Almanac of Story Tellers: Erich Maria Remarque

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of June 22nd

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    It is the 173rd day of the year, leaving 192 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1898, the German writer Erich Maria Remarque was born.

    He told stories of war, and of the experiences of men at war. He was among the first authors to write fictional memoirs of the soldiers who fought in wars, creating a new genre.

    He wrote in a sparse, laconic style, in stark contrast to the chaos and trauma of war.

    The novel he is best known for, All Quiet on the Western Front, is a tale of the everyday life of German soldiers in World War I. It was published in Germany as Im Western nichts Neues in 1928, and comes partly from Remarque's experiences as a draftee who was injured during his service.

This book . . . will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.                                                                                   -- All Quiet on the Western Front

    It was a critical success and an international best seller. A sequel, The Road Back, dealing with post-war Germany, is less known. His next novels, mostly dealing with victims of the upheavals in Europe after World War II, met with modest success.

    But as the Nazis came to power, Remarque fell out of favor. The Nazis mocked him for changing his name from the German spelling to the French (he did so to honor his French ancestors, as his father had changed it to the German spelling.) 

    The Nazis said he was a Jew. His novels were decried as being unpatriotic and were banned in Germany. He was accused of lying about his service in World War I. His sister was abducted and beheaded. The Nazis then sent a bill to another family member for the cost of her imprisonment and prosecution.

    Remarque fled to Switzerland, and as World War II began in Europe, he settled in and became a citizen of the United States. After the war, he returned to Switzerland to live. He wrote some novels and plays, which gained some popularity Austria and Germany.

    He died in 1970 in Locarno, Switzerland..