Remarque, Erich Maria (ā`rĭkh märē`ä rəmärk`), 1897–1970, German-American novelist, whose original name was Erich Paul Remark. From his experience of trench warfare during World War I, Remarque drew a grimly realistic picture of the horror of battle in his first novel and masterpiece, Im Westen nichts Neues (1929; tr. All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929), an immediate international success. When the Nazis came to power they ordered it burned. Remarque's next work was The Way Back (1931, tr. 1931), a sequel describing the attempt of Germans to come to terms with their postwar situation. Remarque lived in Switzerland after 1932 and emigrated to the United States in 1939. His later books include Three Comrades (1937, tr. 1938), Arch of Triumph (tr. 1946), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (tr. 1954), and Shadows in Paradise (1971, tr. 1972).

Bibliography

See biographies by C. Barker and R. W. Last (1979) and C. R. Owen (1984); studies by R. O. Glaser (1972) and J. S. White (1972)

Remarque, Erich Maria

orig. Erich Paul Kramer

(born June 22, 1898, Osnabrück, Ger.—died Sept. 25, 1970, Locarno, Switz.) German-born U.S.-Swiss novelist. Drafted into the German army at age 18, he served in World War I and was wounded several times. He is chiefly remembered for All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), a brutally realistic account of the daily routine of ordinary soldiers and perhaps the best-known and most representative novel about that war. He moved to the U.S. in 1939 and became a U.S. citizen but settled in Switzerland after World War II. His other works include The Road Back (1931), Arc de Triomphe (1946; film, 1948), and The Black Obelisk (1956).