day. The sale brought in a million dollars. Three hours later, Paulette died with the catalog in her hands.

While Paulette was still alive, her biography was published in America. 5 books have been written about Remarque. The author of the latest (1995), a “double” biography of the couple, Julie Gilbert teaches at the very New York University to which Paulette was so generous.

Thank you
russalka 17.07.2006 07:49:13

I recently became interested in Remarque. I was staying with a friend in Kursk during the May holidays and, having nothing better to do, read the novel “Life on Borrow.” The following "nothing to do" days summer holidays in July they introduced me to the Arc de Triomphe. I’m currently reading “Love Thy Neighbor.” A random selection of what was on the shelf in the store. From your biography I realized that only “Arc de Triomphe” belongs to the most famous works. But I'm glad I discovered this writer.
I want to thank you for your well-written biography. Knowing nothing about the author and judging him only by the themes of the works and the thoughts expressed in them, I became so curious about what could happen to a person in life and what his life was like that he left such works to the world. For some reason it seemed to me that he himself was a doctor or a refugee. Where do these come from? female images? All beauties and femme fatales. But it turns out that the prototype of Joan Madu was Marlene Dietrich herself. And there were enough women in his life to write about. In a word, your biography is written very vividly, vividly and completely. I received answers to all my questions. I especially liked the paragraph about psychoanalysis and Remarque’s diagnosis. This is something I didn't expect at all.
It's nice to find quality articles on the Internet! Good luck to you in this field!

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Anatoly 24.11.2014 07:02:42

But in my opinion the writer is mediocre. And the plot is almost the same from book to book.

Remark
Olga 25.11.2014 04:03:54

Thanks for the detailed biography! Very interesting! Indeed, I imagined a completely different person from the works. Of course, such a great writer could not have an easy fate. He's wonderful. There will most likely never be such writers again...

Remarque is a writer whose quotes from his books have remained relevant for more than half a century. In his youth he had to fight on the fronts of the First World War, which formed the basis for many immortal novels. The era of the so-called lost generation is reflected in the work of Remarque, whose works do not leave anyone indifferent.

Erich Maria Remarque: biography of the writer

Erich Maria Remarque was born in Osnabrück (Germany) in 1898. He was surrounded by books since childhood, as his father worked as a bookbinder. Erich spent his days in the company of the world's best works. His favorite writers were Dostoevsky, Proust and Goethe.

In addition, his hobbies included music, drawing, and collecting. The boy treated his mother with special warmth, who passed away when he was 19 years old. Common language Erich could not be found with his father.

After church school, the young man studied at a Catholic seminary, and later at the Royal Teachers' Seminary. It was here that he began attending a literary circle. The future seemed cloudless and happy, but all the dreams and plans of Remarque, like many of his peers, were changed by the war.

Erich went to the front in 1916. A year later, having received five wounds, he found himself within the walls of a hospital, from where he returned home. In his father's house, Remarque wrote his first novel, “Shelter of Dreams.”

His writing career was just beginning, and he had to earn a living. Erich worked the longest school teacher- within a year. Then he experienced the professions of an accountant, a tutor, an organist, and even a tombstone dealer.

In 1922, he left Osnabrück for Hanover, where he began his journalistic activities. Worked for the magazines Echo Continental and Sport im Bild. Three years later he moved to Berlin.

All this time, Erich Maria Remarque continued to work on his future masterpieces. In 1926, the works “From Youthful Times” and “The Woman with Golden Eyes” were published in magazines. Then the novels followed one after another. They and their author gained popularity and fame. Remarque's books began to be translated into foreign languages and film it.

Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Remarque was advised to leave the country, which he did - he went to Switzerland. And just in time, since in 1933 his books began to be publicly burned.

The writer moved from Switzerland to the USA. Here he continued writing career, and also fell into the whirlpool of social life and the whirlpool of love. Erich Maria Remarque passed away in September 1970 in Switzerland, where he was buried.

Erich Maria Remarque: the best books

Erich Maria Remarque, whose books are deservedly noted as best works world literature, created more than ten novels. All of them are worthy of the reader’s attention and dedicated eternal themes literature - life and death, friendship and betrayal, love and separation. The theme of war ran like a red line through his work.

