Contact: Erich Maria Remarque-Archiv University Osnabrück Internet: http://www.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/emr/intern.htm E-Mail: cglunz@carina.rz.uni-osnabrueck.de We have to believe in the future, in a better future. The world wants peace . . . Expressed during an interview in 1946, these comments reveal the lifelong struggle of Osnabrückborn artist, Erich Maria Remarque, for a peaceful and better world. At the centre of his works, which have been translated into over 50 languages and appraised worldwide, exists an appeal for a more humane and pacifist society. Remarque's novels ruthlessly demonstrate the cruelty and senselessness of war and vividly portray the inhuman consequences of suppression, persecution and exile. The city of Osnabrück, famous for its role in history as "City of Westphalian Peace" is particularly committed to the legacy of Remarque. The "Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize", which recognises literary, journalistic or scientific works concerned with the themes of "inner and outer peace" is presented every 2 years. It was first awarded in 1991. The guidelines for the award begin as follows: "The city council and university are both committed to maintaining the legacy of Remarque and to working towards a more humane society. The awarding of Osnabrück's Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize is a step towards meeting this objective." Phases in his life Erich Paul Remark is born on 22 June 1898 in Osnabrück, son of bookbinder Peter Franz Remark and his wife Anna Maria. Remark alters his name to Erich Maria Remarque in the early 1920s. Remarque has a close bond with his mother, who he loses at the age of 19. In his novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), he portrays her as the caring mother figure of protagonist Paul Bäumer. Remarque's relationship with his father is rather more distanced, so different is their understanding of the world. Remarque grows up alongside his two sisters, Erna and Elfriede, in a lower-middle class, catholic environment, where financial difficulties are not uncommon. Surrounded by the so-called Pappelgraben, or marshland, the young Remarque experiences a carefree and happy childhood. References to this are found All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues). Having passed his elementary school exams (1912), Remarque begins a teacher training course, which is interrupted by the 1st World War. This training course enables Remarque to further his education and stretch his intellectual capabilities. Even during his youth, Remarque had sought further education from books, using music and painting as a means of escape from the lower-middle class confinement of his family life. It is his friend Fritz Hörstemeier, an Osnabrück painter and writer, together with his circle of freethinking friends who encourage Remarque to take up writing himself. His first book, The Dream Garret. An artist's novel. (Die Traumbude. Ein Künstlerroman, 1920) reflects his experiences during this period. This ideal world is suddenly destroyed by his call-up to the military service on the 26th November 1916. Following a brief period of training, Remarque is sent to the Western Front, where he is wounded in 1917. During his recovery in the military sick bay and in a Duisburg hospital, Remarque is able to find the time to write poems and smaller pieces of prose. 1919 At the end of the war, Remarque takes his teaching exams and spends the next two years teaching at various elementary schools in the countryside. Abandoning his teacher career, he then takes a series of odd jobs within Osnabrück, including work as a tombstone salesman. His autobiographically written novel The black Obelisk (Der Schwarze Obelisk, 1956) makes many references to this period. In the autumn of 1922, Remarque leaves Osnabrück to work for the Continental tyre factory in Hanover as a copywriter. In 1925 he becomes an editor of the"Sport im Bild" magazine in Berlin. Travel sketches, short stories and his second novel, Last stage on the Horizon (Station am Horizont, in instalments), appear in these illustrations. Meanwhile married to llse Jutta Zambona, Remarque enjoys the cosmopolitan city life of Berlin. Yet behind his chic lifestyle he despairs the collapse of his ideals and of society's moral values, now ten years after the war. 1929 By writing down his experiences of war, Remarque is able to come to terms with the traumatic memories. Appearing in preprint in the newspaper "Vossische Zeitung" (1928) and in the bookshops by January 1929, All Quiet on the Western Front captures the imagination of millions: "The letter of a war-blinded man confirmed to him that this book, which Remarque claimed he had written from the soul because he couldn't cope with the experience of war, had come from the heart of many." (Osnabrück friend Hanns-Gerd Rabe about Remarque). The novel brings Remarque popularity and financial security, but also political hostility: particularly from the aspiring National Socialists, who disparage the author and his book through malicious campaigns successfuland denunciation. Even prior to 1933, the successful filming of the novel is banned. Despite such animosity, Remarque refuses to voice his opinions in public, contrary to the pacifist leftwingers' expectations. Instead, he writes yet another novel, The Road Back (Der Weg Zurück), in which he portrays the problems of soldiers following their return to the homeland. Anticipating persecution by the National Socialists over the coming years, Remarque buys a house in Porto Ronco, Lago Maggoire in Switzerland (1931), before finally emigrating in 1933 and completing his novel Three Comrades (Drei Kameraden). Stripped of his German nationality in 1938, he then travels over to the USA (1939) where he writes two novels in exile: Flotsam (Liebe deinen Nächsten) and Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomphe). In Germany meanwhile, Remarque's sister is subjected to the barbarity of National Socialism. Accused of making private remarks against Hitler and his regime, she is sentenced to death in 1943 and executed in Berlin. During the negotiations, Chairman of the People's Court, Freisler, is believed to have said "Your brother may have escaped us, but you won't be able to." In 1968 the City of Osnabrück names a street after Elfriede Scholz. 