Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) was a German author famous for his novels which detail wartime and post-war experiences of soldiers. He is most renowned for his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929). Despite the Nazis banning and burning Remarque's novels, he continually wrote about the horrors of war, its ability to steal youth, and the concept of home.
Remarque wrote novels about the horrors of war, Pixabay
Biography of Erich Maria Remarque
On the 22nd of June 1898, Erich Maria Remarque (Born Erich Paul Remark) was born in Osnabrück, Germany. Remarque's family was Roman Catholic, and he was the third child out of four. He was particularly close to his mother. When Remarque was 18 years old, he was drafted into the Imperial German Army to fight in World War 1.
Remarque was a soldier during WWI, Pixabay
In 1917, Remarque was injured and returned to war in October 1918. Shortly after his return to war, Germany signed an armistice with the Allies, effectively ending the war. After the war, Remarque completed his training as a teacher and worked in various schools in the Lower Saxony region of Germany. In 1920, he stopped teaching and worked many jobs, such as a librarian and journalist. He then became a technical writer for a tire manufacturer.
In 1920, Remarque published his first novel Die Traumbude (1920), which he had begun writing at the age of 16. In 1927, Remarque published his next novel, Station am Horizont, in serialized form in Sport im Bild, a sports magazine. The protagonist of the novel is a war veteran, much like Remarque. In 1929, he published the novel that would define his career titled All Quiet on the Western Front (1929). The novel was incredibly successful because of how many war veterans could relate to the story, which detailed the experiences of soldiers during WWI.
Remarque changed his middle name to Maria to honor his mother, who died not long after the end of the War. Remarque also changed his last name from the original Remark to honor his French ancestors and to distance himself from his first novel, Die Traumbude, published under the name Remark.
After the success of All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque continued to publish novels about war and post-war experiences, including The Road Back (1931). Around this time, Germany was descending into the power of the Nazi Party. The Nazis declared Remarque unpatriotic and publicly attacked him and his work. The Nazis banned Remarque from Germany and revoked his citizenship.
Remarque went to live in his Swiss villa in 1933, which he had purchased several years before the Nazi occupation. He moved to the United States with his wife in 1939. He moved right before World War 2 broke out. Remarque continued to write war novels, including Three Comrades (1936), Flotsam (1939), and Arch of Triumph (1945). When the war ended, Remarque learned the Nazis had executed his sister for stating the war was lost in 1943. In 1948, Remarque decided to move back to Switzerland.
Remarque wrote many novels during his lifetime, Pixabay
He dedicated his next novel, Spark of Life (1952), to his late sister, who he believed worked for anti-Nazi resistance groups. In 1954, Remarque wrote his novel Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben (1954) and in 1955, Remarque wrote a screenplay titled Der letzte Akt (1955). The last novel published by Remarque was The Night in Lisbon (1962). Remarque died on the 25th of September 1970 due to heart failure. His novel, Shadows in Paradise (1971), was published posthumously.
Novels by Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque is known for his wartime novels that detail the horrific experiences many soldiers faced while fighting and in the postwar periods. Remarque, a war veteran himself, saw firsthand the tragedy of war. His most famous novels include All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), Arch of Triumph (1945), and Spark of Life (1952).
All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
All Quiet on the Western Front details the experiences of a German WWI veteran named Paul Baeumer. Baeumer had fought on the Western Front during the war and had many horrific near-death experiences. The novel details the physical pain and hardships soldiers endured during and after WWI and the mental and emotional distress they experienced during and after the war. The novel contains themes such as the mental and physical impact of war, the destruction of war, and lost youth.
During the Nazi regime in Germany, All Quiet on the Western Front was banned and burned as it was deemed unpatriotic. Other countries, such as Austria and Italy, also banned the novel because they deemed it anti-war propaganda.
In its first year of publication, the novel sold over one and a half million copies. The novel was so successful it was adapted into a film by American director Lewis Milestone in 1930.
Arch of Triumph (1945)
Arch of Triumph was published in 1945 and recounts the tales of refugees living in Paris right before the outbreak of WWII. The novel begins in 1939 with the German refugee and surgeon, Ravic, who lives in Paris. Ravic has to perform surgeries in secret and is unable to return to Nazi Germany, where his citizenship had been revoked. Ravic constantly fears being deported and feels there is no time for love until he meets an actress named Joan. The novel contains themes such as statelessness, the feeling of loss, and love during dangerous times.
Spark of Life (1952)
Set in the fictional concentration camp known as Mellern, Spark of Life details the lives and stories of inmates at the camp. Within Mellern, there is the "Little Camp," where prisoners face many inhumane hardships. A group of prisoners decides to join forces as they see hope for liberation. What begins with disobeying orders gradually turns into an armed struggle. The novel is dedicated to Remarque's sister, Elfriede Scholz, who the Nazis executed in 1943.
