Erich Maria Remarque has a difficult biography. Date of birth 1898. Date of death - 1970. Childhood and adolescence of this man fell on the difficult years of the war.

Despite the difficult times, he managed to create at least 15 serious works, published during his lifetime and posthumously.

Biography Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque (at birth Erich Paul Remarque) is a male. Nationality - German, roots - French from my grandfather. Born in 1898 in the small town of Osnabrück.

From childhood he became addicted to reading by Marcel Proust and Johann Goethe. At the age of six, he was sent to a regular school at the church. After graduating after 8 years, he began to study at the seminary to obtain the profession of a teacher, and after graduation he began to study at an institution under the kingdom, where he met his ideological inspirer - Fritz Heerstemayer, who invited him to the circle of literature and poetry.

At the age of 19, Erich was called to war, where a month later he was seriously wounded and was treated for a long time in a hospital. In early September 1917, he learns about the death of his mother, Anna-Maria. Her death greatly shocked Erich that he decided to add her name to his.

A year later, he was discharged from a medical institution and sent to the infantry. Subsequently, they wanted to write him an award, but he refused and continued to attend classes.

Upon graduation, he begins to work as a teacher, but after a year he realizes that this is not his calling and begins to change professions often. He works as a salesman, accountant, musician, gravedigger. A year later he goes to live on the outskirts of Hanover, and 3 years later to the capital. In Berlin, he marries Ilse Jutte Zambona.

A brilliant career began in 1927. Since 1932, he has been persecuted in his homeland for insulting the German army, then he decides to move to a small Swiss town. Since 1933, they have been declared a Nazi. In 1938 he was stripped of the title of a German citizen and in 1940 he went to live in America, where he later received the title of honorary citizen.

In 1943, the Erich sisters are killed by the Nazis. One because of anti-fascist speeches, and the other because of non-payment of the first in prison.

In 1945 he travels to Europe and falls ill with Menier's disease and also suffers from deep depression. Ten years later, he was given a new diagnosis - liver diabetes. In the period from 1950 to 58, he had serious fateful events: the death of his father, divorce and marriage.

In 1963, he suffers a stroke, but Remarque manages to defeat the disease. So my heart gave out four times. By his 73rd birthday, the writer dies of aortic aneurysm. He gave a generous allowance to his loved ones and the housekeeper who took care of him for many years.

Parents

Erich's father is Peter Franz, and his mother is German Anna Maria Stalknecht (later Remarque). Peter worked from home, earning his living from the binding of books.

Anna Maria Remarque took care of 5 children. Erich was the second child. The first was his brother Theodore. He had been in poor health since childhood and soon died. The father and mother did not pay enough attention to the children. The father worked to support the family, and the mother was engaged in the upbringing of younger sisters. He spent all his time surrounded by books, of which there were countless numbers in the house.

Despite his neutral attitude towards Erich, the boy himself warmly remembered his mother and, after her death from cancer, took over her middle name - Maria.

Upbringing and education

Education E. M. Remarque or Erich Maria Remarque received in the spirit of his time. His father raised him as a real man, with all the severity.

He began to receive education at the age of 7, when he went to a church school. After her he went to receive the profession of a teacher in a Catholic seminary. Then he entered the literature circle, where he studied the creative life of literary critics, their favorite genre and met friends in spirit.

The beginning of creativity

From an early age, he is actively engaged in reading, drawing and writing. At the age of 17, he writes his first work under a pseudonym.

In 1922, he prints slogans as an editor, PR content and various articles. He publishes some of his works.

In 1925 he moved to Berlin, where he published his first novel, Station on the Horizon. Since that time, he began to actively publish, and his publications appear in films in the form of memorable films.

Literary career

In 1929, Erich publishes All Quiet on the Western Front, where he writes about the horrors at the front. It creates his career. It has been translated into 36 languages ​​and published 40 times. In Berlin, for this, the Nazis recognize him as a traitor, but he makes a splash among the Nazi apostates.

