Erich Maria Remarque

Born 1898-06-22 · Osnabrück, Germany

Died 1970-09-25

Erich Maria Remarque, born Erich Paul Remark, was a German author, best known for his 1929 anti-war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front", based on his experiences as a conscript in Wold War I. When publishing that novel, he changed his middle name in memory of his mother and reverted to the earlier spelling of his family name, which had been changed by his grandfather in the 19th century. His writing was regarded as unpatriotic by the Nazis, and as soon as they came to power they burned his books, so he emigrated to Switzerland. In 1938 the Germans revoked his citizenship, and in 1939 he and his wife left Switzerland for the United States, where they lived until 1948. They then returned to Switzerland. He was married to actress Ilse Jutta Zambona from 1925 to 1930, and they then remarried in 1938 in order to prevent her from being sent back to Germany from Switzerland. They divorced again in 1957, and in 1958 he married actress Paulette Goddard and was married to her until he died in 1970. His first marriage to Zambona was stormy, with both being unfatihful. He had relationships with both Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich. He wrote some 20 novels, plays, screenplays and collections of short stories.