WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560 Welcome. I am so incredibly glad you're joining 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:05.559 us today. Absolutely. So glad to have you here. 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:07.740 You know, we spent a lot of time on this deep 00:00:07.740 --> 00:00:11.179 dive looking at huge historical events. But today 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:16.420 we're zooming in on one specific, highly fascinating 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:18.940 and surprisingly Hollywood adjacent life. It 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:21.559 really is an incredible story. Right. We are 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:24.879 looking at the man who essentially defined the 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:27.199 anti -war novel for the entire 20th century. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:30.000 I'm talking, of course, about Eric Maria Remarque. 00:00:30.039 --> 00:00:32.539 Yes, a truly defining figure. And our source 00:00:32.539 --> 00:00:34.700 material today is a remarkably comprehensive 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:37.549 Wikipedia biography. The mission for this deep 00:00:37.549 --> 00:00:40.130 dive is to explore how this one author really 00:00:40.130 --> 00:00:43.350 blurred the lines between art and life and the 00:00:43.350 --> 00:00:45.630 incredibly heavy price he paid simply for telling 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:47.869 the truth about what he actually saw in the trenches. 00:00:48.210 --> 00:00:49.869 Okay, let's unpack this. We have a young man 00:00:49.869 --> 00:00:52.329 whose words changed the entire world, but to 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:54.310 truly understand those words we have to understand 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:56.549 the world he was born into. Right, and that world 00:00:56.549 --> 00:00:59.100 begins in Osnabrück, Germany. Remarque was born 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:02.219 on June 22nd, 1898 into a working -class Roman 00:01:02.219 --> 00:01:04.760 Catholic family. His father, Peter Franz, was 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:07.519 a bookbinder. And you know the historical backdrop 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:10.920 of this era is so critical to his story. We're 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:13.659 looking at a young boy growing up in the early 00:01:13.659 --> 00:01:16.680 years of the 20th century, right in the impending 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:18.959 shadow of the First World War. Yeah, it's a very 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:22.260 specific environment. Exactly. He is coming of 00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:26.099 age in a place where traditional ideals of duty 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:29.060 and nationalism and empire, they aren't just 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:32.480 cultural suggestions. They are taken as absolute 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:35.879 unquestionable truths. Right. He is growing up 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:38.239 in a world that is quietly preparing to send 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:41.519 his entire generation into a meat grinder. It's 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:43.680 chilling when you put it like that. And what 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:45.700 really stands out early on in the source material 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:48.459 is that the name the world knows him by isn't 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:50.439 exactly the name he was born with. No, it's not. 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:53.299 He was going Eric Paul Remarque, R -E -M -A -R 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:56.120 -K. But as you read through his life, names become 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:58.840 incredibly fluid for him. It's almost as if he 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.120 was in a lifelong struggle with his own identity, 00:02:01.700 --> 00:02:04.159 putting on or taking off names like Armour, depending 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:05.840 on what the world was throwing at him. That's 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:07.780 a great way to describe it. Yeah, for instance, 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:10.259 after World War I, he dropped his middle name 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:13.610 Paul and took the middle name Maria. This was 00:02:13.610 --> 00:02:15.810 a direct tribute to his mother, Anna Maria, whom 00:02:15.810 --> 00:02:18.370 he was very close to. She actually passed away 00:02:18.370 --> 00:02:21.330 in 1917, right in the middle of the war. It is 00:02:21.330 --> 00:02:24.490 a profoundly intimate gesture of grief. Taking 00:02:24.490 --> 00:02:27.250 his mother's name is a literal way of carrying 00:02:27.250 --> 00:02:29.909 her with him into a world that had suddenly become 00:02:29.909 --> 00:02:33.110 incredibly dark. Wow, yeah. But he didn't stop 00:02:33.110 --> 00:02:35.590 there. When he eventually published his absolute 00:02:35.590 --> 00:02:37.870 masterpiece, All Quiet on the Western Front, 00:02:38.069 --> 00:02:40.289 he changed his last name as well. He shifted 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:42.590 the spelling from the German remark to the French 00:02:42.590 --> 00:02:46.710 spelling remark. R -E -M -A -R -Q -U -E. Right. 