In 1930, they wanted to give him an award, but due to an insult to the German army, this title was not given to him. In addition, they were stripped of their citizenship. At the same time, a movie was made based on the book, for which the author received a large fee.

In 1936, a novel was published, which then became and remains so today - "Three Comrades". In general, he wrote a lot about the war, about love, for which he received the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany with medals in 1967.

Personal life of the writer

The first wife of the writer was Ilsa Jutta Zambona, a dancer. Their marriage did not last long due to numerous betrayals on both sides. In 1937, Remarque had a lover, Marlene Dietrich.

Erich Maria Remarque and Marlene Dietrich

The writer also did not stay with her for a long time. As well as with Greta Garbo during the epic of her literary career.

Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard

In 1957, he married actress Paulette Goddard, with whom he lived until his death. She had a beneficial effect on Remarque, contributed to the continuation of his career, and took care of his health. The writer had no children.

The last years of life and death

Erich Remarque spent the last days of his life with Paulette in his Swiss home. She relieved him of a prolonged blues, illness and contributed to the continuation of his writing career.

E. M. Remarque - the best works by popularity rating

The list of the best works that will be interesting to read in full:

1. "All Quiet on the Western Front" Is the author's cult novel, released in 1929. Here Erich talks about his military experience. As an eyewitness to the events, he colorfully talks about the war on behalf of a 12-year-old boy who got into the thick of things.
2. "Spark of Life"- 1952 novel. In short, this is a description of a terrible tragedy from the life of a writer. The novel is dedicated to Erich's younger sister, who was arrested and killed by the Nazis, beheading her for spreading negative information against the Nazi army. The plot of the novel tells about a fictional concentration camp, where people are trying to find in themselves a spark to life, the ability to live in inhuman torment and escape.
3. "Time to live and time to die" Is another anti-war novel released in 1954. It is about a young front-line soldier Ernst who is going on vacation. Deciding to take advantage of his vacation, he penetrates the other side of the barricades and learns about the life of prisoners, partisans and ordinary people who want a peaceful sky over their heads. Immersed in this life entirely, he penetrates and decides to help them.
4. "Three comrades"- the most read novel of the author from the list of the rating of the most popular and most famous novels in English and German, released in 1936. The focus is on three friends and the love of one of them for the girl;
5. "Triumphal Arch"- the famous novel, which first received its publicity in the US state in 1946. In the center of the plot is a man with a surgical education who emigrated from Germany to France and did not receive citizenship in the latter. Operating on patients, he is forced to constantly hide from the authorities.

German literature

Erich Maria Remarque

Biography

Erich Paul Remarque was born on June 22, 1898 in the city of Osnabrück, in the family of the bookbinder Peter Franz Remarque and his wife Anna Maria. While still in school, he decided to connect his life with art: he studied drawing and music. Shocked by his mother's death, Remarque changes his name to Erich Maria at the age of 19.

In his novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), he portrays her as the caring figure of the mother of the protagonist Paul Boymar. Remarque's relationship with his father is rather more distant, and they also have different views of the world. Remarque grows up next to his two sisters, Erna and Elfrida.

Having passed his primary school exams (1912), Remarque began working as a teacher, but his work was interrupted by the 1st World War. After a brief period of training, Remarque is sent to the Western Front, where he is wounded in 1917. During his stay in a military hospital, Remarque writes short stories and prose. In 1919, at the end of the war, Remarque took his exams and for the next two years taught in various elementary schools in the countryside. Quitting his teaching career, he takes on a number of odd jobs within the city of Osnabrück, including that of a tombstone salesman. His autobiographical written novel Black Obelisk (1956) makes many references to this period.

In the fall of 1922, Remarque leaves Osnabrück, and went to work at the Continental Rubber and Gutta-Percha Company in Hanover, now known as Continental, and began not only to compose slogans, accompanying texts and PR material, but also to write articles for the “home” magazine of the company "Echo-Continental". REMARQUE - written according to the rules of the French spelling - an allusion to the Huguenot origin of the family.

