Erich Maria Remarque - Marriages

Marriages

His first marriage was to the actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in 1925. Their marriage was stormy and unfaithful on both sides. Remarque and Zambone divorced in 1930, but fled together to his home in Porto Ronco, Switzerland in 1933 when the Nazis took over Germany; in May 1933, his novel All Quiet on the Western Front was burned in one of the first of the Nazi book burnings and it became clear that neither Remarque nor Zambona could return to Germany.

During the 1930s, Remarque had relationships with Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr and then with Marlene Dietrich. The love affair with Dietrich began in September 1937 when they met on the Lido while in Venice for the Film Festival and continued through at least 1940, maintained mostly by way of letters, cables, and telephone calls. A selection of their letters were published in 2003 in the book "Sag Mir, Dass Du Mich Liebst"("Tell Me That You Love Me") and then in the 2011 play Puma.

In 1938, Remarque and his ex-wife Zambone remarried each other in Switzerland as a protection to prevent her being forced to return to Germany and then they immigrated to the United States in 1939 where they both became naturalized citizens in 1947. They divorced again on May 20, 1957, this time for good. Ilse Remarque died on June 25, 1975.

Remarque married actress Paulette Goddard in 1958 and they remained married until his death in Locarno on 25 September 1970, aged 72. Remarque was interred in the Ronco cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland. Goddard died in 1990 and was interred next to her husband. She left a bequest of $20 million to New York University to fund an institute for European studies, which is named in honor of Remarque. The first Director of The Remarque Institute was Professor Tony Judt. Remarque's papers are housed at NYU's Fales Library. NYU also named an undergraduate dormitory building after her: Paulette Goddard Hall.