Claude Haas (ZfL): Im Herzen kein Berliner. Erich Maria Remarque und die Figur des Unbekannten Soldaten

Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) came to Berlin during the Golden Twenties as a war veteran, journalist, and sports reporter. After three unsuccessful novels, it was the Berlin newspaper industry that introduced him to the sober and marketable style that was essential to the success of his 1928 international bestseller All Quiet on the Western Front. While he was no stranger to Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Remarque remained somewhat detached from the art and intellectual scene of the city. Even before his final emigration in 1933, he had moved to Lake Maggiore. Using the literary figure of the Unknown Soldier as a point of departure, the lecture revisits the best-selling German-language novel of the 20th century and explores why Remarque never quite wanted to become a Berliner.  

Reading by Karl-Ishan Barta and Kilian Struck, students in the Acting program at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).  

Literarische Heimat Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf

Many authors who shaped the cultural life of their time spent part of their lives in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf and Charlottenburg districts. The Stadtbibliothek Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf will present some of these authors in collaboration with the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) and the Acting  program at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).

Fig. above: D.M. Nagu from the series Songs for a Future Generation (2020) (detail)