Soon Remarque expanded his field of activity. Not limited to the company magazine, he began publishing in magazines such as Jugend and the leading sports magazine Sport im Bild, who eagerly took his travel notes. A whole essay on cocktails appeared in the magazine Stertebeker - a very original title for a periodical, since Stertebeker was a Hanseatic pirate of the fifteenth century, a kind of Robin Hood. Articles in "Sport im Bild" opened the door to literature for the young writer, and in 1925 Remarque left Hanover and moved to Berlin, where he became the editor of illustrations for the aforementioned magazine.

Erich Remarque first saw his name in typography at the age of twenty, when the magazine Schönheit published his poem Me and Thou and two short stories, The Woman with Golden Eyes and From Youth. Since then, Remarque did not stop writing and publishing almost until his death. These works contained everything that would later distinguish Remarque's books - uncomplicated language, precise dry descriptions, witty dialogues - but they remained unnoticed, could not stand out from the streams of tabloid literature that filled German shops in the early post-war years.

In 1925, Jutta Ingeborg Ellen Zambona and Erich Maria Remarque were married in Berlin. Jutta Zambon, who added the name Jeanne to her name, spent all night sitting next to Remarque, while he wrote for himself after working at the publishing house. In 1927, his second novel, A Station on the Horizon, was published. It was published with sequels in the magazine "Sport im Bild". It is known that this novel never came out as a separate book. It can also be assumed that over the next year, Jeanne kept him company when he wrote the novel All Quiet on the Western Front in six weeks. As little as Remarque spoke about his marriage, he spoke just as little about the reasons for his divorce, which followed in 1932. They said that she preferred another man, a film producer, known for an adorer of dazzlingly beautiful women. And although she robbed him "to the skin", after the divorce, he sent her flowers, it was typical for him. After Hitler deprived both of their citizenship in 1937, Remarque married Jeanne a second time in order to give her a new passport and Panamanian documents, and then American ones to replace those lost for one single reason - as punishment for the fact that she was Mrs. Erich Maria Remarque.

1929, Remarque records his experiences of the war and traumatic memories of it in All Quiet on the Western Front. Appearing in pre-print - in the Vossische Zeitung (1928) and in bookstores by January 1929, All Quiet on the Western Front captures the imagination of millions. The novel brings popularity to Remarque and financial independence, but also political animosity. Three years later, He writes another novel, The Return (1931), in which he depicts the problems of the soldiers after their return to their homeland, where ideas were destroyed, morale was shattered, and industry was destroyed.

In the same year, fearing persecution by the National Socialists, the writer was forced to leave Germany. He moved to Switzerland, buying a house in Porto Ronco, Lago Maggoire. The last work of Remarque, published before the outbreak of World War II, was the novel Three Comrades, published in 1938, first in America in English and only then in Holland, in German. In the homeland of the writer by that time his books (first of all, of course, "All Quiet on the Western Front") were banned as "undermining the German spirit" and belittling the "heroism of the German soldier." The Nazis stripped Remarque of German citizenship in 1938. He was forced to flee from Switzerland to France, and from there - through Mexico - to the United States of America. Here his life - in comparison with the life of many other German emigrants - proceeded quite well: high fees, all his books (in 1941, the novel Love Your Neighbor, and in 1946 - the famous Arc de Triomphe) certainly became bestsellers and were successfully filmed. During the difficult war years, Remarque helped, sometimes anonymously, many of his compatriots - cultural figures who, like him, were fleeing the Nazi regime, but their financial situation was depressing.

In Germany, meanwhile, Remarque's sister fell victim to the barbaric regime. Accused of making remarks against Hitler and his regime, she was sentenced to death in 1943 and executed in Berlin. During the negotiations, the President of the People's Court, Freisler, is believed to have said that "Your brother may have escaped us, but you cannot avoid it."

In 1968 the City of Osnabrück names the street after Elfriede Scholz.

