Remarque In Post-War Years
Remarque acquired the world fame after his novel All Quiet On the
Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) was published in
1929. In 1930 the novel was filmed which brought even more fame ad success
to Remarque. It was an extraordinary anti-war story, which was mostly
due to Remarque's personal participation in WWI. It was not originally
written to be published, but to express the writer's pure negative attitude
towards the war and the disillusion that the author and other soldiers
had experienced since the end of the war.
In 1933, Remarque's books were banned by the Nazi. Both anti-war All
Quiet on the Western Front and politically neutral The Road Back
(Der Weg zurueck) were among the works supposed to be publicly
burnt in 1933 by the Nazi. The premiere of All Quiet... was
disrupted by Nazi gangs. In 1938 Remarque lost his German citizenship
and left Germany. In 1943 his sister was beheaded by the Nazi just for
being associated with the world-famous writer.
Remarque went first to Switzerland and moved later to the United States,
where he received citizenship in 1947. He entered the Hollywood society
and became a prominent member of the social scene, associating with Charles
Chaplin, Greta Garbo, and Marlene Dietrich. It was Marlene Dietrich
who inspired the uprise of the novel Arch of Triumph (Arc
de Triomphe) in 1945. It depicts a story of a German refugee physician
and an actress. In 1958 Remarque married a beautiful Hollywood actress
Paulette Goddard (1911-1990), with whom he happily lived until his death
in Locarno, Switzerland, in 1970.
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Early Years
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