00:02:46.830 --> 00:02:48.650 And he did that for a couple of specific reasons, 00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:50.509 didn't he? He did. First, he was honoring his 00:02:50.509 --> 00:02:53.469 French ancestors. His great -grandfather, Johann 00:02:53.469 --> 00:02:56.330 Adam Remarque, was born in 1789 and came from 00:02:56.330 --> 00:02:58.990 a French family in Offen. Oh, interesting. Yeah. 00:02:59.250 --> 00:03:01.150 Remarque's grandfather had actually Germanized 00:03:01.150 --> 00:03:03.169 the name to Remarque back in the 19th century, 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:06.710 just to blend in. So Eric was, in a way, reclaiming 00:03:06.710 --> 00:03:09.960 his heritage. So a nod to his roots. Exactly, 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:12.360 but second, it was a very strategic literary 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:14.879 move. He really wanted to distance himself from 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:17.219 his very first novel, which he published in 1920 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:19.719 under his birth name. It was called The Dream 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:22.960 Room or Die Trombude. And let's just say it hadn't 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:25.560 exactly set the literary world on fire. He wanted 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:27.539 a clean slate. It's like he was stepping into 00:03:27.539 --> 00:03:30.099 a completely new persona to deliver this defining 00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:32.479 work. But, you know, before he could write it, 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.020 he had to live it. Oh. Looking at the timeline 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:37.680 here, it is startling how fast a young man's 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:40.770 life could be upended. At just 18 years old, 00:03:40.990 --> 00:03:42.990 Remarque is conscripted into the Imperial German 00:03:42.990 --> 00:03:46.250 Army. The timeline is incredibly tight and brutal. 00:03:46.650 --> 00:03:48.509 He is transferred to the Western Front on June 00:03:48.509 --> 00:03:51.090 12, 1917. Just a kid, really. Just a kid. And 00:03:51.090 --> 00:03:53.889 just two weeks later, on June 26, he's posted 00:03:53.889 --> 00:03:56.509 to the 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment fighting 00:03:56.509 --> 00:03:58.909 in the horrific trench networks between Torhut 00:03:58.909 --> 00:04:01.389 and Hutulst. Right. And then barely a month later, 00:04:01.530 --> 00:04:04.490 on July 31, 1917, his war comes to a violent 00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:07.509 end. He is severely wounded by Schell Schrapnel, 00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:09.889 taking hits to his left leg, his right arm, and 00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:13.590 his neck. God. He's immediately medically evacuated 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:16.389 after that and spends the rest of the war recovering 00:04:16.389 --> 00:04:19.089 in an army hospital in Duisburg. The source notes 00:04:19.089 --> 00:04:21.389 he was technically recalled to service in October 00:04:21.389 --> 00:04:24.269 1918, but the armistice happened a month later, 00:04:24.329 --> 00:04:27.410 mercifully ending his military career. So he 00:04:27.410 --> 00:04:30.050 was really only in active combat for about six 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:32.629 weeks. Barely six weeks. But we have to remember 00:04:32.629 --> 00:04:34.589 the context of the Western Front in the summer 00:04:34.589 --> 00:04:38.089 of 1917. The intensity of that violence, the 00:04:38.089 --> 00:04:41.050 sheer mechanized horror of artillery bombardments 00:04:41.050 --> 00:04:44.129 and gas attacks, meant that six weeks was an 00:04:44.129 --> 00:04:46.670 absolute lifetime. Yeah, I can't even imagine. 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:49.310 The physical wounds healed in Duisburg, but the 00:04:49.310 --> 00:04:51.629 psychological wounds were permanently ingrained. 00:04:51.889 --> 00:04:53.930 Which makes his life immediately after the war 00:04:53.930 --> 00:04:56.980 so fascinating to me. you would think a legendary 00:04:56.980 --> 00:04:59.000 serious author would immediately start writing 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:02.300 his opus. But his post -war life is incredibly 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:04.620 aimless. Very much so. He goes back to teacher 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:06.300 training and actually works as a primary school 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:09.079 teacher in these tiny towns like Lone and Klein 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:12.319 Burson. But he clearly can't settle. He takes 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:14.399 a leave of absence and just starts bouncing around. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:17.000 Looking for something. Right. He works as a librarian, 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:20.240 he's a businessman, a journalist. He even gets 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.399 a job as a technical writer for the Continental 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.420 Rubber Company. literally a tire manufacturer. 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:27.500 And he didn't just write technical manuals there. 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:30.240 No. And this might be my absolute favorite detail. 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:33.060 He wrote a comic series called Die Contibubin 00:05:33.060 --> 00:05:36.160 for the Rubber Company's magazine. Just imagine 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:38.560 the juxtaposition there. What's fascinating here 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:42.100 is how perfectly this bizarre trajectory reflects 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:44.779 the broader reality of what became known as the 00:05:44.779 --> 00:05:47.399 lost generation. Oh, absolutely. This was a term 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.040 for the collective psychological break experienced 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:52.939 by an entire age group coming out of the First 00:05:52.939 --> 00:05:55.500 World War. You have these young men returning 00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:58.560 from unimaginable carnage, and society just expects 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:01.480 them to quietly slip back into civilian life. 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.000 Just go back to normal. Exactly. Go sell tires. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:07.680 Go teach grammar. Remark is drifting. He's carrying 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:10.980 the profound grief of losing his mother, compounded 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:13.980 by the completely untreated mental trauma from 00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:16.810 the atrocities he witnessed in the mud. He is 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:19.370 scripting comic strips about tires while carrying 00:06:19.370 --> 00:06:22.189 the ghosts of his dead friends. This extreme 00:06:22.189 --> 00:06:25.129 disconnect, the sheer absurdity of his daily 00:06:25.129 --> 00:06:28.209 life compared to what he survived, sets the perfect 00:06:28.209 --> 00:06:31.230 psychological stage for the raw, unpolished, 00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:33.529 emotive writing that was building up inside him. 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:36.050 He wasn't just sitting down to write a book, 00:06:36.110 --> 00:06:39.029 he was desperately trying to exercise a generational 00:06:39.029 --> 00:06:40.990 trauma. And when it finally poured out of him, 00:06:41.129 --> 00:06:44.480 it changed everything. In 1927, he writes, All 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:47.920 Quiet on the Western Front or in Weston Needs 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:51.680 Noise. It finally gets published in 1929. And 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:53.319 it's wild to think about now, but initially he 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:54.860 had a really hard time finding a publisher for 00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:56.540 it. Because it wasn't what people were used to 00:06:56.540 --> 00:06:59.069 reading. Before a Mark war, literature was often 00:06:59.069 --> 00:07:01.790 highly romanticized. It focused on strategy and 00:07:01.790 --> 00:07:04.410 glory and the noble sacrifice for the homeland. 00:07:04.569 --> 00:07:06.490 Right, the heroic narrative. Remarque stripped 00:07:06.490 --> 00:07:09.110 all of that away. He dragged the reader directly 00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:11.750 into the mundane terror of the trenches. It was 00:07:11.750 --> 00:07:14.069 about starvation, panic rats and the realization 00:07:14.069 --> 00:07:15.889 that the enemy in the opposite trench was just 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:18.209 another terrified teenager. But once it hits 00:07:18.209 --> 00:07:21.350 the shelves, the public reaction is an absolute 00:07:21.350 --> 00:07:24.149 explosion. It becomes a massive international 00:07:24.149 --> 00:07:26.550 bestseller. It essentially creates an entire 00:07:26.350 --> 00:07:29.930 new literary genre of veterans writing frankly 00:07:29.930 --> 00:07:32.589 and brutally about conflict. A watershed moment. 00:07:32.779 --> 00:07:35.939 Truly. It resonated so fiercely with other veterans 00:07:35.939 --> 00:07:38.779 because someone was finally telling the unvarnished 00:07:38.779 --> 00:07:41.339 truth about their lived experience. It sparked 00:07:41.339 --> 00:07:44.139 a massive wave of war memoirs, theater adaptations 00:07:44.139 --> 00:07:46.939 and cinema representations across Germany, the 00:07:46.939 --> 00:07:49.540 UK and the U .S. The success was unprecedented. 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:53.220 Using his new financial wealth by 1931, Remarque 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:56.079 was able to buy a sprawling villa called Casa 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:58.899 Monte Tabor in Ronco, Switzerland. He had made 00:07:58.899 --> 00:08:01.759 it. But his blunt honesty was about to become 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.319 very dangerous. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:06.620 because the very thing that made the book a masterpiece, 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:09.160 its anti -war truth, made him a massive target 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:11.220 for a rising political faction that desperately 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:14.180 needed war to be viewed as glorious. By 1933, 00:08:14.579 --> 00:08:16.399 the political climate in Germany is shifting 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:20.279 violently. Exactly. On May 10th, 1933, initiated 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:23.040 by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:26.139 Remarque's writing is publicly declared unpatriotic. 