Remarque was born in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, into modest circumstances. He drafted into German army at the age of 18 and was wounded several times. Remarque began his writing career as a sporting journalist. Fame came with his first novel, All Quiet on the Westerns Front, which touched a nerve of the time and sparkled off a storm of politival controversy. Its sequel DER WEG ZURÜCK (The Way Back) appeared in 1931.

Remarque left Germany in the early 1930s. He went first to Switzerland and moved later to the United States, where he made friends among Hollywood stars, including Paulette Goddard (1911-1990), whom he married in 1958. After the war Remarque settled eventually back in Switzerland. He died in Locarno, on September 25, 1970.

In the 1930s Remarque's books were banned by the Nazis. His later popular works, depicting the political upheavals of Europe, didn't achieve the critical prestige of his first novel.

All Quiet on the Western Front - the central character is 19 years old school boy Paul Bäumer and the events are set in the of WW I. Paul and his classmates are encouraged by their teacher Kantorek to enlist the German army. In the summer 1918 German front is pushed back, and the soldiers are waiting for the end of the war. In October, when there is nothing much to report on the western front, Paul is killed. - The story is narrated in first person in a cool style, a contrast to patriotic rhetoric, recording the daily horrors of the war in laconic understatement.

First World War in literature: Jaroslav Hašek: The Good Soldier Schweik; R.H. Mottram: The Spanish Farm Trilogy; Ford Madox Ford: Paradise's End; Arnold Zweig: The Case of Sergeant Grisha; Richard Aldington: Death of a Hero; Robert Graves: Good-bye to All That; Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms; Siegfried Sassoon: Memoirs of an Infantry Officer; Henry Williamson: The Patriot's Progress; Frederick Manning: The Middle Parts of Fortune; John Don Passos: Three Soldiers; e.e. cumming: The Enormous Room; Henri Barbusse: Under Fire

Selected works:

• IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES, 1929 - All Quiet on the Western Front - film 1930, dir. by Lewis Milestone. Academy Awards: best picture, Lewis Milestone as director
• DER WEG ZURÜCK, 1931 - The Road Back - film 1937, dir. by James Whale, written by R.C. Sheriff and Charles Kenyon
• THREE COMRADES, 1937 - film 1938, dir. by Frank Borzage
• FLOTSAM, 1941
• ARC DE TRIOMPHE, 1946 - Arch of Triump - film 1948, dir. by Lewis Milestone
• SPARK OF LIFE, 1952
• ZEIT ZU LEBEN UND ZEIT ZU STERBEN, 1954 - A Time to Love and a Time to Die - film 1959, dir. by Douglas Sirk
• DIE LETZTE STATION, 1956
• DER SCHWARZE OBELISK, 1956 - The Black Obelisk
• DER HIMMEL KENNT KEINE GÜNSTLINGE, 1961- film 1977, dir. by Sydney Pollock
• DIE NACHT VON LISSABON,1962 - The Night in Lissabon
• SCHATTEN IM PARADIES, 1971