Erich Paul Remark, born in Osnabrück on 22 June 1898, son of a foreman printer, had his defining experiences in the German army (1916-18): as a pioneer soldier he worked immediately behind the line on the western front, sometimes under fire, and was wounded. For the next ten years he attempted to adapt reality to his fantasies of being a highly decorated officer and nobleman, justifying his pretensions by making a career successively as primary school teacher, salesman, organist, copywriter and journalist. In 1921 he started using the archaic form of his surname, Remarque, and adopted the middle name Maria (possibly in homage to Rilke). By 1928 he was established in Berlin, a successful magazine editor, married (1925) to Ilse Jutt

This article in full comprises 1171 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

First published 11 November 2005

Citation: White, Alfred D.. "Erich Maria Remarque". The Literary Encyclopedia. 11 November 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3742, accessed 21 November 2009.]