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:28.759 His works are banned. Copies of his books are 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.360 pulled from all libraries, thrown into massive 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:33.980 public bonfires, and restricted from being sold 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:36.620 or published anywhere in the country. Just erased. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.620 Germany was rapidly descending into a totalitarian 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.120 society and remarks, seeing what was coming, 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:44.840 fled Germany to live at his villa in Switzerland. 00:08:45.340 --> 00:08:47.639 We want to be very careful here to just relay 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:50.360 the historical facts exactly as our source material 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.159 outlines them without taking size or adding modern 00:08:53.159 --> 00:08:55.480 political commentary, but looking purely at the 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:57.919 mechanics. of what the regime did to him, it 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:00.379 is a staggering campaign of state -sponsored 00:09:00.379 --> 00:09:03.220 manipulation. Very deliberate. Because they couldn't 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:05.179 intellectually defeat his anti -war message. 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.360 They just fabricated an entirely alternate reality 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:10.840 about him. First, they spread the lie that his 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.299 real last name was Kramer, which is literally 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:16.379 just remarks spelled backwards. Second, they 00:09:16.379 --> 00:09:19.000 falsely claimed that he was Jewish. And third, 00:09:19.179 --> 00:09:21.500 they fabricated the claim that he had never even 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:23.539 seen active military service during the war, 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:27.220 calling his entire lived experience a lie. Furthermore, 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:29.360 they publicly attacked his French background 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:31.779 and his Catholic faith, insisting that anyone 00:09:31.779 --> 00:09:33.679 who changed his name from the German remark to 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:35.720 the French remark couldn't possibly be a true 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:38.710 German. It was a systematic attempt by a centralized 00:09:38.710 --> 00:09:41.750 authority to entirely erase his credibility and 00:09:41.750 --> 00:09:44.429 his identity because his art threatened their 00:09:44.429 --> 00:09:47.409 militaristic narrative. And this campaign eventually 00:09:47.409 --> 00:09:50.029 moved from rhetoric to brutal legal consequences. 00:09:50.549 --> 00:09:53.370 By 1938, the regime officially revoked Remarque's 00:09:53.370 --> 00:09:55.710 German citizenship. He was rendered completely 00:09:55.710 --> 00:09:58.049 stateless. I really want you, the listener, to 00:09:58.049 --> 00:10:00.350 pause and think about what being stateless meant 00:10:00.350 --> 00:10:03.360 in 1938 Europe. It isn't just a bureaucratic 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:05.240 inconvenience. It means you have no passport. 00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:07.600 You have no legal protection from any government. 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:09.759 You have no right to cross borders, no right 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:11.899 to work, and nowhere to go if the country you 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:13.740 are hiding in decides they don't want you anymore. 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:16.259 This is a terrifying level of vulnerability. 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:18.899 And yet, while Remarque was somewhat insulated 00:10:18.899 --> 00:10:21.539 by his wealth and his Swiss villa and later his 00:10:21.539 --> 00:10:23.899 move to the United States, his family back in 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:26.960 Germany had no such protection. This brings us 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.840 to a devastating consequence of his fame. It 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:31.519 really is the most heartbreaking part of this 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:33.159 story. We have to talk about his youngest sister, 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:35.960 Elfriede. Elfriede Schultz had stayed behind 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:37.620 in Germany with her husband and two children. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:40.820 She was just living her life. But in 1943, she 00:10:40.820 --> 00:10:44.200 was arrested by the Nazis. Her crime. She had 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:45.860 privately stated that she considered the war 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.580 to be lost. For that single sentence, she was 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:51.059 brought before the Volkskriegshof. It's important 00:10:51.059 --> 00:10:53.080 to understand what that was. The Volkskriegshof 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.639 translates to the People's Court, but it wasn't 00:10:55.639 --> 00:10:58.379 a court in any traditional sense. It was Hitler's 00:10:58.379 --> 00:11:01.279 extra -constitutional tribunal. Effectively, 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:03.860 a kangaroo court designed entirely for political 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:05.980 persecution and issuing death sentences without 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.860 due process. She was found guilty of undermining 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:11.220 morale. The quote from the court president, Roland 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:13.639 Freisler, during her sentencing is one of the 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:15.899 most chilling things I've ever read in our deep 00:11:15.899 --> 00:11:21.000 dives. He looked at her and said, and I am quoting 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.899 the historical record here. Your brother is unfortunately 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:27.220 beyond our reach. You, however, will not escape 00:11:27.220 --> 00:11:30.340 us. It is pure totalizing vengeance. Because 00:11:30.340 --> 00:11:32.440 they couldn't get to the famous author, they 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:34.860 executed his little sister. She was beheaded 00:11:34.860 --> 00:11:38.639 on December 16th, 1943. If we connect this to 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:41.120 the bigger picture, it underscores the absolute 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:43.820 horror of the regime he was opposing. What makes 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:46.639 it even more agonizing is the timeline of information. 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:49.519 Remark living in exile across the ocean had absolutely 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:51.120 no idea what had happened to her. He didn't know 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:53.500 it all. Completely unaware of Elfriede's execution 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:56.360 until well after the war ended. When he finally 00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:58.919 learned the truth, it shattered him. He dedicated 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:02.320 his 1952 novel Spark of Life to her memory. But 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:04.799 the cruelty didn't even end there. The biography 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.779 points out that this dedication to his murdered 00:12:06.779 --> 00:12:08.860 sister was actually omitted from the initial 00:12:08.860 --> 00:12:12.360 German versions of the book. Even in 1952, with 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:15.379 the war over and the regime gone, the stigra 00:12:15.379 --> 00:12:17.960 of the propaganda was still so ingrained that 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:19.799 some publishers worried the public would still 00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:22.679 view her as a traitor. It's a stark reminder 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:25.220 of how deeply state -sponsored hatred takes root, 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:27.940 and it forces us to consider the immense crushing 00:12:27.940 --> 00:12:30.220 survivor's guilt, remark must have carried for 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:33.129 the rest of his life. He escaped. He achieved 00:12:33.129 --> 00:12:36.110 global fame, wealth, and safety while his sister 00:12:36.110 --> 00:12:38.590 paid the ultimate gruesome price simply because 00:12:38.590 --> 00:12:41.230 she shared his blood. Which makes his personal 00:12:41.230 --> 00:12:44.169 life during this period of exile so complex to 00:12:44.169 --> 00:12:46.529 read about. It's a very jarring transition. While 00:12:46.529 --> 00:12:48.350 his homeland is descending into darkness and 00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.110 his family is in extreme danger, Remarque is 00:12:51.110 --> 00:12:53.830 living this chaotic, high society, almost glamorous 00:12:53.830 --> 00:12:56.480 life. Quite a contrast. Yeah. But when you view 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.840 it through the lens of that trauma and survivor's 00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:02.120 guilt, his frantic lifestyle feels less like 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:04.720 tabloid fodder and more like a desperate coping 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:08.100 mechanism to outrun his ghosts. Exactly. His 00:13:08.100 --> 00:13:10.820 romantic life is a complete whirlwind. He married 00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:14.179 an actress named Ilse Witte Zambona in 1925. 00:13:14.659 --> 00:13:16.419 The relationship was stormy and they were both 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.320 unfaithful, leading to a divorce in 1930. But 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:21.159 in a fascinating turn of events, when things 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:24.200 get incredibly dangerous in Germany, in 1933, 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:27.139 they flee together to Switzerland. And in 1938, 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:29.700 they actually remarry. And he did that specifically 00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:33.769 to save her right. By remarrying her, he prevented 00:13:33.769 --> 00:13:36.470 her from being forcibly repatriated to Germany. 00:13:36.529 --> 00:13:38.830 Yes. They emigrate to the US together in 1939. 00:13:39.029 --> 00:13:41.669 They both become naturalized US citizens in 1947. 