A German author born June 22, 1898 in Osnabrück as Erich Paul Remark, known from 1923 as Erich Maria Remarque. At the age of 18 he went as a soldier to the front lines of World War I; after the war he supported himself as, among other things, a librarian, businessman, teacher, and editor.
In 1929, Remarque published his most famous work, All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), which described the utter cruelty of the war from the perspective of a 19-year-old soldier. A number of similar works followed; in simple, emotive language they realistically described wartime and the postwar years.
In 1933, the Nazis banned Remarque's works, and issued propaganda (falsely) stating that he was a descendant of French Jews and that his real last name was Kramer (thereby getting his pseudonym by spelling it backwards). This is still listed in some biographies. He had been living in Switzerland since 1931, and in 1939 emigrated to the United States of America and became an American citizen. He married the former Hollywood actress Paulette Goddard.
In 1948 he returned to Switzerland, where he died September 25, 1970. He is interred in the Ronco cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland.
Well-known works: