Erich Maria Remarque is one of the best known and most widely read authors of German literature in the twentieth century. He was born on June 22, 1898, in Osnabrück and he died on September 25, 1970, in Locarno, Switzerland.
Remarque's biography is essentially marked and his writing fundamentally influenced by German history of the twentieth century: Childhood and youth in imperial Osnabrück, World War I, the Weimar Republic, and most of all his exile in Switzerland and the United States.
With the novel All Quiet On the Western Front first published in 1929 Remarque attained world-wide recognition continuing today. Examples of his other novels also internationally published are: The Road Back (1931), Three Comrades (1936, 38), Arch of Triumph (1945), The Black Obelisk (1956), and Night in Lisbon (1962). Remarque's novels have been translated in more than fifty languages; globally the total edition comes up to several million copies. Also, most of Remarque's novels were filmed - often shortly after the publication of the book. Many of the films have become classics in film history: Arch of Triumph (1948), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), and especially All Quiet On the Western Front (1930), a film seen by most people throughout the world as the epitome of an anti-war film.
The complete works of Remarque are both highly interrelated with his Osnabrück background and speaking thematically of a critical examination of German history, whereby the preservation of human dignity and humanity in times of oppression, terror and war always was at the forefront of his literary creation. Remarque is therefore widely regarded as a credible representative of a "different Germany".
The Erich Maria Remarque-Archive is dedicated to scientific investigation of the complete works of Remarque. The institution was founded in 1989 by the city of Osnabrück in co-operation with the University of Osnabrück and is open to the public. The visitor to the Remarque-Archive will find many different editions of his novels and a range of secondary literature on the works of Remarque and also an almost complete microfilm-copy of the written objects of his estate. In the original the estate is held by its heir, the New York University of New York.
In addition, the Erich Maria Remarque Gesellschaft was founded in Osnabrück. The aim of this literary association is to promote and support "humanistic culture, art, sciences and research through cultivating Erich Maria Remarque's heritage and range of thought". The association has approximately 140 members at home and abroad; there are sections in Poland and Russia; readings, talks and discussions are organized; and annually the Remarque-Jahrbuch/Yearbook is published containing latest contributions to the international research on Remarque.
Since 1991 through the city of Osnabrück the Erich Maria Remarque peace award is conferred. In memory of the author works of literature, journalism and science exploring subjects in the field of "inner and outer peace" are awarded every second year. The first prize-winner of the peace award was the writer Lew Kopelew, with the writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1993) and the Israeli publisher Uri Avnery (1995) as the second and third prize winners respectively.