Writing style of Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque has an effective and sparse writing style that captures the horror of war and its effect on people in a way that grips the reader's interest. The first key characteristic of Remarque's writing style is his use of direct language and the use of short words and phrases. This moves the storyline quickly without missing too many details or the story's main message. It also doesn't dwell too long on the day-to-day details of the passage of time.
Another key characteristic in the writing of Remarque is that he chose not to dwell on the emotional reactions of the soldiers in many of his war novels. The horrors of war and the constant dying of fellow soldiers meant that many soldiers became numb to their feelings. For this reason, Remarque decides to create a distant feeling to the tragic events.
Strange to say, Behm was one of the first to fall. He got hit in the eye during an attack, and we left him lying for dead. We couldn't bring him with us, because we had to come back helterskelter. In the afternoon suddenly we heard him call, and saw him crawling about in No Man's Land," (Chapter 1, All Quiet on the Western Front).
This passage from All Quiet on the Western Front displays many key characteristics of Remarque's writing style. Notice the use of quick, short words and phrases. Time also quickly passes with just a few words from the day to the late afternoon. Lastly, notice the lack of emotion. The protagonist recounts the supposed death of one of his fellow soldiers but does not display any signs of sadness or mourning.
Themes in the work of Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque's novels focus on wartime and postwar experiences and contain many related themes. The main theme found in most of his novels is the horrors of war without romanticizing or glorifying war.
All Quiet on the Western Front repeatedly details soldiers' realistic and gruesome realities during WWI. These experiences include constant and brutal death, psychological struggles of traumatized soldiers, and the impact of the war on soldiers returning home.
Another major theme in the work of Remarque is the loss of youth due to war. Many soldiers left for war very young, most in their early twenties. This meant many had to sacrifice the joys of youth and had to quickly grow up. Furthermore, fighting on the front lines meant experiences of horrific realities that traumatized soldiers for the rest of their lives. This meant when soldiers went home after the war, they would never be the same.
Many WWI soldiers were very young and lost their youth during the war, Pixabay
Finally, the theme of statelessness is constant in his novels. Both World Wars created many refugees that had to flee their home countries and try to find a better life elsewhere. Many had no passports or legal papers and were under the constant threat of deportation back to a country they were not welcome in. This created a sense of statelessness and rootlessness.
This is true for characters such as the refugee Ravic from Arch of Triumph, who is banned from Germany but constantly fears France will deport him. Realizing he truly has no home to turn to where he will feel stable and safe creates a sense of statelessness in the character of Ravic.
Many more themes are found in the works of Remarque, but the horrors of war, the loss of youth, and statelessness are among the most frequent.
Quotes by Erich Maria Remarque
Here are some quotes from the works of Erich Maria Remarque along with brief explanations and analyses.
It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bombproof dug-out I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hours' bombardment unscathed. No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck," (Chapter 6, All Quiet on the Western Front)
Baeumer and his fellow soldiers have experienced so much hardship during the war they are now numb to their emotions. Remarque doesn't focus on the emotions Baeumer is feeling. Rather he focuses on Baeumer's logic. Baeumer understands his chances of dying are very high, and he could die horrifically at any point. However, he also knows that what pushes every soldier to continue moving is a belief in chance and luck.
Mellern had no gas chambers. Of this fact, the camp commandant, Neubauer, was particularly proud of. In Mellern, he liked to explain, one died a natural death," (Chapter 1, Spark of Life).
This quote from Remarque's Spark of Life demonstrates his writing style. Notice the short words and phrases as well as the direct language. It is also a subtle way to remark on the twisted mindset of the camp commandant, who believes simply because the prisoners die "a natural death," it is more humane than a gas chamber.
He sat down on the edge of the tub and took off his shoes. That always stayed the same. Objects and their silent compulsion. The triviality, the stale habit in all the delusive lights of passing experience," (Chapter 18, Arch of Triumph).
Ravic is a German refugee living in Paris. He secretly works as a surgeon and is always under the threat of deportation back to a country he is banned from. Ravic, despite feeling a sense of statelessness, remarks on the few things that will always stay the same: habits and routines. In this passage, Ravic, as he takes off his shoes, reflects on how removing your shoes to bathe at the end of the day will always be the same mundane experience, regardless of location or state of being.
Erich Maria Remarque - Key takeaways
- Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) is a German author famous for his novels that detail war and post-war experiences, particularly those of soldiers and veterans.
- Remarque is most well-known for his novels, All Quiet on the Western Front, Arch of Triumph, and Spark of Life.
- Remarque's writing style is sparse, direct, and lacks emotion to reflect soldiers' numb, traumatized perspective during war.
- Remarque's novels contained themes such as the horrors of war, the loss of youth, and statelessness.
- Remarque was banned from Germany and had his citizenship revoked by the Nazi party due to his novels which they deemed unpatriotic and undermining.
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