All Quiet on the Western Front

Abstract

Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) was born into an impoverished Catholic family in Osnabruck, Germany. His parents were of French ancestry, but had changed their names to make them sound more German. Their son was thus born Erich Paul Remark; he later returned to the French spelling and changed his middle name in memory of his mother. Young Remarque was a good student in school, but often had trouble with the authoritarian attitudes of his teachers (he got his revenge by ridiculing them in his novels, e.g., the character of Kantorek in All Quiet on the Western Front). He studied education at the University of Münster, but was drafted into the German army at the age of 18. During the war, he was wounded five times while fighting on the Western Front, though he did not experience the worst of the suffering there.