Erich Maria Remarque
1 book analyzed
Biography
Erich Maria Remarque (born Erich Paul Remark, 1898–1970) was drafted into the German army at eighteen and sent to the Western Front, where he was wounded several times. He survived the war and worked as a teacher, a test driver, a journalist, and an editor before writing All Quiet on the Western Front in six weeks in 1927. Published in 1929, it sold 2.5 million copies in eighteen months, was translated into twenty-two languages, and was immediately denounced by the emerging Nazi Party. In 1933, the Nazis burned it publicly and revoked Remarque's German citizenship. His sister Elfriede was later executed by the Nazi government in 1943 — the judge reportedly told her that her brother had escaped them, so she would pay his debt. Remarque spent WWII in the United States and Switzerland. He never returned to live in Germany.