Having received German citizenship again after the war, Remarque returned to Europe. From 1947 he lived in Switzerland, where he spent mainly the last 16 years of his life. There are novels: Spark of Life (1952), a novel depicting the atrocities of the concentration camps, and A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1954), which depicts Germany's war against the Soviet Union. In 1954, Remarque comes to his father's funeral at Bed Rothenfelde near Osnabrück, but does not visit his hometown. Remarque could not overcome the bitterness of his exile from Germany: “As far as I know, not one of the mass murderers of the Third Reich was expelled. The emigrants are therefore even more humiliated. " (Interview 1966). The Black Obelisk appears in 1956. It partly analyzes the spiritual climate within Remarque's hometown during the 1920s, but also deals with the preconditions for the rise of fascism and attacks the moral political recovery after World War II.

Remarque's only play, The Last Stop, which was written in 1956. It was about the Russians who broke into Berlin and met there with SS soldiers and prisoners of a concentration camp. The premiere took place on September 20, 1956 in Berlin; later the production was also staged in Munich. The success was not universal, but the play was taken seriously, and for him it was more important than the attitude to his other works, apart from the resonance caused by the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Life on loan was published in 1959. In the book Night in Lisbon (1961) he returned to the topic of emigration once more. Here the author makes an explicit reference to Osnabrück as an action scene. Shadows in Paradise is the last of Remarque's novels. It was published by Remarque's second wife Paulette Goddard in 1971 after his death.

In 1964, to mark Remarque's 65th birthday, the city of Osnabrück presents the author with his most prestigious award, the Moser Medal. Three years later (1967), the writer receives an OBE from the Federal Republic of Germany. He also became an honorary resident of the cities of Ascona and Porto Ronco.

On the 25th September 1970 Erich Maria Remarque died in a hospital in Locarno. After his death, his hometown names a street after Remarque.

There was, of course, another side of Remarque's life - scandalous, connected primarily with his life in America. She is well known (and not only to passionate admirers of the writer's work): prolonged binges, affaire de Coeur with Marlene Dietrich - the emotional dependence of the writer on the film star was probably akin to a drug one, novels with young Hollywood actresses and, finally, marriage to Pollet Godard, the former Mrs. Charlie Chaplin ...

Worldwide, 30 million copies of Remarque's books have been sold. The main reason for this unparalleled and unique success is that they touch upon common human themes. These are themes of humanity, loneliness, courage and, in the words of Remarque himself, "the happiness of a short unity." World events serve in his books only as a frame of action.

Despite the fact that Erich Maria Remarque has long ceased to be popular in Germany - he is remembered only as the author of All Quiet on the Western Front, here, in Russia, Remarque is still very popular. Since 1929, when the novel about Private Paul Beumer was published in Russian, just a few months after publication in Germany itself, all of E. M. Remarque's books have invariably enjoyed success in our country. It is calculated: for 70 years of being on the Russian literary scene, the total circulation of books by E.M. Remarque in Russian has exceeded 5 million copies!

Remarque Erich Maria (1898-1970) - German writer, born June 22, 1898 in the German city of Osnabrück. There were 5 children in the family where the father earned money by weaving books, Erich Maria was born the second. From 1904 he studied at the school at the church, and in 1915 he entered the Catholic teacher's seminary.

He left to serve in the army in 1916, and in the summer of 1917 ended up on the Western Front, where less than 2 months later he received several wounds and stayed in a military hospital until the end of the war. In the post-war period, he changes many works, ranging from a teacher, a tombstone seller, an organ musician and other professions. In 1921 he got a job as editor of Echo Continental and took on the pseudonym Erich Maria Remarque, taking the middle name in honor of his deceased mother.

In 1925 he married Ilse Jutta Zambona, who in the past worked as a dancer, but had been married to her for a little over 4 years. In 1929 he published his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which was nominated for the Nobel Prize, and the next year it was screened. Due to the political situation in Germany, Remarque moved to Switzerland, where he struck up an affair with Marlene Dietrich. In 1938 he remarried Jutta to help her leave Germany to him, and then with him to the USA. They officially divorced in 1957.