What to read from the works that Remarque wrote? Books that are considered unsurpassed are:

"All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929)

This poignant novel colorfully describes all the horrors of war. Main character, Paul Bäumer, went to the front literally from his school days. Eulogies and patriotism fade into the background when he comes face to face with murder and death. The situation at home is no better. Poverty and destitution are everywhere.

The novel was translated into 36 languages and reprinted 40 times. In Germany, 1 million copies of the book were sold within a year, and in the 1930s a film was created based on it.

"Three Comrades" (1936)

One of the most famous works, which Remarque wrote - “Three Comrades” - tells about the difficult post-war period.

Three friends who went through the war together, Robert Lokamp, Otto Köster and Gottfried Lenz, are trying their best to set up a car repair shop, find a livelihood, and also find the lost meaning of life. Robert finds him in love with a mysterious girl named Patricia. However, their story is destined to end tragically.

"Arc de Triomphe" (1945)

The novel was published in 1946 in Zurich. This time the writer focused on the theme of love and based the work on his own complex relationship with the legendary Marlene Dietrich.

The action takes place on the eve of World War II in Paris, where the main characters are looking for salvation from the Nazis. Dr. Ravik is illegal and obsessed with revenge against those who destroyed his life. One night he saves a woman who wanted to jump from a bridge. Thus, in the midst of everyday life, new love is born.

"Spark of Life" (1952)

This is one of the few novels by the writer that he created without being based on personal experience. Remarque began writing the book when the Nazis killed his sister Elfriede Scholz.

Taking archival documents as a basis, he recreated the terrible atmosphere of German concentration camps, where human life didn't cost anything. This was another side of the terrible war.

"Night in Lisbon" (1962)

In his last work Erich Maria Remarque touched on the topic of refugees from fascist Germany. Thousands of people, on the eve of and during the war, wandered around Europe in search of refuge and dreamed of going to the United States. Few people have succeeded. The writer spoke about all the difficulties and vicissitudes of this path in an unusually vivid and authentic way.

Remarque's personal life

Remarque first fell in love in 1925 in Berlin. Then he was already working as a magazine editor, but the girl’s family was against the wedding.

Soon after this, the dancer Ilse Jutte Zambone became the wife of the future writer. The slender beauty with big eyes was a wife and muse and inspired Remarque to create, for example, the image of Pat Holman from the novel “Three Comrades.” But four years later the marriage broke up.

In 1938, Remarque concluded it again so that Jutta could leave Germany. The second official divorce occurred only in 1957.

During his first marriage, Erich led social life and even acquired the title of baron. He strove for luxury and beauty. Continuing this path after breaking up with Jutta, he met Marlene Dietrich.

The eccentric movie star became a source of a storm of sensations for the writer - from incredibly joyful experiences to the most bitter disappointments. He also devoted space to her in his novels. Actress Joan Madu from Arc de Triomphe wrote with Marlene.

Remarque called her Puma and was forced to observe his beloved’s numerous connections and novels. After many years After suffering, he decided to break up with her and left for New York.

Another page in the writer’s personal life was Natasha Pale (Brown). The Russian princess seemed to Remarque to be a salvation from an obsession named Marlene. But the relationship developed according to a similar scenario. After ten years of passionate love and loud quarrels, the writer broke up with Natasha.

In 1951, in New York, he met Paulette Goddard. The charming Oscar nominee and former wife of Charles Chaplin became a reliable and faithful life partner for Remarque. It was after meeting her that the writer decided to officially divorce Jutta, and in 1958 he married again.

The couple lived together for 12 years. The writer spent the last two winters with Paulette in Rome. Goddard survived her second husband by 20 years. At first, she continued to manage his affairs, was engaged in publishing and theatrical performances works of Remarque. But then she fell ill and moved to Switzerland, where she died in 1990.

The life of Erich Maria Remarque became the source of immortal novels. It is difficult to read them; it is difficult to believe that all this actually happened. It is all the more important that new generations become familiar with their content and do not repeat the mistakes of their ancestors.

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.

Early life

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, and the author was nominated for a 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.

One of the popular writers of the German Empire of the twentieth century is Erich Maria Remarque. The publicist, whose statements became immortal, represented “ lost generation“- a period when, at the age of eighteen, very young boys were called up 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 a large number books. WITH early years 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 in 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 for him to literary world. 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 languages.

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 a noble deed. 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 with a blank slate. When literary genius Marlene proposed to marry him, the woman told the 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, including 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.