00:13:41.929 --> 00:13:44.590 And then they divorce for good in 1957. It was 00:13:44.590 --> 00:13:46.870 a deeply pragmatic, life -saving arrangement 00:13:46.870 --> 00:13:48.789 wrapped in a very complicated personal history. 00:13:49.149 --> 00:13:51.029 But once he arrives in the United States and 00:13:51.029 --> 00:13:53.250 integrates into the international elite, his 00:13:53.250 --> 00:13:55.409 life becomes deeply entangled with Hollywood. 00:13:55.710 --> 00:13:58.289 During the late 1930s and into the 40s, he had 00:13:58.289 --> 00:14:00.389 incredibly high profile relationships with some 00:14:00.389 --> 00:14:02.549 of the most famous actresses in the world. He 00:14:02.549 --> 00:14:04.769 was involved with the Austrian actress Hedy Lamar, 00:14:04.870 --> 00:14:07.250 the Mexican actress Dolores del Rio, and most 00:14:07.250 --> 00:14:09.429 famously, he had a multi -year passionate romance 00:14:09.429 --> 00:14:11.990 with the iconic German actress Marlene Dietrich. 00:14:12.370 --> 00:14:14.850 They actually met in Venice at the Film Festival 00:14:14.850 --> 00:14:17.970 in September 1937, and they maintained this intense 00:14:17.970 --> 00:14:20.389 affair, mostly through letters, telegrams and 00:14:20.389 --> 00:14:24.629 phone calls, until at least 1940. It is just 00:14:24.629 --> 00:14:27.669 such a surreal juxtaposition. On one hand, he's 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:29.929 the author of the grittiest, most agonizing war 00:14:29.929 --> 00:14:32.389 novel ever written. He's a stateless refugee 00:14:32.389 --> 00:14:34.110 whose books are being burned in the streets. 00:14:34.330 --> 00:14:36.450 And on the other hand, he's writing love letters 00:14:36.450 --> 00:14:39.090 to Marlene Dietrich from the Lido in Venice and 00:14:39.090 --> 00:14:41.769 navigating Hollywood social circles. He eventually 00:14:41.769 --> 00:14:43.470 settles down and marries the actress Paulette 00:14:43.470 --> 00:14:45.850 Godard in 1958. He even steps in front of the 00:14:45.850 --> 00:14:49.100 camera himself. In 1958, he took an acting role 00:14:49.100 --> 00:14:51.480 in the film adaptation of his own novel, A Time 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:53.700 to Love and A Time to Die, playing the role of 00:14:53.700 --> 00:14:56.179 an honorable teacher who is hiding from the Nazis. 00:14:56.860 --> 00:14:58.840 So what does this all mean when we zoom out and 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:01.019 look at this sweeping, contradictory, heavy life? 00:15:01.659 --> 00:15:03.539 I want to ask you, listening to this right now, 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:06.000 to really think about the concept of home. What 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.019 does home actually mean when the country of your 00:15:08.019 --> 00:15:10.679 birth rejects you so completely, when it burns 00:15:10.679 --> 00:15:13.080 your life's work, revokes your legal existence, 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:15.360 and murders your family? How do you relate to 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.110 that place ever again? Remarque provided an incredibly 00:15:18.110 --> 00:15:20.750 revealing answer to that very question. He lived 00:15:20.750 --> 00:15:22.769 out his later years primarily back in Switzerland, 00:15:23.110 --> 00:15:24.850 passing away from heart failure at the age of 00:15:24.850 --> 00:15:29.610 72 in Locorno on September 25th, 1970. He is 00:15:29.610 --> 00:15:32.230 buried in the Ronco Cemetery in Ticino. Despite 00:15:32.230 --> 00:15:34.769 the war ending and Germany rebuilding, he never, 00:15:34.970 --> 00:15:38.549 ever regained his German citizenship. In an interview 00:15:38.549 --> 00:15:41.389 on his 69th birthday, a reporter asked him why 00:15:41.389 --> 00:15:43.710 he hadn't applied to be naturalized in Germany 00:15:43.710 --> 00:15:46.659 again. His response was brilliant. He stated 00:15:46.659 --> 00:15:49.019 that he refused to apply to be naturalized because 00:15:49.019 --> 00:15:51.039 he had never applied to be denaturalized in the 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.379 first place. That is just incredible. It's such 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:55.799 a quiet, unyielding middle finger to the state 00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:58.080 that betrayed him. He's effectively saying, you 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.399 broke this contract. I'm not going to ask for 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:02.600 permission to be who I am. And while he never 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:05.500 went back, his legacy lived on in very tangible 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:08.019 ways. His wife, Paulette Godard, outlived him 00:16:08.019 --> 00:16:10.980 by 20 years. When she passed away in 1990 and 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:13.240 she's buried right next to him, she left a massive 00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:16.000 bequest of $20 million to New York University. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.059 That money funded an institute for European studies 00:16:19.059 --> 00:16:21.539 named in his honor the Remarque Institute, and 00:16:21.539 --> 00:16:23.879 all of his original papers and manuscripts are 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:26.519 carefully preserved at NYU's Phales Library. 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:29.019 The fate of his physical home in Switzerland, 00:16:29.259 --> 00:16:32.360 the Casa Monte Tabor, is also a fascinating postscript. 