In 1951, he strikes up an affair with Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard and a year later marries her after an official divorce from Jutta in 1957. The writer and his wife returned to Switzerland, where they won numerous awards.

(estimates: 3 , the average: 5,00 out of 5)

Erich Maria Remarque was born on June 22, 1898 in Prussia. As the writer later recalls, in childhood he was given little attention: the mother was so shocked by the death of his brother Theo that she practically did not pay attention to her other children. Perhaps it is this - that is, in fact, constant loneliness, modesty and insecurity - that made Erich an inquisitive nature.

From childhood, Remarque read absolutely everything that he could get his hands on. Not understanding books, he literally swallowed the works of both classics and contemporaries. A passionate love for reading awakened in him a desire to become a writer - only his dream was not embraced by his relatives, teachers, or peers. No one became Remarque's mentor, did not suggest which books to give preference to, whose works should be read, and whose works should be thrown away.

In November 1917, Remarque went to fight. When he returned, he seemed not at all shaken by the frontline events. Rather, on the contrary: it was at this time that writer's eloquence awakens in him, Remarque begins to tell incredible stories about the war, "confirming" his valor with other people's orders.

The pseudonym "Maria" first appears in 1921. Remarque thus emphasizes the importance of the loss of the mother. At this time, he conquers Berlin at night: he is often seen in brothels, and Erich himself becomes a friend of many priestesses of love.

His book literally became the most famous of the time. She brought him true fame: now Remarque is the most famous German writer. Nevertheless, the political events during this period are so unfavorable that Erich leaves his homeland ... for as many as 20 years.

As for the novel by Remarque and Marlene Dietrich, it was more of a test than a gift of fate. Marlene was charming but fickle. It was this fact that most of all wounded Erich. In Paris, where the couple often met, there were always those who wanted to gaze at the lovers and gossip.

In 1951, Remarque meets Paulette - his last and true love. Seven years later, the couple played a wedding - this time in the United States. Since then, Remarque has become truly happy, because he found the one he had been looking for all his life. Now Erich no longer communicates with the diary, because he has an interesting companion. Luck smiles at him in his creative work: critics praised his novels. At the peak of happiness, Remarque's disease again makes itself felt. The last novel "The Promised Land" remained unfinished ... On September 25, 1970, in the Swiss city of Locarno, the writer died, leaving his beloved Paulette alone.

The secret of the tremendous success of Remarque's works lies, apparently, in the fact that they reflect the values ​​that are important to everyone: loneliness and courage, resilience and humanity. The biography of Remarque was included in the themes of his works, on their pages. Three tens of millions of his books have been sold in the world.

Childhood and youth

The future writer was born in Prussia in 1898. As expected, he studied at school, then worked as a teacher. But the war began, and he was drafted to the front. He was quickly severely wounded by shrapnel in the thigh. Then he was in the hospital for a long time - until the end of October 1918. Remarque's biography will receive the first terrible sheet, which will contain an unforgettable trace from the war for a lifetime.

After the war

Since 1918, Remarque has been working, changing various professions, and in 1920 his first novel was published. By 1925, he had already mastered the basics of working as a professional writer. Remarque moves to Berlin and marries a young beauty with tuberculosis. The girl's name is Jutta, but all her friends call her Jeanne. Her image will later appear in several of his novels. She is best known as Pat from Three Comrades. After living together for four years, they will divorce, and Jeanne will take the blame.

But they will remarry so that she can leave Nazi Germany. They will no longer live as one family, but financially Remarque will help Jeanne for the rest of his life and will leave her a significant legacy. He will carry a noble attitude towards a stranger to a woman throughout his life. This is how Remarque's biography is connected with his first marriage.

Great success

In 1929, a novel was published, which caused fierce controversy in Germany. It's called All Quiet on the Western Front. The images of the war-distorted boys who, sitting in the trenches, learned only one thing - to kill and die, are amazing. They are not ready for a peaceful life. This will be shown by his next work "The Return" (1931). A film will be shot based on the first book. The royalties for the huge circulation of the book translated into different languages, and the film Remarque will receive a worthy fortune. In April 1932, the world-famous writer moved to Switzerland. There he, free from material problems, writes Three Comrades (1936) and enthusiastically collects Post-Impressionist paintings. Remarque's biography is marked by international success.