1947 Having obtained US citizenship in 1947, Remarque lives alternately between New York and Porto Ronco from 1948 to 1966. Further novels appear: Spark of Life (Der Funke Leben, 1952), a novel depicting the atrocity of the concentration camps, and A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben, 1954), which thematises Germany's war of aggression against the Soviet Union. In 1954 Remarque attends the funeral of his father in Bad Rothenfelde near Osnabrück but doesn't visit his home town. Remarque never overcame the bitterness of his expatriation from Germany: "As far as I am aware, none of the mass murderers of the Third Reich have been expatriated. The emigrants are therefore even lower." (Interview 1966). The Black Obelisk (Der Schwarze Obelisk) appears in 1956. It partly analyses the spiritual climate within Remarque's home town during the 1920s but also deals with the preconditions for the growth of fascism and attacks the moral political restoration after the Second World War. Remarque's only play, Full Circle (Die letzte Station), which is first performed in 1956, thematises the end of the war in Berlin and the different types of behaviour of the German people following liberation. The novel Heaven has no favourites (Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge) is published in 1959. This is tied to Remarque's own works during the 1920s. The Night in Lisbon (Die Nacht von Lissabon) (1961) returns to the theme of emigration once again. Here the author makes explicit reference to Osnabrück as the scene of action. The narrator stands in front of the town hall and remarks: "ln 1648 the end of the Thirty Years' War had been proclaimed on the steps outside that city hall, so had the beginning of the Thousand Year Reich in 1933.1 wondered whether I would live to witness the announcement of its end." Shadows in Paradise (Schatten im Paradies) becomes the fourth of Remarque's emigrant novels. It is published by Remarque's second wife Paulette Goddard-Remarque in 1971 following his death. 1964 To mark his 65th birthday, the City of Osnabrück presents the author with its most prestigious award, the Möser Medal. Unable to collect the award himself due to health reasons, it is presented to him in Lago Maggoire in the autumn of 1964. Three years later (1967) he receives an OBE from the Federal Republic of Germany. He is also given the freedom of the towns of Ascona and Ronco. 1970 On the 25th of September 1970, Erich Maria Remarque dies in Locarno. His final resting-place is situated in the Ronco cemetery above his villa by Lago Maggoire. Following his death, the City of Osnabrück names a street after its famous son. Activities in Osnabrück 1986 The Osnabrück Erich Maria Remarque Society is founded. 1989 The Erich Maria Remarque Archive and research centre "War and Literature" is established by the Osnabrück City Council in cooperation with the University of Osnabrück. 1996 In April, the Archive receives the original manuscript from the novel All Quiet on the Western Front on permanent loan. This is provided by the Lower Saxony Savings Bank Foundation in cooperation with the Osnabrück Savings Bank, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Lower Saxony. 1996 The Remarque Centre is opened on the central site of the historic Osnabrück Marktplatz by the City Council and the University. It houses the Remarque Archive and exhibition, which covers the life and works of the author, within the same building. 1997/98 To mark his 100th birthday, the City of Osnabrück pays tribute to Erich Maria Remarque with an extensive programme of events. This programme, known as Remarque Year 1997/98, includes a variety of film weeks, exhibitions and two international symposia. Remarque's literary works Erich Maria Remarque achieved world-wide recognition as a novelist. However, his literary works also include short prose, poems, travel sketches and an essay which discusses political education in Germany after 1945. Numerous journalistic works as well as screenplay sketches from the filming of his novels - nearly all of his novels became world famous films - and from other film productions supplement his works. A selection of his works are listed below in order of their publication date or first performance date (plays): 1920 Die Traumbude. Ein Künstlerroman. (The Dream Garret. An artist's novel.) 1927/28 Station am Horizont. (Last Stage on the Horizon. Novel.) 1928/29 Im Westen nichts Neues. (All Quiet on the Western Front. Novel.) 1930/31 Der Weg zurück (The Road Back. Novel.) 1936/38 Drei Kameraden (Three Comrades. Novel.) 1939/41 Liebe Deinen Nächsten (Flotsam. Novel.) Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph. Novel.) Der Funke Leben (Spark of Life. Novel.) 1954 Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben. (A Time to Love and a Time to Die. Novel.) 1956 Der schwarze Obelisk. Geschichte einer verspäteten Jugend. (The Black Obelisk. Novel.) Die letzte Station (Last Stage on the Horizon. Play.) 1959/61 Der Himmel kennt keine Günstlinge (Heaven has no favourites. Novel.) 1961/62 Die Nacht von Lissabon (The Night in Lisbon. Novel.) Schatten im Paradies (Shadows in Paradise. Novel.) 1988 Die Heimkehr des Enoch J. Jones. (The return of Enoch J. Jones. Play.) 1991 Brunnenstraße. Play. A list of publications by and concerning Remarque is available from the Remarque Archive. Contact addresses: Erich Maria Remarque Centre: Erich Maria Remarque-Archive/Research Centre 'War and Literature' PO Box 44 69 D-49054 Osnabrück Tel. +49/541/969-2441 Fax. +49/541/969-2431 e-mail: cglunz~carina.rz.uni-osnabrueck.de Internet: http://www.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/emr/intern.htm Opening hours: Tues+Thurs 9am- 12pm Tues - Thurs 1.30pm - 4.30 pm Erich Maria Remarque Society e.V. (same address) Remarque Exhibition Markt 6 D-49074 Osnabrück Tel. +49/541/323-2109 Fax. +49/541/323-4355 Opening hours: Tues - Fri 10am - 1pm and 3pm - 5pm Sat 10am- 1pm I st Sunday in the month 11am - 5pm Publisher: Osnabrück City Council in cooperation with the Remarque Centre. Translated by: Louise Sherwood. Edited by: Beatrice le Coutre-Bick.