00:16:32.939 --> 00:16:36.120 After Bidard died, NYU inherited the property 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:38.059 but couldn't afford the enormous inheritance 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:40.620 tax levied by the Swiss canton, so the villa 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:44.080 was actually confiscated. For years, it just 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.360 sat there empty. It faced the very real threat 00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:48.419 of demolition because it was simply too expensive 00:16:48.419 --> 00:16:51.259 to buy and modernize. There were major fundraising 00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:53.519 efforts in 2010 to save it and turn it into a 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:55.919 museum, but they struggled to raise the capital. 00:16:56.059 --> 00:16:58.220 It was nearly lost entirely. Which would have 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:01.080 been such a tragedy. Absolutely. But finally, 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.860 in 2021, the property was purchased by a German 00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:06.619 couple who were dedicated to preserving it. They 00:17:06.619 --> 00:17:08.720 wanted to honor his legacy by turning it into 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:11.960 a place that promotes peace. It was extensively 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:15.579 renovated in 2023, and today it is used to host 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:17.960 events focused on peace topics. It's amazing 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:20.619 how close we came to losing that physical piece 00:17:20.619 --> 00:17:22.960 of history just slipping away to developers. 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:25.359 This raises an important question for anyone 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.539 studying history, literature or just the human 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:30.440 condition. How do we process the legacy of someone 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:32.980 whose art was born of such profound national 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:35.859 and personal trauma? Remarque took the darkest, 00:17:36.059 --> 00:17:38.539 most terrifying, most painful experiences a human 00:17:38.539 --> 00:17:40.940 being can endure, and he forged them into literature 00:17:40.940 --> 00:17:43.660 that demanded empathy. But that very demand for 00:17:43.660 --> 00:17:45.559 empathy made him an enemy of a state that relied 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:48.680 on hatred and division to survive. His life is 00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:50.720 a testament to the immense power of words and 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:52.640 the very real danger that comes with wielding 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:54.890 them against authority. I think that's exactly 00:17:54.890 --> 00:17:57.670 the takeaway for you listening today. Remark 00:17:57.670 --> 00:18:00.430 Story is obviously a master class in human resilience, 00:18:00.470 --> 00:18:04.250 but it's also a glaring historical warning about 00:18:04.250 --> 00:18:06.890 how easily information can be manipulated by 00:18:06.890 --> 00:18:09.849 those in power. Just think about the Kramer propaganda. 00:18:10.589 --> 00:18:13.630 A massive government apparatus literally just 00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:16.089 spelled a guy's name backwards to invent a conspiracy 00:18:16.089 --> 00:18:18.869 theory, and they used it to delegitimize a truth 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:21.359 they didn't want the public to hear. In our modern 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:23.700 world where manipulated information and bad faith 00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:26.279 attacks happen at the speed of light, Remarque's 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:28.880 life serves as a reminder of the enduring undeniable 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.940 power of a single well -told truth. It cuts to 00:18:31.940 --> 00:18:34.720 the noise. It survives the book burnings. It 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:37.299 outlasts the regimes. It really does. But I want 00:18:37.299 --> 00:18:39.480 to leave you with one final striking image to 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:42.099 mull over on your own before we go. We've spent 00:18:42.099 --> 00:18:44.119 a lot of time today talking about the mud of 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:46.619 the trenches, the chaotic glamour of Hollywood, 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.250 and the quiet refuge of Swiss villas. But Remarque's 00:18:50.250 --> 00:18:52.450 name stretches much further than that now. Out 00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:54.829 in the vast, quiet expanse of the main asteroid 00:18:54.829 --> 00:18:57.490 belt in our solar system, there is a minor planet. 00:18:58.049 --> 00:19:00.710 It was discovered in 1992 by astronomers at the 00:19:00.710 --> 00:19:03.650 Surga Observatory. Its official designation is 00:19:03.650 --> 00:19:07.109 10119 Remarque. A man whose defining work dragged 00:19:07.109 --> 00:19:09.049 the entire world down into the muddy, bloody 00:19:09.049 --> 00:19:11.589 reality of the Earth trenches now has a permanent 00:19:11.589 --> 00:19:14.549 silent place among the stars. Thank you so much 00:19:14.549 --> 00:19:16.390 for joining us on this deep dive into the source 00:19:16.390 --> 00:19:18.390 material today. We love taking these journeys 00:19:18.390 --> 00:19:20.269 with you and we warmly invite you back for our 00:19:20.269 --> 00:19:21.730 next exploration. Take care.