Fatal year

In September 1937, two will meet in Venice, the bookbinder's son and the policeman's daughter. The city of masks brought together celebrities from all over the world for the film festival. At the cafe table, Remarque caught a woman's interested glance.

He knew her companion and approached this couple. The writer introduced himself to the lady: Remarque. After meeting, his biography will be filled with a disastrous and divine feeling of half-divided love, feeding on crumbs. By this time, the rich and famous Remarque was drunk. At the time of the meeting he was 39 years old. The women preferred to remain friends with the writer, warrior, rake, and dandy. There was discord in my soul. The world was crumbling not only inside, but also outside. The Nazis burned all his books, deprived him of his citizenship.

Play of feelings

A few hours later, the field of acquaintance Marlene invited him to her room. They talked all night. Oddly enough, Marlene understood him perfectly. She, too, hated fascism with all her heart, as she hated everything ugly, she, too, was left without a homeland. Circumstances required Dietrich to leave for the United States. Remarque lived only with letters.

I stopped drinking and counted the days until the meeting. They met after five months. Remarque began a new love affair, his and Marlene. He did not yet know where the Arc de Triomphe plot would lead him. And Marlene promised nothing and thus promised everything. Remarque locked himself up and worked on the novel. Only in this way could he avoid the intrusive attention of reporters, parties and, most importantly, Marlene's shameless flirtation.

Precisely flirting. He forbade himself to think about more. Ravik thought for Remarque in the Arc de Triomphe. Marlene was an ordinary woman, but Remarque preferred to see her as a queen with his quirks. From an ordinary woman, he would have left easily, but from the queen he could not.

America

The world was also coming to an end. Everyone understood that the war was near. Marlene insisted that Remarque move with her to the United States. He hoped to share not only holidays with Marlene, but also everyday life. Remarque proposed to Marlene. She refused. Remark had the courage to leave for a house near Los Angeles. He poured the melancholy with wine and filled Marlene with new letters. Sometimes they met. Marlene swore that she loved him as best she could, but, more precisely, that she allowed herself to be loved, and it seemed to him again that happiness was possible. He lived in a state of depression until his meeting in 1951 with Paulette Goddard.

Erich Maria Remarque existed in torment and mental anxiety, whose biography suddenly made a happy turn.

New creative luck

After the publication of the Arc de Triomphe, he did not write for a long time. But with Paulette, he started working again. In 1952, The Spark of Life, a novel dedicated to a sister destroyed by the Nazis, was published. In 1954, a new work "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" was published. In 1956, in the novel "Black Obelisk" Remarque will describe the real events of his youth. All this time, Paulette Goddard is there. In this pair, Remarque allowed himself to be loved. Their wedding will take place in 1958, as will their return to Switzerland.

So in the fifties, the biography of Remarque takes place on a creative upsurge. In short, the writer will create two more novels: Life on loan (1959) and Night in Lisbon (1963).

Homeland awards

Germany appreciates having such an outstanding contemporary writer. The government even awards him with an order, but, as if in mockery, citizenship does not return. This forced recognition of merit does not command respect. Living in Switzerland, Erich Maria Remarque, whose brief biography turned over seventy-two years, is already more worried about his health under the supervision of his wife. When he quietly dies of a heart attack in a Swiss hospital, Marlene Dietrich will send roses to his funeral. But Paulette will forbid putting them on the coffin.

Today in Germany he is only respected, but in Russia he is still popular. The circulation of his books is approximately five million copies. Such are the biography and work of Remarque. In our country, they love and read him.

All of his work bears a trace of the tragic events of the life of the writer himself - first of all, participation in the First World War.

Remarque and the war

The normal life of young Erich was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Through the efforts of the media, the public consciousness has developed an idea of ​​the just flared up world massacre as a just campaign against evil.

