Erich Maria Remarque

Remarque was born into a family of modest means and attended the University of Münster before being drafted into the German army at the beginning of World War I. He fought on the Western Front, where he was wounded several times. After the war, Remarque worked as a sports reporter, race car driver, and teacher before publishing All Quiet on the Western Front, which garnered him international fame. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they burned and banned Remarque’s books. Remarque had already moved to Switzerland in 1932, and in 1939 he immigrated to the United States, where he was naturalized in 1947. He returned to Switzerland shortly thereafter, where he lived with his American film star wife, Paulette Goddard, until his death.