Erich Maria Remarque Erich Paul Remark ( ) German author Sources: and

Early Life Born on 22 June 1898 in a working-class family in the German city of Osnabruck At the age of sixteen or seventeen he made his first attempts at writing: essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as The Dream Room At age 18, Remarque, a third-year student at a teachers' training college, was drafted into the German army.

Participation in World War I November 1916: Drafted into the German Army Sent to the Western Front (Belgium) Worked in a support unit behind the lines (laying barbed wire and building bunkers and dugouts to fortify gun sites) July 1917: Wounded by shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck while retrieving an injured soldier during an attack Spent the rest of the war recuperating in a hospital in Germany

All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front was written in a few months in 1927 Published in 1929 Sold 2.5 million copies in twenty- five languages in its first eighteen months in print. The story is narrated in first person in a cool style, a contrast to patriotic rhetoric.

Film In 1930 the book was turned into an Oscar-winning movie of the same name. The film's premiere was disrupted by Nazi gangs; Remarque was accused of pacifism. It was not until the 1950s the film was shown again in West Germany. The film was denounced by Goebbels as anti-German, but the Poles banned it for being pro-German. In France it was prohibited until 1962.

Later Life  In 1932 Remarque moved to Switzerland  In 1933, the Nazis banned and burned his works  In 1938 Remarque lost his German citizenship.  In 1939 he emigrated to the United States, where in 1947 he became a citizen.  He died on September 25, 1970 in Switzerland.

Legacy With All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque became a spokesman of "a generation that was destroyed by war, even though it might have escaped its shells," as he said himself.