Remarque was drafted to the front in 1916. In 1917, the future writer was seriously injured. He spent the rest of the war in a hospital.

The defeat of Germany and the harsh conditions that followed affected the fate of Remarque. To survive, he tried dozens of different professions. The writer even had to work as a seller of tombstones.

Remarque's first novel was published in 1920. This is only the source from which all subsequent works of Remarque originate. The list is very numerous. Erich Maria became known in Germany as a melancholic painter, depicting war in truthful and dark colors.

Remarque's first novel

At what point should one start counting the works of Remarque? The list opens with a 1920 novel entitled "The Asylum of Dreams." Oddly enough, there is not a word about war in this book. But it is filled with allusions from the works of German classics, reflections on the value of love and its true essence.

The background for the development of the plot is the house of a provincial artist, in which young people find shelter. They are naive and pure in their simplicity. The writer tells about the first love experiences, betrayals and quarrels.

Lost work

Due to the failure of the first novel, Remarque never published the book "Gam", written in 1924. In this work, the young author raised gender issues, making the main character a strong-willed woman.

The novel "Gam" is forgotten when the best works of Remarque are listed. The list remains without this interesting work, which today remains relevant and controversial.

"Station on the Horizon"

Few, even of those people who constantly read Remarque's novels, will add this book to the list of works. "Station on the Horizon" is one of the most "anti-Remarkov" works of this

The protagonist of the novel is a typical representative of the golden youth. Kai is young, handsome and girls like him. He is a typical perekatipole person: the young man is not attached to either material conditions, or to people, or to things. Deep down, he still dreams of a quiet life, peace of mind. But this desire is suppressed by the daily storm of bright events.

The book is set around endless car races against the backdrop of the carefree life of the upper classes.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Requiem for a Lost Generation

Remarque is not known for books about aristocrats. The list of books and works about the tragedy of the lost generation in the writer's bibliography begins precisely with the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, published in 1929.

The main characters are young men torn from ordinary life. The war does not spare them: patriotic illusions are quickly replaced by severe disappointment. Even those guys who were not touched by the shells were spiritually crippled by the militaristic machine. Many have not been able to find a place for themselves in a peaceful life.

All Quiet on the Western Front came into conflict with the jingoistic patriotic works that filled bookstores During the Nazi rule, this book was banned.

"Return"

After the overwhelming success of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque did not stop creating works. We will continue the list of incredibly touching books about destinies with the novel Return.

The war is drawing to a close. The soldier is overwhelmed by unrest: they say there was a revolution in Berlin. But the main characters don't seem to care about politics at all. They just want to get home as soon as possible. After long years at the front, it is difficult for young people to leave the trenches ...

The country, overwhelmed by unrest, does not welcome the "heroes". How can they now build their lives on the ruins of a destroyed empire?

Critics greeted this book in different ways: they admired its humanistic pathos, others criticized it for not fully revealing the political situation in Germany. Nationalists, however, fiercely disliked this work, seeing in it an evil pamphlet on heroic soldiers.

"Three comrades"

The acquaintance of our readers with this writer often begins with the novel Three Comrades. People admire for a reason: what amazingly subtle works Erich Maria Remarque wrote! We continue the list of books with this incredibly sad and touching book.

Events unfold in pre-fascist Germany. In all its ugliness, we see a society in deep crisis. But even in such darkness there is a place for real feelings - selfless friendship of front-line friends and selfless love.

The main characters of the book survived the war. To survive in peacetime, they open a car repair shop. Time tests their character and principles for strength. This book never came out in Germany. Remarque began work on this work in 1933 and finished writing in 1936. For the first time "Three Comrades" saw the light of day in Denmark.

"Love thy neighbour"

This was the end of the "republican" works of Erich Remarque. The list will continue with a book that tells about another, more cruel and barbaric time.

Who does not know this main postulate of our civilization: "Love your neighbor"? The Nazis challenged altruism, replacing it with merciless competition in all walks of life.

The novel Love Your Neighbor will introduce us to the world of German émigrés forced to hide from the Nazi regime. How was their life outside their long-suffering homeland? They starve and freeze on the streets, and are often left homeless. They are always haunted by the thoughts of their loved ones who were "re-educated" in concentration camps.

"Is it possible to remain a highly moral person in such conditions?" - this is the question posed by Remarque. Each reader finds the answer for himself.

"Triumphal Arch"

Do not count the works of books written on this topic by Erich Maria Remarque. The list of "refugee literature" continues with the novel "Arc de Triomphe". The main character is an emigrant forced to hide in Paris (where the attraction indicated in the title is located)

Ravik survived imprisonment in a concentration camp - torture, beatings and humiliation. Once he chose the meaning of life for himself - to save people from diseases. He now considers the murder of the Gestapo to be no less useful.

"Spark of Life"

Now Remarque is interested in the events that unfolded at the very end of the war. "Spark of Life" replenishes Remarque's anti-fascist works, the list becomes more and more complete and voluminous.

Now the focus is on one of the terrible concentration camps at the end of the war. The writer himself has never been to a concentration camp. All descriptions he made from the words of eyewitnesses.

The central character was once the editor of a liberal newspaper, objectionable to the brutal Nazi dictatorship. They tried to break him, placing him in inhuman conditions and putting him on the brink of existence. The prisoner did not give up and now feels the imminent collapse of the German war machine.

Remarque said that he created this work in memory of his sister, who was beheaded by the Nazis in 1943.

"Time to live and time to die"

Remarque in the novel "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" impartially analyzes the psychology of the German soldier. The army was defeated in 1943. The Germans are retreating west. The main character is well aware that for him now is only "time to die." Is there a place for life in this beautiful world?

The soldier receives a 3-day vacation and visits his parents in the hope of seeing at least a flourishing life in the city of childhood. But reality brutally opens his eyes to the obvious. Every day, the Germans, who once expanded their living space, endure shelling, die for the illusory ideas of Nazism. The "time to live" has not yet come.

This book enriches the works of Remarque with philosophical considerations. The list of anti-fascist, anti-militarist literature does not end there.

"Black obelisk"

The novel "Black Obelisk" takes us back to the 1920s - a time of devastation and crisis for Germany. Looking back, Remarque realizes that it was at this time that Nazism was born, which exacerbated the suffering of his country.

The protagonist, trying to find his place in life, serves in a firm for the manufacture of tombstones. At the same time, he tries to find the meaning of his life in a senselessly cruel world.

"Life on loan"

Trying to diversify the themes of his works, Remarque turns to the topic of fatal diseases. As in the situation with anti-war books, the main character is placed here in a borderline situation. She is well aware that death is already knocking on the door. In order not to hear her approaching, the heroine wants to spend the last days bright and rich. Race driver Klaerfe helps her in this.

"Night in Lisbon"

Remarque again turns to the painful theme of German emigration in the novel A Night in Lisbon.

The protagonist has been wandering around Europe for five years now. Finally, luck smiled at him and he found his beloved wife. But it seems not for long. He could not find tickets for the flight from Lisbon. By the will of fate, he meets with a stranger who agrees to give him two free tickets for the steamer. There is one condition - he must spend the whole night with a stranger and listen to his difficult story.

"Shadows in Paradise"

"Shadows in Paradise" is a work about emigrants from Germany who managed to get to their paradise - America. Remarque talks about their fates. For some, the United States has become a new homeland. They were greeted with joy and given the chance to build life from scratch. Other refugees were severely disillusioned with paradise, becoming only silent shadows in their own invented Eden.

"Promised land"

This is the name of the later revised text of the novel "Shadows in Paradise". During his lifetime, this work was not published. It was called the Promised Land. The book was published under this title only in 1998.

The novels "Shadows in Paradise" and "Promised Land" are not customary to separate. It's the same storyline. The latest version was more processed by editors, many unnecessary (in their opinion) fragments were thrown out of it.