For many years now, you can read that the famous German writer turned his last name, trying to hide Jewish origin. We checked how justified these rumors are.

Here's what you can read in a biographical sign on the project website "Chronos": “Remarck, Erich Maria (Remarque) (1898–1970), German writer. Born on June 22 in Osnabruk. The real surname is Kramer (his anagram). ” Similar information is present in such print publications as books "Barbarossa: the origins and history of the greatest crime of imperialism" (1989) and "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich" (1996), works of writers Yuri Maletsky And Mikhail Slonimsky. This information is also popular abroad - it can be found, for example, in English -language "Dictionary of pseudonyms", Gerbert Mason's book “A breakthrough into the sky. Luftwaffe history " (2004) and even in the famous encyclopedia Larousse. It is often claimed that the reason for the repairing of the name was his Jewish roots.

On November 10, 1928, on the eve of the ten -year anniversary of the end of the First World War, a novel under the name began to be printed in the Berlin newspaper Vossische Zeitung in the Berlin newspaper "On the Western Front without Changes"Subjected by a hitherto little -known audience by the name Erich Maria Remarque. The narrative, which was conducted on behalf of a soldier who openly described the harsh military atmosphere and his experiences, instantly seized the audience. Released in January 1929 Book option showed An unprecedented sales result, in a matter of months was translated into dozens of languages, and the American film adaptation of 1930 was awarded the award "Oscar" As the best film of the year.

However, not all representatives of the German elite liked the anti -war rhetoric of the author. The national socialists rushing towards power perceived amazing sentiments as a challenge and brought down a flurry of anger on an inexperienced author. It is in the newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, the printed organ of the Nazi Party of the NSDAP, appeared one of the first references to the fact that Remarus is not a remark, but a real kramer, a Jew in origin, turned his surname. In parallel, it was argued that he did not fight, but held a war in stock (in fact, Remarck was quite seriously wounded). Literary critic, head of the center of the world. Remarka in Osnabruk Thomas F. Schneider even Curses The official Gestapo document of November 14, 1935, in which the writer is called "Erich Kramer, known as Remarck." By that time, however, the author did not care much - back in 1932 he left And he settled in his new Swiss Villa, not taking such unpleasant events in his homeland as the establishment of the NSDAP dictatorship and the burning of his books under the formulation “For the literary betrayal of a soldier of world war, for the sake of educating the people in the spirit of militaryness!”

In those years, there was a curilat, about which Remarque later writes in his memories: “One Viennese writer rewrote the word to the word chapter from“ on the Western Front without changes ”, however, giving her, however, another name and another name of the author. He sent this - in order of jokes - to the editorial office of the Hitler newspaper [Völkischer Beobachter. - approx. Aut.]. The text was approved and accepted for publication. At the same time, a brief preface was suggested to him: they say, after such subversive books, such as “On the Western Front without Changes”, here the reader proposes a story, every line of which contains a pure truth. True, too, sometimes can be very deceptive. Although not often enough. "

However, we were distracted from the main topic. During his creative career, Remarus used a considerable number pseudonyms: Carl Maria Remarque, Kai Henriksen, Juan de Lavalette, Ernst Winter, as well as a completely mirror to Kramer option [Erich] Remark. Indeed, the latter suggests a possible turning of the surname, but all the sources, including the official page Center of the world. Remark, as well as a biographical study Thomas Schneider, containing a photograph of birth certificate, suggests that our hero was born on June 22, 1898 in the city of Znabruk precisely under the name Erich Paul Remark). Many years later, in the 1920s, Erich will replace his second name to Maria (according to The main version, in memory of Anna Maria’s mother), and also change the end of the surname in the French manner: Remarque instead of Remark. As the same claims page Center of the world. The remark, in this way, the writer returned the original version of his surname. The fact is that the ancestors of the paternal line fled to Germany after the Great French Revolution, settling in Aachen. This is confirmed by numerous sites with genealogical tree The writer, on whom the pedigree is conducted from the great -grandfather - Johann Adam Remarque (Remarque, was born in 1789), whose descendants in the scheme were already noted as Remark.

In 2001, President of the Russian Pen-Club, writer Andrei Bitov Arrived In Osnabruk for the presentation of the world of the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich. Having carefully examined the writer’s genealogical tree in the Archive of the remark, Bitov said disappointedly: “But I thought that his real name Kramer, and even wrote an article about Remarque in the 70s, in essence, knowing nothing about him.”

However, let's give the word Erich Maria Remarca himself. Of course, he could not help but hear about the hype that the story caused with his supposedly real name. In 1966, the West German newspaper Die Welt asked the remark for an interview, which he eventually gave himself - for a month made up questions and answered them. Here is a fragment from this interview:

“Question: So, Kramer is not your last name at all?

Answer: No. Nevertheless, this nonsense went around the whole world, and they still believe in it.

Question: Well, have you at least once refuted it?

Answer: Why? For forty for nearly years, I have never made a refutation of any false scribble addressed to me.

Question: Why?

Answer: no one would believe this. This is one of the first conclusions to which you come, having achieved success. When you learn this, you can avoid many troubles, unnecessary judicial costs, save on lawyers, and also not to earn a painful ulcer of the stomach or heart attack. The newspaper is always right - if only because it comes out every day with a new content. And what is the use of a single amendment, which will be printed on the twenty -fourth page surrounded by countless ads? "

This fatalism of the famous writer can be understood, he lived in a pre -Internet era. However, now we can carefully say that a refutation of misinformation over time reduces its distribution due to further work in this direction of authoritative sources. Although, who knows, maybe then, then react the remark to the fake promptly, today almost no one would know about his “alternative” surname Kramer.

Image on the cover: Wikipedia.