In the words of his protagonist, Paul Baumer: 'I see how peoples are set against one another and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one anotherI see that the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring.' Remarque also articulated the numbing frustration and anger of the conscript soldier, sent into battle by government and military leaders for reasons of politics and power that he struggled to understand.

Praised as a novel of unyielding realism, All Quiet on the Western Front described in stark detail the physical trauma of war. The smashing success of All Quiet on the Western Front was due in large part to its reflection of a widespread disillusionment with the war that took hold of many during the 1920s. It was subsequently translated into 12 languages, and made into a celebrated Hollywood film in 1930. Published in Germany in 1929 as Im Westen Nichts Neues, it sold 1.2 million copies within a year the English translation, All Quiet on the Western Front, published the same year, went on to similar success. After the war, he worked various jobs-teacher, stonecutter, race-car driver, sports journalist-while working to complete the novel he had had in mind since the war. He fought on the Western Front during World War I and was wounded no fewer than five times, the last time seriously.

On June 22, 1898, Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the great World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front, is born in Osnabruck, Germany.Ī student at the University of Munster, Remarque was drafted into the German army at the age of 18.

Erich maria